Let's make it more user friendly

================================

Step 1: let's improve site's usability for our visitors

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing I've noticed is that people to whom I send links to photos with

some login/password authentication get lost, because they don't grasp they have

to login by clicking on the 'authenticate' link. That's much probably because

they only get a 404 when trying to access an unauthorized folder, and the site

doesn't make clear that 1. you're not authenticated, 2. you could get more

content by authenticating yourself.

So, to improve this situation, I decided that I should:

* make a login box appears for anonymous, so they see at a first glance a place

  to put the login / password information I provided

* customize the 404 page, proposing to login to anonymous.

Here is the code, samples from my cube's `views.py` file:

.. sourcecode:: python

    from cubicweb.predicates import is_instance

    from cubicweb.web import component

    from cubicweb.web.views import error

    from cubicweb.predicates import anonymous_user

    class FourOhFour(error.FourOhFour):

	__select__ = error.FourOhFour.__select__ & anonymous_user()

	def call(self):

	    self.w(u"<h1>%s</h1>" % self._cw._('this resource does not exist'))

	    self.w(u"<p>%s</p>" % self._cw._('have you tried to login?'))

    class LoginBox(component.CtxComponent):

	"""display a box containing links to all startup views"""

	__regid__ = 'sytweb.loginbox'

	__select__ = component.CtxComponent.__select__ & anonymous_user()

	title = _('Authenticate yourself')

	order = 70

	def render_body(self, w):

	    cw = self._cw

	    form = cw.vreg['forms'].select('logform', cw)

	    form.render(w=w, table_class='', display_progress_div=False)

The first class provides a new specific implementation of the default page you

get on 404 error, to display an adapted message to anonymous user.

.. Note::

  Thanks to the selection mecanism, it will be selected for anoymous user,

  since the additional `anonymous_user()` selector gives it a higher score than

  the default, and not for authenticated since this selector will return 0 in

  such case (hence the object won't be selectable)

The second class defines a simple box, that will be displayed by default with

boxes in the left column, thanks to default :class:`component.CtxComponent`

selector. The HTML is written to match default CubicWeb boxes style. The code

fetch the actual login form and render it.

.. figure:: ../../images/tutos-photowebsite_login-box.png

   :alt: login box / 404 screenshot

   The login box and the custom 404 page for an anonymous visitor (translated in french)

Step 2: providing a custom index page

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another thing we can easily do to improve the site is... A nicer index page

(e.g. the first page you get when accessing the web site)! The default one is

quite intimidating (that should change in a near future). I will provide a much

simpler index page that simply list available folders (e.g. photo albums in that

site).

.. sourcecode:: python

    from cubicweb.web.views import startup

    class IndexView(startup.IndexView):

	def call(self, **kwargs):

	    self.w(u'<div>\n')

	    if self._cw.cnx.anonymous_connection:

		self.w(u'<h4>%s</h4>\n' % self._cw._('Public Albums'))

	    else:

		self.w(u'<h4>%s</h4>\n' % self._cw._('Albums for %s') % self._cw.user.login)

	    self._cw.vreg['views'].select('tree', self._cw).render(w=self.w)

	    self.w(u'</div>\n')

    def registration_callback(vreg):

	vreg.register_all(globals().values(), __name__, (IndexView,))

	vreg.register_and_replace(IndexView, startup.IndexView)

As you can see, we override the default index view found in

`cubicweb.web.views.startup`, geting back nothing but its identifier and selector

since we override the top level view's `call` method.

.. Note::

  in that case, we want our index view to **replace** the existing one. To do so

  we've to implements the `registration_callback` function, in which we tell to

  register everything in the module *but* our IndexView, then we register it

  instead of the former index view.

Also, we added a title that tries to make it more evident that the visitor is

authenticated, or not. Hopefuly people will get it now!

.. figure:: ../../images/tutos-photowebsite_index-before.png

   :alt: default index page screenshot

   The default index page

.. figure:: ../../images/tutos-photowebsite_index-after.png

   :alt: new index page screenshot

   Our simpler, less intimidating, index page (still translated in french)

Step 3: more navigation improvments

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are still a few problems I want to solve...

* Images in a folder are displayed in a somewhat random order. I would like to

  have them ordered by file's name (which will usually, inside a given folder,

  also result ordering photo by their date and time)

* When clicking a photo from an album view, you've to get back to the gallery

  view to go to the next photo. This is pretty annoying...

* Also, when viewing an image, there is no clue about the folder to which this

  image belongs to.

I will first try to explain the ordering problem. By default, when accessing

related entities by using the ORM's API, you should get them ordered according to

the target's class `cw_fetch_order`. If we take a look at the file cube'schema,

we can see:

.. sourcecode:: python

    class File(AnyEntity):

	"""customized class for File entities"""

	__regid__ = 'File'

	fetch_attrs, cw_fetch_order = fetch_config(['data_name', 'title'])

By default, `fetch_config` will return a `cw_fetch_order` method that will order

on the first attribute in the list. So, we could expect to get files ordered by

their name. But we don't.  What's up doc ?

The problem is that files are related to folder using the `filed_under` relation.

And that relation is ambiguous, eg it can lead to `File` entities, but also to

`Folder` entities. In such case, since both entity types doesn't share the

attribute on which we want to sort, we'll get linked entities sorted on a common

attribute (usually `modification_date`).

To fix this, we've to help the ORM. We'll do this in the method from the `ITree`

folder's adapter, used in the folder's primary view to display the folder's

content. Here's the code, that I've put in our cube's `entities.py` file, since

it's more logical stuff than view stuff:

.. sourcecode:: python

    from cubes.folder import entities as folder

    class FolderITreeAdapter(folder.FolderITreeAdapter):

	def different_type_children(self, entities=True):

	    rql = self.entity.cw_related_rql(self.tree_relation,

					     self.parent_role, ('File',))

	    rset = self._cw.execute(rql, {'x': self.entity.eid})

	    if entities:

		return list(rset.entities())

	    return rset

    def registration_callback(vreg):

	vreg.register_and_replace(FolderITreeAdapter, folder.FolderITreeAdapter)

As you can see, we simple inherit from the adapter defined in the `folder` cube,

then we override the `different_type_children` method to give a clue to the ORM's

`cw_related_rql` method, that is responsible to generate the rql to get entities

related to the folder by the `filed_under` relation (the value of the

`tree_relation` attribute).  The clue is that we only want to consider the `File`

target entity type. By doing this, we remove the ambiguity and get back a RQL

query that correctly order files by their `data_name` attribute.

.. Note::

    * As seen earlier, we want to **replace** the folder's `ITree` adapter by our

      implementation, hence the custom `registration_callback` method.

Ouf. That one was tricky...

Now the easier parts. Let's start by adding some links on the file's primary view

to see the previous / next image in the same folder. CubicWeb's provide a

component that do exactly that. To make it appears, one have to be adaptable to

the `IPrevNext` interface. Here is the related code sample, extracted from our

cube's `views.py` file:

.. sourcecode:: python

    from cubicweb.predicates import is_instance

    from cubicweb.web.views import navigation

    class FileIPrevNextAdapter(navigation.IPrevNextAdapter):

	__select__ = is_instance('File')

	def previous_entity(self):

	    rset = self._cw.execute('File F ORDERBY FDN DESC LIMIT 1 WHERE '

				    'X filed_under FOLDER, F filed_under FOLDER, '

				    'F data_name FDN, X data_name > FDN, X eid %(x)s',

				    {'x': self.entity.eid})

	    if rset:

		return rset.get_entity(0, 0)

	def next_entity(self):

	    rset = self._cw.execute('File F ORDERBY FDN ASC LIMIT 1 WHERE '

				    'X filed_under FOLDER, F filed_under FOLDER, '

				    'F data_name FDN, X data_name < FDN, X eid %(x)s',

				    {'x': self.entity.eid})

	    if rset:

		return rset.get_entity(0, 0)

The `IPrevNext` interface implemented by the adapter simply consist in the

`previous_entity` / `next_entity` methods, that should respectivly return the

previous / next entity or `None`. We make an RQL query to get files in the same

folder, ordered similarly (eg by their `data_name` attribute). We set

ascendant/descendant ordering and a strict comparison with current file's name

(the "X" variable representing the current file).

Notice that this query supposes we wont have two files of the same name in the

same folder, else things may go wrong. Fixing this is out of the scope of this

blog. And as I would like to have at some point a smarter, context sensitive

previous/next entity, I'll probably never fix this query (though if I had to, I

would probably choosing to add a constraint in the schema so that we can't add

two files of the same name in a folder).

One more thing: by default, the component will be displayed below the content

zone (the one with the white background). You can change this in the site's

properties through the ui, but you can also change the default value in the code

by modifying the `context` attribute of the component:

.. sourcecode:: python

    navigation.NextPrevNavigationComponent.context = 'navcontentbottom'

.. Note::

   `context` may be one of 'navtop', 'navbottom', 'navcontenttop' or

   'navcontentbottom'; the first two being outside the main content zone, the two

   others inside it.

.. figure:: ../../images/tutos-photowebsite_prevnext.png

   :alt: screenshot of the previous/next entity component

   The previous/next entity component, at the bottom of the main content zone.

Now, the only remaining stuff in my todo list is to see the file's folder. I'll use

the standard breadcrumb component to do so. Similarly as what we've seen before, this

component is controled by the :class:`IBreadCrumbs` interface, so we'll have to provide a custom

adapter for `File` entity, telling the a file's parent entity is its folder:

.. sourcecode:: python

    from cubicweb.web.views import ibreadcrumbs

    class FileIBreadCrumbsAdapter(ibreadcrumbs.IBreadCrumbsAdapter):

	__select__ = is_instance('File')

	def parent_entity(self):

	    if self.entity.filed_under:

		return self.entity.filed_under[0]

In that case, we simply use attribute notation provided by the ORM to get the

folder in which the current file (e.g. `self.entity`) is located.

.. Note::

   The :class:`IBreadCrumbs` interface is a `breadcrumbs` method, but the default

   :class:`IBreadCrumbsAdapter` provides a default implementation for it that will look

   at the value returned by its `parent_entity` method. It also provides a

   default implementation for this method for entities adapting to the `ITree`

   interface, but as our `File` doesn't, we've to provide a custom adapter.

.. figure:: ../../images/tutos-photowebsite_breadcrumbs.png

   :alt: screenshot of the breadcrumb component

   The breadcrumb component when on a file entity, now displaying parent folder.

Step 4: preparing the release and migrating the instance

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that greatly enhanced our cube, it's time to release it to upgrade production site.

I'll probably detail that process later, but I currently simply transfer the new code

to the server running the web site.

However, I've still today some step to respect to get things done properly...

First, as I've added some translatable string, I've to run: ::

  $ cubicweb-ctl i18ncube sytweb

To update the cube's gettext catalogs (the '.po' files under the cube's `i18n`

directory). Once the above command is executed, I'll then update translations.

To see if everything is ok on my test instance, I do: ::

  $ cubicweb-ctl i18ninstance sytweb

  $ cubicweb-ctl start -D sytweb

The first command compile i18n catalogs (e.g. generates '.mo' files) for my test

instance. The second command start it in debug mode, so I can open my browser and

navigate through the web site to see if everything is ok...

.. Note::

   In the 'cubicweb-ctl i18ncube' command, `sytweb` refers to the **cube**, while

   in the two other, it refers to the **instance** (if you can't see the

   difference, reread CubicWeb's concept chapter !).

Once I've checked it's ok, I simply have to bump the version number in the

`__pkginfo__` module to trigger a migration once I'll have updated the code on

the production site. I can check then check the migration is also going fine, by

first restoring a dump from the production site, then upgrading my test instance.

To generate a dump from the production site: ::

  $ cubicweb-ctl db-dump sytweb

  pg_dump -Fc --username=syt --no-owner --file /home/syt/etc/cubicweb.d/sytweb/backup/tmpYIN0YI/system sytweb

  -> backup file /home/syt/etc/cubicweb.d/sytweb/backup/sytweb-2010-07-13_10-22-40.tar.gz

I can now get back the dump file ('sytweb-2010-07-13_10-22-40.tar.gz') to my test

machine (using `scp` for instance) to restore it and start migration: ::

  $ cubicweb-ctl db-restore sytweb sytweb-2010-07-13_10-22-40.tar.gz

  $ cubicweb-ctl upgrade sytweb

You'll have to answer some questions, as we've seen in `an earlier post`_.

Now that everything is tested, I can transfer the new code to the production

server, `apt-get upgrade` cubicweb and its dependencies, and eventually

upgrade the production instance.

.. _`several improvments`: http://www.cubicweb.org/blogentry/1179899

.. _`3.8`: http://www.cubicweb.org/blogentry/917107

.. _`first blog of this series`: http://www.cubicweb.org/blogentry/824642

.. _`an earlier post`: http://www.cubicweb.org/867464