ARK2

This page details the progress on development of ARK 2.0

Supported Platforms

• PHP: A minimum of v5.5 will be required (or maybe 5.6?), v7 will be supported.
• MySQL or MariaDB (other databases, especially SQLite, may be considered later)

Code Repository

Development of ARK 2.0 is occurring in the open on GitHub https://github.com/lparchaeology/ark2

Framework

It is proposed to implement a new RESTful Request/Response framework using a Front Controller model, based on external components adhering to the PHP-FIG standards. 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. Choosing a full framework at this point would force refactoring all of the model and view code at the same time, but by initially building our own light-weight controller framework we can migrate the model and view later. Once all parts are migrated, a full framework could be considered if required.

• Composer will be used to install external vendor libraries, including the components
• Symphony components will be used to build the framework (alternative Slim?)

Read the following for further info:

• http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/http_fundamentals.html
• http://symfony.com/doc/current/book/from_flat_php_to_symfony2.html
• http://symfony.com/doc/current/create_framework/index.html

The ARK root folder will contain only the index.php file which will act as a dispatcher, receiving all Requests, matching the Route and dispatching them to the correct Controller. Each ARK page type and the api will have a Controller to read the model and construct the view before returning the Response. This will allow future flexibility for new request formats while still being able to support persistent legacy links. It will also allow for database config and user auth driven routing, e.g. one install may only expose the RESTful API, while others may only expose read-only pages.

Configuration

Significant changes to the configuration of ARK are being made to move from PHP file based configuration to database based configuration. This section will document these changes.

• The config/ folder will contain all user-editable php files required, all other config will be in the database
• The env_settings.php file is replaced by server.php and paths.php
• server.php contains the settings for the database connection and root server path and should be the only file requiring editing for a default ARK install
• paths.php contains the settings for the server file paths and should not need editing
• To set-up an ARK, copy the config folder from php/arkdb/config to teh root folder and edit as required
• preflight_checks.php now defaults to off, so needs to be enabled before running, and then deleted form config afterwards
• settings.php has moved from config/ to php/settings/ and no longer requires user editing, all settings are now held in the database and should be configured per the instructions

Database

• Configuration has been moved to the database
• A new ADO class has been created to wrap all access to PDO

Changes

Other significant changes are documented here.

• A number of config global variables have been renamed for consistency
  • Any var ending in _dir is an absolute filesystem directory path
  • Any var ending in _path is a URL path relative to the hostname and always starts with a '/'
  • Neither var ever ends in a separator
  • $ark_server_path -> $ark_root_dir
  • $ark_dir -> $ark_root_path and no longer ends in a /
  • $registered_files_host -> $registered_files_path
  • $phMagickDir -> $phmagick_file
  • ark_web_maptemp_dir -> ark_maptemp_path
  • $ark_lib_dir and $ark_lib_path point to the library folder
  • $skins_dir and $skins_path point to the skins folder
  • $skin_dir and $skin_path point to the current skin folder

• A number of config global variables have been renamed for clarity
  • $mode -> $search_mode
  • $ftx_mode -> $search_ftx_mode

• A number of config global variables have been deleted as they are not used:
  • $default_year
  • $conf_non_search_words
  • $conf_langs
  • $loaded_map_modules
  • $default_output_mode

• The logging globals have been changed
  • $log, $conf_log_add, $conf_log_edt, $conf_log_del are deleted
  • $log_ins, $log_upd and $log_del are used instead

• The $fs_path_sep and $fs_slash have been removed, use PATH_SEPARATOR and DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR constants instead.