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henrik edited this page Jan 28, 2010 · 10 revisions

Getting Started with IETF IdTracker Development

This is an attempt to help newcomers to code sprints to get going with the IETF tools.

Prerequisites

  • A working knowledge of python and/or web design

  • Learn the basic concepts of Django, e.g., work through the excellent tutorial.

  • Bring a laptop with Python (2.4/2.5/2.6), subversion and mysql (4.x is ok, 5.x is better) installed, and be ready to check out a branch of the IETF web site from the tools svn server.

  • Check out the source code for the sprint; the SVN command should be on the Sprint's page

Code Tree Overview

The "ietf/templates/" directory contains Django templates used to generate web pages for the datatracker, mailing list, wgcharter and other things.

Most of the other "ietf" sub-directories, such as "idtracker", contain the python/Django model and view information that go with the related templates. In these directories, the key files are:

urls.py binds a URL to a view, possibly selecting some data from the model.
models.py This has the data models for the tool area.
views.py This has the views for this tool area, and is where views are bound to the template.

Adding A New Web Page

To add a new page to the tools, first explore the models.py to see if the model you need already exists. Within models.py are classes such as:

class IETFWG(models.Model):
    ACTIVE = 1
    group_acronym = models.ForeignKey(Acronym, primary_key=True, unique=True, editable=False)
    group_type = models.ForeignKey(WGType)
    proposed_date = models.DateField(null=True, blank=True)
    start_date = models.DateField(null=True, blank=True)
    dormant_date = models.DateField(null=True, blank=True)
    ...

In this example, the IETFWG class can be used to reference various fields of the database including group_type. Of note here is that group_acronym is the Acronym model so fields in that model can be accessed (e.g., group_acronym.name).

Next, add a template for the new page in the proper sub-directory of the ietf/templates directory. For a simple page that iterates over one type of object, the key part of the template will look something like this:

{% for wg in object_list %}
<tr>
<td><a href="[ wg.email_archive ]">[ wg ]</a></td>
<td>[ wg.group_acronym.name ]</td>
</tr>
{% endfor %}

In this case, we're expecting object_list to be passed to the template from the view and expecting it to contain objects with the IETFWG model.

Then add a view for the template to views.py. A simple view might look like:

def list_wgwebmail(request):
    wgs = IETFWG.objects.all();
    return render_to_response('mailinglists/wgwebmail_list.html', {'object_list': wgs})

The selects the IETFWG objects from the database and renders the template with them in object_list. The model you're using has to be explicitly imported at the top of views.py in the imports statement.

Finally, add a URL to display the view to urls.py. For this example, the reference to list_wgwebmail view is called:

urlpatterns += patterns('',
     ...
     (r'^wg/$', views.list_wgwebmail),
)

Testing Your Work

Assuming you have the database settings configured already, you can run the server locally with:

PYTHONPATH=../ python manage.py runserver localhost:<port>`

where <port> is arbitrary. Then connect your web browser to localhost:<port> and provide the URL to see your work.

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