Re: [Self-platform-dev] Notes and questions

[Nagarjuna G.]

On Feb 4, 2008 9:12 PM,  <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> I have been looking some code and doing some testing. Here I leave some
> comments and questions I took.

sorry matias for the delay.  as you know we are too tied up to get the
new baby out.

> The GNOWSYSArchetypes installation creates the structure of a knowledge
> base (and a localFS in kb/data (inst/var/GContent/selftest/kb/data),
> besides the localFS created by the selfApp in Data
> (inst/var/GB/selftest/)), but in the ZODB, through the methods provided by
> gnowsys and based in the initialization done in the gnowsys instance
> creation. That would be done by the selfApp and the gnowsys-pg?

yes.  selfApp will do the same, but will direct all storage to gnowsys-pg


> For using
> the self-platform skin there are some scripts and templates from
> GNOWSYSArchetypes required and that should be adapted. Am I right?

right.

> The
> idea is to leave GNOWSYSArchetypes out or have a gnowsys-pg version? Some
> of the scripts and templates should be rewritten and the self-platform
> skin integrated in the selfApp product? The idea is to have just the
> selfApp product?
>

GNOWSYSArchetypes is currently in use at the beta platform at
beta.selfplatform.eu.
The templates will be copied to selfApp and modifications done to
connect to the new product.

> I wanted to recreate that same structure in the postgres db through the
> gnowQL object, but I had some difficulties with the required dictionary
> fields and its types. The interface of the manageAddXXX are slightly
> different from the original gnowsys one. And it seems the objects should
> be created in some order. I finally got to create a usertype, that was
> added into the db, and a file was added to the filesystem
> (inst/var/GB/selftest/gbusertypes). Would there be an initialization
> similar to the one done by GNOWSYSArchetypes but using the gnowQL?

We have not automated the initialization script as yet.  the following
steps are required:

1. create the required schema in a db in postgres.  This schema is
automatically generated by genSchema.py, after supplying the
parameters required to connect to the postgresql.

Since it is possible for each instance of selfApp to connect to
different instances of database, we thought it is not wise to
automatically create a db.

second, it is possible to have two instances of selfApp act as
interfaces for a single postgres storage.  this is how, it can become
a distributed database.

> Is it
> supposed that modifications to this object should be managed as branches?

modificatins to each object will generate a new snapshot of the
object. branch is an interpretation whenever the source of change is
from an older, not the latest object.

> Is there something coded on versioning? Which methods are used to edit
> these objects?

if you check the gbobjects.py wrapper class in the selfApp, you will
see set and update methods.

whenever update is called a new snapshot of the object is created.

> I think the idea would be to manage all the content creation and the
> knowledge base through gnowQL, right?
>

gnowQL is the webservice object that not only acts as an adapter for
gnowsys, but also for other client applications that use xmlrpc.   we
create a single instnace of the gnowQL class within the plone main
folder for this.  All the templates also pull and push data into
gnowsys through this connection.

> On the other hand, ising the interface I had some problems with the
> scripts for managing courses. They ask for the AUTHENTICATION_PATH
> variable in the request, that in my case was empty. And with that info
> they form an url, but it fails when AUTHENTICATION_PATH = '', given
> '/Members/xxx'; I changed it locally to return '{portal_url}/Members/xxx'
> and it worked (for example in add_courseCategory.py). I also wanted to
> share lessons between courses, is that possible?
>

This question is not clear to me.  This is from the GNOWSYSArchetypes
or selfApp.

-- 
Nagarjuna G.