27e73bbf12c7d8db46184e0480ad85a9dc30d84c
1 ===================
2 Customising Roundup
3 ===================
5 :Version: $Revision: 1.122 $
7 .. This document borrows from the ZopeBook section on ZPT. The original is at:
8 http://www.zope.org/Documentation/Books/ZopeBook/current/ZPT.stx
10 .. contents::
11 :depth: 1
13 What You Can Do
14 ===============
16 Before you get too far, it's probably worth having a quick read of the Roundup
17 `design documentation`_.
19 Customisation of Roundup can take one of six forms:
21 1. `tracker configuration`_ file changes
22 2. database, or `tracker schema`_ changes
23 3. "definition" class `database content`_ changes
24 4. behavioural changes, through detectors_
25 5. `security / access controls`_
26 6. change the `web interface`_
28 The third case is special because it takes two distinctly different forms
29 depending upon whether the tracker has been initialised or not. The other two
30 may be done at any time, before or after tracker initialisation. Yes, this
31 includes adding or removing properties from classes.
34 Trackers in a Nutshell
35 ======================
37 Trackers have the following structure:
39 =================== ========================================================
40 Tracker File Description
41 =================== ========================================================
42 config.py Holds the basic `tracker configuration`_
43 dbinit.py Holds the `tracker schema`_
44 interfaces.py Defines the Web and E-Mail interfaces for the tracker
45 select_db.py Selects the database back-end for the tracker
46 db/ Holds the tracker's database
47 db/files/ Holds the tracker's upload files and messages
48 detectors/ Auditors and reactors for this tracker
49 html/ Web interface templates, images and style sheets
50 =================== ========================================================
52 Tracker Configuration
53 =====================
55 The ``config.py`` located in your tracker home contains the basic
56 configuration for the web and e-mail components of roundup's interfaces.
57 As the name suggests, this file is a Python module. This means that any
58 valid python expression may be used in the file. Mostly though, you'll
59 be setting the configuration variables to string values. Python string
60 values must be quoted with either single or double quotes::
62 'this is a string'
63 "this is also a string - use it when the value has 'single quotes'"
64 this is not a string - it's not quoted
66 Python strings may use formatting that's almost identical to C string
67 formatting. The ``%`` operator is used to perform the formatting, like
68 so::
70 'roundup-admin@%s'%MAIL_DOMAIN
72 this will create a string ``'roundup-admin@tracker.domain.example'`` if
73 MAIL_DOMAIN is set to ``'tracker.domain.example'``.
75 You'll also note some values are set to::
77 os.path.join(TRACKER_HOME, 'db')
79 or similar. This creates a new string which holds the path to the
80 ``'db'`` directory in the TRACKER_HOME directory. This is just a
81 convenience so if the TRACKER_HOME changes you don't have to edit
82 multiple valoues.
84 The configuration variables available are:
86 **TRACKER_HOME** - ``os.path.split(__file__)[0]``
87 The tracker home directory. The above default code will automatically
88 determine the tracker home for you, so you can just leave it alone.
90 **MAILHOST** - ``'localhost'``
91 The SMTP mail host that roundup will use to send e-mail.
93 **MAILUSER** - ``()``
94 If your SMTP mail host requires a username and password for access, then
95 specify them here. eg. ``MAILUSER = ('username', 'password')``
97 **MAILHOST_TLS** - ``'no'``
98 If your SMTP mail host provides or requires TLS (Transport Layer
99 Security) then set ``MAILHOST_TLS = 'yes'``
101 **MAILHOST_TLS_KEYFILE** - ``''``
102 If you're using TLS, you may also set MAILHOST_TLS_KEYFILE to the name of
103 a PEM formatted file that contains your private key.
105 **MAILHOST_TLS_CERTFILE** - ``''``
106 If you're using TLS and have specified a MAILHOST_TLS_KEYFILE, you may
107 also set MAILHOST_TLS_CERTFILE to the name of a PEM formatted certificate
108 chain file.
110 **MAIL_DOMAIN** - ``'tracker.domain.example'``
111 The domain name used for email addresses.
113 **DATABASE** - ``os.path.join(TRACKER_HOME, 'db')``
114 This is the directory that the database is going to be stored in. By default
115 it is in the tracker home.
117 **TEMPLATES** - ``os.path.join(TRACKER_HOME, 'html')``
118 This is the directory that the HTML templates reside in. By default they are
119 in the tracker home.
121 **TRACKER_NAME** - ``'Roundup issue tracker'``
122 A descriptive name for your roundup tracker. This is sent out in e-mails and
123 appears in the heading of CGI pages.
125 **TRACKER_EMAIL** - ``'issue_tracker@%s'%MAIL_DOMAIN``
126 The email address that e-mail sent to roundup should go to. Think of it as the
127 tracker's personal e-mail address.
129 **TRACKER_WEB** - ``'http://tracker.example/cgi-bin/roundup.cgi/bugs/'``
130 The web address that the tracker is viewable at. This will be included in
131 information sent to users of the tracker. The URL **must** include the
132 cgi-bin part or anything else that is required to get to the home page of
133 the tracker. You **must** include a trailing '/' in the URL.
135 **ADMIN_EMAIL** - ``'roundup-admin@%s'%MAIL_DOMAIN``
136 The email address that roundup will complain to if it runs into trouble.
138 **EMAIL_FROM_TAG** - ``''``
139 Additional text to include in the "name" part of the ``From:`` address used
140 in nosy messages. If the sending user is "Foo Bar", the ``From:`` line is
141 usually::
143 "Foo Bar" <issue_tracker@tracker.example>
145 The EMAIL_FROM_TAG goes inside the "Foo Bar" quotes like so::
147 "Foo Bar EMAIL_FROM_TAG" <issue_tracker@tracker.example>
149 **ERROR_MESSAGES_TO** - ``'user'``, ``'dispatcher'`` or ``'both'``
150 Sends error messages to the dispatcher, user, or both. It will use the
151 ``DISPATCHER_EMAIL`` address if set, otherwise it'll use the
152 ``ADMIN_EMAIL`` address.
154 **DISPATCHER_EMAIL** - ``''``
155 The email address that Roundup will issue all error messages to. This is
156 also useful if you want to switch your 'new message' notification to
157 a central user.
159 **MESSAGES_TO_AUTHOR** - ``'new'``, ``'yes'`` or``'no'``
160 Send nosy messages to the author of the message?
161 If 'new' is used, then the author will only be sent the message when the
162 message creates a new issue. If 'yes' then the author will always be sent
163 a copy of the message they wrote.
165 **ADD_AUTHOR_TO_NOSY** - ``'new'``, ``'yes'`` or ``'no'``
166 Does the author of a message get placed on the nosy list automatically?
167 If ``'new'`` is used, then the author will only be added when a message
168 creates a new issue. If ``'yes'``, then the author will be added on followups
169 too. If ``'no'``, they're never added to the nosy.
171 **ADD_RECIPIENTS_TO_NOSY** - ``'new'``, ``'yes'`` or ``'no'``
172 Do the recipients (To:, Cc:) of a message get placed on the nosy list?
173 If ``'new'`` is used, then the recipients will only be added when a message
174 creates a new issue. If ``'yes'``, then the recipients will be added on
175 followups too. If ``'no'``, they're never added to the nosy.
177 **EMAIL_SIGNATURE_POSITION** - ``'top'``, ``'bottom'`` or ``'none'``
178 Where to place the email signature in messages that Roundup generates.
180 **EMAIL_KEEP_QUOTED_TEXT** - ``'yes'`` or ``'no'``
181 Keep email citations. Citations are the part of e-mail which the sender has
182 quoted in their reply to previous e-mail with ``>`` or ``|`` characters at
183 the start of the line.
185 **EMAIL_LEAVE_BODY_UNCHANGED** - ``'no'``
186 Preserve the email body as is. Enabiling this will cause the entire message
187 body to be stored, including all citations, signatures and Outlook-quoted
188 sections (ie. "Original Message" blocks). It should be either ``'yes'``
189 or ``'no'``.
191 **MAIL_DEFAULT_CLASS** - ``'issue'`` or ``''``
192 Default class to use in the mailgw if one isn't supplied in email
193 subjects. To disable, comment out the variable below or leave it blank.
195 **HTML_VERSION** - ``'html4'`` or ``'xhtml'``
196 HTML version to generate. The templates are html4 by default. If you
197 wish to make them xhtml, then you'll need to change this var to 'xhtml'
198 too so all auto-generated HTML is compliant.
200 **EMAIL_CHARSET** - ``utf-8`` (or ``iso-8859-1`` for Eudora users)
201 Character set to encode email headers with. We use utf-8 by default, as
202 it's the most flexible. Some mail readers (eg. Eudora) can't cope with
203 that, so you might need to specify a more limited character set (eg.
204 'iso-8859-1'.
206 The default config.py is given below - as you
207 can see, the MAIL_DOMAIN must be edited before any interaction with the
208 tracker is attempted.::
210 # roundup home is this package's directory
211 TRACKER_HOME=os.path.split(__file__)[0]
213 # The SMTP mail host that roundup will use to send mail
214 MAILHOST = 'localhost'
216 # The domain name used for email addresses.
217 MAIL_DOMAIN = 'your.tracker.email.domain.example'
219 # This is the directory that the database is going to be stored in
220 DATABASE = os.path.join(TRACKER_HOME, 'db')
222 # This is the directory that the HTML templates reside in
223 TEMPLATES = os.path.join(TRACKER_HOME, 'html')
225 # A descriptive name for your roundup tracker
226 TRACKER_NAME = 'Roundup issue tracker'
228 # The email address that mail to roundup should go to
229 TRACKER_EMAIL = 'issue_tracker@%s'%MAIL_DOMAIN
231 # The web address that the tracker is viewable at. This will be
232 # included in information sent to users of the tracker. The URL MUST
233 # include the cgi-bin part or anything else that is required to get
234 # to the home page of the tracker. You MUST include a trailing '/'
235 # in the URL.
236 TRACKER_WEB = 'http://tracker.example/cgi-bin/roundup.cgi/bugs/'
238 # The email address that roundup will complain to if it runs into
239 # trouble
240 ADMIN_EMAIL = 'roundup-admin@%s'%MAIL_DOMAIN
242 # Additional text to include in the "name" part of the From: address
243 # used in nosy messages. If the sending user is "Foo Bar", the From:
244 # line is usually: "Foo Bar" <issue_tracker@tracker.example>
245 # the EMAIL_FROM_TAG goes inside the "Foo Bar" quotes like so:
246 # "Foo Bar EMAIL_FROM_TAG" <issue_tracker@tracker.example>
247 EMAIL_FROM_TAG = ""
249 # Send nosy messages to the author of the message
250 MESSAGES_TO_AUTHOR = 'no' # either 'yes' or 'no'
252 # Does the author of a message get placed on the nosy list
253 # automatically? If 'new' is used, then the author will only be
254 # added when a message creates a new issue. If 'yes', then the
255 # author will be added on followups too. If 'no', they're never
256 # added to the nosy.
257 ADD_AUTHOR_TO_NOSY = 'new' # one of 'yes', 'no', 'new'
259 # Do the recipients (To:, Cc:) of a message get placed on the nosy
260 # list? If 'new' is used, then the recipients will only be added
261 # when a message creates a new issue. If 'yes', then the recipients
262 # will be added on followups too. If 'no', they're never added to
263 # the nosy.
264 ADD_RECIPIENTS_TO_NOSY = 'new' # either 'yes', 'no', 'new'
266 # Where to place the email signature
267 EMAIL_SIGNATURE_POSITION = 'bottom' # one of 'top', 'bottom', 'none'
269 # Keep email citations
270 EMAIL_KEEP_QUOTED_TEXT = 'no' # either 'yes' or 'no'
272 # Preserve the email body as is
273 EMAIL_LEAVE_BODY_UNCHANGED = 'no' # either 'yes' or 'no'
275 # Default class to use in the mailgw if one isn't supplied in email
276 # subjects. To disable, comment out the variable below or leave it
277 # blank. Examples:
278 MAIL_DEFAULT_CLASS = 'issue' # use "issue" class by default
279 #MAIL_DEFAULT_CLASS = '' # disable (or just comment the var out)
281 # HTML version to generate. The templates are html4 by default. If you
282 # wish to make them xhtml, then you'll need to change this var to 'xhtml'
283 # too so all auto-generated HTML is compliant.
284 HTML_VERSION = 'html4' # either 'html4' or 'xhtml'
286 # Character set to encode email headers with. We use utf-8 by default, as
287 # it's the most flexible. Some mail readers (eg. Eudora) can't cope with
288 # that, so you might need to specify a more limited character set (eg.
289 # 'iso-8859-1'.
290 EMAIL_CHARSET = 'utf-8'
291 #EMAIL_CHARSET = 'iso-8859-1' # use this instead for Eudora users
293 #
294 # SECURITY DEFINITIONS
295 #
296 # define the Roles that a user gets when they register with the
297 # tracker these are a comma-separated string of role names (e.g.
298 # 'Admin,User')
299 NEW_WEB_USER_ROLES = 'User'
300 NEW_EMAIL_USER_ROLES = 'User'
302 Tracker Schema
303 ==============
305 Note: if you modify the schema, you'll most likely need to edit the
306 `web interface`_ HTML template files and `detectors`_ to reflect
307 your changes.
309 A tracker schema defines what data is stored in the tracker's database.
310 Schemas are defined using Python code in the ``dbinit.py`` module of your
311 tracker. The "classic" schema looks like this (see below for the meaning
312 of ``'setkey'``)::
314 pri = Class(db, "priority", name=String(), order=String())
315 pri.setkey("name")
317 stat = Class(db, "status", name=String(), order=String())
318 stat.setkey("name")
320 keyword = Class(db, "keyword", name=String())
321 keyword.setkey("name")
323 user = Class(db, "user", username=String(), organisation=String(),
324 password=String(), address=String(), realname=String(),
325 phone=String())
326 user.setkey("username")
328 msg = FileClass(db, "msg", author=Link("user"), summary=String(),
329 date=Date(), recipients=Multilink("user"),
330 files=Multilink("file"))
332 file = FileClass(db, "file", name=String(), type=String())
334 issue = IssueClass(db, "issue", topic=Multilink("keyword"),
335 status=Link("status"), assignedto=Link("user"),
336 priority=Link("priority"))
337 issue.setkey('title')
340 What you can't do to the schema
341 -------------------------------
343 You must never:
345 **Remove the users class**
346 This class is the only *required* class in Roundup. Similarly, its
347 username, password and address properties must never be removed.
349 **Change the type of a property**
350 Property types must *never* be changed - the database simply doesn't take
351 this kind of action into account. Note that you can't just remove a
352 property and re-add it as a new type either. If you wanted to make the
353 assignedto property a Multilink, you'd need to create a new property
354 assignedto_list and remove the old assignedto property.
357 What you can do to the schema
358 -----------------------------
360 Your schema may be changed at any time before or after the tracker has been
361 initialised (or used). You may:
363 **Add new properties to classes, or add whole new classes**
364 This is painless and easy to do - there are generally no repurcussions
365 from adding new information to a tracker's schema.
367 **Remove properties**
368 Removing properties is a little more tricky - you need to make sure that
369 the property is no longer used in the `web interface`_ *or* by the
370 detectors_.
374 Classes and Properties - creating a new information store
375 ---------------------------------------------------------
377 In the tracker above, we've defined 7 classes of information:
379 priority
380 Defines the possible levels of urgency for issues.
382 status
383 Defines the possible states of processing the issue may be in.
385 keyword
386 Initially empty, will hold keywords useful for searching issues.
388 user
389 Initially holding the "admin" user, will eventually have an entry
390 for all users using roundup.
392 msg
393 Initially empty, will hold all e-mail messages sent to or
394 generated by roundup.
396 file
397 Initially empty, will hold all files attached to issues.
399 issue
400 Initially empty, this is where the issue information is stored.
402 We define the "priority" and "status" classes to allow two things:
403 reduction in the amount of information stored on the issue and more
404 powerful, accurate searching of issues by priority and status. By only
405 requiring a link on the issue (which is stored as a single number) we
406 reduce the chance that someone mis-types a priority or status - or
407 simply makes a new one up.
410 Class and Items
411 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
413 A Class defines a particular class (or type) of data that will be stored
414 in the database. A class comprises one or more properties, which gives
415 the information about the class items.
417 The actual data entered into the database, using ``class.create()``, are
418 called items. They have a special immutable property called ``'id'``. We
419 sometimes refer to this as the *itemid*.
422 Properties
423 ~~~~~~~~~~
425 A Class is comprised of one or more properties of the following types:
427 * String properties are for storing arbitrary-length strings.
428 * Password properties are for storing encoded arbitrary-length strings.
429 The default encoding is defined on the ``roundup.password.Password``
430 class.
431 * Date properties store date-and-time stamps. Their values are Timestamp
432 objects.
433 * Number properties store numeric values.
434 * Boolean properties store on/off, yes/no, true/false values.
435 * A Link property refers to a single other item selected from a
436 specified class. The class is part of the property; the value is an
437 integer, the id of the chosen item.
438 * A Multilink property refers to possibly many items in a specified
439 class. The value is a list of integers.
442 FileClass
443 ~~~~~~~~~
445 FileClasses save their "content" attribute off in a separate file from
446 the rest of the database. This reduces the number of large entries in
447 the database, which generally makes databases more efficient, and also
448 allows us to use command-line tools to operate on the files. They are
449 stored in the files sub-directory of the ``'db'`` directory in your
450 tracker.
453 IssueClass
454 ~~~~~~~~~~
456 IssueClasses automatically include the "messages", "files", "nosy", and
457 "superseder" properties.
459 The messages and files properties list the links to the messages and
460 files related to the issue. The nosy property is a list of links to
461 users who wish to be informed of changes to the issue - they get "CC'ed"
462 e-mails when messages are sent to or generated by the issue. The nosy
463 reactor (in the ``'detectors'`` directory) handles this action. The
464 superseder link indicates an issue which has superseded this one.
466 They also have the dynamically generated "creation", "activity" and
467 "creator" properties.
469 The value of the "creation" property is the date when an item was
470 created, and the value of the "activity" property is the date when any
471 property on the item was last edited (equivalently, these are the dates
472 on the first and last records in the item's journal). The "creator"
473 property holds a link to the user that created the issue.
476 setkey(property)
477 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
479 Select a String property of the class to be the key property. The key
480 property must be unique, and allows references to the items in the class
481 by the content of the key property. That is, we can refer to users by
482 their username: for example, let's say that there's an issue in roundup,
483 issue 23. There's also a user, richard, who happens to be user 2. To
484 assign an issue to him, we could do either of::
486 roundup-admin set issue23 assignedto=2
488 or::
490 roundup-admin set issue23 assignedto=richard
492 Note, the same thing can be done in the web and e-mail interfaces.
494 If a class does not have an "order" property, the key is also used to
495 sort instances of the class when it is rendered in the user interface.
496 (If a class has no "order" property, sorting is by the labelproperty of
497 the class. This is computed, in order of precedence, as the key, the
498 "name", the "title", or the first property alphabetically.)
501 create(information)
502 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
504 Create an item in the database. This is generally used to create items
505 in the "definitional" classes like "priority" and "status".
508 Examples of adding to your schema
509 ---------------------------------
511 TODO
514 Detectors - adding behaviour to your tracker
515 ============================================
516 .. _detectors:
518 Detectors are initialised every time you open your tracker database, so
519 you're free to add and remove them any time, even after the database is
520 initialised via the "roundup-admin initialise" command.
522 The detectors in your tracker fire *before* (**auditors**) and *after*
523 (**reactors**) changes to the contents of your database. They are Python
524 modules that sit in your tracker's ``detectors`` directory. You will
525 have some installed by default - have a look. You can write new
526 detectors or modify the existing ones. The existing detectors installed
527 for you are:
529 **nosyreaction.py**
530 This provides the automatic nosy list maintenance and email sending.
531 The nosy reactor (``nosyreaction``) fires when new messages are added
532 to issues. The nosy auditor (``updatenosy``) fires when issues are
533 changed, and figures out what changes need to be made to the nosy list
534 (such as adding new authors, etc.)
535 **statusauditor.py**
536 This provides the ``chatty`` auditor which changes the issue status
537 from ``unread`` or ``closed`` to ``chatting`` if new messages appear.
538 It also provides the ``presetunread`` auditor which pre-sets the
539 status to ``unread`` on new items if the status isn't explicitly
540 defined.
541 **messagesummary.py**
542 Generates the ``summary`` property for new messages based on the message
543 content.
544 **userauditor.py**
545 Verifies the content of some of the user fields (email addresses and
546 roles lists).
548 If you don't want this default behaviour, you're completely free to change
549 or remove these detectors.
551 See the detectors section in the `design document`__ for details of the
552 interface for detectors.
554 __ design.html
556 Sample additional detectors that have been found useful will appear in
557 the ``'detectors'`` directory of the Roundup distribution. If you want
558 to use one, copy it to the ``'detectors'`` of your tracker instance:
560 **newissuecopy.py**
561 This detector sends an email to a team address whenever a new issue is
562 created. The address is hard-coded into the detector, so edit it
563 before you use it (look for the text 'team@team.host') or you'll get
564 email errors!
566 The detector code::
568 from roundup import roundupdb
570 def newissuecopy(db, cl, nodeid, oldvalues):
571 ''' Copy a message about new issues to a team address.
572 '''
573 # so use all the messages in the create
574 change_note = cl.generateCreateNote(nodeid)
576 # send a copy to the nosy list
577 for msgid in cl.get(nodeid, 'messages'):
578 try:
579 # note: last arg must be a list
580 cl.send_message(nodeid, msgid, change_note,
581 ['team@team.host'])
582 except roundupdb.MessageSendError, message:
583 raise roundupdb.DetectorError, message
585 def init(db):
586 db.issue.react('create', newissuecopy)
589 Database Content
590 ================
592 Note: if you modify the content of definitional classes, you'll most
593 likely need to edit the tracker `detectors`_ to reflect your
594 changes.
596 Customisation of the special "definitional" classes (eg. status,
597 priority, resolution, ...) may be done either before or after the
598 tracker is initialised. The actual method of doing so is completely
599 different in each case though, so be careful to use the right one.
601 **Changing content before tracker initialisation**
602 Edit the dbinit module in your tracker to alter the items created in
603 using the ``create()`` methods.
605 **Changing content after tracker initialisation**
606 As the "admin" user, click on the "class list" link in the web
607 interface to bring up a list of all database classes. Click on the
608 name of the class you wish to change the content of.
610 You may also use the ``roundup-admin`` interface's create, set and
611 retire methods to add, alter or remove items from the classes in
612 question.
614 See "`adding a new field to the classic schema`_" for an example that
615 requires database content changes.
618 Security / Access Controls
619 ==========================
621 A set of Permissions is built into the security module by default:
623 - Edit (everything)
624 - View (everything)
626 Every Class you define in your tracker's schema also gets an Edit and View
627 Permission of its own.
629 The default interfaces define:
631 - Web Registration
632 - Web Access
633 - Web Roles
634 - Email Registration
635 - Email Access
637 These are hooked into the default Roles:
639 - Admin (Edit everything, View everything, Web Roles)
640 - User (Web Access, Email Access)
641 - Anonymous (Web Registration, Email Registration)
643 And finally, the "admin" user gets the "Admin" Role, and the "anonymous"
644 user gets "Anonymous" assigned when the database is initialised on
645 installation. The two default schemas then define:
647 - Edit issue, View issue (both)
648 - Edit file, View file (both)
649 - Edit msg, View msg (both)
650 - Edit support, View support (extended only)
652 and assign those Permissions to the "User" Role. Put together, these
653 settings appear in the ``open()`` function of the tracker ``dbinit.py``
654 (the following is taken from the "minimal" template's ``dbinit.py``)::
656 #
657 # SECURITY SETTINGS
658 #
659 # and give the regular users access to the web and email interface
660 p = db.security.getPermission('Web Access')
661 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User', p)
662 p = db.security.getPermission('Email Access')
663 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User', p)
665 # May users view other user information? Comment these lines out
666 # if you don't want them to
667 p = db.security.getPermission('View', 'user')
668 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User', p)
670 # Assign the appropriate permissions to the anonymous user's
671 # Anonymous role. Choices here are:
672 # - Allow anonymous users to register through the web
673 p = db.security.getPermission('Web Registration')
674 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Anonymous', p)
675 # - Allow anonymous (new) users to register through the email
676 # gateway
677 p = db.security.getPermission('Email Registration')
678 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Anonymous', p)
681 New User Roles
682 --------------
684 New users are assigned the Roles defined in the config file as:
686 - NEW_WEB_USER_ROLES
687 - NEW_EMAIL_USER_ROLES
690 Changing Access Controls
691 ------------------------
693 You may alter the configuration variables to change the Role that new
694 web or email users get, for example to not give them access to the web
695 interface if they register through email.
697 You may use the ``roundup-admin`` "``security``" command to display the
698 current Role and Permission configuration in your tracker.
701 Adding a new Permission
702 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
704 When adding a new Permission, you will need to:
706 1. add it to your tracker's dbinit so it is created, using
707 ``security.addPermission``, for example::
709 self.security.addPermission(name="View", klass='frozzle',
710 description="User is allowed to access frozzles")
712 will set up a new "View" permission on the Class "frozzle".
713 2. enable it for the Roles that should have it (verify with
714 "``roundup-admin security``")
715 3. add it to the relevant HTML interface templates
716 4. add it to the appropriate xxxPermission methods on in your tracker
717 interfaces module
720 Example Scenarios
721 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
723 **automatic registration of users in the e-mail gateway**
724 By giving the "anonymous" user the "Email Registration" Role, any
725 unidentified user will automatically be registered with the tracker
726 (with no password, so they won't be able to log in through the web
727 until an admin sets their password). Note: this is the default
728 behaviour in the tracker templates that ship with Roundup.
730 **anonymous access through the e-mail gateway**
731 Give the "anonymous" user the "Email Access" and ("Edit", "issue")
732 Roles but do not not give them the "Email Registration" Role. This
733 means that when an unknown user sends email into the tracker, they're
734 automatically logged in as "anonymous". Since they don't have the
735 "Email Registration" Role, they won't be automatically registered, but
736 since "anonymous" has permission to use the gateway, they'll still be
737 able to submit issues. Note that the Sender information - their email
738 address - will not be available - they're *anonymous*.
740 **only developers may be assigned issues**
741 Create a new Permission called "Fixer" for the "issue" class. Create a
742 new Role "Developer" which has that Permission, and assign that to the
743 appropriate users. Filter the list of users available in the assignedto
744 list to include only those users. Enforce the Permission with an
745 auditor. See the example
746 `restricting the list of users that are assignable to a task`_.
748 **only managers may sign off issues as complete**
749 Create a new Permission called "Closer" for the "issue" class. Create a
750 new Role "Manager" which has that Permission, and assign that to the
751 appropriate users. In your web interface, only display the "resolved"
752 issue state option when the user has the "Closer" Permissions. Enforce
753 the Permission with an auditor. This is very similar to the previous
754 example, except that the web interface check would look like::
756 <option tal:condition="python:request.user.hasPermission('Closer')"
757 value="resolved">Resolved</option>
759 **don't give web access to users who register through email**
760 Create a new Role called "Email User" which has all the Permissions of
761 the normal "User" Role minus the "Web Access" Permission. This will
762 allow users to send in emails to the tracker, but not access the web
763 interface.
765 **let some users edit the details of all users**
766 Create a new Role called "User Admin" which has the Permission for
767 editing users::
769 db.security.addRole(name='User Admin', description='Managing users')
770 p = db.security.getPermission('Edit', 'user')
771 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User Admin', p)
773 and assign the Role to the users who need the permission.
776 Web Interface
777 =============
779 .. contents::
780 :local:
781 :depth: 1
783 The web interface is provided by the ``roundup.cgi.client`` module and
784 is used by ``roundup.cgi``, ``roundup-server`` and ``ZRoundup``
785 (``ZRoundup`` is broken, until further notice). In all cases, we
786 determine which tracker is being accessed (the first part of the URL
787 path inside the scope of the CGI handler) and pass control on to the
788 tracker ``interfaces.Client`` class - which uses the ``Client`` class
789 from ``roundup.cgi.client`` - which handles the rest of the access
790 through its ``main()`` method. This means that you can do pretty much
791 anything you want as a web interface to your tracker.
793 Repercussions of changing the tracker schema
794 ---------------------------------------------
796 If you choose to change the `tracker schema`_ you will need to ensure
797 the web interface knows about it:
799 1. Index, item and search pages for the relevant classes may need to
800 have properties added or removed,
801 2. The "page" template may require links to be changed, as might the
802 "home" page's content arguments.
804 How requests are processed
805 --------------------------
807 The basic processing of a web request proceeds as follows:
809 1. figure out who we are, defaulting to the "anonymous" user
810 2. figure out what the request is for - we call this the "context"
811 3. handle any requested action (item edit, search, ...)
812 4. render the template requested by the context, resulting in HTML
813 output
815 In some situations, exceptions occur:
817 - HTTP Redirect (generally raised by an action)
818 - SendFile (generally raised by ``determine_context``)
819 here we serve up a FileClass "content" property
820 - SendStaticFile (generally raised by ``determine_context``)
821 here we serve up a file from the tracker "html" directory
822 - Unauthorised (generally raised by an action)
823 here the action is cancelled, the request is rendered and an error
824 message is displayed indicating that permission was not granted for
825 the action to take place
826 - NotFound (raised wherever it needs to be)
827 this exception percolates up to the CGI interface that called the
828 client
830 Determining web context
831 -----------------------
833 To determine the "context" of a request, we look at the URL and the
834 special request variable ``@template``. The URL path after the tracker
835 identifier is examined. Typical URL paths look like:
837 1. ``/tracker/issue``
838 2. ``/tracker/issue1``
839 3. ``/tracker/_file/style.css``
840 4. ``/cgi-bin/roundup.cgi/tracker/file1``
841 5. ``/cgi-bin/roundup.cgi/tracker/file1/kitten.png``
843 where the "tracker identifier" is "tracker" in the above cases. That means
844 we're looking at "issue", "issue1", "_file/style.css", "file1" and
845 "file1/kitten.png" in the cases above. The path is generally only one
846 entry long - longer paths are handled differently.
848 a. if there is no path, then we are in the "home" context.
849 b. if the path starts with "_file" (as in example 3,
850 "/tracker/_file/style.css"), then the additional path entry,
851 "style.css" specifies the filename of a static file we're to serve up
852 from the tracker "html" directory. Raises a SendStaticFile exception.
853 c. if there is something in the path (as in example 1, "issue"), it
854 identifies the tracker class we're to display.
855 d. if the path is an item designator (as in examples 2 and 4, "issue1"
856 and "file1"), then we're to display a specific item.
857 e. if the path starts with an item designator and is longer than one
858 entry (as in example 5, "file1/kitten.png"), then we're assumed to be
859 handling an item of a ``FileClass``, and the extra path information
860 gives the filename that the client is going to label the download
861 with (i.e. "file1/kitten.png" is nicer to download than "file1").
862 This raises a ``SendFile`` exception.
864 Both b. and e. stop before we bother to determine the template we're
865 going to use. That's because they don't actually use templates.
867 The template used is specified by the ``@template`` CGI variable, which
868 defaults to:
870 - only classname suplied: "index"
871 - full item designator supplied: "item"
874 Performing actions in web requests
875 ----------------------------------
877 When a user requests a web page, they may optionally also request for an
878 action to take place. As described in `how requests are processed`_, the
879 action is performed before the requested page is generated. Actions are
880 triggered by using a ``@action`` CGI variable, where the value is one
881 of:
883 **login**
884 Attempt to log a user in.
886 **logout**
887 Log the user out - make them "anonymous".
889 **register**
890 Attempt to create a new user based on the contents of the form and then
891 log them in.
893 **edit**
894 Perform an edit of an item in the database. There are some `special form
895 variables`_ you may use.
897 **new**
898 Add a new item to the database. You may use the same `special form
899 variables`_ as in the "edit" action.
901 **retire**
902 Retire the item in the database.
904 **editCSV**
905 Performs an edit of all of a class' items in one go. See also the
906 *class*.csv templating method which generates the CSV data to be
907 edited, and the ``'_generic.index'`` template which uses both of these
908 features.
910 **search**
911 Mangle some of the form variables:
913 - Set the form ":filter" variable based on the values of the filter
914 variables - if they're set to anything other than "dontcare" then add
915 them to :filter.
917 - Also handle the ":queryname" variable and save off the query to the
918 user's query list.
920 Each of the actions is implemented by a corresponding ``*XxxAction*`` (where
921 "Xxx" is the name of the action) class in the ``roundup.cgi.actions`` module.
922 These classes are registered with ``roundup.cgi.client.Client`` which also
923 happens to be available in your tracker instance as ``interfaces.Client``. So
924 if you need to define new actions, you may add them there (see `defining new
925 web actions`_).
927 Each action class also has a ``*permission*`` method which determines whether
928 the action is permissible given the current user. The base permission checks
929 are:
931 **login**
932 Determine whether the user has permission to log in. Base behaviour is
933 to check the user has "Web Access".
934 **logout**
935 No permission checks are made.
936 **register**
937 Determine whether the user has permission to register. Base behaviour
938 is to check the user has the "Web Registration" Permission.
939 **edit**
940 Determine whether the user has permission to edit this item. Base
941 behaviour is to check whether the user can edit this class. If we're
942 editing the "user" class, users are allowed to edit their own details -
943 unless they try to edit the "roles" property, which requires the
944 special Permission "Web Roles".
945 **new**
946 Determine whether the user has permission to create (or edit) this
947 item. Base behaviour is to check the user can edit this class. No
948 additional property checks are made. Additionally, new user items may
949 be created if the user has the "Web Registration" Permission.
950 **editCSV**
951 Determine whether the user has permission to edit this class. Base
952 behaviour is to check whether the user may edit this class.
953 **search**
954 Determine whether the user has permission to search this class. Base
955 behaviour is to check whether the user may view this class.
958 Special form variables
959 ----------------------
961 Item properties and their values are edited with html FORM
962 variables and their values. You can:
964 - Change the value of some property of the current item.
965 - Create a new item of any class, and edit the new item's
966 properties,
967 - Attach newly created items to a multilink property of the
968 current item.
969 - Remove items from a multilink property of the current item.
970 - Specify that some properties are required for the edit
971 operation to be successful.
973 In the following, <bracketed> values are variable, "@" may be
974 either ":" or "@", and other text "required" is fixed.
976 Most properties are specified as form variables:
978 ``<propname>``
979 property on the current context item
981 ``<designator>"@"<propname>``
982 property on the indicated item (for editing related information)
984 Designators name a specific item of a class.
986 ``<classname><N>``
987 Name an existing item of class <classname>.
989 ``<classname>"-"<N>``
990 Name the <N>th new item of class <classname>. If the form
991 submission is successful, a new item of <classname> is
992 created. Within the submitted form, a particular
993 designator of this form always refers to the same new
994 item.
996 Once we have determined the "propname", we look at it to see
997 if it's special:
999 ``@required``
1000 The associated form value is a comma-separated list of
1001 property names that must be specified when the form is
1002 submitted for the edit operation to succeed.
1004 When the <designator> is missing, the properties are
1005 for the current context item. When <designator> is
1006 present, they are for the item specified by
1007 <designator>.
1009 The "@required" specifier must come before any of the
1010 properties it refers to are assigned in the form.
1012 ``@remove@<propname>=id(s)`` or ``@add@<propname>=id(s)``
1013 The "@add@" and "@remove@" edit actions apply only to
1014 Multilink properties. The form value must be a
1015 comma-separate list of keys for the class specified by
1016 the simple form variable. The listed items are added
1017 to (respectively, removed from) the specified
1018 property.
1020 ``@link@<propname>=<designator>``
1021 If the edit action is "@link@", the simple form
1022 variable must specify a Link or Multilink property.
1023 The form value is a comma-separated list of
1024 designators. The item corresponding to each
1025 designator is linked to the property given by simple
1026 form variable.
1028 None of the above (ie. just a simple form value)
1029 The value of the form variable is converted
1030 appropriately, depending on the type of the property.
1032 For a Link('klass') property, the form value is a
1033 single key for 'klass', where the key field is
1034 specified in dbinit.py.
1036 For a Multilink('klass') property, the form value is a
1037 comma-separated list of keys for 'klass', where the
1038 key field is specified in dbinit.py.
1040 Note that for simple-form-variables specifiying Link
1041 and Multilink properties, the linked-to class must
1042 have a key field.
1044 For a String() property specifying a filename, the
1045 file named by the form value is uploaded. This means we
1046 try to set additional properties "filename" and "type" (if
1047 they are valid for the class). Otherwise, the property
1048 is set to the form value.
1050 For Date(), Interval(), Boolean(), and Number()
1051 properties, the form value is converted to the
1052 appropriate
1054 Any of the form variables may be prefixed with a classname or
1055 designator.
1057 Two special form values are supported for backwards compatibility:
1059 @note
1060 This is equivalent to::
1062 @link@messages=msg-1
1063 msg-1@content=value
1065 except that in addition, the "author" and "date" properties of
1066 "msg-1" are set to the userid of the submitter, and the current
1067 time, respectively.
1069 @file
1070 This is equivalent to::
1072 @link@files=file-1
1073 file-1@content=value
1075 The String content value is handled as described above for file
1076 uploads.
1078 If both the "@note" and "@file" form variables are
1079 specified, the action::
1081 @link@msg-1@files=file-1
1083 is also performed.
1085 We also check that FileClass items have a "content" property with
1086 actual content, otherwise we remove them from all_props before
1087 returning.
1091 Default templates
1092 -----------------
1094 The default templates are html4 compliant. If you wish to change them to be
1095 xhtml compliant, you'll need to change the ``HTML_VERSION`` configuration
1096 variable in ``config.py`` to ``'xhtml'`` instead of ``'html4'``.
1098 Most customisation of the web view can be done by modifying the
1099 templates in the tracker ``'html'`` directory. There are several types
1100 of files in there. The *minimal* template includes:
1102 **page.html**
1103 This template usually defines the overall look of your tracker. When
1104 you view an issue, it appears inside this template. When you view an
1105 index, it also appears inside this template. This template defines a
1106 macro called "icing" which is used by almost all other templates as a
1107 coating for their content, using its "content" slot. It also defines
1108 the "head_title" and "body_title" slots to allow setting of the page
1109 title.
1110 **home.html**
1111 the default page displayed when no other page is indicated by the user
1112 **home.classlist.html**
1113 a special version of the default page that lists the classes in the
1114 tracker
1115 **classname.item.html**
1116 displays an item of the *classname* class
1117 **classname.index.html**
1118 displays a list of *classname* items
1119 **classname.search.html**
1120 displays a search page for *classname* items
1121 **_generic.index.html**
1122 used to display a list of items where there is no
1123 ``*classname*.index`` available
1124 **_generic.help.html**
1125 used to display a "class help" page where there is no
1126 ``*classname*.help``
1127 **user.register.html**
1128 a special page just for the user class, that renders the registration
1129 page
1130 **style.css.html**
1131 a static file that is served up as-is
1133 The *classic* template has a number of additional templates.
1135 Note: Remember that you can create any template extension you want to,
1136 so if you just want to play around with the templating for new issues,
1137 you can copy the current "issue.item" template to "issue.test", and then
1138 access the test template using the "@template" URL argument::
1140 http://your.tracker.example/tracker/issue?@template=test
1142 and it won't affect your users using the "issue.item" template.
1145 How the templates work
1146 ----------------------
1149 Basic Templating Actions
1150 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1152 Roundup's templates consist of special attributes on the HTML tags.
1153 These attributes form the Template Attribute Language, or TAL. The basic
1154 TAL commands are:
1156 **tal:define="variable expression; variable expression; ..."**
1157 Define a new variable that is local to this tag and its contents. For
1158 example::
1160 <html tal:define="title request/description">
1161 <head><title tal:content="title"></title></head>
1162 </html>
1164 In this example, the variable "title" is defined as the result of the
1165 expression "request/description". The "tal:content" command inside the
1166 <html> tag may then use the "title" variable.
1168 **tal:condition="expression"**
1169 Only keep this tag and its contents if the expression is true. For
1170 example::
1172 <p tal:condition="python:request.user.hasPermission('View', 'issue')">
1173 Display some issue information.
1174 </p>
1176 In the example, the <p> tag and its contents are only displayed if
1177 the user has the "View" permission for issues. We consider the number
1178 zero, a blank string, an empty list, and the built-in variable
1179 nothing to be false values. Nearly every other value is true,
1180 including non-zero numbers, and strings with anything in them (even
1181 spaces!).
1183 **tal:repeat="variable expression"**
1184 Repeat this tag and its contents for each element of the sequence
1185 that the expression returns, defining a new local variable and a
1186 special "repeat" variable for each element. For example::
1188 <tr tal:repeat="u user/list">
1189 <td tal:content="u/id"></td>
1190 <td tal:content="u/username"></td>
1191 <td tal:content="u/realname"></td>
1192 </tr>
1194 The example would iterate over the sequence of users returned by
1195 "user/list" and define the local variable "u" for each entry.
1197 **tal:replace="expression"**
1198 Replace this tag with the result of the expression. For example::
1200 <span tal:replace="request/user/realname" />
1202 The example would replace the <span> tag and its contents with the
1203 user's realname. If the user's realname was "Bruce", then the
1204 resultant output would be "Bruce".
1206 **tal:content="expression"**
1207 Replace the contents of this tag with the result of the expression.
1208 For example::
1210 <span tal:content="request/user/realname">user's name appears here
1211 </span>
1213 The example would replace the contents of the <span> tag with the
1214 user's realname. If the user's realname was "Bruce" then the
1215 resultant output would be "<span>Bruce</span>".
1217 **tal:attributes="attribute expression; attribute expression; ..."**
1218 Set attributes on this tag to the results of expressions. For
1219 example::
1221 <a tal:attributes="href string:user${request/user/id}">My Details</a>
1223 In the example, the "href" attribute of the <a> tag is set to the
1224 value of the "string:user${request/user/id}" expression, which will
1225 be something like "user123".
1227 **tal:omit-tag="expression"**
1228 Remove this tag (but not its contents) if the expression is true. For
1229 example::
1231 <span tal:omit-tag="python:1">Hello, world!</span>
1233 would result in output of::
1235 Hello, world!
1237 Note that the commands on a given tag are evaulated in the order above,
1238 so *define* comes before *condition*, and so on.
1240 Additionally, you may include tags such as <tal:block>, which are
1241 removed from output. Its content is kept, but the tag itself is not (so
1242 don't go using any "tal:attributes" commands on it). This is useful for
1243 making arbitrary blocks of HTML conditional or repeatable (very handy
1244 for repeating multiple table rows, which would othewise require an
1245 illegal tag placement to effect the repeat).
1248 Templating Expressions
1249 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1251 The expressions you may use in the attribute values may be one of the
1252 following forms:
1254 **Path Expressions** - eg. ``item/status/checklist``
1255 These are object attribute / item accesses. Roughly speaking, the
1256 path ``item/status/checklist`` is broken into parts ``item``,
1257 ``status`` and ``checklist``. The ``item`` part is the root of the
1258 expression. We then look for a ``status`` attribute on ``item``, or
1259 failing that, a ``status`` item (as in ``item['status']``). If that
1260 fails, the path expression fails. When we get to the end, the object
1261 we're left with is evaluated to get a string - if it is a method, it
1262 is called; if it is an object, it is stringified. Path expressions
1263 may have an optional ``path:`` prefix, but they are the default
1264 expression type, so it's not necessary.
1266 If an expression evaluates to ``default``, then the expression is
1267 "cancelled" - whatever HTML already exists in the template will
1268 remain (tag content in the case of ``tal:content``, attributes in the
1269 case of ``tal:attributes``).
1271 If an expression evaluates to ``nothing`` then the target of the
1272 expression is removed (tag content in the case of ``tal:content``,
1273 attributes in the case of ``tal:attributes`` and the tag itself in
1274 the case of ``tal:replace``).
1276 If an element in the path may not exist, then you can use the ``|``
1277 operator in the expression to provide an alternative. So, the
1278 expression ``request/form/foo/value | default`` would simply leave
1279 the current HTML in place if the "foo" form variable doesn't exist.
1281 You may use the python function ``path``, as in
1282 ``path("item/status")``, to embed path expressions in Python
1283 expressions.
1285 **String Expressions** - eg. ``string:hello ${user/name}``
1286 These expressions are simple string interpolations - though they can
1287 be just plain strings with no interpolation if you want. The
1288 expression in the ``${ ... }`` is just a path expression as above.
1290 **Python Expressions** - eg. ``python: 1+1``
1291 These expressions give the full power of Python. All the "root level"
1292 variables are available, so ``python:item.status.checklist()`` would
1293 be equivalent to ``item/status/checklist``, assuming that
1294 ``checklist`` is a method.
1296 Modifiers:
1298 **structure** - eg. ``structure python:msg.content.plain(hyperlink=1)``
1299 The result of expressions are normally *escaped* to be safe for HTML
1300 display (all "<", ">" and "&" are turned into special entities). The
1301 ``structure`` expression modifier turns off this escaping - the
1302 result of the expression is now assumed to be HTML, which is passed
1303 to the web browser for rendering.
1305 **not:** - eg. ``not:python:1=1``
1306 This simply inverts the logical true/false value of another
1307 expression.
1310 Template Macros
1311 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1313 Macros are used in Roundup to save us from repeating the same common
1314 page stuctures over and over. The most common (and probably only) macro
1315 you'll use is the "icing" macro defined in the "page" template.
1317 Macros are generated and used inside your templates using special
1318 attributes similar to the `basic templating actions`_. In this case,
1319 though, the attributes belong to the Macro Expansion Template Attribute
1320 Language, or METAL. The macro commands are:
1322 **metal:define-macro="macro name"**
1323 Define that the tag and its contents are now a macro that may be
1324 inserted into other templates using the *use-macro* command. For
1325 example::
1327 <html metal:define-macro="page">
1328 ...
1329 </html>
1331 defines a macro called "page" using the ``<html>`` tag and its
1332 contents. Once defined, macros are stored on the template they're
1333 defined on in the ``macros`` attribute. You can access them later on
1334 through the ``templates`` variable, eg. the most common
1335 ``templates/page/macros/icing`` to access the "page" macro of the
1336 "page" template.
1338 **metal:use-macro="path expression"**
1339 Use a macro, which is identified by the path expression (see above).
1340 This will replace the current tag with the identified macro contents.
1341 For example::
1343 <tal:block metal:use-macro="templates/page/macros/icing">
1344 ...
1345 </tal:block>
1347 will replace the tag and its contents with the "page" macro of the
1348 "page" template.
1350 **metal:define-slot="slot name"** and **metal:fill-slot="slot name"**
1351 To define *dynamic* parts of the macro, you define "slots" which may
1352 be filled when the macro is used with a *use-macro* command. For
1353 example, the ``templates/page/macros/icing`` macro defines a slot like
1354 so::
1356 <title metal:define-slot="head_title">title goes here</title>
1358 In your *use-macro* command, you may now use a *fill-slot* command
1359 like this::
1361 <title metal:fill-slot="head_title">My Title</title>
1363 where the tag that fills the slot completely replaces the one defined
1364 as the slot in the macro.
1366 Note that you may not mix METAL and TAL commands on the same tag, but
1367 TAL commands may be used freely inside METAL-using tags (so your
1368 *fill-slots* tags may have all manner of TAL inside them).
1371 Information available to templates
1372 ----------------------------------
1374 Note: this is implemented by
1375 ``roundup.cgi.templating.RoundupPageTemplate``
1377 The following variables are available to templates.
1379 **context**
1380 The current context. This is either None, a `hyperdb class wrapper`_
1381 or a `hyperdb item wrapper`_
1382 **request**
1383 Includes information about the current request, including:
1384 - the current index information (``filterspec``, ``filter`` args,
1385 ``properties``, etc) parsed out of the form.
1386 - methods for easy filterspec link generation
1387 - *user*, the current user item as an HTMLItem instance
1388 - *form*
1389 The current CGI form information as a mapping of form argument name
1390 to value
1391 **config**
1392 This variable holds all the values defined in the tracker config.py
1393 file (eg. TRACKER_NAME, etc.)
1394 **db**
1395 The current database, used to access arbitrary database items.
1396 **templates**
1397 Access to all the tracker templates by name. Used mainly in
1398 *use-macro* commands.
1399 **utils**
1400 This variable makes available some utility functions like batching.
1401 **nothing**
1402 This is a special variable - if an expression evaluates to this, then
1403 the tag (in the case of a ``tal:replace``), its contents (in the case
1404 of ``tal:content``) or some attributes (in the case of
1405 ``tal:attributes``) will not appear in the the output. So, for
1406 example::
1408 <span tal:attributes="class nothing">Hello, World!</span>
1410 would result in::
1412 <span>Hello, World!</span>
1414 **default**
1415 Also a special variable - if an expression evaluates to this, then the
1416 existing HTML in the template will not be replaced or removed, it will
1417 remain. So::
1419 <span tal:replace="default">Hello, World!</span>
1421 would result in::
1423 <span>Hello, World!</span>
1426 The context variable
1427 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1429 The *context* variable is one of three things based on the current
1430 context (see `determining web context`_ for how we figure this out):
1432 1. if we're looking at a "home" page, then it's None
1433 2. if we're looking at a specific hyperdb class, it's a
1434 `hyperdb class wrapper`_.
1435 3. if we're looking at a specific hyperdb item, it's a
1436 `hyperdb item wrapper`_.
1438 If the context is not None, we can access the properties of the class or
1439 item. The only real difference between cases 2 and 3 above are:
1441 1. the properties may have a real value behind them, and this will
1442 appear if the property is displayed through ``context/property`` or
1443 ``context/property/field``.
1444 2. the context's "id" property will be a false value in the second case,
1445 but a real, or true value in the third. Thus we can determine whether
1446 we're looking at a real item from the hyperdb by testing
1447 "context/id".
1449 Hyperdb class wrapper
1450 :::::::::::::::::::::
1452 Note: this is implemented by the ``roundup.cgi.templating.HTMLClass``
1453 class.
1455 This wrapper object provides access to a hyperb class. It is used
1456 primarily in both index view and new item views, but it's also usable
1457 anywhere else that you wish to access information about a class, or the
1458 items of a class, when you don't have a specific item of that class in
1459 mind.
1461 We allow access to properties. There will be no "id" property. The value
1462 accessed through the property will be the current value of the same name
1463 from the CGI form.
1465 There are several methods available on these wrapper objects:
1467 =========== =============================================================
1468 Method Description
1469 =========== =============================================================
1470 properties return a `hyperdb property wrapper`_ for all of this class's
1471 properties.
1472 list lists all of the active (not retired) items in the class.
1473 csv return the items of this class as a chunk of CSV text.
1474 propnames lists the names of the properties of this class.
1475 filter lists of items from this class, filtered and sorted by the
1476 current *request* filterspec/filter/sort/group args
1477 classhelp display a link to a javascript popup containing this class'
1478 "help" template.
1479 submit generate a submit button (and action hidden element)
1480 renderWith render this class with the given template.
1481 history returns 'New node - no history' :)
1482 is_edit_ok is the user allowed to Edit the current class?
1483 is_view_ok is the user allowed to View the current class?
1484 =========== =============================================================
1486 Note that if you have a property of the same name as one of the above
1487 methods, you'll need to access it using a python "item access"
1488 expression. For example::
1490 python:context['list']
1492 will access the "list" property, rather than the list method.
1495 Hyperdb item wrapper
1496 ::::::::::::::::::::
1498 Note: this is implemented by the ``roundup.cgi.templating.HTMLItem``
1499 class.
1501 This wrapper object provides access to a hyperb item.
1503 We allow access to properties. There will be no "id" property. The value
1504 accessed through the property will be the current value of the same name
1505 from the CGI form.
1507 There are several methods available on these wrapper objects:
1509 =============== ========================================================
1510 Method Description
1511 =============== ========================================================
1512 submit generate a submit button (and action hidden element)
1513 journal return the journal of the current item (**not
1514 implemented**)
1515 history render the journal of the current item as HTML
1516 renderQueryForm specific to the "query" class - render the search form
1517 for the query
1518 hasPermission specific to the "user" class - determine whether the
1519 user has a Permission
1520 is_edit_ok is the user allowed to Edit the current item?
1521 is_view_ok is the user allowed to View the current item?
1522 =============== ========================================================
1524 Note that if you have a property of the same name as one of the above
1525 methods, you'll need to access it using a python "item access"
1526 expression. For example::
1528 python:context['journal']
1530 will access the "journal" property, rather than the journal method.
1533 Hyperdb property wrapper
1534 ::::::::::::::::::::::::
1536 Note: this is implemented by subclasses of the
1537 ``roundup.cgi.templating.HTMLProperty`` class (``HTMLStringProperty``,
1538 ``HTMLNumberProperty``, and so on).
1540 This wrapper object provides access to a single property of a class. Its
1541 value may be either:
1543 1. if accessed through a `hyperdb item wrapper`_, then it's a value from
1544 the hyperdb
1545 2. if access through a `hyperdb class wrapper`_, then it's a value from
1546 the CGI form
1549 The property wrapper has some useful attributes:
1551 =============== ========================================================
1552 Attribute Description
1553 =============== ========================================================
1554 _name the name of the property
1555 _value the value of the property if any - this is the actual
1556 value retrieved from the hyperdb for this property
1557 =============== ========================================================
1559 There are several methods available on these wrapper objects:
1561 =========== ================================================================
1562 Method Description
1563 =========== ================================================================
1564 plain render a "plain" representation of the property. This method
1565 may take two arguments:
1567 escape
1568 If true, escape the text so it is HTML safe (default: no). The
1569 reason this defaults to off is that text is usually escaped
1570 at a later stage by the TAL commands, unless the "structure"
1571 option is used in the template. The following ``tal:content``
1572 expressions are all equivalent::
1574 "structure python:msg.content.plain(escape=1)"
1575 "python:msg.content.plain()"
1576 "msg/content/plain"
1577 "msg/content"
1579 Usually you'll only want to use the escape option in a
1580 complex expression.
1582 hyperlink
1583 If true, turn URLs, email addresses and hyperdb item
1584 designators in the text into hyperlinks (default: no). Note
1585 that you'll need to use the "structure" TAL option if you
1586 want to use this ``tal:content`` expression::
1588 "structure python:msg.content.plain(hyperlink=1)"
1590 Note also that the text is automatically HTML-escaped before
1591 the hyperlinking transformation.
1592 hyperlinked The same as msg.content.plain(hyperlink=1), but nicer::
1594 "structure msg/content/hyperlinked"
1596 field render an appropriate form edit field for the property - for
1597 most types this is a text entry box, but for Booleans it's a
1598 tri-state yes/no/neither selection.
1599 stext only on String properties - render the value of the property
1600 as StructuredText (requires the StructureText module to be
1601 installed separately)
1602 multiline only on String properties - render a multiline form edit
1603 field for the property
1604 email only on String properties - render the value of the property
1605 as an obscured email address
1606 confirm only on Password properties - render a second form edit field
1607 for the property, used for confirmation that the user typed
1608 the password correctly. Generates a field with name
1609 "name:confirm".
1610 now only on Date properties - return the current date as a new
1611 property
1612 reldate only on Date properties - render the interval between the date
1613 and now
1614 local only on Date properties - return this date as a new property
1615 with some timezone offset, for example::
1617 python:context.creation.local(10)
1619 will render the date with a +10 hour offset.
1620 pretty Date properties - render the date as "dd Mon YYYY" (eg. "19
1621 Mar 2004"). Takes an optional format argument, for example::
1623 python:context.activity.pretty('%Y-%m-%d')
1625 Will format as "2004-03-19" instead.
1627 Interval properties - render the interval in a pretty
1628 format (eg. "yesterday")
1629 menu only on Link and Multilink properties - render a form select
1630 list for this property
1631 reverse only on Multilink properties - produce a list of the linked
1632 items in reverse order
1633 =========== ================================================================
1636 The request variable
1637 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1639 Note: this is implemented by the ``roundup.cgi.templating.HTMLRequest``
1640 class.
1642 The request variable is packed with information about the current
1643 request.
1645 .. taken from ``roundup.cgi.templating.HTMLRequest`` docstring
1647 =========== ============================================================
1648 Variable Holds
1649 =========== ============================================================
1650 form the CGI form as a cgi.FieldStorage
1651 env the CGI environment variables
1652 base the base URL for this tracker
1653 user a HTMLUser instance for this user
1654 classname the current classname (possibly None)
1655 template the current template (suffix, also possibly None)
1656 form the current CGI form variables in a FieldStorage
1657 =========== ============================================================
1659 **Index page specific variables (indexing arguments)**
1661 =========== ============================================================
1662 Variable Holds
1663 =========== ============================================================
1664 columns dictionary of the columns to display in an index page
1665 show a convenience access to columns - request/show/colname will
1666 be true if the columns should be displayed, false otherwise
1667 sort index sort column (direction, column name)
1668 group index grouping property (direction, column name)
1669 filter properties to filter the index on
1670 filterspec values to filter the index on
1671 search_text text to perform a full-text search on for an index
1672 =========== ============================================================
1674 There are several methods available on the request variable:
1676 =============== ========================================================
1677 Method Description
1678 =============== ========================================================
1679 description render a description of the request - handle for the
1680 page title
1681 indexargs_form render the current index args as form elements
1682 indexargs_url render the current index args as a URL
1683 base_javascript render some javascript that is used by other components
1684 of the templating
1685 batch run the current index args through a filter and return a
1686 list of items (see `hyperdb item wrapper`_, and
1687 `batching`_)
1688 =============== ========================================================
1690 The form variable
1691 :::::::::::::::::
1693 The form variable is a bit special because it's actually a python
1694 FieldStorage object. That means that you have two ways to access its
1695 contents. For example, to look up the CGI form value for the variable
1696 "name", use the path expression::
1698 request/form/name/value
1700 or the python expression::
1702 python:request.form['name'].value
1704 Note the "item" access used in the python case, and also note the
1705 explicit "value" attribute we have to access. That's because the form
1706 variables are stored as MiniFieldStorages. If there's more than one
1707 "name" value in the form, then the above will break since
1708 ``request/form/name`` is actually a *list* of MiniFieldStorages. So it's
1709 best to know beforehand what you're dealing with.
1712 The db variable
1713 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1715 Note: this is implemented by the ``roundup.cgi.templating.HTMLDatabase``
1716 class.
1718 Allows access to all hyperdb classes as attributes of this variable. If
1719 you want access to the "user" class, for example, you would use::
1721 db/user
1722 python:db.user
1724 Also, the current id of the current user is available as
1725 ``db.getuid()``. This isn't so useful in templates (where you have
1726 ``request/user``), but it can be useful in detectors or interfaces.
1728 The access results in a `hyperdb class wrapper`_.
1731 The templates variable
1732 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1734 Note: this is implemented by the ``roundup.cgi.templating.Templates``
1735 class.
1737 This variable doesn't have any useful methods defined. It supports being
1738 used in expressions to access the templates, and consequently the
1739 template macros. You may access the templates using the following path
1740 expression::
1742 templates/name
1744 or the python expression::
1746 templates[name]
1748 where "name" is the name of the template you wish to access. The
1749 template has one useful attribute, namely "macros". To access a specific
1750 macro (called "macro_name"), use the path expression::
1752 templates/name/macros/macro_name
1754 or the python expression::
1756 templates[name].macros[macro_name]
1759 The utils variable
1760 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1762 Note: this is implemented by the
1763 ``roundup.cgi.templating.TemplatingUtils`` class, but it may be extended
1764 as described below.
1766 =============== ========================================================
1767 Method Description
1768 =============== ========================================================
1769 Batch return a batch object using the supplied list
1770 =============== ========================================================
1772 You may add additional utility methods by writing them in your tracker
1773 ``interfaces.py`` module's ``TemplatingUtils`` class. See `adding a time
1774 log to your issues`_ for an example. The TemplatingUtils class itself
1775 will have a single attribute, ``client``, which may be used to access
1776 the ``client.db`` when you need to perform arbitrary database queries.
1778 Batching
1779 ::::::::
1781 Use Batch to turn a list of items, or item ids of a given class, into a
1782 series of batches. Its usage is::
1784 python:utils.Batch(sequence, size, start, end=0, orphan=0,
1785 overlap=0)
1787 or, to get the current index batch::
1789 request/batch
1791 The parameters are:
1793 ========= ==============================================================
1794 Parameter Usage
1795 ========= ==============================================================
1796 sequence a list of HTMLItems
1797 size how big to make the sequence.
1798 start where to start (0-indexed) in the sequence.
1799 end where to end (0-indexed) in the sequence.
1800 orphan if the next batch would contain less items than this value,
1801 then it is combined with this batch
1802 overlap the number of items shared between adjacent batches
1803 ========= ==============================================================
1805 All of the parameters are assigned as attributes on the batch object. In
1806 addition, it has several more attributes:
1808 =============== ========================================================
1809 Attribute Description
1810 =============== ========================================================
1811 start indicates the start index of the batch. *Note: unlike
1812 the argument, is a 1-based index (I know, lame)*
1813 first indicates the start index of the batch *as a 0-based
1814 index*
1815 length the actual number of elements in the batch
1816 sequence_length the length of the original, unbatched, sequence.
1817 =============== ========================================================
1819 And several methods:
1821 =============== ========================================================
1822 Method Description
1823 =============== ========================================================
1824 previous returns a new Batch with the previous batch settings
1825 next returns a new Batch with the next batch settings
1826 propchanged detect if the named property changed on the current item
1827 when compared to the last item
1828 =============== ========================================================
1830 An example of batching::
1832 <table class="otherinfo">
1833 <tr><th colspan="4" class="header">Existing Keywords</th></tr>
1834 <tr tal:define="keywords db/keyword/list"
1835 tal:repeat="start python:range(0, len(keywords), 4)">
1836 <td tal:define="batch python:utils.Batch(keywords, 4, start)"
1837 tal:repeat="keyword batch" tal:content="keyword/name">
1838 keyword here</td>
1839 </tr>
1840 </table>
1842 ... which will produce a table with four columns containing the items of
1843 the "keyword" class (well, their "name" anyway).
1845 Displaying Properties
1846 ---------------------
1848 Properties appear in the user interface in three contexts: in indices,
1849 in editors, and as search arguments. For each type of property, there
1850 are several display possibilities. For example, in an index view, a
1851 string property may just be printed as a plain string, but in an editor
1852 view, that property may be displayed in an editable field.
1855 Index Views
1856 -----------
1858 This is one of the class context views. It is also the default view for
1859 classes. The template used is "*classname*.index".
1862 Index View Specifiers
1863 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1865 An index view specifier (URL fragment) looks like this (whitespace has
1866 been added for clarity)::
1868 /issue?status=unread,in-progress,resolved&
1869 topic=security,ui&
1870 :group=+priority&
1871 :sort==activity&
1872 :filters=status,topic&
1873 :columns=title,status,fixer
1875 The index view is determined by two parts of the specifier: the layout
1876 part and the filter part. The layout part consists of the query
1877 parameters that begin with colons, and it determines the way that the
1878 properties of selected items are displayed. The filter part consists of
1879 all the other query parameters, and it determines the criteria by which
1880 items are selected for display. The filter part is interactively
1881 manipulated with the form widgets displayed in the filter section. The
1882 layout part is interactively manipulated by clicking on the column
1883 headings in the table.
1885 The filter part selects the union of the sets of items with values
1886 matching any specified Link properties and the intersection of the sets
1887 of items with values matching any specified Multilink properties.
1889 The example specifies an index of "issue" items. Only items with a
1890 "status" of either "unread" or "in-progress" or "resolved" are
1891 displayed, and only items with "topic" values including both "security"
1892 and "ui" are displayed. The items are grouped by priority, arranged in
1893 ascending order; and within groups, sorted by activity, arranged in
1894 descending order. The filter section shows filters for the "status" and
1895 "topic" properties, and the table includes columns for the "title",
1896 "status", and "fixer" properties.
1898 Searching Views
1899 ---------------
1901 Note: if you add a new column to the ``:columns`` form variable
1902 potentials then you will need to add the column to the appropriate
1903 `index views`_ template so that it is actually displayed.
1905 This is one of the class context views. The template used is typically
1906 "*classname*.search". The form on this page should have "search" as its
1907 ``@action`` variable. The "search" action:
1909 - sets up additional filtering, as well as performing indexed text
1910 searching
1911 - sets the ``:filter`` variable correctly
1912 - saves the query off if ``:query_name`` is set.
1914 The search page should lay out any fields that you wish to allow the
1915 user to search on. If your schema contains a large number of properties,
1916 you should be wary of making all of those properties available for
1917 searching, as this can cause confusion. If the additional properties are
1918 Strings, consider having their value indexed, and then they will be
1919 searchable using the full text indexed search. This is both faster, and
1920 more useful for the end user.
1922 The two special form values on search pages which are handled by the
1923 "search" action are:
1925 :search_text
1926 Text with which to perform a search of the text index. Results from
1927 that search will be used to limit the results of other filters (using
1928 an intersection operation)
1929 :query_name
1930 If supplied, the search parameters (including :search_text) will be
1931 saved off as a the query item and registered against the user's
1932 queries property. Note that the *classic* template schema has this
1933 ability, but the *minimal* template schema does not.
1936 Item Views
1937 ----------
1939 The basic view of a hyperdb item is provided by the "*classname*.item"
1940 template. It generally has three sections; an "editor", a "spool" and a
1941 "history" section.
1944 Editor Section
1945 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1947 The editor section is used to manipulate the item - it may be a static
1948 display if the user doesn't have permission to edit the item.
1950 Here's an example of a basic editor template (this is the default
1951 "classic" template issue item edit form - from the "issue.item.html"
1952 template)::
1954 <table class="form">
1955 <tr>
1956 <th>Title</th>
1957 <td colspan="3" tal:content="structure python:context.title.field(size=60)">title</td>
1958 </tr>
1960 <tr>
1961 <th>Priority</th>
1962 <td tal:content="structure context/priority/menu">priority</td>
1963 <th>Status</th>
1964 <td tal:content="structure context/status/menu">status</td>
1965 </tr>
1967 <tr>
1968 <th>Superseder</th>
1969 <td>
1970 <span tal:replace="structure python:context.superseder.field(showid=1, size=20)" />
1971 <span tal:replace="structure python:db.issue.classhelp('id,title')" />
1972 <span tal:condition="context/superseder">
1973 <br>View: <span tal:replace="structure python:context.superseder.link(showid=1)" />
1974 </span>
1975 </td>
1976 <th>Nosy List</th>
1977 <td>
1978 <span tal:replace="structure context/nosy/field" />
1979 <span tal:replace="structure python:db.user.classhelp('username,realname,address,phone')" />
1980 </td>
1981 </tr>
1983 <tr>
1984 <th>Assigned To</th>
1985 <td tal:content="structure context/assignedto/menu">
1986 assignedto menu
1987 </td>
1988 <td> </td>
1989 <td> </td>
1990 </tr>
1992 <tr>
1993 <th>Change Note</th>
1994 <td colspan="3">
1995 <textarea name=":note" wrap="hard" rows="5" cols="60"></textarea>
1996 </td>
1997 </tr>
1999 <tr>
2000 <th>File</th>
2001 <td colspan="3"><input type="file" name=":file" size="40"></td>
2002 </tr>
2004 <tr>
2005 <td> </td>
2006 <td colspan="3" tal:content="structure context/submit">
2007 submit button will go here
2008 </td>
2009 </tr>
2010 </table>
2013 When a change is submitted, the system automatically generates a message
2014 describing the changed properties. As shown in the example, the editor
2015 template can use the ":note" and ":file" fields, which are added to the
2016 standard changenote message generated by Roundup.
2019 Form values
2020 :::::::::::
2022 We have a number of ways to pull properties out of the form in order to
2023 meet the various needs of:
2025 1. editing the current item (perhaps an issue item)
2026 2. editing information related to the current item (eg. messages or
2027 attached files)
2028 3. creating new information to be linked to the current item (eg. time
2029 spent on an issue)
2031 In the following, ``<bracketed>`` values are variable, ":" may be one of
2032 ":" or "@", and other text ("required") is fixed.
2034 Properties are specified as form variables:
2036 ``<propname>``
2037 property on the current context item
2039 ``<designator>:<propname>``
2040 property on the indicated item (for editing related information)
2042 ``<classname>-<N>:<propname>``
2043 property on the Nth new item of classname (generally for creating new
2044 items to attach to the current item)
2046 Once we have determined the "propname", we check to see if it is one of
2047 the special form values:
2049 ``@required``
2050 The named property values must be supplied or a ValueError will be
2051 raised.
2053 ``@remove@<propname>=id(s)``
2054 The ids will be removed from the multilink property.
2056 ``:add:<propname>=id(s)``
2057 The ids will be added to the multilink property.
2059 ``:link:<propname>=<designator>``
2060 Used to add a link to new items created during edit. These are
2061 collected and returned in ``all_links``. This will result in an
2062 additional linking operation (either Link set or Multilink append)
2063 after the edit/create is done using ``all_props`` in ``_editnodes``.
2064 The <propname> on the current item will be set/appended the id of the
2065 newly created item of class <designator> (where <designator> must be
2066 <classname>-<N>).
2068 Any of the form variables may be prefixed with a classname or
2069 designator.
2071 Two special form values are supported for backwards compatibility:
2073 ``:note``
2074 create a message (with content, author and date), linked to the
2075 context item. This is ALWAYS designated "msg-1".
2076 ``:file``
2077 create a file, attached to the current item and any message created by
2078 :note. This is ALWAYS designated "file-1".
2081 Spool Section
2082 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2084 The spool section lists related information like the messages and files
2085 of an issue.
2087 TODO
2090 History Section
2091 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2093 The final section displayed is the history of the item - its database
2094 journal. This is generally generated with the template::
2096 <tal:block tal:replace="structure context/history" />
2098 *To be done:*
2100 *The actual history entries of the item may be accessed for manual
2101 templating through the "journal" method of the item*::
2103 <tal:block tal:repeat="entry context/journal">
2104 a journal entry
2105 </tal:block>
2107 *where each journal entry is an HTMLJournalEntry.*
2109 Defining new web actions
2110 ------------------------
2112 You may define new actions to be triggered by the ``@action`` form variable.
2113 These are added to the tracker ``interfaces.py`` as ``Action`` classes that get
2114 called by the the ``Client`` class.
2116 Adding action classes takes three steps; first you `define the new
2117 action class`_, then you `register the action class`_ with the cgi
2118 interface so it may be triggered by the ``@action`` form variable.
2119 Finally you `use the new action`_ in your HTML form.
2121 See "`setting up a "wizard" (or "druid") for controlled adding of
2122 issues`_" for an example.
2125 Define the new action class
2126 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2128 The action classes have the following interface::
2130 class MyAction(Action):
2131 def handle(self):
2132 ''' Perform some action. No return value is required.
2133 '''
2135 The *self.client* attribute is an instance of your tracker ``instance.Client``
2136 class - thus it's mostly implemented by ``roundup.cgi.client.Client``. See the
2137 docstring of that class for details of what it can do.
2139 The method will typically check the ``self.form`` variable's contents.
2140 It may then:
2142 - add information to ``self.client.ok_message`` or ``self.client.error_message``
2143 - change the ``self.client.template`` variable to alter what the user will see
2144 next
2145 - raise Unauthorised, SendStaticFile, SendFile, NotFound or Redirect
2146 exceptions (import them from roundup.cgi.exceptions)
2149 Register the action class
2150 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2152 The class is now written, but isn't available to the user until you add it to
2153 the ``instance.Client`` class ``actions`` variable, like so::
2155 actions = client.Client.actions + (
2156 ('myaction', myActionClass),
2157 )
2159 This maps the action name "myaction" to the action class we defined.
2161 Use the new action
2162 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2164 In your HTML form, add a hidden form element like so::
2166 <input type="hidden" name="@action" value="myaction">
2168 where "myaction" is the name you registered in the previous step.
2170 Actions may return content to the user
2171 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2173 Actions generally perform some database manipulation and then pass control
2174 on to the rendering of a template in the current context (see `Determining
2175 web context`_ for how that works.) Some actions will want to generate the
2176 actual content returned to the user. Action methods may return their own
2177 content string to be displayed to the user, overriding the templating step.
2178 In this situation, we assume that the content is HTML by default. You may
2179 override the content type indicated to the user by calling ``setHeader``::
2181 self.client.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/csv')
2183 This example indicates that the value sent back to the user is actually
2184 comma-separated value content (eg. something to be loaded into a
2185 spreadsheet or database).
2188 Examples
2189 ========
2191 .. contents::
2192 :local:
2193 :depth: 1
2196 Adding a new field to the classic schema
2197 ----------------------------------------
2199 This example shows how to add a new constrained property (i.e. a
2200 selection of distinct values) to your tracker.
2203 Introduction
2204 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
2206 To make the classic schema of roundup useful as a TODO tracking system
2207 for a group of systems administrators, it needed an extra data field per
2208 issue: a category.
2210 This would let sysadmins quickly list all TODOs in their particular area
2211 of interest without having to do complex queries, and without relying on
2212 the spelling capabilities of other sysadmins (a losing proposition at
2213 best).
2216 Adding a field to the database
2217 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2219 This is the easiest part of the change. The category would just be a
2220 plain string, nothing fancy. To change what is in the database you need
2221 to add some lines to the ``open()`` function in ``dbinit.py``. Under the
2222 comment::
2224 # add any additional database schema configuration here
2226 add::
2228 category = Class(db, "category", name=String())
2229 category.setkey("name")
2231 Here we are setting up a chunk of the database which we are calling
2232 "category". It contains a string, which we are refering to as "name" for
2233 lack of a more imaginative title. (Since "name" is one of the properties
2234 that Roundup looks for on items if you do not set a key for them, it's
2235 probably a good idea to stick with it for new classes if at all
2236 appropriate.) Then we are setting the key of this chunk of the database
2237 to be that "name". This is equivalent to an index for database types.
2238 This also means that there can only be one category with a given name.
2240 Adding the above lines allows us to create categories, but they're not
2241 tied to the issues that we are going to be creating. It's just a list of
2242 categories off on its own, which isn't much use. We need to link it in
2243 with the issues. To do that, find the lines in the ``open()`` function
2244 in ``dbinit.py`` which set up the "issue" class, and then add a link to
2245 the category::
2247 issue = IssueClass(db, "issue", ... ,
2248 category=Multilink("category"), ... )
2250 The ``Multilink()`` means that each issue can have many categories. If
2251 you were adding something with a one-to-one relationship to issues (such
2252 as the "assignedto" property), use ``Link()`` instead.
2254 That is all you need to do to change the schema. The rest of the effort
2255 is fiddling around so you can actually use the new category.
2258 Populating the new category class
2259 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2261 If you haven't initialised the database with the roundup-admin
2262 "initialise" command, then you can add the following to the tracker
2263 ``dbinit.py`` in the ``init()`` function under the comment::
2265 # add any additional database create steps here - but only if you
2266 # haven't initialised the database with the admin "initialise" command
2268 Add::
2270 category = db.getclass('category')
2271 category.create(name="scipy", order="1")
2272 category.create(name="chaco", order="2")
2273 category.create(name="weave", order="3")
2275 If the database has already been initalised, then you need to use the
2276 ``roundup-admin`` tool::
2278 % roundup-admin -i <tracker home>
2279 Roundup <version> ready for input.
2280 Type "help" for help.
2281 roundup> create category name=scipy order=1
2282 1
2283 roundup> create category name=chaco order=1
2284 2
2285 roundup> create category name=weave order=1
2286 3
2287 roundup> exit...
2288 There are unsaved changes. Commit them (y/N)? y
2290 TODO: explain why order=1 in each case. Also, does key get set to "name"
2291 automatically when added via roundup-admin?
2294 Setting up security on the new objects
2295 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2297 By default only the admin user can look at and change objects. This
2298 doesn't suit us, as we want any user to be able to create new categories
2299 as required, and obviously everyone needs to be able to view the
2300 categories of issues for it to be useful.
2302 We therefore need to change the security of the category objects. This
2303 is also done in the ``open()`` function of ``dbinit.py``.
2305 There are currently two loops which set up permissions and then assign
2306 them to various roles. Simply add the new "category" to both lists::
2308 # new permissions for this schema
2309 for cl in 'issue', 'file', 'msg', 'user', 'category':
2310 db.security.addPermission(name="Edit", klass=cl,
2311 description="User is allowed to edit "+cl)
2312 db.security.addPermission(name="View", klass=cl,
2313 description="User is allowed to access "+cl)
2315 # Assign the access and edit permissions for issue, file and message
2316 # to regular users now
2317 for cl in 'issue', 'file', 'msg', 'category':
2318 p = db.security.getPermission('View', cl)
2319 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User', p)
2320 p = db.security.getPermission('Edit', cl)
2321 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User', p)
2323 So you are in effect doing the following (with 'cl' substituted by its
2324 value)::
2326 db.security.addPermission(name="Edit", klass='category',
2327 description="User is allowed to edit "+'category')
2328 db.security.addPermission(name="View", klass='category',
2329 description="User is allowed to access "+'category')
2331 which is creating two permission types; that of editing and viewing
2332 "category" objects respectively. Then the following lines assign those
2333 new permissions to the "User" role, so that normal users can view and
2334 edit "category" objects::
2336 p = db.security.getPermission('View', 'category')
2337 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User', p)
2339 p = db.security.getPermission('Edit', 'category')
2340 db.security.addPermissionToRole('User', p)
2342 This is all the work that needs to be done for the database. It will
2343 store categories, and let users view and edit them. Now on to the
2344 interface stuff.
2347 Changing the web left hand frame
2348 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2350 We need to give the users the ability to create new categories, and the
2351 place to put the link to this functionality is in the left hand function
2352 bar, under the "Issues" area. The file that defines how this area looks
2353 is ``html/page``, which is what we are going to be editing next.
2355 If you look at this file you can see that it contains a lot of
2356 "classblock" sections which are chunks of HTML that will be included or
2357 excluded in the output depending on whether the condition in the
2358 classblock is met. Under the end of the classblock for issue is where we
2359 are going to add the category code::
2361 <p class="classblock"
2362 tal:condition="python:request.user.hasPermission('View', 'category')">
2363 <b>Categories</b><br>
2364 <a tal:condition="python:request.user.hasPermission('Edit', 'category')"
2365 href="category?@template=item">New Category<br></a>
2366 </p>
2368 The first two lines is the classblock definition, which sets up a
2369 condition that only users who have "View" permission for the "category"
2370 object will have this section included in their output. Next comes a
2371 plain "Categories" header in bold. Everyone who can view categories will
2372 get that.
2374 Next comes the link to the editing area of categories. This link will
2375 only appear if the condition - that the user has "Edit" permissions for
2376 the "category" objects - is matched. If they do have permission then
2377 they will get a link to another page which will let the user add new
2378 categories.
2380 Note that if you have permission to *view* but not to *edit* categories,
2381 then all you will see is a "Categories" header with nothing underneath
2382 it. This is obviously not very good interface design, but will do for
2383 now. I just claim that it is so I can add more links in this section
2384 later on. However to fix the problem you could change the condition in
2385 the classblock statement, so that only users with "Edit" permission
2386 would see the "Categories" stuff.
2389 Setting up a page to edit categories
2390 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2392 We defined code in the previous section which let users with the
2393 appropriate permissions see a link to a page which would let them edit
2394 conditions. Now we have to write that page.
2396 The link was for the *item* template of the *category* object. This
2397 translates into Roundup looking for a file called ``category.item.html``
2398 in the ``html`` tracker directory. This is the file that we are going to
2399 write now.
2401 First we add an info tag in a comment which doesn't affect the outcome
2402 of the code at all, but is useful for debugging. If you load a page in a
2403 browser and look at the page source, you can see which sections come
2404 from which files by looking for these comments::
2406 <!-- category.item -->
2408 Next we need to add in the METAL macro stuff so we get the normal page
2409 trappings::
2411 <tal:block metal:use-macro="templates/page/macros/icing">
2412 <title metal:fill-slot="head_title">Category editing</title>
2413 <td class="page-header-top" metal:fill-slot="body_title">
2414 <h2>Category editing</h2>
2415 </td>
2416 <td class="content" metal:fill-slot="content">
2418 Next we need to setup up a standard HTML form, which is the whole
2419 purpose of this file. We link to some handy javascript which sends the
2420 form through only once. This is to stop users hitting the send button
2421 multiple times when they are impatient and thus having the form sent
2422 multiple times::
2424 <form method="POST" onSubmit="return submit_once()"
2425 enctype="multipart/form-data">
2427 Next we define some code which sets up the minimum list of fields that
2428 we require the user to enter. There will be only one field - "name" - so
2429 they better put something in it, otherwise the whole form is pointless::
2431 <input type="hidden" name="@required" value="name">
2433 To get everything to line up properly we will put everything in a table,
2434 and put a nice big header on it so the user has an idea what is
2435 happening::
2437 <table class="form">
2438 <tr><th class="header" colspan="2">Category</th></tr>
2440 Next, we need the field into which the user is going to enter the new
2441 category. The "context.name.field(size=60)" bit tells Roundup to
2442 generate a normal HTML field of size 60, and the contents of that field
2443 will be the "name" variable of the current context (which is
2444 "category"). The upshot of this is that when the user types something in
2445 to the form, a new category will be created with that name::
2447 <tr>
2448 <th>Name</th>
2449 <td tal:content="structure python:context.name.field(size=60)">
2450 name</td>
2451 </tr>
2453 Then a submit button so that the user can submit the new category::
2455 <tr>
2456 <td> </td>
2457 <td colspan="3" tal:content="structure context/submit">
2458 submit button will go here
2459 </td>
2460 </tr>
2462 Finally we finish off the tags we used at the start to do the METAL
2463 stuff::
2465 </td>
2466 </tal:block>
2468 So putting it all together, and closing the table and form we get::
2470 <!-- category.item -->
2471 <tal:block metal:use-macro="templates/page/macros/icing">
2472 <title metal:fill-slot="head_title">Category editing</title>
2473 <td class="page-header-top" metal:fill-slot="body_title">
2474 <h2>Category editing</h2>
2475 </td>
2476 <td class="content" metal:fill-slot="content">
2477 <form method="POST" onSubmit="return submit_once()"
2478 enctype="multipart/form-data">
2480 <table class="form">
2481 <tr><th class="header" colspan="2">Category</th></tr>
2483 <tr>
2484 <th>Name</th>
2485 <td tal:content="structure python:context.name.field(size=60)">
2486 name</td>
2487 </tr>
2489 <tr>
2490 <td>
2491
2492 <input type="hidden" name="@required" value="name">
2493 </td>
2494 <td colspan="3" tal:content="structure context/submit">
2495 submit button will go here
2496 </td>
2497 </tr>
2498 </table>
2499 </form>
2500 </td>
2501 </tal:block>
2503 This is quite a lot to just ask the user one simple question, but there
2504 is a lot of setup for basically one line (the form line) to do its work.
2505 To add another field to "category" would involve one more line (well,
2506 maybe a few extra to get the formatting correct).
2509 Adding the category to the issue
2510 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2512 We now have the ability to create issues to our heart's content, but
2513 that is pointless unless we can assign categories to issues. Just like
2514 the ``html/category.item.html`` file was used to define how to add a new
2515 category, the ``html/issue.item.html`` is used to define how a new issue
2516 is created.
2518 Just like ``category.issue.html`` this file defines a form which has a
2519 table to lay things out. It doesn't matter where in the table we add new
2520 stuff, it is entirely up to your sense of aesthetics::
2522 <th>Category</th>
2523 <td><span tal:replace="structure context/category/field" />
2524 <span tal:replace="structure db/category/classhelp" />
2525 </td>
2527 First, we define a nice header so that the user knows what the next
2528 section is, then the middle line does what we are most interested in.
2529 This ``context/category/field`` gets replaced by a field which contains
2530 the category in the current context (the current context being the new
2531 issue).
2533 The classhelp lines generate a link (labelled "list") to a popup window
2534 which contains the list of currently known categories.
2537 Searching on categories
2538 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2540 We can add categories, and create issues with categories. The next
2541 obvious thing that we would like to be able to do, would be to search
2542 for issues based on their category, so that, for example, anyone working
2543 on the web server could look at all issues in the category "Web".
2545 If you look for "Search Issues" in the 'html/page.html' file, you will
2546 find that it looks something like
2547 ``<a href="issue?@template=search">Search Issues</a>``. This shows us
2548 that when you click on "Search Issues" it will be looking for a
2549 ``issue.search.html`` file to display. So that is the file that we will
2550 change.
2552 If you look at this file it should be starting to seem familiar, although it
2553 does use some new macros. You can add the new category search code anywhere you
2554 like within that form::
2556 <tr tal:define="name string:category;
2557 db_klass string:category;
2558 db_content string:name;">
2559 <th>Priority:</th>
2560 <td metal:use-macro="search_select"></td>
2561 <td metal:use-macro="column_input"></td>
2562 <td metal:use-macro="sort_input"></td>
2563 <td metal:use-macro="group_input"></td>
2564 </tr>
2566 The definitions in the <tr> opening tag are used by the macros:
2568 - search_select expands to a drop-down box with all categories using db_klass
2569 and db_content.
2570 - column_input expands to a checkbox for selecting what columns should be
2571 displayed.
2572 - sort_input expands to a radio button for selecting what property should be
2573 sorted on.
2574 - group_input expands to a radio button for selecting what property should be
2575 group on.
2577 The category search code above would expand to the following::
2579 <tr>
2580 <th>Category:</th>
2581 <td>
2582 <select name="category">
2583 <option value="">don't care</option>
2584 <option value="">------------</option>
2585 <option value="1">scipy</option>
2586 <option value="2">chaco</option>
2587 <option value="3">weave</option>
2588 </select>
2589 </td>
2590 <td><input type="checkbox" name=":columns" value="category"></td>
2591 <td><input type="radio" name=":sort" value="category"></td>
2592 <td><input type="radio" name=":group" value="category"></td>
2593 </tr>
2595 Adding category to the default view
2596 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2598 We can now add categories, add issues with categories, and search for
2599 issues based on categories. This is everything that we need to do;
2600 however, there is some more icing that we would like. I think the
2601 category of an issue is important enough that it should be displayed by
2602 default when listing all the issues.
2604 Unfortunately, this is a bit less obvious than the previous steps. The
2605 code defining how the issues look is in ``html/issue.index.html``. This
2606 is a large table with a form down at the bottom for redisplaying and so
2607 forth.
2609 Firstly we need to add an appropriate header to the start of the table::
2611 <th tal:condition="request/show/category">Category</th>
2613 The *condition* part of this statement is to avoid displaying the
2614 Category column if the user has selected not to see it.
2616 The rest of the table is a loop which will go through every issue that
2617 matches the display criteria. The loop variable is "i" - which means
2618 that every issue gets assigned to "i" in turn.
2620 The new part of code to display the category will look like this::
2622 <td tal:condition="request/show/category"
2623 tal:content="i/category"></td>
2625 The condition is the same as above: only display the condition when the
2626 user hasn't asked for it to be hidden. The next part is to set the
2627 content of the cell to be the category part of "i" - the current issue.
2629 Finally we have to edit ``html/page.html`` again. This time, we need to
2630 tell it that when the user clicks on "Unasigned Issues" or "All Issues",
2631 the category column should be included in the resulting list. If you
2632 scroll down the page file, you can see the links with lots of options.
2633 The option that we are interested in is the ``:columns=`` one which
2634 tells roundup which fields of the issue to display. Simply add
2635 "category" to that list and it all should work.
2638 Adding in state transition control
2639 ----------------------------------
2641 Sometimes tracker admins want to control the states that users may move
2642 issues to. You can do this by following these steps:
2644 1. make "status" a required variable. This is achieved by adding the
2645 following to the top of the form in the ``issue.item.html``
2646 template::
2648 <input type="hidden" name="@required" value="status">
2650 this will force users to select a status.
2652 2. add a Multilink property to the status class::
2654 stat = Class(db, "status", ... , transitions=Multilink('status'),
2655 ...)
2657 and then edit the statuses already created, either:
2659 a. through the web using the class list -> status class editor, or
2660 b. using the roundup-admin "set" command.
2662 3. add an auditor module ``checktransition.py`` in your tracker's
2663 ``detectors`` directory, for example::
2665 def checktransition(db, cl, nodeid, newvalues):
2666 ''' Check that the desired transition is valid for the "status"
2667 property.
2668 '''
2669 if not newvalues.has_key('status'):
2670 return
2671 current = cl.get(nodeid, 'status')
2672 new = newvalues['status']
2673 if new == current:
2674 return
2675 ok = db.status.get(current, 'transitions')
2676 if new not in ok:
2677 raise ValueError, 'Status not allowed to move from "%s" to "%s"'%(
2678 db.status.get(current, 'name'), db.status.get(new, 'name'))
2680 def init(db):
2681 db.issue.audit('set', checktransition)
2683 4. in the ``issue.item.html`` template, change the status editing bit
2684 from::
2686 <th>Status</th>
2687 <td tal:content="structure context/status/menu">status</td>
2689 to::
2691 <th>Status</th>
2692 <td>
2693 <select tal:condition="context/id" name="status">
2694 <tal:block tal:define="ok context/status/transitions"
2695 tal:repeat="state db/status/list">
2696 <option tal:condition="python:state.id in ok"
2697 tal:attributes="
2698 value state/id;
2699 selected python:state.id == context.status.id"
2700 tal:content="state/name"></option>
2701 </tal:block>
2702 </select>
2703 <tal:block tal:condition="not:context/id"
2704 tal:replace="structure context/status/menu" />
2705 </td>
2707 which displays only the allowed status to transition to.
2710 Displaying only message summaries in the issue display
2711 ------------------------------------------------------
2713 Alter the issue.item template section for messages to::
2715 <table class="messages" tal:condition="context/messages">
2716 <tr><th colspan="5" class="header">Messages</th></tr>
2717 <tr tal:repeat="msg context/messages">
2718 <td><a tal:attributes="href string:msg${msg/id}"
2719 tal:content="string:msg${msg/id}"></a></td>
2720 <td tal:content="msg/author">author</td>
2721 <td class="date" tal:content="msg/date/pretty">date</td>
2722 <td tal:content="msg/summary">summary</td>
2723 <td>
2724 <a tal:attributes="href string:?@remove@messages=${msg/id}&@action=edit">
2725 remove</a>
2726 </td>
2727 </tr>
2728 </table>
2730 Restricting the list of users that are assignable to a task
2731 -----------------------------------------------------------
2733 1. In your tracker's "dbinit.py", create a new Role, say "Developer"::
2735 db.security.addRole(name='Developer', description='A developer')
2737 2. Just after that, create a new Permission, say "Fixer", specific to
2738 "issue"::
2740 p = db.security.addPermission(name='Fixer', klass='issue',
2741 description='User is allowed to be assigned to fix issues')
2743 3. Then assign the new Permission to your "Developer" Role::
2745 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Developer', p)
2747 4. In the issue item edit page ("html/issue.item.html" in your tracker
2748 directory), use the new Permission in restricting the "assignedto"
2749 list::
2751 <select name="assignedto">
2752 <option value="-1">- no selection -</option>
2753 <tal:block tal:repeat="user db/user/list">
2754 <option tal:condition="python:user.hasPermission(
2755 'Fixer', context._classname)"
2756 tal:attributes="
2757 value user/id;
2758 selected python:user.id == context.assignedto"
2759 tal:content="user/realname"></option>
2760 </tal:block>
2761 </select>
2763 For extra security, you may wish to setup an auditor to enforce the
2764 Permission requirement (install this as "assignedtoFixer.py" in your
2765 tracker "detectors" directory)::
2767 def assignedtoMustBeFixer(db, cl, nodeid, newvalues):
2768 ''' Ensure the assignedto value in newvalues is a used with the
2769 Fixer Permission
2770 '''
2771 if not newvalues.has_key('assignedto'):
2772 # don't care
2773 return
2775 # get the userid
2776 userid = newvalues['assignedto']
2777 if not db.security.hasPermission('Fixer', userid, cl.classname):
2778 raise ValueError, 'You do not have permission to edit %s'%cl.classname
2780 def init(db):
2781 db.issue.audit('set', assignedtoMustBeFixer)
2782 db.issue.audit('create', assignedtoMustBeFixer)
2784 So now, if an edit action attempts to set "assignedto" to a user that
2785 doesn't have the "Fixer" Permission, the error will be raised.
2788 Setting up a "wizard" (or "druid") for controlled adding of issues
2789 ------------------------------------------------------------------
2791 1. Set up the page templates you wish to use for data input. My wizard
2792 is going to be a two-step process: first figuring out what category
2793 of issue the user is submitting, and then getting details specific to
2794 that category. The first page includes a table of help, explaining
2795 what the category names mean, and then the core of the form::
2797 <form method="POST" onSubmit="return submit_once()"
2798 enctype="multipart/form-data">
2799 <input type="hidden" name="@template" value="add_page1">
2800 <input type="hidden" name="@action" value="page1_submit">
2802 <strong>Category:</strong>
2803 <tal:block tal:replace="structure context/category/menu" />
2804 <input type="submit" value="Continue">
2805 </form>
2807 The next page has the usual issue entry information, with the
2808 addition of the following form fragments::
2810 <form method="POST" onSubmit="return submit_once()"
2811 enctype="multipart/form-data"
2812 tal:condition="context/is_edit_ok"
2813 tal:define="cat request/form/category/value">
2815 <input type="hidden" name="@template" value="add_page2">
2816 <input type="hidden" name="@required" value="title">
2817 <input type="hidden" name="category" tal:attributes="value cat">
2818 .
2819 .
2820 .
2821 </form>
2823 Note that later in the form, I test the value of "cat" include form
2824 elements that are appropriate. For example::
2826 <tal:block tal:condition="python:cat in '6 10 13 14 15 16 17'.split()">
2827 <tr>
2828 <th>Operating System</th>
2829 <td tal:content="structure context/os/field"></td>
2830 </tr>
2831 <tr>
2832 <th>Web Browser</th>
2833 <td tal:content="structure context/browser/field"></td>
2834 </tr>
2835 </tal:block>
2837 ... the above section will only be displayed if the category is one
2838 of 6, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16 or 17.
2840 3. Determine what actions need to be taken between the pages - these are
2841 usually to validate user choices and determine what page is next. Now encode
2842 those actions in a new ``Action`` class and insert hooks to those actions in
2843 the "actions" attribute on on the ``interfaces.Client`` class, like so (see
2844 `defining new web actions`_)::
2846 class Page1SubmitAction(Action):
2847 def handle(self):
2848 ''' Verify that the user has selected a category, and then move
2849 on to page 2.
2850 '''
2851 category = self.form['category'].value
2852 if category == '-1':
2853 self.error_message.append('You must select a category of report')
2854 return
2855 # everything's ok, move on to the next page
2856 self.template = 'add_page2'
2858 actions = client.Client.actions + (
2859 ('page1_submit', Page1SubmitAction),
2860 )
2862 4. Use the usual "new" action as the ``@action`` on the final page, and
2863 you're done (the standard context/submit method can do this for you).
2866 Using an external password validation source
2867 --------------------------------------------
2869 We have a centrally-managed password changing system for our users. This
2870 results in a UN*X passwd-style file that we use for verification of
2871 users. Entries in the file consist of ``name:password`` where the
2872 password is encrypted using the standard UN*X ``crypt()`` function (see
2873 the ``crypt`` module in your Python distribution). An example entry
2874 would be::
2876 admin:aamrgyQfDFSHw
2878 Each user of Roundup must still have their information stored in the Roundup
2879 database - we just use the passwd file to check their password. To do this, we
2880 need to override the standard ``verifyPassword`` method defined in
2881 ``roundup.cgi.actions.LoginAction`` and register the new class with our
2882 ``Client`` class in the tracker home ``interfaces.py`` module::
2884 from roundup.cgi.actions import LoginAction
2886 class ExternalPasswordLoginAction(LoginAction):
2887 def verifyPassword(self, userid, password):
2888 # get the user's username
2889 username = self.db.user.get(userid, 'username')
2891 # the passwords are stored in the "passwd.txt" file in the
2892 # tracker home
2893 file = os.path.join(self.db.config.TRACKER_HOME, 'passwd.txt')
2895 # see if we can find a match
2896 for ent in [line.strip().split(':') for line in
2897 open(file).readlines()]:
2898 if ent[0] == username:
2899 return crypt.crypt(password, ent[1][:2]) == ent[1]
2901 # user doesn't exist in the file
2902 return 0
2904 class Client(client.Client):
2905 actions = client.Client.actions + (
2906 ('login', ExternalPasswordLoginAction)
2907 )
2909 What this does is look through the file, line by line, looking for a
2910 name that matches.
2912 We also remove the redundant password fields from the ``user.item``
2913 template.
2916 Adding a "vacation" flag to users for stopping nosy messages
2917 ------------------------------------------------------------
2919 When users go on vacation and set up vacation email bouncing, you'll
2920 start to see a lot of messages come back through Roundup "Fred is on
2921 vacation". Not very useful, and relatively easy to stop.
2923 1. add a "vacation" flag to your users::
2925 user = Class(db, "user",
2926 username=String(), password=Password(),
2927 address=String(), realname=String(),
2928 phone=String(), organisation=String(),
2929 alternate_addresses=String(),
2930 roles=String(), queries=Multilink("query"),
2931 vacation=Boolean())
2933 2. So that users may edit the vacation flags, add something like the
2934 following to your ``user.item`` template::
2936 <tr>
2937 <th>On Vacation</th>
2938 <td tal:content="structure context/vacation/field">vacation</td>
2939 </tr>
2941 3. edit your detector ``nosyreactor.py`` so that the ``nosyreaction()``
2942 consists of::
2944 def nosyreaction(db, cl, nodeid, oldvalues):
2945 users = db.user
2946 messages = db.msg
2947 # send a copy of all new messages to the nosy list
2948 for msgid in determineNewMessages(cl, nodeid, oldvalues):
2949 try:
2950 # figure the recipient ids
2951 sendto = []
2952 seen_message = {}
2953 recipients = messages.get(msgid, 'recipients')
2954 for recipid in messages.get(msgid, 'recipients'):
2955 seen_message[recipid] = 1
2957 # figure the author's id, and indicate they've received
2958 # the message
2959 authid = messages.get(msgid, 'author')
2961 # possibly send the message to the author, as long as
2962 # they aren't anonymous
2963 if (db.config.MESSAGES_TO_AUTHOR == 'yes' and
2964 users.get(authid, 'username') != 'anonymous'):
2965 sendto.append(authid)
2966 seen_message[authid] = 1
2968 # now figure the nosy people who weren't recipients
2969 nosy = cl.get(nodeid, 'nosy')
2970 for nosyid in nosy:
2971 # Don't send nosy mail to the anonymous user (that
2972 # user shouldn't appear in the nosy list, but just
2973 # in case they do...)
2974 if users.get(nosyid, 'username') == 'anonymous':
2975 continue
2976 # make sure they haven't seen the message already
2977 if not seen_message.has_key(nosyid):
2978 # send it to them
2979 sendto.append(nosyid)
2980 recipients.append(nosyid)
2982 # generate a change note
2983 if oldvalues:
2984 note = cl.generateChangeNote(nodeid, oldvalues)
2985 else:
2986 note = cl.generateCreateNote(nodeid)
2988 # we have new recipients
2989 if sendto:
2990 # filter out the people on vacation
2991 sendto = [i for i in sendto
2992 if not users.get(i, 'vacation', 0)]
2994 # map userids to addresses
2995 sendto = [users.get(i, 'address') for i in sendto]
2997 # update the message's recipients list
2998 messages.set(msgid, recipients=recipients)
3000 # send the message
3001 cl.send_message(nodeid, msgid, note, sendto)
3002 except roundupdb.MessageSendError, message:
3003 raise roundupdb.DetectorError, message
3005 Note that this is the standard nosy reaction code, with the small
3006 addition of::
3008 # filter out the people on vacation
3009 sendto = [i for i in sendto if not users.get(i, 'vacation', 0)]
3011 which filters out the users that have the vacation flag set to true.
3014 Adding a time log to your issues
3015 --------------------------------
3017 We want to log the dates and amount of time spent working on issues, and
3018 be able to give a summary of the total time spent on a particular issue.
3020 1. Add a new class to your tracker ``dbinit.py``::
3022 # storage for time logging
3023 timelog = Class(db, "timelog", period=Interval())
3025 Note that we automatically get the date of the time log entry
3026 creation through the standard property "creation".
3028 2. Link to the new class from your issue class (again, in
3029 ``dbinit.py``)::
3031 issue = IssueClass(db, "issue",
3032 assignedto=Link("user"), topic=Multilink("keyword"),
3033 priority=Link("priority"), status=Link("status"),
3034 times=Multilink("timelog"))
3036 the "times" property is the new link to the "timelog" class.
3038 3. We'll need to let people add in times to the issue, so in the web
3039 interface we'll have a new entry field. This is a special field
3040 because unlike the other fields in the issue.item template, it
3041 affects a different item (a timelog item) and not the template's
3042 item, an issue. We have a special syntax for form fields that affect
3043 items other than the template default item (see the cgi
3044 documentation on `special form variables`_). In particular, we add a
3045 field to capture a new timelog item's perdiod::
3047 <tr>
3048 <th>Time Log</th>
3049 <td colspan=3><input type="text" name="timelog-1@period" />
3050 <br />(enter as '3y 1m 4d 2:40:02' or parts thereof)
3051 </td>
3052 </tr>
3054 and another hidden field that links that new timelog item (new
3055 because it's marked as having id "-1") to the issue item. It looks
3056 like this::
3058 <input type="hidden" name="@link@times" value="timelog-1" />
3060 On submission, the "-1" timelog item will be created and assigned a
3061 real item id. The "times" property of the issue will have the new id
3062 added to it.
3064 4. We want to display a total of the time log times that have been
3065 accumulated for an issue. To do this, we'll need to actually write
3066 some Python code, since it's beyond the scope of PageTemplates to
3067 perform such calculations. We do this by adding a method to the
3068 TemplatingUtils class in our tracker ``interfaces.py`` module::
3070 class TemplatingUtils:
3071 ''' Methods implemented on this class will be available to HTML
3072 templates through the 'utils' variable.
3073 '''
3074 def totalTimeSpent(self, times):
3075 ''' Call me with a list of timelog items (which have an
3076 Interval "period" property)
3077 '''
3078 total = Interval('0d')
3079 for time in times:
3080 total += time.period._value
3081 return total
3083 Replace the ``pass`` line if one appears in your TemplatingUtils
3084 class. As indicated in the docstrings, we will be able to access the
3085 ``totalTimeSpent`` method via the ``utils`` variable in our templates.
3087 5. Display the time log for an issue::
3089 <table class="otherinfo" tal:condition="context/times">
3090 <tr><th colspan="3" class="header">Time Log
3091 <tal:block
3092 tal:replace="python:utils.totalTimeSpent(context.times)" />
3093 </th></tr>
3094 <tr><th>Date</th><th>Period</th><th>Logged By</th></tr>
3095 <tr tal:repeat="time context/times">
3096 <td tal:content="time/creation"></td>
3097 <td tal:content="time/period"></td>
3098 <td tal:content="time/creator"></td>
3099 </tr>
3100 </table>
3102 I put this just above the Messages log in my issue display. Note our
3103 use of the ``totalTimeSpent`` method which will total up the times
3104 for the issue and return a new Interval. That will be automatically
3105 displayed in the template as text like "+ 1y 2:40" (1 year, 2 hours
3106 and 40 minutes).
3108 8. If you're using a persistent web server - roundup-server or
3109 mod_python for example - then you'll need to restart that to pick up
3110 the code changes. When that's done, you'll be able to use the new
3111 time logging interface.
3113 Using a UN*X passwd file as the user database
3114 ---------------------------------------------
3116 On some systems the primary store of users is the UN*X passwd file. It
3117 holds information on users such as their username, real name, password
3118 and primary user group.
3120 Roundup can use this store as its primary source of user information,
3121 but it needs additional information too - email address(es), roundup
3122 Roles, vacation flags, roundup hyperdb item ids, etc. Also, "retired"
3123 users must still exist in the user database, unlike some passwd files in
3124 which the users are removed when they no longer have access to a system.
3126 To make use of the passwd file, we therefore synchronise between the two
3127 user stores. We also use the passwd file to validate the user logins, as
3128 described in the previous example, `using an external password
3129 validation source`_. We keep the users lists in sync using a fairly
3130 simple script that runs once a day, or several times an hour if more
3131 immediate access is needed. In short, it:
3133 1. parses the passwd file, finding usernames, passwords and real names,
3134 2. compares that list to the current roundup user list:
3136 a. entries no longer in the passwd file are *retired*
3137 b. entries with mismatching real names are *updated*
3138 c. entries only exist in the passwd file are *created*
3140 3. send an email to administrators to let them know what's been done.
3142 The retiring and updating are simple operations, requiring only a call
3143 to ``retire()`` or ``set()``. The creation operation requires more
3144 information though - the user's email address and their roundup Roles.
3145 We're going to assume that the user's email address is the same as their
3146 login name, so we just append the domain name to that. The Roles are
3147 determined using the passwd group identifier - mapping their UN*X group
3148 to an appropriate set of Roles.
3150 The script to perform all this, broken up into its main components, is
3151 as follows. Firstly, we import the necessary modules and open the
3152 tracker we're to work on::
3154 import sys, os, smtplib
3155 from roundup import instance, date
3157 # open the tracker
3158 tracker_home = sys.argv[1]
3159 tracker = instance.open(tracker_home)
3161 Next we read in the *passwd* file from the tracker home::
3163 # read in the users
3164 file = os.path.join(tracker_home, 'users.passwd')
3165 users = [x.strip().split(':') for x in open(file).readlines()]
3167 Handle special users (those to ignore in the file, and those who don't
3168 appear in the file)::
3170 # users to not keep ever, pre-load with the users I know aren't
3171 # "real" users
3172 ignore = ['ekmmon', 'bfast', 'csrmail']
3174 # users to keep - pre-load with the roundup-specific users
3175 keep = ['comment_pool', 'network_pool', 'admin', 'dev-team',
3176 'cs_pool', 'anonymous', 'system_pool', 'automated']
3178 Now we map the UN*X group numbers to the Roles that users should have::
3180 roles = {
3181 '501': 'User,Tech', # tech
3182 '502': 'User', # finance
3183 '503': 'User,CSR', # customer service reps
3184 '504': 'User', # sales
3185 '505': 'User', # marketing
3186 }
3188 Now we do all the work. Note that the body of the script (where we have
3189 the tracker database open) is wrapped in a ``try`` / ``finally`` clause,
3190 so that we always close the database cleanly when we're finished. So, we
3191 now do all the work::
3193 # open the database
3194 db = tracker.open('admin')
3195 try:
3196 # store away messages to send to the tracker admins
3197 msg = []
3199 # loop over the users list read in from the passwd file
3200 for user,passw,uid,gid,real,home,shell in users:
3201 if user in ignore:
3202 # this user shouldn't appear in our tracker
3203 continue
3204 keep.append(user)
3205 try:
3206 # see if the user exists in the tracker
3207 uid = db.user.lookup(user)
3209 # yes, they do - now check the real name for correctness
3210 if real != db.user.get(uid, 'realname'):
3211 db.user.set(uid, realname=real)
3212 msg.append('FIX %s - %s'%(user, real))
3213 except KeyError:
3214 # nope, the user doesn't exist
3215 db.user.create(username=user, realname=real,
3216 address='%s@ekit-inc.com'%user, roles=roles[gid])
3217 msg.append('ADD %s - %s (%s)'%(user, real, roles[gid]))
3219 # now check that all the users in the tracker are also in our
3220 # "keep" list - retire those who aren't
3221 for uid in db.user.list():
3222 user = db.user.get(uid, 'username')
3223 if user not in keep:
3224 db.user.retire(uid)
3225 msg.append('RET %s'%user)
3227 # if we did work, then send email to the tracker admins
3228 if msg:
3229 # create the email
3230 msg = '''Subject: %s user database maintenance
3232 %s
3233 '''%(db.config.TRACKER_NAME, '\n'.join(msg))
3235 # send the email
3236 smtp = smtplib.SMTP(db.config.MAILHOST)
3237 addr = db.config.ADMIN_EMAIL
3238 smtp.sendmail(addr, addr, msg)
3240 # now we're done - commit the changes
3241 db.commit()
3242 finally:
3243 # always close the database cleanly
3244 db.close()
3246 And that's it!
3249 Using an LDAP database for user information
3250 -------------------------------------------
3252 A script that reads users from an LDAP store using
3253 http://python-ldap.sf.net/ and then compares the list to the users in the
3254 roundup user database would be pretty easy to write. You'd then have it run
3255 once an hour / day (or on demand if you can work that into your LDAP store
3256 workflow). See the example `Using a UN*X passwd file as the user database`_
3257 for more information about doing this.
3259 To authenticate off the LDAP store (rather than using the passwords in the
3260 roundup user database) you'd use the same python-ldap module inside an
3261 extension to the cgi interface. You'd do this by overriding the method called
3262 "verifyPassword" on the LoginAction class in your tracker's interfaces.py
3263 module (see `using an external password validation source`_). The method is
3264 implemented by default as::
3266 def verifyPassword(self, userid, password):
3267 ''' Verify the password that the user has supplied
3268 '''
3269 stored = self.db.user.get(self.userid, 'password')
3270 if password == stored:
3271 return 1
3272 if not password and not stored:
3273 return 1
3274 return 0
3276 So you could reimplement this as something like::
3278 def verifyPassword(self, userid, password):
3279 ''' Verify the password that the user has supplied
3280 '''
3281 # look up some unique LDAP information about the user
3282 username = self.db.user.get(self.userid, 'username')
3283 # now verify the password supplied against the LDAP store
3286 Enabling display of either message summaries or the entire messages
3287 -------------------------------------------------------------------
3289 This is pretty simple - all we need to do is copy the code from the
3290 example `displaying only message summaries in the issue display`_ into
3291 our template alongside the summary display, and then introduce a switch
3292 that shows either one or the other. We'll use a new form variable,
3293 ``@whole_messages`` to achieve this::
3295 <table class="messages" tal:condition="context/messages">
3296 <tal:block tal:condition="not:request/form/@whole_messages/value | python:0">
3297 <tr><th colspan="3" class="header">Messages</th>
3298 <th colspan="2" class="header">
3299 <a href="?@whole_messages=yes">show entire messages</a>
3300 </th>
3301 </tr>
3302 <tr tal:repeat="msg context/messages">
3303 <td><a tal:attributes="href string:msg${msg/id}"
3304 tal:content="string:msg${msg/id}"></a></td>
3305 <td tal:content="msg/author">author</td>
3306 <td class="date" tal:content="msg/date/pretty">date</td>
3307 <td tal:content="msg/summary">summary</td>
3308 <td>
3309 <a tal:attributes="href string:?@remove@messages=${msg/id}&@action=edit">remove</a>
3310 </td>
3311 </tr>
3312 </tal:block>
3314 <tal:block tal:condition="request/form/@whole_messages/value | python:0">
3315 <tr><th colspan="2" class="header">Messages</th>
3316 <th class="header">
3317 <a href="?@whole_messages=">show only summaries</a>
3318 </th>
3319 </tr>
3320 <tal:block tal:repeat="msg context/messages">
3321 <tr>
3322 <th tal:content="msg/author">author</th>
3323 <th class="date" tal:content="msg/date/pretty">date</th>
3324 <th style="text-align: right">
3325 (<a tal:attributes="href string:?@remove@messages=${msg/id}&@action=edit">remove</a>)
3326 </th>
3327 </tr>
3328 <tr><td colspan="3" tal:content="msg/content"></td></tr>
3329 </tal:block>
3330 </tal:block>
3331 </table>
3334 Blocking issues that depend on other issues
3335 -------------------------------------------
3337 We needed the ability to mark certain issues as "blockers" - that is,
3338 they can't be resolved until another issue (the blocker) they rely on is
3339 resolved. To achieve this:
3341 1. Create a new property on the issue Class,
3342 ``blockers=Multilink("issue")``. Edit your tracker's dbinit.py file.
3343 Where the "issue" class is defined, something like::
3345 issue = IssueClass(db, "issue",
3346 assignedto=Link("user"), topic=Multilink("keyword"),
3347 priority=Link("priority"), status=Link("status"))
3349 add the blockers entry like so::
3351 issue = IssueClass(db, "issue",
3352 blockers=Multilink("issue"),
3353 assignedto=Link("user"), topic=Multilink("keyword"),
3354 priority=Link("priority"), status=Link("status"))
3356 2. Add the new "blockers" property to the issue.item edit page, using
3357 something like::
3359 <th>Waiting On</th>
3360 <td>
3361 <span tal:replace="structure python:context.blockers.field(showid=1,
3362 size=20)" />
3363 <span tal:replace="structure python:db.issue.classhelp('id,title')" />
3364 <span tal:condition="context/blockers"
3365 tal:repeat="blk context/blockers">
3366 <br>View: <a tal:attributes="href string:issue${blk/id}"
3367 tal:content="blk/id"></a>
3368 </span>
3370 You'll need to fiddle with your item page layout to find an
3371 appropriate place to put it - I'll leave that fun part up to you.
3372 Just make sure it appears in the first table, possibly somewhere near
3373 the "superseders" field.
3375 3. Create a new detector module (attached) which enforces the rules:
3377 - issues may not be resolved if they have blockers
3378 - when a blocker is resolved, it's removed from issues it blocks
3380 The contents of the detector should be something like this::
3382 def blockresolution(db, cl, nodeid, newvalues):
3383 ''' If the issue has blockers, don't allow it to be resolved.
3384 '''
3385 if nodeid is None:
3386 blockers = []
3387 else:
3388 blockers = cl.get(nodeid, 'blockers')
3389 blockers = newvalues.get('blockers', blockers)
3391 # don't do anything if there's no blockers or the status hasn't
3392 # changed
3393 if not blockers or not newvalues.has_key('status'):
3394 return
3396 # get the resolved state ID
3397 resolved_id = db.status.lookup('resolved')
3399 # format the info
3400 u = db.config.TRACKER_WEB
3401 s = ', '.join(['<a href="%sissue%s">%s</a>'%(
3402 u,id,id) for id in blockers])
3403 if len(blockers) == 1:
3404 s = 'issue %s is'%s
3405 else:
3406 s = 'issues %s are'%s
3408 # ok, see if we're trying to resolve
3409 if newvalues['status'] == resolved_id:
3410 raise ValueError, "This issue can't be resolved until %s resolved."%s
3412 def resolveblockers(db, cl, nodeid, newvalues):
3413 ''' When we resolve an issue that's a blocker, remove it from the
3414 blockers list of the issue(s) it blocks.
3415 '''
3416 if not newvalues.has_key('status'):
3417 return
3419 # get the resolved state ID
3420 resolved_id = db.status.lookup('resolved')
3422 # interesting?
3423 if newvalues['status'] != resolved_id:
3424 return
3426 # yes - find all the blocked issues, if any, and remove me from
3427 # their blockers list
3428 issues = cl.find(blockers=nodeid)
3429 for issueid in issues:
3430 blockers = cl.get(issueid, 'blockers')
3431 if nodeid in blockers:
3432 blockers.remove(nodeid)
3433 cl.set(issueid, blockers=blockers)
3436 def init(db):
3437 # might, in an obscure situation, happen in a create
3438 db.issue.audit('create', blockresolution)
3439 db.issue.audit('set', blockresolution)
3441 # can only happen on a set
3442 db.issue.react('set', resolveblockers)
3444 Put the above code in a file called "blockers.py" in your tracker's
3445 "detectors" directory.
3447 4. Finally, and this is an optional step, modify the tracker web page
3448 URLs so they filter out issues with any blockers. You do this by
3449 adding an additional filter on "blockers" for the value "-1". For
3450 example, the existing "Show All" link in the "page" template (in the
3451 tracker's "html" directory) looks like this::
3453 <a href="issue?:sort=-activity&:group=priority&:filter=status&:columns=id,activity,title,creator,assignedto,status&status=-1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7">Show All</a><br>
3455 modify it to add the "blockers" info to the URL (note, both the
3456 ":filter" *and* "blockers" values must be specified)::
3458 <a href="issue?:sort=-activity&:group=priority&:filter=status,blockers&blockers=-1&:columns=id,activity,title,creator,assignedto,status&status=-1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7">Show All</a><br>
3460 That's it. You should now be able to set blockers on your issues. Note
3461 that if you want to know whether an issue has any other issues dependent
3462 on it (i.e. it's in their blockers list) you can look at the journal
3463 history at the bottom of the issue page - look for a "link" event to
3464 another issue's "blockers" property.
3466 Add users to the nosy list based on the topic
3467 ---------------------------------------------
3469 We need the ability to automatically add users to the nosy list based
3470 on the occurence of a topic. Every user should be allowed to edit his
3471 own list of topics for which he wants to be added to the nosy list.
3473 Below will be showed that such a change can be performed with only
3474 minimal understanding of the roundup system, but with clever use
3475 of Copy and Paste.
3477 This requires three changes to the tracker: a change in the database to
3478 allow per-user recording of the lists of topics for which he wants to
3479 be put on the nosy list, a change in the user view allowing to edit
3480 this list of topics, and addition of an auditor which updates the nosy
3481 list when a topic is set.
3483 Adding the nosy topic list
3484 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3486 The change in the database to make is that for any user there should be
3487 a list of topics for which he wants to be put on the nosy list. Adding
3488 a ``Multilink`` of ``keyword`` seem to fullfill this (note that within
3489 the code topics are called ``keywords``.) As such, all what has to be
3490 done is to add a new field to the definition of ``user`` within the
3491 file ``dbinit.py``. We will call this new field ``nosy_keywords``, and
3492 the updated definition of user will be::
3494 user = Class(db, "user",
3495 username=String(), password=Password(),
3496 address=String(), realname=String(),
3497 phone=String(), organisation=String(),
3498 alternate_addresses=String(),
3499 queries=Multilink('query'), roles=String(),
3500 timezone=String(),
3501 nosy_keywords=Multilink('keyword'))
3503 Changing the user view to allow changing the nosy topic list
3504 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3506 We want any user to be able to change the list of topics for which
3507 he will by default be added to the nosy list. We choose to add this
3508 to the user view, as is generated by the file ``html/user.item.html``.
3509 We easily can
3510 see that the topic field in the issue view has very similar editting
3511 requirements as our nosy topics, both being a list of topics. As
3512 such, we search for Topics in ``issue.item.html``, and extract the
3513 associated parts from there. We add this to ``user.item.html`` at the
3514 bottom of the list of viewed items (i.e. just below the 'Alternate
3515 E-mail addresses' in the classic template)::
3517 <tr>
3518 <th>Nosy Topics</th>
3519 <td>
3520 <span tal:replace="structure context/nosy_keywords/field" />
3521 <span tal:replace="structure python:db.keyword.classhelp(property='nosy_keywords')" />
3522 </td>
3523 </tr>
3526 Addition of an auditor to update the nosy list
3527 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3529 The more difficult part is the addition of the logic to actually
3530 at the users to the nosy list when it is required.
3531 The choice is made to perform this action when the topics on an
3532 item are set, including when an item is created.
3533 Here we choose to start out with a copy of the
3534 ``detectors/nosyreaction.py`` detector, which we copy to the file
3535 ``detectors/nosy_keyword_reaction.py``.
3536 This looks like a good start as it also adds users
3537 to the nosy list. A look through the code reveals that the
3538 ``nosyreaction`` function actually is sending the e-mail, which
3539 we do not need. As such, we can change the init function to::
3541 def init(db):
3542 db.issue.audit('create', update_kw_nosy)
3543 db.issue.audit('set', update_kw_nosy)
3545 After that we rename the ``updatenosy`` function to ``update_kw_nosy``.
3546 The first two blocks of code in that function relate to settings
3547 ``current`` to a combination of the old and new nosy lists. This
3548 functionality is left in the new auditor. The following block of
3549 code, which in ``updatenosy`` handled adding the assignedto user(s)
3550 to the nosy list, should be replaced by a block of code to add the
3551 interested users to the nosy list. We choose here to loop over all
3552 new topics, than loop over all users,
3553 and assign the user to the nosy list when the topic in the user's
3554 nosy_keywords. The next part in ``updatenosy``, adding the author
3555 and/or recipients of a message to the nosy list, obviously is not
3556 relevant here and thus is deleted from the new auditor. The last
3557 part, copying the new nosy list to newvalues, does not have to be changed.
3558 This brings the following function::
3560 def update_kw_nosy(db, cl, nodeid, newvalues):
3561 '''Update the nosy list for changes to the topics
3562 '''
3563 # nodeid will be None if this is a new node
3564 current = {}
3565 if nodeid is None:
3566 ok = ('new', 'yes')
3567 else:
3568 ok = ('yes',)
3569 # old node, get the current values from the node if they haven't
3570 # changed
3571 if not newvalues.has_key('nosy'):
3572 nosy = cl.get(nodeid, 'nosy')
3573 for value in nosy:
3574 if not current.has_key(value):
3575 current[value] = 1
3577 # if the nosy list changed in this transaction, init from the new value
3578 if newvalues.has_key('nosy'):
3579 nosy = newvalues.get('nosy', [])
3580 for value in nosy:
3581 if not db.hasnode('user', value):
3582 continue
3583 if not current.has_key(value):
3584 current[value] = 1
3586 # add users with topic in nosy_keywords to the nosy list
3587 if newvalues.has_key('topic') and newvalues['topic'] is not None:
3588 topic_ids = newvalues['topic']
3589 for topic in topic_ids:
3590 # loop over all users,
3591 # and assign user to nosy when topic in nosy_keywords
3592 for user_id in db.user.list():
3593 nosy_kw = db.user.get(user_id, "nosy_keywords")
3594 found = 0
3595 for kw in nosy_kw:
3596 if kw == topic:
3597 found = 1
3598 if found:
3599 current[user_id] = 1
3601 # that's it, save off the new nosy list
3602 newvalues['nosy'] = current.keys()
3604 and these two function are the only ones needed in the file.
3606 TODO: update this example to use the find() Class method.
3608 Caveats
3609 ~~~~~~~
3611 A few problems with the design here can be noted:
3613 Multiple additions
3614 When a user, after automatic selection, is manually removed
3615 from the nosy list, he again is added to the nosy list when the
3616 topic list of the issue is updated. A better design might be
3617 to only check which topics are new compared to the old list
3618 of topics, and only add users when they have indicated
3619 interest on a new topic.
3621 The code could also be changed to only trigger on the create() event,
3622 rather than also on the set() event, thus only setting the nosy list
3623 when the issue is created.
3625 Scalability
3626 In the auditor there is a loop over all users. For a site with
3627 only few users this will pose no serious problem, however, with
3628 many users this will be a serious performance bottleneck.
3629 A way out will be to link from the topics to the users which
3630 selected these topics a nosy topics. This will eliminate the
3631 loop over all users.
3634 Adding action links to the index page
3635 -------------------------------------
3637 Add a column to the item.index.html template.
3639 Resolving the issue::
3641 <a tal:attributes="href
3642 string:issue${i/id}?:status=resolved&:action=edit">resolve</a>
3644 "Take" the issue::
3646 <a tal:attributes="href
3647 string:issue${i/id}?:assignedto=${request/user/id}&:action=edit">take</a>
3649 ... and so on
3651 Users may only edit their issues
3652 --------------------------------
3654 Users registering themselves are granted Provisional access - meaning they
3655 have access to edit the issues they submit, but not others. We create a new
3656 Role called "Provisional User" which is granted to newly-registered users,
3657 and has limited access. One of the Permissions they have is the new "Edit
3658 Own" on issues (regular users have "Edit".) We back up the permissions with
3659 an auditor.
3661 First up, we create the new Role and Permission structure in
3662 ``dbinit.py``::
3664 # New users not approved by the admin
3665 db.security.addRole(name='Provisional User',
3666 description='New user registered via web or email')
3667 p = db.security.addPermission(name='Edit Own', klass='issue',
3668 description='Can only edit own issues')
3669 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Provisional User', p)
3671 # Assign the access and edit Permissions for issue to new users now
3672 p = db.security.getPermission('View', 'issue')
3673 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Provisional User', p)
3674 p = db.security.getPermission('Edit', 'issue')
3675 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Provisional User', p)
3677 # and give the new users access to the web and email interface
3678 p = db.security.getPermission('Web Access')
3679 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Provisional User', p)
3680 p = db.security.getPermission('Email Access')
3681 db.security.addPermissionToRole('Provisional User', p)
3684 Then in the ``config.py`` we change the Role assigned to newly-registered
3685 users, replacing the existing ``'User'`` values::
3687 NEW_WEB_USER_ROLES = 'Provisional User'
3688 NEW_EMAIL_USER_ROLES = 'Provisional User'
3690 Finally we add a new *auditor* to the ``detectors`` directory called
3691 ``provisional_user_auditor.py``::
3693 def audit_provisionaluser(db, cl, nodeid, newvalues):
3694 ''' New users are only allowed to modify their own issues.
3695 '''
3696 if (db.getuid() != cl.get(nodeid, 'creator')
3697 and db.security.hasPermission('Edit Own', db.getuid(), cl.classname)):
3698 raise ValueError, ('You are only allowed to edit your own %s'
3699 % cl.classname)
3701 def init(db):
3702 # fire before changes are made
3703 db.issue.audit('set', audit_provisionaluser)
3704 db.issue.audit('retire', audit_provisionaluser)
3705 db.issue.audit('restore', audit_provisionaluser)
3707 Note that some older trackers might also want to change the ``page.html``
3708 template as follows::
3710 <p class="classblock"
3711 - tal:condition="python:request.user.username != 'anonymous'">
3712 + tal:condition="python:request.user.hasPermission('View', 'user')">
3713 <b>Administration</b><br>
3714 <tal:block tal:condition="python:request.user.hasPermission('Edit', None)">
3715 <a href="home?:template=classlist">Class List</a><br>
3717 (note that the "-" indicates a removed line, and the "+" indicates an added
3718 line).
3721 Colouring the rows in the issue index according to priority
3722 -----------------------------------------------------------
3724 A simple ``tal:attributes`` statement will do the bulk of the work here. In
3725 the ``issue.index.html`` template, add to the ``<tr>`` that displays the
3726 actual rows of data::
3728 <tr tal:attributes="class string:priority-${i/priority/plain}">
3730 and then in your stylesheet (``style.css``) specify the colouring for the
3731 different priorities, like::
3733 tr.priority-critical td {
3734 background-color: red;
3735 }
3737 tr.priority-urgent td {
3738 background-color: orange;
3739 }
3741 and so on, with far less offensive colours :)
3743 Editing multiple items in an index view
3744 ---------------------------------------
3746 To edit the status of all items in the item index view, edit the
3747 ``issue.item.html``:
3749 1. add a form around the listing table, so at the top it reads::
3751 <form method="POST" tal:attributes="action request/classname">
3752 <table class="list">
3754 and at the bottom of that table::
3756 </table>
3757 </form
3759 making sure you match the ``</table>`` from the list table, not the
3760 navigation table or the subsequent form table.
3762 2. in the display for the issue property, change::
3764 <td tal:condition="request/show/status"
3765 tal:content="python:i.status.plain() or default"> </td>
3767 to::
3769 <td tal:condition="request/show/status"
3770 tal:content="structure i/status/field"> </td>
3772 this will result in an edit field for the status property.
3774 3. after the ``tal:block`` which lists the actual index items (marked by
3775 ``tal:repeat="i batch"``) add a new table row::
3777 <tr>
3778 <td tal:attributes="colspan python:len(request.columns)">
3779 <input type="submit" value=" Save Changes ">
3780 <input type="hidden" name="@action" value="edit">
3781 <tal:block replace="structure request/indexargs_form" />
3782 </td>
3783 </tr>
3785 which gives us a submit button, indicates that we are performing an edit
3786 on any changed statuses and the final block will make sure that the
3787 current index view parameters (filtering, columns, etc) will be used in
3788 rendering the next page (the results of the editing).
3790 -------------------
3792 Back to `Table of Contents`_
3794 .. _`Table of Contents`: index.html
3795 .. _`design documentation`: design.html