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plug-in_architecture [2011/01/25 16:09] – demiankatzplug-in_architecture [2014/06/13 13:14] – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 Feel free to add to this section -- the idea is currently to list possible solutions and evaluate advantages and disadvantages. Feel free to add to this section -- the idea is currently to list possible solutions and evaluate advantages and disadvantages.
 +
  
  
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 This project advertises itself as both a CMS and an application framework.  The CMS element might be a nice bonus feature, but at the same time, tying VuFind to a particular CMS might become an obstacle to adoption (the same argument goes for Drupal). This project advertises itself as both a CMS and an application framework.  The CMS element might be a nice bonus feature, but at the same time, tying VuFind to a particular CMS might become an obstacle to adoption (the same argument goes for Drupal).
 +
 +=== Kohana ===
 +
 +[[http://kohanaframework.org|Kohana]] is a PHP framework similar in many ways to Ruby on Rails.
 +
 +==== Borrow ideas from Rails? ====
 +
 +Obviously, VuFind is going to remain a PHP-based project; if you want discovery on Rails, [[http://projectblacklight.org/|Blacklight]] has that territory well covered, and Rails' very heavy dependence on naming conventions would make migration from existing legacy VuFind code unnecessarily complicated.  However, it's not a bad idea to borrow some design principles from Rails.  Here are a couple of ideas that might be helpful to VuFind:
 +
 +  * Render shared page layouts AFTER action-specific page contents -- this way you can pass page-specific details (like title tag contents) from template to template rather than having to embed it in the controller.
 +  * Share the URL routing logic with the templates so that the same logic which resolves incoming requests can also be used to build outgoing links.
 +
 +(feel free to expand this list if you have strong feelings about any other Rails conventions)
  
 ==== Reconsider Smarty? ==== ==== Reconsider Smarty? ====
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 PHP 6 is going to introduce namespace support -- might this be helpful for differentiating between VuFind core and local modifications in a straightforward, unambiguous way? PHP 6 is going to introduce namespace support -- might this be helpful for differentiating between VuFind core and local modifications in a straightforward, unambiguous way?
 +
 +
 +
 +===== Redesign Goals =====
 +
 +As of 4/8/11, these are Demian's thoughts on reasonable goals for the redesign.  These presume certain answers to some of the questions above.  It's all still negotiable, so feel free to add comments.
 +
 +  * Maintain existing URL routes for compatibility, while potentially offering improved alternative routes
 +  * Maintain compatibility with existing configuration files (either directly or via an upgrade script)
 +  * Replace existing controller model with something more flexible (for example, well-designed context switching would be helpful for providing alternate API-style views)
 +  * Replace Smarty views with something PHP-based
 +  * Reduce external dependencies on obsolete code (i.e. deprecated PEAR libraries)
 +  * Make file organization and class naming more consistent (i.e. sort out the current web/sys quagmire)
 +  * Ensure that everything (models, views, controllers, routes, configurations) can be extended/overridden outside of the core for easy upgrading
 +
 ---- struct data ---- ---- struct data ----
 ---- ----
  
plug-in_architecture.txt · Last modified: 2015/08/25 15:37 by demiankatz