AdminActions:Wikka

Revision [19872]

This is an old revision of AdminActions made by OlivierBorowski on 2008-04-19 07:54:52.

Administration of Actions

See also:
- UsingActions
- DescribeActions
- CategoryDevelopmentActions

This is the development page for the action administration module.

Main goals of this module

allow finegrained access control on actions (preferably based on ACLs)

make the "intranet" directory obsolete

allow WikkaEdit to retrieve the list of installed actions and for each action its description, parameters...

Needed metadata

action short name = tag name (eg : "files")

action name (eg : "File upload form")

action description (eg : "Display a form with file attachments to the current page.")

parameter 1 short name (eg : "download")

parameter 1 description (eg : "prints a link to the file specified in the string")

parameter 1 mandatory (or optional) (boolean)

Where metadata are stored

header in action file

For each action in "/action" directory, the header of the action file is read (eg : "/action/image/image.php")
Action file header contains all the required metadata, prefixed by a specific tag.

separate data file (best method?)

Each action directory contains an additional file "actionname.inc.php".

Data formats :
1) PHP array (best method?)

<?php
$action_infos = array(
'category' => 'hidden',
'tag' => 'image',
'title' => 'Image',
'summary' => 'Display an image.',
'usage' => '',
'params' => array(
'url' => array(
'default_value' => 'url',
'description' => 'Image URL. Can be relative (images/img.png) or external (http://example.com/example.jpg)',
'mandatory' => 1
),
'title' => array(
'default_value' => 'text',
'description' => 'Image title',
'default' => 1
),
'alt' => array(
'default_value' => 'text',
'description' => 'Alternate text when image can\'t be displayed',
'default' => 1
),
'class' => array(
'default_value' => 'className',
'description' => 'Class name (defined in the CSS file)'
),
'link' => array(
'default_value' => 'url',
'description' => 'Add a link to the image'
)
)
);
?>

2) INI-file

[action]
category=hidden
tag=image
title=Image
summary=Display an image.
usage=

[url]
default_value=url
description=Image URL. Can be relative (images/img.png) or external (http://example.com/example.jpg)
mandatory=1

[title]
default_value=text
description=Image title
default=1

[alt]
default_value=text
description=Alternate text when image can't be displayed
default=1

[class]
default_value=className
description=Class name (defined in the CSS file)

[link]
default_value=url
description=Image title

3) XML

<action>
<category>hidden</category>
<tag>image</tag>
<title>Image</title>
<summary>Display an image.</summary>
<usage></usage>
<params>
<url>
<default_value>url</default_value>
<description>Image URL. Can be relative (images/img.png) or external (http://example.com/example.jpg)</description>
<mandatory>1</mandatory>
</url>
<title>
<default_value>text</default_value>
<description>Image title</description>
<default>1</default>
</title>
<alt>
<default_value>text</default_value>
<description>Alternate text when image can't be displayed</description>
<default>1</default>
</alt>
<class>
<default_value>className</default_value>
<description>Class name (defined in the CSS file)</description>
</class>
<link>
<default_value>url</default_value>
<description>Image title</description>
</link>
</params>
</action>

Caching metadata

Parsing the "/action" directory on each request is too slow. Moreover, additional data like action ACLs can't be stored in the file itself.

Solution : add to the database two tables : "wikka_actions" and "wikka_action_params"

CREATE TABLE `wikka_actions` (
`id` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`tag` VARCHAR(75) NOT NULL,
`title` VARCHAR(75) NOT NULL,
`summary` VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
`usage_infos` VARCHAR(400) NOT NULL,
`category` VARCHAR(75) NOT NULL,
`acl` text NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
UNIQUE KEY `tag` (`tag`),
KEY `category` (`category`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

CREATE TABLE `wikka_action_params` (
`id` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`name` VARCHAR(75) NOT NULL,
`description` VARCHAR(400) NOT NULL,
`default_value` VARCHAR(75) NOT NULL,
`is_default` tinyint(1) NOT NULL,
`is_mandatory` tinyint(1) NOT NULL,
`action_tag` VARCHAR(75) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `name` (`name`),
KEY `action_tag` (`action_tag`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM;

"is_default" and "is_mandatory" could be stored in the same field (0=none, 1=default, 2=mandatory)

When metadata cache is updated

These databases are currently updated each time AdminAction is called (an "update action list" link may be a better solution)

User interface

The UI is based on UserAdmin and PageAdminAction PageAdmin style.

Action Tag	Action Title	ACLS
adminpages	Pages administration	* edit
adminusers	Users administration	* edit
backlinks	Backlinks	* edit
calendar	Calendar	* edit
checkversion	Version checker	* edit
color	Text color	* edit
contact	Administrator email address	* edit
countpages	Count pages	* edit
countusers	Count users	* edit
emailpassword	Lost password form	* edit
image	Image	* edit
usersettings	My user settings	* edit
countcomments	Count comments	* edit
countowned	Count owned	* edit
category	Category	* edit

CategoryDevelopment

Wikka : AdminActions