This file documents the contents of this module
+Last update 4 sept. 2013
+
See the devel/ subdir for more devel-oriented doc.
==================== 1 minute howto
-* REQUIREMENTS is to have python + django installed django
+* REQUIREMENTS is to have python + django (1.5.2) installed django
** should be straightforward
** see devel/django-install.txt in case of trouble
+$ apt-get install python-django
+$ apt-get install python-django-south
-* git clone git://git.onelab.eu/myslice-django.git
+* git clone git://git.onelab.eu/myslice.git
-- or --
-* git clone ssh://yourlogin@git.onelab.eu/git/myslice-django.git
+* git clone ssh://yourlogin@git.onelab.eu/git/myslice.git
-* edit myslice/settings.py and
-** change DEVELOPER_ROOT if you didnt clone into ~/git/myslice-django
-** change the location of your backend API (not yet supported)
+* edit myslice/config.py and enter the details of your manifold backend
+$ apt-get install python-django-south
* init django
-$ manage.py syncdb
+** when django prompts for creating an admin account, create it and
+** keep the username and password safe
+$ ./manage.py syncdb
+$ ./manage.py migrate
+
+* gather static files
+$ ./manage.py collectstatic
+-- or --
+$ ./manage.py collectstatic --noinput
+-- or --
+$ make static (which is a shorthand for cleaning up and run manage collectstatic --noinput)
+
+* gather templates files
+ for now we still seem to rely on a make-based templates-collection process
+ that creates templates/
+$ make templates [$ make redo (each time when you pull, do that and restart the server)]
+
+
+## Whenever doing a git pull the following operations are recommended:
+
+$ make static # will refresh static/ from all the pieces in the project
+$ make templates # same, for templates
+$ make redo-static # clears up (rm -rf) static/ first, then make static
+$ make redo-templates # ditto for templates
+$ make redo == make redo-static redo-templates
-[ at this point point it *might* be needed to run
-$ make allst
- but as far as running a local server is concerned you should be good without that
- feedback on this is appreciated]
* run a local server:
-$ manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
+$ ./manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
+-- or -- my advice:
+$ devel/server-loop.sh
+when you just need to hit ^C yourself when your static files need to be refreshed - see below
* use it from your browser
+(See more notes on using the development server below)
+* install dependencies
+$ pip install -r path/to/requirements/file.txt
+Note. not quite sure what this is about, I could not spot this file..
==================== Status
-For now there's not much in here;
+*** Authentication ***
+
+Should be mostly fine
+Not quite sure if/how the user gets proper notifications when
+. his session has expired (i.e. his frontend is not logged into the backend any longer)
+. his credentials have expired (i.e. the uploaded credentials, e.g. SFA delegated cred)
+ expired and she needs to run e.g. sfi myslice again
-* Logging in should be easy using one of the few hard coded accounts
- this was the simplest possible way to demonstrate deferring authorization elsewhere
-* To logout, click on 'logged as *jean*', this shows a confirmation page..
+Hard-coded accounts (from a very early stage) are gone
-Right now the UI has 4 views:
+*** Packaging ***
-* the most useful one being the 'Plugin' view which demonstrates all the available plugins
- see test_plugin_view in engine/views.py
+I've done a very rough attempt at packaging for rpm.
+The logic seems about right but needs more work, in particular in terms of installing myslice.conf
+in the httpd conf.d directory.
+It seems like our app won't work on f14 as is because Django is only 1.3.1 on f14
+Plan is to target f18 but I lack a test machine.
+Also of course I'll try to tackle debian/ubunti at some point.
-* slice view : only demonstrates how to use URLs to pass arguments along
-* scroll view : forget about that one, but it does illustrate that some pages can be made public (no need to login)
-* tab view : a hand-made tab widget
-(last three from slice/views.py)
+There also is a working packaging for debian(s) and ubuntu(s) that we use
+on an almost daily basis to upgrade manifold.pl.sophia.inria.fr
+====================
+
Third party tools shipped:
* jquery
* datatables
+* spin
* bootstrap
-not much effort has been put into coming up with a nice layout and all, feel free to tweak that but it's probably way too early for that
+Others are added as we build the system when they become needed
+Look in third-party/ for a more detailed list
+
+As a rule of thumb, please try to keep in mind that these will need to
+be upgraded over time I've tried to keep track of the version I picked
+and to have an easy upgrade path (depending on the way the original
+package is published)
==================== Contents: 1st level subdirs
========== code from git
-* myslice:
+
+* myslice/
this is the django 'project', where to look for
. settings.py
. urls.py
-* engine:
- the code for building / rendering plugins
+* manifold/
+ the code for dealing with queries, sending them to the backend, and offering the /manifold/proxy/ URL
+
+* unfold/
+ the code for building / rendering plugins
-* plugins:
+* plugins/
the actual code for plugins
-* auth:
+* auth/
a django 'app' that deals with authentication; see especially
auth.backend.MyCustomBackend
for how to use a separate authentication system,
as well as settings.py for how to enable it
-* slice:
- a django app for dealing with slice views
+* ui/
+ provides building blocks for the UI, especially layouts (1 or 2 columns) as
+ well as the topmenu widget
+ + some global static files (css, js, images..)
+
+* portal/
+ this is where the first implementation of myslice, with complete
+ user-management including registration, is taking place
+
+* trash/
+ rough/preliminary scaffolding views are in here
+ as the name suggests this is temporary
* insert_above:
a third-party django app for adding on-the-fly mentions to css or js files that need to go in the header
-* templates/
- * some global templates (django templates, i.e. (essentially html) fragments that can be specializied)
- more on this below
-
-* static/
- * third party stuff (bootstrapfs, jquery, datatables)
- * + some global static files (css, js, images..)
+* third-party/
+ * third party javascript and css stuff (bootstrapfs, jquery, this kind of things)
see more about that below too
* devel:
========== automatically generated
-* all-static: (generated, no need to source-control)
- this is where 'manage.py collectstatic' will gather all your static contents if you run a local server
- make has convenience targets to refresh this area
- $ make clean-static
- $ make static
+* static/: (generated by collectstatic, see above, do not source-control)
+ $ manage.py [ --noinput ] collectstatic
+
+* templates/
* myslice.sqlite3
this is where django stores its own stuff, as per settings.py
+==================== conventions for templates & static files
+==================== and NOTES on using the development server
+
+. first off, running manage.py runserver is provided by django as a development convenience but
+ SHOULD NOT be used in production
+
+. second, when you do use it for developement purposes, please be aware that:
+
+.. the recommended layout for the various files and pieces (py, html, js and css) with django is e.g.
+ plugins/quickfilter/___init__.py,
+ plugins/quickfilter/templates/quickfilter.html,
+ plugins/quickfilter/static/js/quickfilter.js
+ plugins/quickfilter/static/css/quickfilter.css
+ plugins/quickfilter/static/img/some-image.png
+
+.. the files actually used by the development server are the ones located in
+ static/
+ templates/
+
+you can and should use the following make targets to refresh the
+contents of these directories when running a developement server
+$ make static to refresh static/
+$ make redo-static to clean up static/ and then refresh its contents
+$ make templates to refresh templates/
+$ make redo-templates to clean up templates/ and then refresh its contents
+$ make redo equivalent to make redo-static redo-templates
+
+.. as far as possible, please make sure to use third-party to store
+any javascript tool or utility that your plugin depends upon
+
+also we have the convention that all material in third-party should be
+tagged with a version number, with a symlink pointing to the version
+being used, like this
+
+~/git/myslice/third-party $ ls -ld spin*
+lrwxr-xr-x 1 parmentelat staff 10 Sep 6 17:55 spin -> spin-1.3.0
+drwxr-xr-x 7 parmentelat staff 238 Sep 6 17:55 spin-1.2.8
+drwxr-xr-x 7 parmentelat staff 238 Sep 6 17:55 spin-1.3.0
+
+finally, as far as possible we keep track of the urls used to pull
+stuff in the first place so that upgrades are easier
+
+. third, be careful when importing third party material, to stay away from demo-oriented material
+
+e.g. at some point we were using demo_page.css and demo_table.css from the datatables demo and sample pages
+unfortunately these are not tailored for production use as they are setting styles on a very wide scope
+that breaks a lot of stuff, so please refrain from using these altogether
+
+
+======== update django database to reflect changes in existing models without any migration system (e.g., south) =========
+
+# older version
+$python manage.py reset <your_app>
-==================== conventions for templates and static
+#Django 1.5.1 or later
+$python manage.py flush
-* templates:
- we store this under templates/ within the corresponding app, e.g.
- auth/templates/login.html
- for now this is mostly about html, but the engine can be used for rendering anything including js(on) or whatever..
+This will update the database tables for your app, but will completely destroy any data that existed in those tables.
+If the changes you made to your app model do not break your old schema (for instance, you added a new, optional field)
+you can simply dump the data before and reload it afterwards, like so:
-* static files:
- we chose to have all static files (images, but also javascript and stylesheets) in the various
- proj or app where they belong, under a static/ subdir that has this structure:
- where-it-belongs/
- static/
- img/
- css/
- js/
+$python manage.py syncdb
+$python manage.py dumpdata <your_app> > temp_data.json
+$python manage.py flush
+$python manage.py loaddata temp_data.json
-NOTE. in essence any of these files can be moved around (from e.g. one templates/ dir to another)
-at any time without any change needed in the code
+If your changes break your old schema this won't work - in which case tools like south or django evolution are great.
-* filenames / locations
+======== update django database to reflect changes in existing models with migration system (e.g., south) =========
- you can run the following make targets to have a summary of where things are
+As south is already installed , you just have to do:
- $ make list-html list-js list-css list-img
- -- or --
- $ make list-all
+$./manage.py migrate
- as far as possible it's great to have things named the same after e.g. say a plugin name
- like e.g.
- plugins/quickfilter.py
- plugins/templates/quickfilter.html
- plugins/static/js/quickfilter.js
- plugins/static/css/quickfilter.css
+if it fails:
- it's sometimes not working though, so here are a few additional conventions
+1. go to myslice directory
+2. do sqlite3 myslice.sqlite3 [if sqlite3: command not found, do $apt-get install sqlite3]
+3. check the list of tables with sqlite> .tables
+4. if you find those tables that was mentioned in the failure message while running $./manage.py migrate
+ do sqlite> DROP TABLE mentioned_table
+ [mentioned_table = the tables that was explicity mentioned in the failure message of $./manage.py migrate]
+5. sqlite> .quit
+6. $./manage.py migrate
- the global layout (for now I needed only one) is named layout-myslice.html
- it provides the global layout with one menu stuck on top and 2 divs 3/4 1/4
- the views that I currently have are all named in templates/view-<>.html
- they all extend a layout
- they should/could admittedly move where they belong (in auth/slice/engine)
- so that they would go with their views.py code, but for now it's impler this way
- and there are 3 'widgets' (login, logout, and topmenu)
- these could maybe be best implemented as a plugin now that I have the right model for that
- however esp. for the login/logout I'm not quite sure this will remain over time
- so for now it's good enough like this
-So in summary there's still room for a lot of improvement on this particular topic..
-At the very least topmenu should be made a plugin, and maybe also login/logout