Slides of my talk at the Plone conference 2010 in Bristol, Okt 28th

1. We make IT
berlinbrandenburg
PD2
Plone Driven
Plone Development
Henning Rietz, Condat AG
Plone Conference 2010
Bristol, 28.10.2010
IT from Berlin

2. © 2010 Condat AG 2
Speaker specifics
 Henning Rietz, hr@condat.de
Condat AG
Software for innovative business processes.
Founded 1979
Location Berlin
Staff ~65

3. © 2010 Condat AG 3
Alliterated Agenda
 Major motivation
 Definitive Dream
 Attractive Advantages
 Multiple models
 All-round Application
 Outrageous Outlook

4. © 2010 Condat AG 4
Major motivation
Likes
 Model-driven development
 Application of design
patterns
 ArchGenXML
Dislikes
 Writing boilerplate code
 Editing *.zcml, *.xml
 Migration migraine (Plone
234 …)
 Learning curve for new
developers

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Definitive dream
The model is
Plone content.

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Dream details
 Metamodel
== Domain-specific language
== Plone Content Types
 Model
== Metadata
== Description of a specific system
== Plone content
 Code
== Implementation of a specific system
== Views on Plone content (metadata)
 Metamodel
== Domain-specific language
== Plone Content Types
 Model
== Metadata
== Description of a specific system
== Plone content
 Code
== Implementation of a specific system
== Views on Plone content (metadata)
ArchGenXML:
• Metamodel == UML Metamodel
• Model == UML (XMI file)
• Code == generated from XMI
PloneFormGen:
• Metamodel == PFG Content Types
• Model == FormFolder + Subobjects
• No code generated, interpretation of model at runtime
Collections
ExistingExamples
It‘s an
approach
– not a product.

7. © 2010 Condat AG 7
Attractive Advantages
 Reduces manual coding effort
 Generates .py, .pt, .cpt, .cpy, .xml, .sql, .zcml, …
 High configurability (for you and the customer)
 Model can be accessed at runtime
 Behavior of generic parts is dynamically changed
 Increases productivity
 Homogenous environment, everything is Plone-ish
 Makes your design patterns explicit, enforces conventions
 Better learning curve for new developers
 Higher maintainability
 Single source for changes
 Helps you deal with major changes in Plone architecture
 Integrated documentation
(orange: specific strengths of PD2, otherwise: typical advantage of MDD)

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Conflicting Challenges
 Keep implementation
details out of the models
 Make it simple
 Customer readable
 Generate as much
as possible (and useful)
 Make it powerful
 Executable

9. © 2010 Condat AG 9
Domain description
 Finding your metamodel –
How would you describe your future systems?
What abstractions/patterns do you employ?
 Possible input
 Legacy systems (to be migrated)
 The future design
 Storyboards
 UML models
 Your own patterns/frameworks
 User/technical documentation

10. © 2010 Condat AG 10
Multiple metamodels
 Content
 Views
 Navigation
 Layout
 Authoring
 Build
 Deployment
 Code Structure
Abstraction
Looking at the system from different perspectives

11. © 2010 Condat AG 11
Code structure

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 Concepts / structures for code generation
 File, Directory, FileSeries, FileGroup, etc.
 PT/DTML Templates for code generation,
using domain model objects as contexts
 Code generation traverses the structure,
applying model elements to templates,
writing the resulting code to the local file
system of the Zope (ZEO client) instance
Code structure modelling

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UML example

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

15. © 2010 Condat AG 15
Example: gstype view
<tal:block i18n:domain="conpd2.codegen" tal:define="ct context/Title">
<object tal:replace='structure string:<?xml version="1.0"?>'/>
<object name="PD2Adapter" tal:attributes="name ct"
meta_type="Factory-based Type Information with dynamic views"
xmlns:i18n="http://xml.zope.org/namespaces/i18n">
<property name="title" tal:content="ct">PD2Adapter</property>
<property name="description"></property>
<property name="content_meta_type" tal:content="ct">PD2Adapter</property>
<property name="product" tal:content="context/getProductName">ConPD2</property>
<property name="factory" tal:content="string:add${ct}">addPD2Adapter</property>
<property name="immediate_view">base_view</property>
<property name="global_allow">True</property>
<property name="filter_content_types">False</property>
<property name="allowed_content_types">
</property>
<property name="allow_discussion">False</property>
<property name="default_view">base_view</property>
<property name="view_methods">
<element value="base_view"/>
…
Full example

16. © 2010 Condat AG 16
Content

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Content modelling
 Describes most of the information
architecture
 Metamodel: Types, Attributes,
Relationships
 Probably even more domain-specific
 Code: AT schemata, classes, GS xml,
zcml
 Also possible: RDBMS-related content

18. © 2010 Condat AG 18
UML example
(this is taken from the metamodel of the first version of ConPD2, which is basically a metamodel for AT development)

19. © 2010 Condat AG 19
Views

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Views modelling
 What is presented where/how?
 Metamodel: View Types (e.g. single
object, object list, dashboard) with
presentation details (e.g. sorting,
batching)
 Code: template fragments, macros, view
classes, helper methods

21. © 2010 Condat AG 21
More metamodels
 Navigation: primary, secondary, depth, …
 navigation portlet, sections viewlet
 Layout: two/three columns, header, footer, …
 Viewlets, CSS (cf. Subskins product)
 Authoring:
 roles, workflows, staging, content rules
 Build & Deployment:
 devbuildout|production|test.cfg, deployment
scripts, monitoring frontend

22. © 2010 Condat AG 22
All-round Application
 Implement Metamodel
 E.g. with ArgoUML, ArchGenXML
 Templates for code generation
 Deploy PD2
 Model lives in ZEO server
 Developers work with local ZEO Client,
which writes to local file system
 Develop with PD2
 Describe customer site in terms of the
metamodel
 Push the button
 Make customer specific extensions
 Implement generic parts (which
interpret metadata at runtime)
 Iterate

23. © 2010 Condat AG 23
Outrageous Outlook
 Metamodels for knowledge management,
public internet, collaborative applications, …
 Plone Technology Metamodel
 Generic Applications for multiple clients in
SaaS scenarios

24. © 2010 Condat AG 24
Thank you
Condat AG
Henning Rietz
Alt-Moabit 91 d
10559 Berlin
Tel. (030) 3949-1179
hr@condat.de
www.condat.de