diff -r 385c2351153e -r 7ee07d18dc95 doc/book/en/tutorials/base/create-cube.rst --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/doc/book/en/tutorials/base/create-cube.rst Wed Apr 14 16:15:08 2010 +0200 @@ -0,0 +1,431 @@ +.. -*- coding: utf-8 -*- + +.. _Steps: + +Steps for creating your cube +---------------------------- + +The following steps will help you to create and customize a new cube. + +1. :ref:`CreateYourCube` + +Create the directory to hold the code of your cube. The most important +files that will be useful to customize your newly created cube are: + + * schema.py: contains the data model + * views.py: contains your custom views + * entities.py: contains XXX + +The detailed structure of the code directory is described in :ref:`cubelayout`. + +2. :ref:`DefineDataModel` + +Define the data model of your application. + +3. :ref:`ExploreYourInstance` + +Create, run, and explore an instance of your cube. + +4. :ref:`DefineViews` + +Customize the views of your data: how and which part of your data are showed. + +Note: views don't concern the look'n'feel or design of the site. For that, you should use CSS instead, and default CSS or your new cube are located in 'blog/data/'. + + +5. :ref:`DefineEntities` + +Define your own entities to add useful functions when you manipulate your data, especially when you write view. + + +.. _CreateYourCube: + +Create your cube +---------------- + +The packages ``cubicweb`` and ``cubicweb-dev`` install a command line +tool for *CubicWeb* called ``cubicweb-ctl``. This tool provides a wide +range of commands described in details in :ref:`cubicweb-ctl`. + +Once your *CubicWeb* development environment is set up, you can create +a new cube:: + + cubicweb-ctl newcube blog + +This will create in the cubes directory (``/path/to/forest/cubes`` for Mercurial +installation, ``/usr/share/cubicweb/cubes`` for debian packages installation) +a directory named ``blog`` reflecting the structure described in :ref:`Concepts`. + + +For packages installation, you can still create new cubes in your home directory using the following configuration. Let's say you want to develop your new cubes in `~src/cubes`, then set the following environment variables: +:: + + CW_CUBES_PATH=~/src/cubes + CW_MODE=user + +and then create your new cube using: +:: + + cubicweb-ctl newcube --directory=~/src/cubes blog + + + + + + +.. _DefineDataModel: + +Define your data model +---------------------- + +The data model or schema is the core of your *CubicWeb* application. +It defines the type of content your application will handle. + +The data model of your cube ``blog`` is defined in the file ``schema.py``: + +.. sourcecode:: python + + from yams.buildobjs import EntityType, String, SubjectRelation, Date + + class Blog(EntityType): + title = String(maxsize=50, required=True) + description = String() + + class BlogEntry(EntityType): + title = String(required=True, fulltextindexed=True, maxsize=256) + publish_date = Date(default='TODAY') + content = String(required=True, fulltextindexed=True) + entry_of = SubjectRelation('Blog', cardinality='?*') + +The first step is the import of the EntityType (generic class for entity and +attributes that will be used in both Blog and BlogEntry entities. + +A Blog has a title and a description. The title is a string that is +required and must be less than 50 characters. The +description is a string that is not constrained. + +A BlogEntry has a title, a publish_date and a content. The title is a +string that is required and must be less than 100 characters. The +publish_date is a Date with a default value of TODAY, meaning that +when a BlogEntry is created, its publish_date will be the current day +unless it is modified. The content is a string that will be indexed in +the database full-text index and has no constraint. + +A BlogEntry also has a relationship ``entry_of`` that links it to a +Blog. The cardinality ``?*`` means that a BlogEntry can be part of +zero or one Blog (``?`` means `zero or one`) and that a Blog can +have any number of BlogEntry (``*`` means `any number including +zero`). For completeness, remember that ``+`` means `one or more`. + + +.. _ExploreYourInstance: + +Create and explore your instance +-------------------------------- +.. _CreateYourInstance: + +Create your instance +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +To use this cube as an instance and create a new instance named ``blogdemo``, do:: + + cubicweb-ctl create blog blogdemo + +This command will create the corresponding database and initialize it. + + +.. _WelcomeToYourWebInstance: + +Welcome to your web instance +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Start your instance in debug mode with the following command: :: + + cubicweb-ctl start -D blogdemo + + +You can now access your web instance to create blogs and post messages +by visiting the URL http://localhost:8080/. + +A login form will appear. By default, the instance will not allow anonymous +users to enter the instance. To login, you need then use the admin account +you created at the time you initialized the database with ``cubicweb-ctl +create``. + +.. image:: ../../images/login-form.png + + +Once authenticated, you can start playing with your instance +and create entities. + +.. image:: ../../images/blog-demo-first-page.png + +Please notice that so far, the *CubicWeb* framework managed all aspects of +the web application based on the schema provided at the beginning. + +.. _AddEntities: + +Add entities +~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +We will now add entities in our web application. + +Add a Blog +********** + +Let us create a few of these entities. Click on the `[+]` at the left of the +link Blog on the home page. Call this new Blog ``Tech-blog`` and type in +``everything about technology`` as the description, then validate the form by +clicking on ``Validate``. + +.. image:: ../../images/cbw-create-blog.en.png + :alt: from to create blog + +Click on the logo at top left to get back to the home page, then +follow the Blog link that will list for you all the existing Blog. +You should be seeing a list with a single item ``Tech-blog`` you +just created. + +.. image:: ../../images/cbw-list-one-blog.en.png + :alt: displaying a list of a single blog + +Clicking on this item will get you to its detailed description except +that in this case, there is not much to display besides the name and +the phrase ``everything about technology``. + +Now get back to the home page by clicking on the top-left logo, then +create a new Blog called ``MyLife`` and get back to the home page +again to follow the Blog link for the second time. The list now +has two items. + +.. image:: ../../images/cbw-list-two-blog.en.png + :alt: displaying a list of two blogs + +Add a BlogEntry +*************** + +Get back to the home page and click on [+] at the left of the link +BlogEntry. Call this new entry ``Hello World`` and type in some text +before clicking on ``Validate``. You added a new blog entry without +saying to what blog it belongs. There is a box on the left entitled +``actions``, click on the menu item ``modify``. You are back to the form +to edit the blog entry you just created, except that the form now has +another section with a combobox titled ``add relation``. Chose +``entry_of`` in this menu and a second combobox appears where you pick +``MyLife``. + +You could also have, at the time you started to fill the form for a +new entity BlogEntry, hit ``Apply`` instead of ``Validate`` and the +combobox titled ``add relation`` would have showed up. + + +.. image:: ../../images/cbw-add-relation-entryof.en.png + :alt: editing a blog entry to add a relation to a blog + +Validate the changes by clicking ``Validate``. The entity BlogEntry +that is displayed now includes a link to the entity Blog named +``MyLife``. + +.. image:: ../../images/cbw-detail-one-blogentry.en.png + :alt: displaying the detailed view of a blogentry + +Note that all of this was handled by the framework and that the only input +that was provided so far is the schema. To get a graphical view of the schema, +point your browser to the URL http://localhost:8080/schema + +.. image:: ../../images/cbw-schema.en.png + :alt: graphical view of the schema (aka data-model) + + +.. _DefineViews: + +Define your entity views +------------------------ + +Each entity defined in a model is associated with default views +allowing different renderings of the data. You can redefine each of +them according to your needs and preferences. So let's see how the +views are defined. + + +The view selection principle +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A view is defined by a Python class which includes: + + - an identifier (all objects in *CubicWeb* are recorded in a + registry and this identifier will be used as a key) + + - a filter to select the result sets it can be applied to + +A view has a set of methods complying with the `View` class interface +(`cubicweb.common.view`). + +*CubicWeb* provides a lot of standard views for the type `EntityView`; +for a complete list, read the code in directory ``cubicweb/web/views/``. + +A view is applied on a `result set` which contains a set of entities +we are trying to display. *CubicWeb* uses a selector mechanism which +computes for each available view a score: the view with the highest +score is then used to display the given `result set`. The standard +library of selectors is in ``cubicweb.selector``. + +It is possible to define multiple views for the same identifier +and to associate selectors and filters to allow the application +to find the most appropriate way to render the data. + +For example, the view named ``primary`` is the one used to display a +single entity. We will now show you how to create a primary view for +BlogEntry. + + +Primary view customization +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +If you wish to modify the way a `BlogEntry` is rendered, you will have +to subclass the `primary` view, for instance in the module ``views`` +of the cube ``cubes/blog/views.py``. + +The standard primary view is the most sophisticated view of all. It +has more than a call() method. It is a template. Actually the entry +point calls the following sequence of (redefinable) methods: + + * render_entity_title + + * render_entity_metadata + + * render_entity_attributes + + * render_entity_relations + + * render_side_boxes + +Excepted side boxes, we can see all of them already in action in the +blog entry view. This is all described in more details in +:ref:`primary`. + +We can for example add in front of the publication date a prefix +specifying that the date we see is the publication date. + +To do so, please apply the following changes: + +.. sourcecode:: python + + from cubicweb.selectors import implements + from cubicweb.web.views import primary + + class BlogEntryPrimaryView(primary.PrimaryView): + __select__ = implements('BlogEntry') + + def render_entity_attributes(self, entity): + self.w(u'

published on %s

' % + entity.publish_date.strftime('%Y-%m-%d')) + super(BlogEntryPrimaryView, self).render_entity_attributes(entity) + +.. note:: + When a view is modified, it is not required to restart the instance + server. Save the Python file and reload the page in your web browser + to view the changes. + +You can now see that the publication date has a prefix. + +.. image:: ../../images/cbw-update-primary-view.en.png + :alt: modified primary view + + +The above source code defines a new primary view for ``BlogEntry``. + +Since views are applied to result sets and result sets can be tables of +data, we have to recover the entity from its (row,col)-coordinates. +The view has a ``self.w()`` method that is used to output data, in our +example HTML output. + +.. note:: + You can find more details about views and selectors in :ref:`Views`. + + +.. _DefineEntities: + +Write entities to add logic in your data +---------------------------------------- + +By default, CubicWeb provides a default entity for each data type defined in the schema. +A default entity mainly contains the attributes defined in the data model. + +You can redefine each entity to provide additional functions to help you write your views. + +.. sourcecode:: python + + from cubicweb.entities import AnyEntity + + class BlogEntry(AnyEntity): + """customized class for BlogEntry entities""" + __regid__ = 'BlogEntry' + __implements__ = AnyEntity.__implements__ + + def display_cw_logo(self): + if 'CW' in self.title: + return True + else: + return False + +Customizing an entity requires that your entity: + - inherits from ``cubicweb.entities`` or any subclass + - defines a ``__regid__`` linked to the corresponding data type of your schema + - implements the base class by explicitly using ``__implements__``. + +We implemented here a function ``display_cw_logo`` which tests if the blog entry title contains 'CW'. +This function can then be used when you customize your views. For instance, you can modify your previous ``views.py`` as follows: + +.. sourcecode:: python + + class BlogEntryPrimaryView(primary.PrimaryView): + __select__ = implements('BlogEntry') + + ... + + def render_entity_title(self, entity): + if entity.display_cw_logo(): + self.w(u'') + super(BlogEntryPrimaryView, self).render_entity_title(entity) + +Then each blog entry whose title contains 'CW' is shown with the CubicWeb logo in front of it. + +.. _UpdatingSchemaAndSynchronisingInstance: + +Updating the schema and synchronising the instance +-------------------------------------------------- + +While developping your cube, you may want to update your data model. Let's say you +want to add a ``category`` attribute in the ``Blog`` data type. This is called a migration. + +The required steps are: +1. modify the file ``schema.py``. The ``Blog`` class looks now like this: + +.. sourcecode:: python + + class Blog(EntityType): + title = String(maxsize=50, required=True) + description = String() + category = String(required=True, vocabulary=(_('Professional'), _('Personal')), default='Personal') + +2. stop your ``blogdemo`` instance + +3. start the cubicweb shell for your instance by running the following command: + +.. sourcecode:: bash + + cubicweb-ctl shell blogdemo + +4. in the shell, execute: + +.. sourcecode:: python + + add_attribute('Blog', 'category') + +5. you can restart your instance, modify a blog entity and check that the new attribute +``category`` has been added. + +Of course, you may also want to add relations, entity types, ... See :ref:`migration` +for a list of all available migration commands. +