Re: [Exist-development] betterform integration

[Joern T. <joe...@go...>]

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 11:22 AM, James Fuller
<jam...@ex...> wrote:
> On 29 July 2010 11:12, Joern Turner <joe...@go...> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> after we have added betterform to the trunk there are some questions
>> left to finish the first step:
>>
>> 1. we need to add ourselves to the start.config file. As we started as
>> a intaller in an existing installation we have created our own copy of
>> this file in the root of exist. I assume this is not the right way to
>> do it now that betterform has become a part of the tree. I further
>> assume that it's more appropriate to add our entries to
>> src/org/exist/start/start.config? If yes, which condition would be
>> appropriate - shall we use 'always'?
>
> u don't need to add here if any jars are being placed under user,
> which is what I am assuming
no, we have our libs below extensions/betteform ...

and we have  a couple of class files there also.

We tried to keep the libs separate as there is a clash with ehcache
which we use in a newer version than cocoon (which also incorporates
that)

>
>> 2. we need some guidance of how to integrate with the exist build
>> system. Our extension files do not need compilation as we added the
>> binaries to the extension but we need to:
>> - modify the web.xml when betterform is supposed to be activated
>> - add ourselves to the start.config (as mentioned above)
>> - deploy our resources to the webapp/resources dir in exist
>> - copy a xquery error page to the webapp/xquery dir
>
> under build/scripts/build-impl.xml
>
> add a new target
>
>    <target name="extension-betterforms" depends="jar">
>        <ant antfile="your build file.xml"
> dir="extensions/betterforms" inheritall="false"/>
>    </target>
>
> and add in depends attribute in all target
ok, did that.

>
> you will also need to add in clean target the appropriate clean target
> of betterforms (using antfile)
>
>
>> 3. We have an issue with our demo application. This assumes that the
>> admin password is defaulted to 'betterform' which is hardly
>> appropriate any more. This there a way to determine this password from
>> within an xquery or how can we otherwise manage to 'patch' our demo
>> app files to have the right password. Of course we will remove this
>> hardcoded value when the app moves on but for the time being it's
>> necessary to make the demo run. Any guidance with this issue would be
>> great.
>
> for trunk and testing purposes can you remove password for now ?
sure, no problem.

Another question regarding the demo: we have a target to install the
demo but the database must be up and running to store the relevant
files into the db. Is there a way to start the db from ant or at least
a way to check that condition?

Or - what would be the best practice to install that application?
Probably an ant target is not the right thing here?


>
> I don't have time to review just at this moment to suggest other ways
> to do this.
>
>> 4. What about docs? Once we have figured out how to (de)activate
>> betterform i assume we need some docs about that. Is there someone
>> having the hat on for documentation? Of course it's up to us to
>> provide the docs but it should be linked from somewhere in the exist
>> site (developer guide?). Do you have particular wishes about which
>> docs you'd like to see?
>
> create a new directory under webapp/xforms e.g. webapp/xforms/betterforms
>
> and follow how other people have created docs
>
> I would like to see a top level xforms page with link to any and all
> xforms extensions.
Ok, but did you notice that the links for XSLTForms do not work?

I'd like to setup an introduction page for XForms listing the (now 2)
option for using XForms in eXist and then link to separate pages for
each engine - are you ok with that?

Thanks,

Joern Turner
>
> hth, James Fuller
>