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Pymerase Docs - Pymweb Manual
Pymerase Docs - Pymweb Manual
Brandon King
Copyright © 2003 California Institute of Technology
Version 0.1.3
May 29, 2003
Contents 1 Introduction
1.1 Description
1.2 Installation
2 Using Pymweb
2.1 Overview
2.2 Schema
2.2.1 UML/XMI
2.2.2 table.dtd XML
2.3 Input Module
2.4 Output Module
2.5 Output File/Dir Name
2.5.1 CreateDBAPI
2.5.2 CreatePyTkWidgets & CreatePyTkDBWidgets
2.6 Compression Type
2.7 Launch
3 Pymweb Output
3.1 Succesful Output
3.2 Pymweb Failure / Debugging
1 Introduction
1.1 Description
Pymweb is a web front end for Pymerase. The goal of Pymweb is to
provide a method of allowing multiple people to use Pymerase without
having to install Pymerase on their computer.
1.2 Installation
You can download directions on how to install and configure
Pymweb. You will find the document called "Pymerase Docs - Pymweb
Install".
2 Using Pymweb
2.1 Overview
Figure 1: Pymweb - Pymerase Web Front End
If you have installed Pymweb on your local machine you should be able
to point your web browser to http://localhost/pymweb.html to begin
using Pymerase.
In Figure 1, you will find a screenshot of the Pymweb which you can
reference as I briefly describe it's use. I will go into more detail
in subsequent sections. There a five things you need to provide for
Pymerase to work properly. First, you need to provide a
schema. Second, choose which input module you would like to
use based on the format in which you supplied your schema. Third, you
need to decide what you would like to have generated (Output
Module). Some examples are SQL for a database, DBAPI for accessing
your database, and/or a GUI widget library. Fourth, pick a
destination file name or directory name depending on the output module
you choose. And last but not least, you should choose what type of
compression do you want Pymweb to use on your output file.
2.2 Schema
In Pymerase, there are currently two methods you can use for defining
a schema; UML or XML.
If you have decided to use Poseidon UML or ArgoUML, they will provide
you with a .zargo file. This file is a gziped file containing a .xmi
file which Pymerase knows how to parse. In the current version of
Pymerase, you have to extract the .xmi file and provide it to Pymerase
for processing. In the near future, you will be able to provide the
.zargo file. If you have gzip installed you can use the following
command to extract the .zargo file.
gunzip nameOfZargoFile.zargo
Once you have extracted the .xmi file, goto Pymweb in your browser and
click on the browse button to the right of the schema input
field. Find the .xmi and choose it as your schema.
2.2.2 table.dtd XML
If you have decided to use the table.dtd XML format, things will be a
little bit more complicate when using Pymweb, but it's still
manageable.
What you need to do is put all of your table.dtd XML file, for a given
schema, in a single directory. You will then need to tar and gzip the
the directory that contains the XML files. The .tar.gz file should be
of the same name as the folder. For example, if the directory
containing the XML is called 'schema', then the .tar.gz file should be
called 'schema.tar.gz'.
In case I have managed to confuse some people, here is a ficitious
directory tree that I will us as an example.
project/
schema/
tableOne.xml
tableTwo.xml
tableThree.xml
In this example, in order to tar and gzip the files in such a way that
Pymweb knows how to handle them, we need to move into the project/
directory. In that directory type the following command.
tar cvzf schema.tar.gz schema/
Once you have a .tar.gz file, goto Pymweb in your browser and click on
the browse button to the right of the schema input field. Find the
.tar.gz file and choose it as your schema.
2.3 Input Module
Currently you have two choices for an input module. If you made your
schema with UML/XMI mentioned in section 2.2.1, you choose
'parseXMI'. If you made your schema with the table.dtd XML format
mentioned in section 2.2.2, you choose
'parseGenexSchemaXML'.
2.4 Output Module
Here's where the power of Pymerase comes from. You have the choice of
many different types of output from Pymerase. It's a modular design,
so if Pymerase doesn't have an output module you want or need, you can
write it yourself, or submit a feature request on the pymerase web
site at http://pymerase.sf.net/. Below is a table of current output
modules, a short description, and the type of output file or
directory.
| Output Module | Description | Output Format |
| CreateDBAPI | Python Database API | Directory (Python Package) |
| CreateGraphvizUML | UML like diagrams from Graphviz | File (.dot) |
| CreatePyTkDBWidgets | Python Tk DBAPI Aware Widgets Lib | Directory (Python Package) |
| CreatePyTkWidgets | Python Tk Widget Lib for GUI Building | Directory (Python Package) |
| CreateReport | Report text file describing your model | File (.txt) |
| CreateSQL | SQL statements for creating a database | File (.sql) |
| CreateTableXML | Generates Table.dtd XML files | Directory (schema/)
|
2.5 Output File/Dir Name
Every output module has a different type of output, so you need to
give a proper output name for them work correctly. If you take a look
at the 'Output' format column in section 2.4, you will see
what type of output each module generates. This table should by mostly
sufficiant in guiding you in choosing a File or Directory
name. Although a few output modules are a little sensitive to the
names you choose. Below is more information you will need to know
about the output modules and their output.
2.5.1 CreateDBAPI
CreateDBAPI creates a Python package (directory of python files) that
need to know about the name of their package.
If you are using UML/XMI, it's currently defined as the namespace, or
package. So, if you followed 'Pymerase Docs - ArgoUML for Pymerase',
there is a step where you change the name of the namespace. What ever
you entered as the name of the namespace, is the name you should use
as the output directory name in Pymweb. If you do not do this, you
will likely get an error while trying to use the generated DBAPI.
If you decided to use table.dtd XML file format, what ever the name of
the output directory you choose will be the name of the package.
Note: Renaming the generated package directory name without changing
any of the Python code may cause an error. The easiest way to rename
the package is to regenerate it with the proper name.
In future versions of Pymerase, this particular issue should be less
of a problem. We plan to implement a 'Package' system which should
simplify the output file naming.
2.5.2 CreatePyTkWidgets & CreatePyTkDBWidgets
CreatePyTkWidgets generates a Python Tkinter library based on your
schema. These widgets allow you to write your own custom applications
quickly. The Entry Widgets are designed to be sub-classed so you can
override their save() and load() functions. Without this, they won't
do very much.
CreatePyTkDBWidgets generates sub-classed Entry widgets that know how
to load and save data to your generated database via the generated
DBAPI. To get this widgets to work, you need to put them in the same
directory as your file from CreatePyTkWidgets. Also, you need to copy
a generated DBAPI package into the widget library directory. Once that
is complete you should be able to launch any of the DbEntry widgets
and start accessing data from your database.
Note: Only one-to-one and many-to-one associations have been
implemented in the current CreatePyTkDBWidgets. One-to-many and
many-to-many associations need to be implemented before it will be
complete. I can still be useful in it's current state, and you can
always sub-class the Entry library files to implement your own
features.
2.6 Compression Type
Pymweb currently offers the following three types of compression.
| Compression | Extraction Command |
| Tar & Gzip | tar xvzf fileName.tar.gz |
| Zip | unzip fileName.zip |
| None | None
|
Tar & Gzip is most common on Linux/Unix based systems. Zip is most
common on Windows systems. None is offered to make downloads easier
for single file downloads, and for debuging.
2.7 Launch
Once you've made your choices, press the submit button and hope for
the best.
3 Pymweb Output
3.1 Succesful Output
Figure 2: Pymweb - Succesful Output
Assuming everything went smoothly, you should get an output like the
one showed in Figure 2. Below is a table describing what you should
see when Pymweb ran successfully.
| Item | Description |
| Version | Pymerase and Pymweb CGI script version numebers |
| Session | Link to session directory for returning and Session ID |
| Input | Name of input module used |
| Output | Name of output module used |
| Schema | Schema file uploaded |
| Destination | Name of output file or directory |
| Compression | Compression type used |
| Generation Complete | Tells you that generation was successful |
| Download | Link to the generated file |
3.2 Pymweb Failure / Debugging
Pymweb, as of v0.1.15, now displays debugging output in the web
browser. If you have trouble understanding the error messages, you may
copy and paste them into an e-mail to the pymerase-devel mailing list,
or post them to the Pymerase Support Request Tracker.
If you believe you have found a bug, feel free to post it to the
Pymerase Bug Tracker.
Note, that in addition to the debugging message, you can always goto
'/tmp/pymweb/@sessionNumber/' and check on the files located in that
directory. You may also wish to look at the Apache error logs located
at '/var/log/apache/error.log'.
If you have any trouble with Pymweb, please join the pymerase-devel
mailing list and send an e-mail to the list asking for help. Please
visit http://pymerase.sf.net and click on the "Mail Lists" if you
wish to join the mailing list.
Please send an e-mail to the pymerase-devel mailing list if you find a
simple or common mistakes people make when using Pymweb, and I will add
it to this documentation.
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On 29 May 2003, 20:02.
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Last Modified: Friday, 25-Apr-2003 19:57:51 UTC
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