I debated with myself whether to create the home_carousel relation or
rather if it would be better to have a single carousel relation for all
pages. However, i thought that it would be actually harder to maintain
a single relation because i would need an additional column to tell one
carrousel from another, and what would that column be? An enum? A
foreign key to another relation? home_carousel carries no such issues.
I was starting to duplicate logic all over the packages, such as the
way to encode media paths or “localization” (l10n) input fields.
Therefore, i refactorized them.
In the case of media path, i added a function that accepts rows of
media, because always need the same columns from the row, and it was
yet another repetition if i needed to pass them all the time. Plus,
these kind of functions can be called as `table.function`, that make
them look like columns from the table; if PostgreSQL implemented virtual
generated columns, i would have used that instead.
I am not sure whether that media_path function can be immutable. An
immutable function is “guaranteed to return the same results given the
same arguments forever”, which would be true if the inputs where the
hash and the original_filename columns, instead of the whole rows, but
i left it as static because i did not know whether PostgreSQL interprets
the “same row but with different values” as a different input. That is,
whether PostgreSQL’s concept of row is the actual tuple or the space
that has a rowid, irrespective of contents; in the latter case, the
function can not be immutable. Just to be in the safe side, i left it
stable.
The home page was starting to grow a bit too much inside the app
package, new that it has its own admin handler, and moved it all to a
separate package.
I am not happy with the localization interface for admins, but it is the
easier that i could think of (for me, i guess), with a separate for
each language.
I am not at all proud of the use of RecordArray, but i did not see the
need to create and register a type just to show the translation links.
I might change my mind when i need to add more and more translation
links, but only it the current interface remains, which i am not that
sure at the moment.
Since campsite types need a media, i have to insert also images to the
media relation. The best would be to use PostgreSQL’s
pg_read_binary_file to read the media content from actual files when
inserting the new rows, but the files need to be within the database
cluster directory, or have to use an absolute path when running as a
superuser to read from files outside the cluster directory, which means
that it would depend on the path where i leave the files, that is
different in development that in staging.
To avoid that problem i can simply insert the rows using their base64
strings, with PostgreSQL’s decode. The images are kind of small, but
i was worried that each change in demo.sql would duplicate that data in
git, even if the change is not related to the images, because git stores
the whole file; even if small, soon everything adds up.
I do not care if the _final_ demo.sql is big, as this file is packaged
in a different deb and is only installed in staging, so i’ve chosen to
use m4 to build a single “amalgamated” SQL file from the base .sql
file and the individual image files converted to base64 strings. That
way, each image is individually managed by git and the base .sql file
does not balloon up for each little change.
Changed m4’s quotes to [[ ]] because the default ` ' was interfering
with Intellij’s syntax highlighting.
As previously stated, web made the design with an external tool and
had to “convert” it to proper CSS and HTML markup.
Unfortunately, the original design uses slick, that requires jQuery;
i can’t do anything about it now.
Disabled most of the menu and language switcher because it is not in the
design yet.
Seasons have a color to show on the calendar. I need them in HTML format
(e.g., #123abc) in order to set as value to `<input type="color">`, but
i did not want to save them as text in the database, as integers are
better representations of colors—in fact, that’s what the HTML syntax
also is: an integer.
I think the best would be to create an extension that adds an HTML color
type, with functions to convert from many representations (e.g., CSS’
rgb or even color names) to integer and back. However, that’s a lot of
work and i can satisfy Camper’s needs with just a couple of functions
and a domain.
To show the color on the index, at first tried to use a read-only
`<input type="color">`, but seems that this type of input can not be
read-only and must be disabled instead. However, i do not know whether
it makes sense to have a disabled input outside a form “just” to show
a color; i suspect it does not. Thus, at the end i use SVG with a
single circle, which is better that a 50%-rounded div with a background
color, even if the result is the same—SVG **is** intended for showing
pictures, which is this case.
It is inside the “user menu” only because this is where Numerus has the
same option, although it makes less sense in this case, because Numerus
is geared toward individual freelancers while Camper is for companies.
But, since it is easy to change afterward, this will do for now.
However, it should be only shown to admin users, because regular
employees have no UPDATE privilege on the company relation. Thus, the
need for a new template function to check if the user is admin.
Part of #17.
For now, there is only the label, type, and active fields. We will need
some field to hold the area on the map, but this requires #4, and
possibly #6, to be finished.
Part of #27.
For now, this is almost identical to the campsite types, but this
section is for purely informational pages that have no other relation
to the database than “belongs to the same company”.
Part of #33.
Had to export and move PublicPage struct to template because i can not
import app from campsites/types: app already imports campsite for the
http handler, and it, in turn, imports the types package for its own
http handler; an import loop.
Also had to replace PublicPage.MustRender with a Setup function because
the page passed down to html/template was the PublicPage struct, not
whatever struct embeds it. I was thinking more of Java inheritance here
rather than struct embedding.
I need to check that the user is an employee (or admin) in
administration handlers, but i do not want to do it for each handler,
because i am bound to forget it. Thus, i added the /admin sub-path for
these resources.
The public-facing web is the rest of the resources outside /admin, but
for now there is only home, to test whether it works as expected or not.
The public-facing web can not relay on the user’s language settings, as
the guest user has no way to set that. I would be happy to just use the
Accept-Language header for that, but apparently Google does not use that
header[0], and they give four alternatives: a country-specific domain,
a subdomain with a generic top-level domain (gTLD), subdirectories with
a gTLD, or URL parameters (e.g., site.com?loc=de).
Of the four, Google does not recommend URL parameters, and the customer
is already using subdirectories with the current site, therefor that’s
what i have chosen.
Google also tells me that it is a very good idea to have links between
localized version of the same resources, either with <link> elements,
Link HTTP response headers, or a sitemap file[1]; they are all
equivalent in the eyes of Google.
I have choosen the Link response headers way, because for that i can
simply “augment” ResponseHeader to automatically add these headers when
the response status is 2xx, otherwise i would need to pass down the
original URL path until it reaches the template.
Even though Camper is supposed to be a “generic”, multi-company
application, i think i will stick to the easiest route and write the
templates for just the “first” customer.
[0]: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites
[1]: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions
This form has an “HTML field”, which is just a <textarea> but “improved”
with the use of Automattic’s isolated block editor[0], a repackaged
Gutenberg’s editor playground as full-featured multi-instance editor
that does not require WordPress.
I do not want to use Node to build this huge, over-engineered piece of …
software. Therefore, i downloaded the released “browser” package, and
added the required React bundle, like i do with HTMx. This will hold
until i need a new custom block type; let’s hope i will not need it.
[0]: https://github.com/Automattic/isolated-block-editor
I do not see the profile image as an “integral part” of the user (i.e.,
no need for constraints), hence i do not want to store it in the
database, as would do for the identification image during check-in.
By default, i store the avatars in /var/lib/camper/avatars, but it is a
variable to allow packagers change this value using the linker.
This is also served as a test bed for uploading files to the server,
that now has a better interface and uses less resources that what i did
to Numerus.
Now the profile handler needs to keep a variable to know the path to the
avatars’ directory, thus i had to change it to a struct nested in app,
much like the fileHandler does. It still has to return the HandlerFunc,
however, as this function needs to close over the user and connection
variables.
Part of #7.
This is the first form that uses HTMx, and can not return a 400 error
code because otherwise HTMx does not render the content.
Since now there are pages that do not render the whole html, with header
and body, i need a different layout for these, and moved the common code
to handle forms and such a new template file that both layouts can use.
I also need the request in template.MustRender to check which layout i
should use.
Closes#7.
Conceptually, to logout we have to “delete the session”, thus the best
HTTP verb would be `DELETE`. However, there is no way to send a
`DELETE` request with a regular HTML form, and it seems that never will
be[0].
I could use a POST, optionally with a “method override” technique, but
i was planing to use HTMx anyway, so this was as good an opportunity to
include it as any.
In this application i am not concerned with people not having JavaScript
enabled, because it is for a customer that has a known environment, and
we do not have much time anyway. Therefore, i opted to forgo
progressive enhancement in cases like this: if `DELETE` is needed, use
`hx-delete`.
Unfortunately, i can not use a <form> with a hidden <input> for the
CSRF token, because `DELETE` requests do not have body and the value
should be added as query parameters, like a form with GET method, but
HTMx does the incorrect thing here: sends the values in the request’s
body. That’s why i have to use a custom header and the `hx-header`
directive to include the CSRF token.
Then, by default HTMx targets the triggered element for swap with the
response from the server, but after a logout i want to redirect the
user to the login form again. I could set the hx-target to button to
replace the whole body, or tell the client to redirect to the new
location. I actually do not know which one is “better”. Maybe the
hx-target is best because then everything is handled by the client, but
in the case of logout, since it is possible that i might want to load
scripts only for logged-in users in the future, i opted for the full
page reload.
However, HTMx does not want to reload a page that return HTTP 401,
hence i had to include the GET method to /login in order to return the
login form with a response of HTTP 200, which also helps when
reloading in the browser after a failed login attempt. I am not worried
with the HTTP 401 when attempting to load a page as guest, because
this request most probably comes from the browser, not HTMx, and it will
show the login form as intended—even though it is not compliant, since
it does not return the WWW-Authenticate header, but this is the best i
can do given that no cookie-based authentication method has been
accepted[1].
[0]: https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10671#c16
[1]: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/id/draft-broyer-http-cookie-auth-00.html
The locale is completely dependent on the user, as much as its email or
CSRF token, so it does not make much sense to have it in a separate
variable: for different users we might have to use different locales.
Also, this means one less variable to pass to handlers, that most of
them will need the user at some point or another (i.e., to render its
profile icon).
The thing is that i can not import `app.User` from the template package
because it would create an import cycle. I created the `auth` package
just because of that.
I thought that the login code would be better moved to the auth package
as well, but of course then i would reintroduce the import cycle between
auth and template.
To get the user from the database i have to set the cookie first, that
was already done in database.MustAcquire, but i thought they were too
far apart, even thought they are so related. So, the cookie, and thus
the role, is set when getting the user, that is actually the first thing
to do once the connection is acquired. However, that way the database
package has no knowledge of cookies, and the code that sets the cookie
and retrieves the user are next to each other.
I applied the same logic to the changes of locale.Match: it has not
business knowing that the accept language string comes from a request;
it only needs the actual string. Also, the TODO comment about getting
the user’s locale made no sense, now, because app already knows that
locale, so there is no need to pass the user to the locale package.
Getting the locale is done after retrieving the user from the database,
for the same reason the connection is Acquired as far up as possible:
almost every request will need this value, together with the user and
the database connection.
I am a bit affraid that i will end up with functions that always expect
these three values. Maybe i can put the locale inside user, as it is
the user’s locale, after all, no matter if it came from the database or
the user agent, but connection and user must be separate, i think.
We’ll see.
It is a lot of code having to check the login variables inside the POST
handler, and i could not mark each input field individually as invalid
because the generic errors array i was using did no identify which field
had the error.
Thus, i use more or less the same technique as with Numerus: a struct
with the value and the error message. This time the input field does
not have the label and extra attributes because i believe this belongs
to the template: if i want do reuse the same form template, i should
create a common template rather than defining everything in Go.
The name is a bit different, however, because it has meaning both to the
front and back ends, as it needs to be exactly the same. Writing it
twice is error-prone, as with a rename i could easily forget to change
one or the other, and here i see value in having that in Go, because
it is also used in code.
It does nothing more than to server a single page that does nothing
interesting.
This time i do not use a router. Instead, i am trying out a technique
i have seen in an article[0] that i have tried in other, smaller,
projects and seems to work surprisingly well: it just “cuts off” the
URI path by path, passing the request from handler to handler until
it finds its way to a handler that actually serves the request.
That helps to loosen the coupling between the application and lower
handlers, and makes dependencies explicit, because i need to pass the
locale, company, etc. down instead of storing them in contexts. Let’s
see if i do not regret it on a later date.
I also made a lot more packages that in Numerus. In Numerus i actually
only have the single pkg package, and it works, kind of, but i notice
how i name my methods to avoid clashing instead of using packages for
that. That is, instead of pkg.NewApp i now have app.New.
Initially i thought that Locale should be inside app, but then there was
a circular dependency between app and template. That is why i created a
separate package, but now i am wondering if template should be inside
app too, but then i would have app.MustRenderTemplate instead of
template.MustRender.
The CSS is the most bare-bones file i could write because i am focusing
in markup right now; Oriol will fill in the file once the application is
working.
[0]: https://blog.merovius.de/posts/2017-06-18-how-not-to-use-an-http-router/
jordi fita mas