Package Importer

Administrator updates MindTouch functional templates through a UI

The systems administrator will install/upgrade MindTouch in the same method that they've used in the past. Upon successful update, a flag is set within the system that allows the API/UI to know that while the server code has been updated, the MindTouch functional templates have not been updated yet. (Unrelated thought: If we set a site-wide flag, would it be possible to set user-level flags that would pop-them up with a message about "Here's what's new in MindTouch 2010?")

Administrators will get a warning message indicating they must update their MindTouch functional templates or not everything will function correctly. The message will link to a control panel page, where the user can update their MindTouch functional templates. (Any views that utilize MindTouch templates should stamp with a version.)

From the control panel view, the administrator will see a list of all the functional templates that will be updated and if they will be adding, removing, or replacing existing functional templates. Upon clicking "Update my templates", the local .war file (which will be pushed as a part of the package) will then be pushed to the import feature in the API. (The operation will be a replace all or none feature).

Once the import is successfully completed, the warning messages will disappear.

MT releases a new prepackaged solution framework

To create a new packaged solution, it'd be possible to create a new .mtarc file which would supplement the default .mtarc file; these would be loaded in sequence to allow for overwriting of default templates.

System automatically updates MindTouch functional templates

Another approach to the update of these MindTouch templates would be to try to automate the update upon service startup. A checksum/date of the last known updated .war file could be stored in the site properties, and this information could be used to trigger an automatic import of files. The downsides to this approach are that changes would be blown out without warning, and systems being restarted in distress would fall under additional stress in the case that many files must be updated.

This approach would not lend itself to extending this functionality for users to discover other functional templates in the MindTouch ecosystem and installing them through a simple CP interface.

Required Capability: Optionally only overwrite a page if the current content was previously imported and is newer

Assumption: Page was packaged with an exporter suportting this capability

Import Workflow:

• Import lib sends manfest to import feature
  • manifest includes per page checksum and last-modified timestamp
• Import feature builds import doc
  • for each page
    • if page has date-modified, include as 'importtime' query arg
    • if the page already exists
      • if there is a last import property
        • if 'preserve-local' is true
          • if the page hasn't changed or is locally modified, skip import
        • if the previous import is newer, skip import
      • no last import property, skip import if 'preserve-local' is true
• Post Page contents
  • Calculates etag of incoming content, saves along with page
  • if 'importtime' query param exists, create/update 'last_import' property

Mismatched importer tool/feature:

• New import tool, old feature
  • Will always clobber, since new meta-data in import manifest is unknown
• Old import tool, new feature
  • Will work as intended, since all new information is part of the import manifest

API Changes

• Export
  • Add date.modified and etag to page manifest items
    • If page was previously imported and has not been modified use the 'last_import' date.modified instead of page date.modified
• Import
  • building import doc checks for 'last_import' page level property
    • checks current version against last import, omits item if no match
    • checks item date.modified to make sure it's newer, otherwise omits item
• Page
  • Add etag to page and calculate it on saving as md5sum of content
  • Create property 'last_import' property with etag and date.modified from 'import.date.modified' query param

• mindtouch import lib changes:
  • Add command line option for export to create "overwrite=false" (i.e. non-clobbering) packages
  • .mtarc - don't clobber by default ?
  • .mtapp - do clobber by default ?
• updater service
  • multi-tenant aware
  • gets tickled by tenant instance startup
    • checks for packages on disk
    • checks instance for site properties to see if the package has been installed and what version
      • ignore unchanged package version
    • import all packages not yet imported or newer
  • allow this importer process to be tickled by hand
    • if a package should be re-imported, simply delete it's site property and tickle updater

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