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OpenInteract-1.30
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Changes for version 1.30 - 2001-10-15

  • Overall:
    • New Class: OpenInteract::CommonHandler
      • Common web apps (search form, search, display, edit, remove) can now be reduced to a series of configuration steps and templates while still allowing for custom behavior. This makes for very maintainable code and rapid development. See the 'classified' package for an example that uses it.
    • Custom template behaviors:
      • It's now simple to define custom template behaviors across all templates in a website. A package can define plugins or blocks via its configuration. And a website can also step in make variables available to every template.
    • Template performace:
      • Templates are now cached properly, and by default they're compiled as well. This can provide a dramatic performance boost. Also, OpenInteract works flawlessly with the new Template::Stash::XS module, which itself makes templates run up to twice as fast. (Be sure to use version 2.05b or higher of TT.)
    • Template widgets:
      • You can now use common simple widgets to represent display elements. They are entirely optional and use the existing Template Toolkit framework (e.g., 'PROCESS form_text( ... )') for implementation, including being compiled and cached. See 'doc/template_widgets.html' for initial documentation on this.
    • New Package: lookup
      • New package 'lookup' allows you to specify parameters for a particular object in your action table and have that object be editable in a table format. This is intended for easily editing lookup tables, since you normally want to be able to edit many values at one time.
  • Individual:
    • conf/sample-server.perl:
      • Added 'no_promotion' -- if you set it to true we don't send a 'X-Powered-By' header.
      • Added 'content_email' - address for a content administrator
      • Added 'template_info'->'custom_variable_class' and 'template_info'->'custom_variable_method'. Allows each website to define a handler that can step in just before every template is processed and modify the variables sent to the template. (See OI/Template/Process.pm)
      • Added 'template_info'->'custom_init_class' and 'template_info'->'custom_init_method'. Allows each website to define a handler that can step in just before the template object is initialized and modify its configuration.(See OI/Template/Process.pm)
      • Added 'dir'->'cache_tt' key (Template Toolkit caching directory)
      • Added 'template_info'->'compile_cleanup' -- set to true if you want the compile directory cleaned up on server restart
      • Added 'template_info'->'compile_ext' -- set the extension for compiled TT files -- only real propeller-heads might want to do this :-)
      • Added a three fields ('login'->'custom_login_method', 'box'->'system_box_method', 'box'->'custom_box_method') so you can control the method used with a custom class; this is completely backward compatible, since the default is always 'handler'
    • conf/sample-spops.perl:
      • updated sample to use 'OpenInteract::SPOPS::DBI' instead of 'OpenInteract::SPOPS'
    • conf/sample-Handler.pm:
      • updated sample handler with slightly modified comments; modified how the template is called
    • OpenInteract.pm:
      • Added self-promoting 'X-Powered-By' header. Set 'no_promotion' in server configuration file to true value to override.
      • Changed content handler to an object handler (with '($$)' declaration), changed all methods to class methods (with non-private names) and added documentation about the method names used in case anyone wants to subclass the handler with their own behaviors.
    • OpenInteract/ApacheStartup.pm:
      • Jochen Lillich <geewiz@linuxde.org> noticed that we weren't making the first connection (in ApacheStartup) properly; it didn't really hurt anything, but it left a nasty warning message. Fixed.
      • Cleanup the Template Toolkit compile directory on server restart if new configration key 'template_info'->'compile_cleanup' is true
    • OpenInteract/Auth.pm:
      • Fixed subtle bug when using CGI::Cookie -- setting a cookie expiration to the empty string ('') results in CGI::Cookie issuing an expired cookie; setting it to undef results in a transient (browser-session-based) cookie.
      • Added a 'not-logged-in' user -- it's created automatically when there's no user saved via the session and no login information found. It's a transient rather than saved user and has no access rights.
      • Custom login handler can now have a custom method, so you don't have to use 'handler' (see config addition for this as well).
    • OpenInteract/CommonHandler.pm:
      • Created base handler for most tasks (search form, search, display, edit, remove) so that many actual handlers will just need to specify configuration options. This is extremely cool -- see docs for implementation.
    • OpenInteract/DBI.pm:
      • Option 'trace_level' now avaialble to initialize the database handle using the 'trace()' method.
        • Updated docs to include all options that are processed.
    • OpenInteract/Package.pm:
      • You can now specify 'template_plugin', 'module' and (to be used soon) 'filter' in the package.conf file; 'module' will be checked when the package is installed to the base installation directory -- if you do not have a module the package won't get installed; 'template_plugin' and 'filter' are (or will be) used later in OI process (see OI/Template/Process.pm)
      • In 'check()', TT complains (rightly) if we do a syntax check and a particular plugin isn't loaded; capture these errors and don't complain if they pop up.
      • In 'check()', TT complains (rightly) if we do a syntax check and a particular file isn't accessible when you have an INCLUDE or PROCESS; since these are frequently used with the new widgets, capture these errors and don't complain if they pop up.
      • In 'check()', perform syntax check on all files in 'widget/' directory
      • When creating an archive with 'export()', die if the archive already exists.
      • In 'install_to_website()', install all the 'widget/*' files to the $WEBSITE_DIR/template directory
      • In '_copy_spops_config_file()' (called when you apply or upgrade a package), check the website configuration when copying over the 'creation_security' hashref for each SPOPS object so we can modify the public and site admin group IDs used. (Thanks to Andreas Nolte <andreas.nolte@bertelsmann.de> for pointing this out and putting it higher on the TODO list...)
      • Files copied during package-to-website should not be read-only
    • OpenInteract/SQLInstall.pm:
      • Added new transformation activated by 'transform_to_now' in your data file. (Thanks to Jochen Lillich <jl@teamlinux.de> for prompting.)
    • OpenInteract/Startup.pm:
      • Create $R during main_initialize() and put the stash class in there so we have normal access to the datasource during SPOPS configuration, which is needed if you're using the 'DiscoverField' behavior. (Hopefully it won't screw anything up with parent/child sharing issues, particular wrt DBI handles.)
      • Modify create_config() and read_base_config() so that we can just pass in a website_dir and get back a configuration.
    • OpenInteract/Template/Plugin.pm:
      • Added strftime reference for date_format() template behavior
      • Added 'use_main_template()' so that templates can modify the main template used
    • OpenInteract/Template/Process.pm:
      • initialize() (called from OpenInteract::Request on the first request for the template object) now asks each package in the website if it has any template plugins (specified in 'template_plugin' of each 'package.conf' file) and installs them.
      • initialize() also asks each package if it has any BLOCKs to be defined (specified in 'template_block' of each 'package.conf' file) and installs them.
      • You can define a handler in your server configuration which sets options passed to 'Template->new()'. This allows you to define a global set of BLOCKs and have them always be available.
      • In addition you can define custom behavior that can be called just before a template is processed. This includes adding behaviors, plugins, or whatnot to the variables available to a template.
      • Fixed OpenInteract::Template::Provider initialization so it's actually getting the right values. (Duh!) This means caching works now.
      • Use $CONFIG->get_dir( 'cache_tt' ) for the default Template Toolkit compiling directory.
    • OpenInteract/Template/Provider.pm:
      • Process file globs properly; clean up the code a bit to make more understandable.
      • Clean up the compiled filename a little to not have odd ('::') characters.
    • OpenInteract/Utility.pm:
      • Enable 'send_mail()' to take and process attachments that are located underneath the website directory; add documentation for this option as well as more examples of usage.
    • script/oi_manage:
      • Add 'template', 'mail' and 'uploads' to list of directories created when you run 'create_website'; removed 'email'
      • Add 'cache' and 'cache/tt' to list of directories created when you run 'create_website'
      • Modify how/when install_sql creates database handles. (This still needs some work, but it should be ok for now.)
      • Create a $CONFIG object when doing apply_package or upgrade_package and pass it to the install_to_website() method of OpenInteract::Package.
  • Packages changed:
    • OpenInteract 1.21 -> 1.30
    • base: 1.60 -> 1.62 base_box: 0.30 -> 0.33 base_component: 1.25 -> 1.30 base_error: 1.30 -> 1.32 base_group: 1.25 -> 1.26 base_security: 1.46 -> 1.51 base_template: 1.27 -> 1.27 base_theme: 1.26 -> 1.27 base_user: 1.34 -> 1.37 lookup: n/a -> 0.15 results_manage: 0.02 -> 0.05 static_page: 1.49 -> 1.51 system_doc: 1.24 -> 1.25 classified: 1.28 -> 1.28 full_text: 1.26 -> 1.27 news: 1.33 -> 1.33

Documentation

OpenInteract
A robust web application framework built to run under Apache and mod_perl
oi_manage
Manage OpenInteract websites and packages

Modules

OpenInteract
mod_perl handler to process all OpenInteract requests
OpenInteract::ApacheStartup
Central module to call for initializing an OpenInteract website
OpenInteract::Auth
Authenticate the user object and create its groups
OpenInteract::Cache
caches objects so we do not need to do a database fetch each time
OpenInteract::Cache::File
Implement caching in the filesystem
OpenInteract::Cache::IPC
Implement caching of metadata via IPC for quick access
OpenInteract::CommonHandler
Base class that with a few configuration items takes care of many common operations
OpenInteract::Config
centralized configuration information
OpenInteract::Config::PerlFile
Subclass OpenInteract::Config to read/write information from/to a perl file
OpenInteract::Cookies::Apache
handler to parse/output cookies from/to the client using Apache::Cookie
OpenInteract::Cookies::CGI
handler to parse/output cookies from/to the client using CGI::Cookie
OpenInteract::DBI
Centralized connection location to DBI databases
OpenInteract::Error
Provide central holding location for Interact errors
OpenInteract::Error::Main
Catches all errors and dispatches to proper handler
OpenInteract::Error::System
Catalog of system error handlers
OpenInteract::Handler::GenericDispatcher
Define task-dispatching, security-checking and other routines for Handlers to use
OpenInteract::LDAP
Centralized connection location to LDAP directories
OpenInteract::Package
Perform actions on individual packages
OpenInteract::PackageRepository
Operations to represent, install, remove and otherwise manipulate package repositories.
OpenInteract::Request
container for request info and output
OpenInteract::SPOPS
Define common behaviors for all SPOPS objects in the OpenInteract Framework
OpenInteract::SPOPS::DBI
Common SPOPS::DBI-specific methods for objects
OpenInteract::SPOPS::LDAP
Common SPOPS::LDAP-specific methods for objects
OpenInteract::SQLInstall
Dispatcher for installing various SQL data from packages to database
OpenInteract::Session
Implement session handling in the framework
OpenInteract::Session::DBI
Create sessions within a DBI data source
OpenInteract::Startup
Bootstrapper that reads in modules, manipulates @INC, etc.
OpenInteract::Template
DEPRECATED
OpenInteract::Template::Context
Provide a custom context for templates in OpenInteract
OpenInteract::Template::Plugin
Retrieve templates for the Template Toolkit
OpenInteract::Template::Process
Process OpenInteract templates
OpenInteract::Template::Provider
Retrieve templates for the Template Toolkit
OpenInteract::Template::Toolkit
DEPRECATED
OpenInteract::UI::Main
The primary user interface assembly 'conductor'
OpenInteract::Utility
Package of routines that do not really fit anywhere else
conf/sample-Handler.pm
Handler for this package
conf/sample-SQLInstall.pm
SQL installer for this package
OpenInteract::SampleStash
Default stash class and an example of what one looks like

Examples

Other files