ARK2/Design
Contents
- 1 Design
- 1.1 Supported Platforms
- 1.2 Framework
- 1.3 Database Abstraction
- 1.4 Security
- 1.5 REST / HATEOAS / Hypermedia
- 1.6 Frontend
- 1.7 Migration
- 1.8 Sysadmin Console
- 1.9 Translations / Localisation
- 1.10 Action Logging / Activity Streams / Gamification
- 1.11 Command Bus Architecture / Application Services
- 1.12 Workflow Management
- 1.13 Document Management
- 1.14 CMS / Blog / Project Websites
- 1.15 Errors
- 1.16 Matrix / Graph
- 1.17 Spatial
Design
High level design decisions for ARK2.
Supported Platforms
ARK2 will be built using modern PHP standards to support multiple Operating Systems and Database Systems. ARK will only actively support platforms that are actively supported by their maintainers. ARK may work on earlier versions but this is not guaranteed.
For more details see the Technical Details page.
Framework
ARK2 implements a new RESTful Request/Route/Response skeleton using a Front Controller model and token-based security, based on an external micro-framework and components adhering to the PSR standards and managed via Composer. This will reduce the amount of code maintained internally, update the code-base to modern web-app design principals, and provide a degree of future-proofing by allowing switching of components.
The Silex micro-framework and Symphony components have been selected due to their high quality, long support history, and wide use and support
For more details see the Technical Details page.
Database Abstraction
ARK2 will support the use of MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQLite as the database by using the Doctrine ORM and DBAL database abstraction layer.
More details can be found on the ARK2/Database page.
Security
ARK2 will require a new security solution, This solution will be token based, support username/password and OAuth2 authentication, and use Role-Based Access Control for authorization. HTTPS will be required using Let's Encrypt as the CA..
For more details, see the Security page.
REST / HATEOAS / Hypermedia
An evolution of the ARK data model and API to try realise the full ARK vision will be based arround the Hypermedia concepts of REST and HATEOAS as developed by Roy Fielding in his doctoral thesis in 2000. These concepts include resources, relationships, state, and discoverability, and are closely related to the Semantic Web. ARK modules will evolve to represent Resources that can be linked in together in the current flat relationship structure, or organised into configurable hierarchies such as the default Site/Module/Item mostly used by ARK instances. These concepts will be most easily exposed through a RESTful API.
For more details see the API page.
Frontend
The frontend will be migrated to Bootstrap, jQuery, and Twig, the most popular and well-supported frontend ui component and template systems. This will allow for easier customisation of ARK's appearance by third parties.
For more details, see the Frontend page.
Migration
A migration process from ARK 1 to ARK 2 will be provided.
Data migration. Existing tables will need to change from MyISAM to InnoDB. Change in place carries a degree of risk of data loss if the migration fails part way. Attempting to restart failed migrations is also prone to error. To protect users data, a new database will be created with new tables and the data copied across. Should migration fail users will easily be able to roll back to their old install, or keep retrying the migration until it does succeed. In effect the ARK init script will be run, followed by the migration script.
User migration. Users will be migrated from LiveUser to the new RBAC system. This will require a compatible default user config.
Config migration. A config migration script will be provided, but may require adapting for individual ARKs.
Sysadmin Console
An sysadmin console will be provided for use on the command line. This will provide a number of tools:
- Database administration, such as creation, migration, backup, etc
- MultiArk installs
- ARK wide alerts
- Maintenance mode (immediate and schedule)
- Upgrade tools
- etc
Equivalents for some of these functions will be provided in an ARK Sysadmin panel (separate to the ARK Admin panel):
- ARK wide alerts
- Maintenance mode (immediate and schedule)
- etc
Translations / Localisation
A key to providing Ark-As-A-Service will be translating the user interface and schemas into as many languages as possible to maximise the potential user base. ARK1 does not have the tools to make this process easy to perform or manage, and it would be a waste of resources to build them. It is recommended to use one of the existing online open-source translation projects to crowd-source the translations. This will allow interested parties and potential clients to translate ARK for themselves and to grow a local community to support ARK in their country.
Changes will be made to the translation process to bring ARK into line with industry best practices and tooling, allowing for common features such as correct plural forms. This will be based on the Symfony Translation componant.
More details can be found on the ARK2/Localization page.
Action Logging / Activity Streams / Gamification
All user actions and events in ARK will be logged, enabling an standard Activity Stream at user level that can support gamification. The actual gamification is considered outside of the scope of core ARK2. Some inspiration for the implementation can be taken from Event Sourcing, but a full implementation will not be attempted.
- http://martinfowler.com/eaaDev/EventSourcing.html
- http://activitystrea.ms/
- https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-core/
- https://github.com/barnabywalters/php-activitystreams
- https://github.com/redpanda/ActivityStreams
- http://jwage.com/post/54480997504/building-activity-streams
- https://dev.playlyfe.com/guides/getting-started.html
Command Bus Architecture / Application Services
A Command Bus / Event Bus architecture will be implemented to support execution or queuing of synchronous and asynchronous Commands and Events. Console Commands will be wrappers around Commands that parse input from the command line.
- http://php-and-symfony.matthiasnoback.nl/2015/01/a-wave-of-command-buses/
- https://github.com/SimpleBus/
- http://tactician.thephpleague.com/
- http://culttt.com/2014/11/10/creating-using-command-bus/
Workflow Management
Stretch goal. Needed for Avalon. Packages exist to define workflows using state machines.
Possible workflow scenarios:
- Post-ex
- Sample taking
- Avalon jobs and documents
- Data checking
Document Management
Stretch goal. Needed for Avalon. Management of documents and versions a la Sharepoint. Try use CMIS standard as used in LibreOffice app, or WOPI used by LibreOffice online.
- https://www.alfresco.com/cmis
- https://packagist.org/packages/dkd/php-cmis
- http://wopi.readthedocs.io/projects/wopirest/en/latest/
- https://kolabian.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/collaborative-editing-with-collabora-online-in-kolab/
- https://www.collaboraoffice.com/code/
- WebODF?
CMS / Blog / Project Websites
Either provide an OoB Wordpress integration and host client websites, or add features to ARK to provide the basic project website features (home page, blog, contact us, calendar).
- https://github.com/bolt/bolt CMS built using Silex/Symfony
Errors
Standardised error codes will be used, based on the JSON API standard format. Error codes will be stored in a database table and exported via the API, with actual error messages translated via the standard methods, with detailed debug/help available on the ARK wiki via standardised links. Fatal errors will be thrown as exceptions, with the Controller responsible for catching the error and reporting it in the appropriate manner, i.e. via web or api. Non-fatal errors such as validation errors can be batched before return. While numeric error codes are convenient, they make code hard to read and debugging tracebacks harder, so all error conditions should be explicitly commented in the code, and error codes should be as unique as possible..
Matrix / Graph
PHP:
- https://github.com/clue/graph
- https://github.com/graphp/algorithms
- https://github.com/cpettitt/graphlib/wiki/API-Reference
Spatial
Basic spatial support is required, e.g. storing find points or area bounding boxes, as well as the advanced mapping interface options, such as displaying spatial layers, spatial search, etc. See the Spatial page for more details.
