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author Jeff Hammel <k0scist@gmail.com>
date Sun, 02 Jun 2024 15:58:09 -0700
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1 The Story of Toolbox
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2 ====================
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3
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4 Toolbox is fundamentally a document-oriented approach to resource
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5 indexing. A "tool" consists three mandatory string fields -- name,
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6 description, and URL -- that are generic to the large class of problems
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7 of web resources, as well as classifiers, such as author, usage, type,
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8 etc. A tool may have an arbitrary number of classifier fields as
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9 needed. Each classifier consists of a set of values with which a tool
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10 is tagged. This gives toolbox the flexibility to fit a large number of
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11 data models, such as PYPI, DOAP, and others.
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14 Running Toolbox
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15 ---------------
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16
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17 You can download and run the toolbox software yourself:
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18 http://github.com/k0s/toolbox
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19
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20 To serve in baseline mode, install the software and run::
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21
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22 paster serve paste.ini
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24 This will serve the handlers and static content using the paste
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25 (http://pythonpaste.org) webserver using ``README.txt`` as the
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26 ``/about`` page and serving the data in ``sample``.
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27
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28 The dispatcher (``toolbox.dispatcher:Dispatcher``) is the central (WSGI)
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29 webapp that designates per-request to a number of handlers (from
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30 ``handlers.py``). The dispatcher has a few options:
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31
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32 * about: path to a restructured text file to serve at ``/about``
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33 * model_type: name of the backend to use (memory_cache, file_cache, or couch)
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34 * template_dir: extra directory to look for templates
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35
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36 These may be configured in the ``paste.ini`` file in the
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37 ``[app:toolbox]`` section by prepending with the namespace
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38 ``toolbox.``. It is advisable that you copy the example ``paste.ini``
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39 file for your own usage needs. Additional ``toolbox.``-namespaced
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40 arguments will be passed to the model. For instance, to specify the
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41 directory for the ``file_cache`` model, the provided ``paste.ini`` uses
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42 ``toolbox.directory = %(here)s/sample``.
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43
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44
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45 Architecture
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46 ------------
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47
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48 Toolbox uses a fairly simple architecture with a single abstract data
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49 model allowing an arbitrary number of implementations to be constructed::
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50
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51 Interfaces Implementations
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52
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53 +----+ +-+-----+
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54 |HTTP| | |files|
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55 +----+---\ +-----+ | +-----+
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56 |-|model|-+-+-----+
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57 +------+-/ +-----+ | |couch|
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58 |script| | +-----+
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59 +------+ +-+------+
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60 | |memory|
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61 | +------+
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62 +-+---+
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63 |...|
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64 +---+
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65
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66 Toolbox was originally intended to use a directory of files, one per project,
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67 as the backend. These were originally intended to be HTML files as the
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68 above model may be clearly mapped as HTML::
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69
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70 <div class="project"><h1><a href="{{url}}">{{name}}</a></h1>
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71 <p class="description">{{description}}</p>
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72 {{for field in fields}}
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73 <ul class="{{field}}">
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74 {{for value in values[field]}}
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75 <li>{{value}}</li>
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76 {{endfor}}
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77 {{endfor}}
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78 </div>
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79
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80 This microformat approach allows not only easy editing of the HTML
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81 documents, but the documents may be indepently served and displayed
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82 without the toolbox server-side.
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83
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84 The HTML microformat was never implemented (though, since the model
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85 backend is pluggable, it easily could be). Instead, the original
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86 implementation used JSON blobs stored in one file per tool. This
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87 approach loses the displayable aspect, though since JSON is a defined
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88 format with several good tools for exploring and manipulating the data
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89 perhaps this disavantage is offset.
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90
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91 A couch backend was also written.
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92
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93 +------------+-----------+------------+
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94 |Displayable |File-based |Concurrency |
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95 +-----+------------+-----------+------------+
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96 |HTML |Yes |Yes |No |
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97 +-----+------------+-----------+------------+
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98 |JSON |Not really |Yes |No |
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99 +-----+------------+-----------+------------+
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100 |Couch|No |No |Yes |
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101 +-----+------------+-----------+------------+
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102
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103 The concurrency issue with file-based documennt backends may be
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104 overcome by using locked files. Ideally, this is accomplished at the
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105 filesystem level. If your filesystem does not promote this
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106 functionality, it may be introduced programmatically. A rough cartoon
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107 of a good implementation is as follows:
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108
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109 1. A worker thread is spawned to write the data asynchronously. The
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110 data is sent to the worker thread.
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111
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112 2. The worker checks for the presence of a lockfile (herein further
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113 detailed). If the lockfile exists and is owned by an active process,
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114 the worker waits until said process is done with it. (For a more
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115 robust implementation, the worker sends a request to write the file to
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116 some controller.)
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117
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118 3. The worker owns a lockfile based on its PID in some directory
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119 parallel to the directory root under consideration (for example,
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120 ``/tmp/toolbox/lock/${PID}-${filename}.lck``).
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121
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122 4. The worker writes to the file.
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123
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124 5. The worker removes the lock
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125
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126 The toolbox web service uses a dispatcher->handler framework. The
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127 handlers are loosely pluggable (they are assigned in the dispatcher),
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128 but could (and probably should) be made completely pluggable. That
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129 said, the toolbox web system features an integration of templates,
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130 static resources (javascript, css, images), and handlers, so true
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131 pluggability is further away than just supporting pluggable handlers
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132 in the dispatcher.
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133
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134 Deployment, however, may be tailored as desired. Any of the given
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135 templates may be overridden via passing a ``template_dir`` parameter
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136 with a path to a directory that have templates of the appropriate
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137 names as found in toolbox's ``templates`` directory.
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138
20
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139 Likewise, the static files (css, js, etc.) are served using ``paste``'s
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140 ``StaticURLParser`` out of toolbox's ``static`` directory. (See
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141 toolbox's ``factory.py``.) Notably this is *not* done using the WSGI
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142 app itself. Doing it with middleware allows the deployment to be
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143 customizable by writing your own factory. For example, instead of
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144 using the ``paste`` webserver and the included ``paste.ini``, you
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145 could use nginx or apache and ``mod_wsgi`` with a factory file
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146 invoking ``Dispatcher`` with the desired arguments and serving the
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147 static files with an arbitrary static file server.
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148
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149 It is common sense, if rarely followed, that deployment should be
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150 simple. If you want to get toolbox running on your desktop and/or for
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151 testing, you should be able to do this easily (see the ``INSTALL.sh``
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152 for a simple installation using ``bash``; you'll probably want to
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153 perform these steps by hand for any sort of real-world deployment).
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154 If you want a highly customized deployment, then this will require
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155 more expertise and manual setup.
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156
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157 The template data and the JSON are closely tied together. This has the
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158 distinct advantage of avoiding data translation steps and avoiding
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159 code duplication.
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160
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161 Toolbox uses several light-footprint libraries:
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162
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163 * webob for Request/Response handling: http://pythonpaste.org/webob/
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164
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165 * tempita for (HTML) templates: http://pythonpaste.org/tempita/
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166
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167 * whoosh for search. This pure-python implementation of full-text
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168 search is relatively fast (for python) and should scale decently to
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169 the target scale of toolbox (1000s or 10000s of tools). While not as
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170 fast as lucene, whoosh is easy to deploy and has a good API and
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171 preserves toolbox as a deployable software product versus an
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172 instance that requires the expert configuration, maintainence, and
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173 tuning of several disparate software products that is both
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174 non-automatable (cannot be installed with a script) and
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175 time-consuming. http://packages.python.org/Whoosh/
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176
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177 * jQuery: jQuery is the best JavaScript library and everyone
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178 should use it. http://jquery.com/
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179
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180 * jeditable for AJAXy editing: http://www.appelsiini.net/projects/jeditable
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181
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182 * jquery-token for autocomplete: http://loopj.com/jquery-tokeninput/
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183
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184 * less for dynamic stylesheets: http://lesscss.org/
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185
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186
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187 User Interaction
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188 ----------------
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189
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190 A user will typically interact with Toolbox through the AJAX web
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191 interface. The server side returns relatively simple (HTML) markup,
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192 but structured in such a way that JavaScript may be utilized to
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193 promote rich interaction. The simple HTML + complex JS manifests
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194 several things:
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195
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196 1. The document is a document. The tools HTML presented to the user (with
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197 the current objectionable exception of the per-project Delete button)
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198 is a document form of the data. It can be clearly and easily
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199 translated to data (for e.g. import/export) or simply marked up using
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200 (e.g.) JS to add functionality. By keeping concerns seperate
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201 (presentation layer vs. interaction layer) a self-evident clarity is
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202 maintained.
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203
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204 2. Computation is shifted client-side. Often, an otherwise lightweight
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205 webapp loses considerable performance rendering complex templates. By
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206 keeping the templates light-weight and doing control presentation and
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207 handling in JS, high performance is preserved.
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208
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209
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210 What Toolbox Doesn't Do
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211 -----------------------
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212
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213 * versioning: toolbox exposes editing towards a canonical document.
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214 It doesn't do versioning. A model instance may do whatever
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215 versioning it desires, and since the models are pluggable, it would
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216 be relatively painless to subclass e.g. the file-based model and
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217 have a post-save hook which does an e.g. ``hg commit``. Customized
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218 templates could be used to display this information.
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219
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220 * authentication: the information presented by toolbox is freely
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221 readable and editable. This is by intention, as by going to a "wiki"
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222 model and presenting a easy to use, context-switching-free interface
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223 curation is encouraged (ignoring the possibly imaginary problem of
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224 wiki-spam). Access-level auth could be implemented using WSGI
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225 middleware (e.g. repoze.who or bitsyauth) or through a front end
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226 "webserver" integration layer such as Apache or nginx. Finer grained
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227 control of the presentation layer could be realized by using custom
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228 templates.
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229
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230
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231 What Toolbox Would Like To Do
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232 -----------------------------
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233
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234 Ultimately, toolbox should be as federated as possible. The basic
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235 architecture of toolbox as a web service + supporting scripts makes
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236 this feasible and more self-contained than most proposed federated
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237 services. The basic federated model has proved, in practice,
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238 difficult to achieve through purely the (HTTP) client-server model, as
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239 without complete federation and adherence to protocol offline cron
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240 jobs should be utilized to pull external data sources. If a webservice
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241 only desires to talk to others of its own type and are willing to keep
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242 a queue of requests for when hosts are offline, entire HTTP federation
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243 may be implemented with only a configuration-specified discovery
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244 service to find the nodes.
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245
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246
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247 Evolution
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248 ---------
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249
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250 Often, a piece software is presented as a state out of context (that
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251 is minus the evolution which led it to be and led it to look further
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252 out towards beyond the horizon). While this is an interesting special
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253 effect for an art project, software being communication this
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254 is only conducive to software in the darkest of black-box approaches.
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255
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256 "Beers are like web frameworks: if they're not micro, you don't know
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257 what you're talking about." - hipsterhacker
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258
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259 For sites that fit the architecture of a given framework, it may be
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260 advisable to make use of them. However, for most webapp/webservice
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261 categories which have a finite scope and definitive intent, it is
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262 often easier, more maintainable, and more legible to build a complete
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263 HTTP->WSGI->app architecture than to try to hammer a framework into
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264 fitting your problem or redefining the problem to fit the framework.
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265 This approach was used for toolbox.
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266
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267 The GenshiView template, http://k0s.org/hg/GenshiView, was invoked to
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268 generate a basic dispatcher->handler system. The cruft was removed,
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269 leaving only the basic structure and the TempitaHandler since tempita
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270 is lightweight and it was envisioned that filesystem tempita templates
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271 (MakeItSo!) would be used elsewhere in the project. The basic
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272 handlers (projects views, field-sorted view, new, etc.) were written
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273 and soon a usable interface was constructed.
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274
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275 A ``sample`` directory was created to hold the JSON blobs. Because
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276 this was done early on, two goals were achieved:
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277
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278 1. the software could be dogfooded immediately using actual applicable
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279 data. This helped expose a number of issues concerning the data format
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280 right away.
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281
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282 2. There was a place to put tools before the project reached a
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283 deployable state (previously, a few had lived in a static state using
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284 a rough sketch of the HTML microformat discussed above on
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285 k0s.org). Since the main point of toolbox is to record Mozilla tools,
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286 the wealth of references mentioned in passing could be put somewhere,
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287 instead of passed by and forgotten. One wishes that they do not miss
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288 the train while purchasing a ticket.
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289
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290 The original intent, when the file-based JSON blob approach was to be
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291 the deployed backend, was to have two repositories: one for the code
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292 and one for the JSON blobs. When this approach was scrapped, the
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293 file-based JSON blobs were relegated to the ``sample`` directory, with
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294 the intent to be to import them into e.g. a couch database on actual
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295 deployment (using an import script). The samples could then be used
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296 for testing.
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297
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298 The model has a single "setter" function, ``def update``, used for
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299 both creating and updating projects. Due to this and due to the fact
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300 the model was ABC/pluggable from the beginning, a converter ``export``
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301 function could be trivially written at the ABC-level::
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302
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303 def export(self, other):
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304 """export the current model to another model instance"""
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305 for project in self.get():
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306 other.update(project)
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307
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308 This with an accompanying CLI utility was used to migrate from JSON
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309 blob files in the ``sample`` directory to the couch instance. This
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310 particular methodology as applied to an unexpected problem (the
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311 unanticipated switch from JSON blobs to couch) is a good example of
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312 the power of using a problem to drive the software forward (in this
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313 case, creation of a universal export function and associated command
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314 line utility). The alternative, a one-off manual data migration, would
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315 have been just as time consuming, would not be repeatable, would not
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316 have extended toolbox, and may have (like many one-offs do) infected
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317 the code base with associated semi-permanant vestiges. In general,
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318 problems should be used to drive innovation. This can only be done if
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319 the software is kept in a reasonably good state. Otherwise
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320 considerable (though probably worthwhile) refactoring should be done
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321 prior to feature extension which will become cost-prohibitive in
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322 time-critical situations where a one-off is (more) likely to be employed.
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323
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324
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325 Use Cases
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326 ---------
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327
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328 The target use-case is software tools for Mozilla, or, more generally,
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329 a software index. For this case, the default fields uses are given in
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330 the paste.ini file: usage, author, type, language. More fields may be
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331 added to the running instance in the future.
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332
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333 However, the classifier classification can be used for a wide variety
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334 of web-locatable resources. A few examples:
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335
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336 * songs: artist, album, genre, instruments
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337 * de.li.cio.us: type, media, author, site
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338
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339
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340 Resources
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341 ---------
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342
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343 * http://readthedocs.org/