-his file documents the contents of this module
+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
-* 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
-
-* 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)
+* git clone ssh://yourlogin@git.onelab.eu/git/myslice.git
* edit myslice/config.py and enter the details of your manifold backend
$ manage.py syncdb
* gather static files
-$ make static
+$ ./manage.py collectstatic (formerly, we used make static, which is deprecated)
+-- or --
+$ ./manage.py collectstatic --noinput
+$ make
* run a local server:
$ manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
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)
-.......... 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) qith django is really painful
- we should use e.g. plugins/simplelist.py, plugins/templates/plugins.html, plugins/static/js/simplelist.js and plugins/static/css/simplelist.css
-.. as that does not make sense IMHO, I've rewritten the tool for gathering these pieces in such a layout but from a completely flat codebase
- I mean I want to be able to store all the files building a plugin in a single (git) directory
- Of course it's a completely different matter once the service is packaged and installed, these files of course get properly separated.
-.. as a result it is a little bit less convenient to use the development server
- when you change the layout of your static and template files, you might need to re-run 'make static', so it is recommended to use
- devel/server-loop.sh instead
-
+* 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
*** Authentication ***
-Although there still are a few hard-coded accounts in the system, you
-will only be able to see some static views and won't be able to send
-real queries if you use these, so you'd better use a real account (one
-that your manifold backend knows about).
-
-For logging out: click on 'logged as *jean*', this shows a
-confirmation page for logging out. this is intended to be temporary.
-
-
-*** Features ***
-
-We have a basic model for asynchroneous queries (referring to manifold
-queries) and for plugins (in the most general sense a plugin is just a
-piece of the output that may be connected to a query)
-
-Right now the UI has a handful of demo views only; as of this writing
-only the list of slices actually comes from the manifold backend in an
-asynchroneous way.
-
-Also all the views are gathered in the trash/ locations for now, being
-that they're only for assessment purposes.
+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
-* dahsboard : has one async. query and 2 plugins that share that
- query; the intent was to demo a different layout in both cases,
- although the datatables one won't work yet at this point.
+Hard-coded accounts (from a very early stage) are gone
-* the 'Plugin' view demonstrates most of the available plugins.
-* slice view : only demonstrates how to use URLs to pass arguments along
+*** Packaging ***
-* scroll view : mostly it only illustrates that some pages can be made
- public (no need to login)
+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.
-* tab view : a hand-made tab widget
+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
-Not much effort has yet been put into coming up with a nice layout,
-feel free to tweak that but it's probably still way too early for
-this.
====================
* spin
* bootstrap
-I've tried to keep track of the version I picked and to have an easy upgrade path.
+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 / queries
+* 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
-* 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
+* portal/
+ this is where the first implementation of myslice, with complete
+ user-management including registration, is taking place
* trash/
- rough/preliminary views in here - as the name suggests this is temporary
+ rough/preliminary scaffolding views are in here
+ as the name suggests this is temporary
* views/
will receive actual views over time
currently has some global html templates as well
+ + some global static files (css, js, images..)
+
+* 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
* third-party/
- * third party stuff (bootstrapfs, jquery, datatables)
- * + some global static files (css, js, images..)
+ * third party javascript and css stuff (bootstrapfs, jquery, this kind of things)
see more about that below too
* devel:
$ make static
$ make clean-static
+* django-static
+
* myslice.sqlite3
this is where django stores its own stuff, as per settings.py
-==================== conventions for templates
+==================== 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
+ IMHO really painful; we *SHOULD* use e.g.
+ plugins/simplelist.py,
+ plugins/templates/plugins.html,
+ plugins/static/js/simplelist.js
+ plugins/static/css/simplelist.css
+ which I have tried doing for a while but I found myself just hopping around in the file tree all
+ day long, wasting cycles big time
+
+.. as that does not make sense IMHO, I've rewritten the tool for gathering these pieces (this is in
+ the Makefile). Bottom line is we can essentially store this wherever we want.
+ The only restriction being that if you have a template that is *not* html, then it *has to* sit
+ in a templates/ directory, otherwise it gets shipped as a static file.
+
+.. as a result, we can now store all the files building a plugin in a single (git) directory; like e.g.
+ plugins/quickfilter/quickfilter.py
+ plugins/quickfilter/quickfilter.html
+ plugins/quickfilter/quickfilter.js
+ plugins/quickfilter/quickfilter.css
+
+ Of course it's a completely different matter once the service is packaged and installed, these
+ files of course get properly separated.
+
+.. as a result it is a little bit less convenient to use the development server when you change the
+ layout of your static and template files, you might need to re-run 'make static', so it is
+ recommended to use devel/server-loop.sh instead
+
+
+All this being said, here are our current conventions for storing templates and static files
* templates:
we store this under templates/ within the corresponding app, e.g.
- auth/templates/login.html
+ 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..
-
-==================== conventions for static files
+ including js(on) or whatever (in which case, as stated above, this *must* have /templates/ in its path.
* 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:
+ proj or app where they belong, with a layout like:
where-it-belongs/
- static/
img/
css/
js/
+ Honestly it's not yet very clear sometimes what 'where-it-belongs' should be sometimes, and it
+ does not matter too much anyway, given that the code doesn't need to change when we move things
+ around. So in particular it's fuzzy between myslice/ (where the logo could fit e.g.) views/ and
+ even trash/
+
+Makefile has a few convenience targets to list all kinds of stuff; the 2 major targets are
+
+$ make static templates
+
+that would reset all-static/ and all-templates/ for you from the other contents
+
+* third-party
+ please note that the set of files that actually get exposed in all-static from third-party is
+ hand-coded in Makefile because we tried to preserve the original codebase layout from mainstream,
+ and there's only so much in common between 2 differents js libraries at this point.
+
+
+
+======== update django database to reflect changes in existing models without any migration system (e.g., south) =========
+
+# older version
+$python manage.py reset <your_app>
+
+#Django 1.5.1 or later
+$python manage.py flush
+
+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:
+
+$python manage.py syncdb
+$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