A3C/lib/A3C.pod

=head1 NAME

A3C = AAAC; AAA from "Authentication, Authorization and Accounting" and C from "CARNet".

=head1 DESCRIPTION

This page describes general idea about A3C application and current status of implementation.

Oppinions should be attributed to Dobrica Pavlinusic, and not other developers :-)
It's surposed to convey a story which is coherent enough for new developer
to join into project. Most of other documentation is more useful when
developing and looking into code usage (if it's not documented and tested,
it doesn't exist) but this part is delivered as pure POD for reading pleasure.

=head1 LDAP 

Implement LDAP entry and edit interface (insteresting problem since most
values can have multiple entries which doesn't map nicely to relational
schema)

This can in turn be broken down into following tasks:

=head2 Import data from existing LDAP server

C<bin/import-ldap.pl> has embedded documentation

=head2 Query existing LDAP server

Since we are creating local copy of data, we need easy way to ask master
LDAP server for data. L<A3C::LDAP> provides way to query LDAP and receive
something similar enough to L<Jifty::Collection> so that L<A3C::View>s
doesn't have to be edited to switch from Jifty models to LDAP
data.

=head2 Create new entries and edit existing ones

We are in the middle of migaration from (generic) L<A3C::Model::Person> and
L<A3C::Model::Organization> to our custom L<A3C::Model::hrEduOrg> and
L<A3C::Model::hrEduPerson>

Most views I guess, will be implemented by subclassing L<Jifty::View::Declare::CRUD>.
Right now L<A3C::View::Organization> is such implementation.

Planned C<A3C::View::hrEduPerson> will implement another such view, and I
hope to see some kind of code reuse there (which should probably move to
C<Jifty::Plugin::TableCRUD>.

=head2 Virtual LDAP server to publish data

This part is in planning stage, and it will probably be based on L<Net::LDAP::Server>.

=head1 Existing LDAP schema

First, we needed a clever way to import existing LDAP schema into Jifty. So,
C<bin/ldap2model.pl> helper was created to handle that.

Some entries in LDAP schema have fixed list of attributed, and L<A3C::AAIEduHr>
implements fetcher (with cache) for that data.

=head1 Legacy portal integration

=head2 Parse PHP config files

Configuration files in PHP is only place in which part of portal
configuration is specified. To handle it in A3C, we use
L<A3C::Model::StrixInstance> which agregates all instance data. Parser is
implemented by L<A3C::PHP>

=head2 Connect to remote database

Implemented in two different ways:

=head3 Direct SQL execution

L<A3C::Action::StrixSQL> and interface as L<A3C::View::Strix/sql>.

=head3 Fetching data hashes

C<Strix> (which doesn't link well from on-line documentation so you will
have to take a look in C<lib/Strix.pm>) implements pure DBI code (ported
from php) to access data directly. Keep in mind that this data have to be
cached for any resonable performance. On the other hand, data can be
structured usefully, for example trees are structured in useful way for 
direct output to JSON.

If tree has C<class> key, it can be set to C<error> so that we can mark
errors in data using same CSS class in views. This might be useful convention.

I prefer to keep this file documented up to level that make it's usage from Jifty and 
C<t/50-strix.t> makes sanse, but not more than that.

=head1 HTML

We don't generate HTML using templates. In fact, all HTML is encoded in perl
code using L<Template::Declare>. This allows easy generation of valid HTML,
high-level templates which are perl code and easy skinning using CSS.

C<share/web/static/css/app.css> is used to store application specific CSS.
It should probably be split into several files (Jifty will concatenate them
for us anyway) for easier maintenance, probably by same logic as view names
to skip additional step of mapping when human are watching into code.

In long run, this should allow us to refactor templates at code level and
create different re-usable widgets which brings us to following topic...

=head1 AJAX

Jifty's way of AJAX are L<Jifty::Manual::PageRegions>.

=head2 Strix navigation

L<http://a3c.skole.hr/strix/navigation>

For now, we have implementation of two-level select which is in sync with
instance clipboard (implemented by L<A3C::Model::StrixInstanceSelection> and
L<A3C::View::Strix> and L<A3C::Action::StrixSelectSite>. This is
good candidate to refactor into reusable widget on it's own.

=head1 BUGS

Many probably, documented in C<TODO> which is also useful for quick overview
what changed between versions if svn commit log is too detailed allthough
first line of commit message might be good summary of each individual
change.
1	=head1 NAME
2
3	A3C = AAAC; AAA from "Authentication, Authorization and Accounting" and C from "CARNet".
4
5	=head1 DESCRIPTION
6
7	This page describes general idea about A3C application and current status of implementation.
8
9	Oppinions should be attributed to Dobrica Pavlinusic, and not other developers :-)
10	It's surposed to convey a story which is coherent enough for new developer
11	to join into project. Most of other documentation is more useful when
12	developing and looking into code usage (if it's not documented and tested,
13	it doesn't exist) but this part is delivered as pure POD for reading pleasure.
14
15	=head1 LDAP
16
17	Implement LDAP entry and edit interface (insteresting problem since most
18	values can have multiple entries which doesn't map nicely to relational
19	schema)
20
21	This can in turn be broken down into following tasks:
22
23	=head2 Import data from existing LDAP server
24
25	C<bin/import-ldap.pl> has embedded documentation
26
27	=head2 Query existing LDAP server
28
29	Since we are creating local copy of data, we need easy way to ask master
30	LDAP server for data. L<A3C::LDAP> provides way to query LDAP and receive
31	something similar enough to L<Jifty::Collection> so that L<A3C::View>s
32	doesn't have to be edited to switch from Jifty models to LDAP
33	data.
34
35	=head2 Create new entries and edit existing ones
36
37	We are in the middle of migaration from (generic) L<A3C::Model::Person> and
38	L<A3C::Model::Organization> to our custom L<A3C::Model::hrEduOrg> and
39	L<A3C::Model::hrEduPerson>
40
41	Most views I guess, will be implemented by subclassing L<Jifty::View::Declare::CRUD>.
42	Right now L<A3C::View::Organization> is such implementation.
43
44	Planned C<A3C::View::hrEduPerson> will implement another such view, and I
45	hope to see some kind of code reuse there (which should probably move to
46	C<Jifty::Plugin::TableCRUD>.
47
48	=head2 Virtual LDAP server to publish data
49
50	This part is in planning stage, and it will probably be based on L<Net::LDAP::Server>.
51
52	=head1 Existing LDAP schema
53
54	First, we needed a clever way to import existing LDAP schema into Jifty. So,
55	C<bin/ldap2model.pl> helper was created to handle that.
56
57	Some entries in LDAP schema have fixed list of attributed, and L<A3C::AAIEduHr>
58	implements fetcher (with cache) for that data.
59
60	=head1 Legacy portal integration
61
62	=head2 Parse PHP config files
63
64	Configuration files in PHP is only place in which part of portal
65	configuration is specified. To handle it in A3C, we use
66	L<A3C::Model::StrixInstance> which agregates all instance data. Parser is
67	implemented by L<A3C::PHP>
68
69	=head2 Connect to remote database
70
71	Implemented in two different ways:
72
73	=head3 Direct SQL execution
74
75	L<A3C::Action::StrixSQL> and interface as L<A3C::View::Strix/sql>.
76
77	=head3 Fetching data hashes
78
79	C<Strix> (which doesn't link well from on-line documentation so you will
80	have to take a look in C<lib/Strix.pm>) implements pure DBI code (ported
81	from php) to access data directly. Keep in mind that this data have to be
82	cached for any resonable performance. On the other hand, data can be
83	structured usefully, for example trees are structured in useful way for
84	direct output to JSON.
85
86	If tree has C<class> key, it can be set to C<error> so that we can mark
87	errors in data using same CSS class in views. This might be useful convention.
88
89	I prefer to keep this file documented up to level that make it's usage from Jifty and
90	C<t/50-strix.t> makes sanse, but not more than that.
91
92	=head1 HTML
93
94	We don't generate HTML using templates. In fact, all HTML is encoded in perl
95	code using L<Template::Declare>. This allows easy generation of valid HTML,
96	high-level templates which are perl code and easy skinning using CSS.
97
98	C<share/web/static/css/app.css> is used to store application specific CSS.
99	It should probably be split into several files (Jifty will concatenate them
100	for us anyway) for easier maintenance, probably by same logic as view names
101	to skip additional step of mapping when human are watching into code.
102
103	In long run, this should allow us to refactor templates at code level and
104	create different re-usable widgets which brings us to following topic...
105
106	=head1 AJAX
107
108	Jifty's way of AJAX are L<Jifty::Manual::PageRegions>.
109
110	=head2 Strix navigation
111
112	L<http://a3c.skole.hr/strix/navigation>
113
114	For now, we have implementation of two-level select which is in sync with
115	instance clipboard (implemented by L<A3C::Model::StrixInstanceSelection> and
116	L<A3C::View::Strix> and L<A3C::Action::StrixSelectSite>. This is
117	good candidate to refactor into reusable widget on it's own.
118
119	=head1 BUGS
120
121	Many probably, documented in C<TODO> which is also useful for quick overview
122	what changed between versions if svn commit log is too detailed allthough
123	first line of commit message might be good summary of each individual
124	change.