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This document relates to the so called "STK3" initiative, which has evolved more into "Lower the Entry Barrier" initiative, codenamed "Ramp".
Most of the documents are in Google Drive.
Here I will go into more detail about some of the concepts. These will probably be broken into individual documents.Concepts which will be implemented in 5.4 have become children of page Concepts 5.4
Concepts to cover:
Template & Resource Loading Cascade
- Inplace editing of Templates & Resources: Access filesystem
Bootstrap improvements.
Work with config more like templates & resources.
JCR Document View or JSON. Autoloading. Autoexporting
Maybe it works like code in that it creates a dynamic configuration every time - not a permanent change to the configuration tree.
- Better Javascript handling.
- ConfigTree improvements. Extends insight. Template Extender tool.
- Enable frontend developers to create apps & fields with templates.
References
http://wiki.magnolia-cms.com/download/attachments/42270723/stk-remarks-vpro.pdf
Table of Contents |
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Template & Resource loading cascade & Filesystem loading
Templates & Resources (and any other file assets) should be treated equivalently where possible.
Current problems
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Proposal
In order to stay flexible and support different use cases - system should implement a "loading cascade".
- System loads files from the modules (classpath).
- System loads files from a directory (specified in config) on the filesystem
- These could override the module files.
- System loads files from repository that have "override" box checked.
- A master configuration item would cause all items from repository to override.
Possibly: developers should be able to configure how they work with templates and resources.
Filesystem loading
- System should watch all files in configured directory and when changed
- reload them in the system
- add them to the repository, reload them to the repository
Questions:
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Config by File
What if configuration for templates and dialogs could be done in a file instead of in the adminCentral configuration tree?
This comes out of thinking of ways to treat resources and templates more equivelently, ie in a standard way. And then realizing that developers like working with files and have a lot of familiarity with tools and workflows there.
Why does a developer prefer to work on resources and templates as files (in an ide or nice text editor) rather then in adminCentral?
AdminCentral | In files | |
---|---|---|
Easy to find Everything in context | Multiple files Keyboard shortcuts | |
Key points
- Files have clean syntax (Not JCR “system view”) (xml like "document view", json, ...)
- Files are applied dynamically. - Maybe at system start and everytime a file change.
- AdminCentral exports this file format.
- Working on configtree in AdminCentral, Either:
- Auto export config files on change.
- You are seeing what is in files - and your edits are immediately written to the files.
Proposals
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Inplace editing of Templates & Resources: Access filesystem
What if nothing was stored in repository?: Not templates or resources?
- Templates and resources do not get stored in repository.
- Admincentral apps load the files from filesystem for display.
- inplace editing - edits the files directly. (In exploded War)
Note: That does not work for JARS, the files cannot be written to.
ConfigByFile - Autowrite to File on ConfigTree edits.
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Expanding on Proposal 2:
Any config in a file is loaded to repository at mag startup - completely overwriting the root node of the file and all children.
This seems like it could cause problems if some modules are using standard bootstraps - and some modules use ConfigByFile and overwrite other modules.
When they overwrite other modules - I guess these changes would "stick" in the repository. - possibly overwriting changes from other modules?
What about this technique for other workspaces - like Contacts? When would you not want it to always re-apply?
Analyzing implications of ConfigByFile
Implications | Config in AdminCentral | Config by File (by Code is similar) | |
---|---|---|---|
UI | See the entire running configuration. | Have multiple files (views) open. | |
Instant updates | Change the config from ANY module. Instantly see the impact. | Change only your module. Would need tooling to reload changed config file. | |
Version Control | Pain that you have to export (often forget) Bootstrap diff / merge are difficult to understand Pain to apply changes from others - import / reinstall. | Seamless, works like other files. | |
Module version updates MVH | Pain to write & test & review. | Not necessary. | |
Changing config of other modules | Yes. | ???? I guess you could create a file that overwrites the changes from other files. This seems comp | |
Agile changes | Yes. | Would require additional changes to distribute files. But one could still edit the config tree directly. | |
Deployment | |||
Publishing | Would work. |
ConfigByFile vs ConfigByCode
byCode | byFile | ||
---|---|---|---|
See changes in config tree | no | yes | |
Benefit of code completion | yes | no (Could theoretically have something like that with an xml file with a dtd.) | |
Easily see hierarchy | no | yes | |
Good for non-java dev. | no | yes |
Notes:
What if nothing was stored in repository?: Not templates or resources?
Templates and resources do not get stored in repository.
Admincentral inplace editing - edits the files directly. (In exploded War)Modifications to config tree get written to config files from where they were loaded.
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