Boosting productivity with "Plone-driven Plone development"

We make ITberlinbrandenburg

PD2

Plone Driven Plone Development

Henning Rietz, Condat AG

Plone Conference 2010

Bristol, 28.10.2010

IT from Berlin

© 2010 Condat AG 2

Speaker specifics

Henning Rietz, [email protected]

Condat AG Software for innovative business processes.

Founded 1979

Location Berlin

Staff ~65

© 2010 Condat AG 3

Alliterated Agenda

Major motivation

Definitive Dream

Attractive Advantages

Multiple models

All-round Application

Outrageous Outlook

© 2010 Condat AG 4

Major motivation

Likes Model-driven development Application of design

patterns ArchGenXML

Likes Model-driven development Application of design

patterns ArchGenXML

Dislikes Writing boilerplate code Editing *.zcml, *.xml Migration migraine (Plone

234 …) Learning curve for new

developers

Dislikes Writing boilerplate code Editing *.zcml, *.xml Migration migraine (Plone

234 …) Learning curve for new

developers

© 2010 Condat AG 5

Definitive dream

The model is Plone content.

© 2010 Condat AG 6

Dream details

Metamodel == Domain-specific language== Plone Content Types

Model== Metadata== Description of a specific system== Plone content

Code== Implementation of a specific system== Views on Plone content (metadata)

Metamodel == Domain-specific language== Plone Content Types

Model== Metadata== Description of a specific system== Plone content

Code== Implementation of a specific system== Views on Plone content (metadata)

ArchGenXML: • Metamodel == UML Metamodel• Model == UML (XMI file)• Code == generated from XMI

PloneFormGen:• Metamodel == PFG Content Types• Model == FormFolder + Subobjects• No code generated, interpretation of model at runtime

Collections

ArchGenXML: • Metamodel == UML Metamodel• Model == UML (XMI file)• Code == generated from XMI

PloneFormGen:• Metamodel == PFG Content Types• Model == FormFolder + Subobjects• No code generated, interpretation of model at runtime

Collections

Exis

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xam

ple

sExis

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It‘s an appro

ach

– not a pro

duct.

© 2010 Condat AG 7

Attractive Advantages

Reduces manual coding effort Generates .py, .pt, .cpt, .cpy, .xml, .sql, .zcml, …

High configurability (for you and the customer) Model can be accessed at runtime Behavior of generic parts is dynamically changed

Increases productivity Homogenous environment, everything is Plone-ish Makes your design patterns explicit, enforces conventions Better learning curve for new developers

Higher maintainability Single source for changes Helps you deal with major changes in Plone architecture Integrated documentation

(orange: specific strengths of PD2, otherwise: typical advantage of MDD)

© 2010 Condat AG 8

Conflicting Challenges

Keep implementation details out of the models

Make it simple

Customer readable

Generate as much as possible (and useful)

Make it powerful

Executable

© 2010 Condat AG 9

Domain description

Finding your metamodel –How would you describe your future systems?What abstractions/patterns do you employ?

Possible input

Legacy systems (to be migrated)

The future design

Storyboards

UML models

Your own patterns/frameworks

User/technical documentation

© 2010 Condat AG 10

Multiple metamodels

Content

Views

Navigation

Layout

Authoring Build

Deployment

Code Structure

Ab

str

act

ion

Looking at the system from different perspectives


Code structure


Concepts / structures for code generation

File, Directory, FileSeries, FileGroup, etc.

PT/DTML Templates for code generation, using domain model objects as contexts

Code generation traverses the structure, applying model elements to templates, writing the resulting code to the local file system of the Zope (ZEO client) instance

Code structure modelling


UML example


Example structure('plone3layout', 'Plone 3 Standard Layout', 'PD2Layout', {'namingExpression':'context.Title()'}, [ ('readme.txt','README.txt','PD2File',{'viewname':'empty','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('setup.cfg','setup.cfg','PD2File',{'viewname':'empty','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('setup.py','setup.py','PD2File',{'viewname':setup','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('modulepart1','<modulepart1>','PD2Directory',{'viewname':'','namingExpression':'context.Title().split(\'.\')[0]'}, [ ('init.py','__init__.py','PD2File',{'viewname':'initpkg','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('modulepart2','<modulepart2>','PD2Directory',{'viewname':'','namingExpression':'context.Title().split(\'.\')[1]'}, [ ('init.py','__init__.py','PD2File',{'viewname':'init','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('configure.zcml','configure.zcml','PD2File',{'viewname':'configure','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('config.py','config.py','PD2File',{'viewname':'empty','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('interfaces.py','interfaces.py','PD2File',{'viewname':'interfaces','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('readme.txt','README.txt','PD2File',{'viewname':'empty','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('version.txt','version.txt','PD2File',{'viewname':'empty','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('browser','browser','PD2Directory',{'viewname':'','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('content','content','PD2Directory',{'viewname':'','namingExpression':'self.Title()'}, [ ('init.py','__init__.py','PD2File',{'viewname':'empty','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ('type.py','<type>.py','PD2FileSeries',{'viewname':'atclass','namingExpression':'\'%s.py\' % context.Title().lower()','listExpression':'context.getContentTypes()'},[]), ('configure.zcml','configure.zcml','PD2File',{'viewname':'cconfigure','namingExpression':'self.Title()'},[]), ]), ('profiles','profiles','PD2Directory',{'viewname':'','namingExpression':'self.Title()'}, [ ('default','default','PD2Directory',{'viewname':'','namingExpression':'self.Title()'}, [ …


Example: gstype view<tal:block i18n:domain="conpd2.codegen" tal:define="ct context/Title"><object tal:replace='structure string:<?xml version="1.0"?>'/><object name="PD2Adapter" tal:attributes="name ct" meta_type="Factory-based Type Information with dynamic views" xmlns:i18n="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/i18n"> <property name="title" tal:content="ct">PD2Adapter</property> <property name="description"></property> <property name="content_meta_type" tal:content="ct">PD2Adapter</property> <property name="product" tal:content="context/getProductName">ConPD2</property> <property name="factory" tal:content="string:add${ct}">addPD2Adapter</property> <property name="immediate_view">base_view</property> <property name="global_allow">True</property> <property name="filter_content_types">False</property> <property name="allowed_content_types"> </property> <property name="allow_discussion">False</property> <property name="default_view">base_view</property> <property name="view_methods"> <element value="base_view"/>…

Full example


Content


Content modelling

Describes most of the information architecture

Metamodel: Types, Attributes, Relationships

Probably even more domain-specific

Code: AT schemata, classes, GS xml, zcml

Also possible: RDBMS-related content


UML example

(this is taken from the metamodel of the first version of ConPD2, which is basically a metamodel for AT development)


Views


Views modelling

What is presented where/how?

Metamodel: View Types (e.g. single object, object list, dashboard) with presentation details (e.g. sorting, batching)

Code: template fragments, macros, view classes, helper methods


More metamodels

Navigation: primary, secondary, depth, … navigation portlet, sections viewlet

Layout: two/three columns, header, footer, … Viewlets, CSS (cf. Subskins product)

Authoring: roles, workflows, staging, content rules

Build & Deployment: devbuildout|production|test.cfg, deployment scripts, monitoring frontend


All-round Application

Implement Metamodel E.g. with ArgoUML, ArchGenXML

Templates for code generation

Deploy PD2 Model lives in ZEO server

Developers work with local ZEO Client, which writes to local file system

Develop with PD2 Describe customer site in terms of the

metamodel

Push the button

Make customer specific extensions

Implement generic parts (which interpret metadata at runtime)

Iterate


Outrageous Outlook

Metamodels for knowledge management, public internet, collaborative applications, …

Plone Technology Metamodel

Generic Applications for multiple clients in SaaS scenarios


Thank you

Condat AGHenning RietzAlt-Moabit 91 d10559 BerlinTel. (030) [email protected]