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<document>

 <properties>
  <title>Turbine Specification</title>
  <author email="jon@latchkey.com">Jon S. Stevens</author>
 </properties>

<body>

<section name="Specification">

<p>
Turbine is made up of five different modules which serve a specific
service within the Turbine framework. In order for the reader to understand
the general flow of the Turbine framework, each of these modules is explained
in detail below.
</p>

<p>
<center>
<img src="images/Modules.gif"/>
</center>
</p>

</section>

<section name="Action">

<p>
The Action module represents a chunk of code that performs task. For
example, when a user submits an Html form, one of the hidden fields
is which Action to execute in order to process the form information.
The processing generally includes form validation as well as storing
the form information into a database. The Page is responsible for
executing the Action before the Screen is executed. That way, the
Action can help determine which Screen is executed depending on the
results of the Action.
</p>

<p>
The process looks like this:
</p>

<table>
<tr>
    <td>HTTP Client -></td>
    <td>Execute Turbine Servlet -></td>
    <td>Execute Page -></td>
    <td>Execute Layout/Screen/Navigation -></td>
    <td>Return Page Content</td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td align="center">If Action is defined then...</td>
    <td></td>
    <td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td></td>
    <td></td>
    <td>Execute Action</td>
    <td></td>
    <td></td>
</tr>
</table>

<p>
This model makes it really easy to separate the POST (GET works here as well)
data processing into component modules that can be re-used. For instance, the
Action "Logout" can be re-used from a number of different points in the system.
It performs one single function and performs it well. The advantage of this type
of behavior is that it prevents you from putting logic for handling form data
into your servlets. This is great for those of you who want to integrate EJB's
into Turbine because your Action's can simply make calls to your EJB's to process
business logic.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Page">

<p>
The Page module is the first module in the chain of execution for
the Page generation. It is considered to be the module which contains
the rest of the modules (Action, Layout, Screen and Navigation).
The Page module checks to see if there has been an Action defined in
the request. If so, it attempts to execute that Action. After the
Action has been executed, it asks the set Screen object for its Layout.
Page then attempts to execute the Layout object which the Screen
returned. Please note that the Action module can modify which Screen
is executed. Also note that the Screen module has the option to
override the Layout setting which defaults to "DefaultLayout." (Note:
the DefaultLayout value is actually defined in the TurbineResources.properties
file. This way, it is a simple property change instead of having to re-compile
the Turbine code for your own purposes.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Screen">

<p>
The Screen module is essentially considered the "body" of the webpage. The
Layout module executes the Screen module. This is where the Html of the page is
generated. <strong>It is entirely possible to call external code here.</strong> For
example, you can call an EJB to provide you some business data which is then
transformed using a tool such as <a
href="http://cocoon.apache.org/">Cocoon</a> to render the business data
into HTML which is then transfered to the client.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Navigation">

<p>
A website generally has a top and bottom navigation scheme. This is generally
defined as the header and footer of the website. The Navigation is executed by
the Layout. There may be multiple Navigation modules that the Layout executes
(ie: the side, top and bottom parts of the page). Since it is generally common
for multiple webpages to contain the same navigation, it is most common to
define different Layouts for screens with very different Navigations. The
advantage of using a system like this is that you can have multiple Navigations
that are conditionally included and excluded in the Layout. Like Screens, the
Navigation modules can also call out to external code, such as EJB's to get the
business logic that is responsible for rendering the Html that is sent to the
browser.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Layout">

<p>
The Layout module is called from the Page module. This modules defines
the physical Layout of a webpage. It generally defines the location of the
Navigation portion (ie: the top and bottom part of the webpage) as well as
the location of where the body (or Screen) of the page is. The
Layout module executes the Screen module to build the body of the webpage.
It executes the Navigation modules to build the portions of the webpage
which define the navigation for the website.
</p>

<section name="Module object Encapsulation">
<p>
<center>
<img src="images/ModuleObjectLayout.gif"/>
</center>
</p>

</section>

<p>
<dt>From a module object encapsulation point of view, the image above represents
how each of the modules fits into one another.</dt> For example, the Page module
executes the Layout module, which then executes the Navigation and Screen
modules. As one can see, this tends to appear how a templated Html page would
look. This is no accident, the Turbine framework is essentially an object oriented
representation of the components of an Html page.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Loaders">

<p>
<center>
<img src="images/Loaders.gif"/>
</center>
</p>

<p>
The loaders are responsible for dynamically loading each of the five modules.
These loaders have an option to cache the module objects in memory for extremely
fast loading times.
</p>

<p>
The loaders use intelligent factories in that we have added a property to
TurbineResources.properties that allows you to define the "Loader Classpath". In
other words, it is possible to physically keep all of your web applications
modules in their own package classpath and the loaders will be responsible for
finding the right file to execute.
</p>

<p>
This feature is great because it allows you to upgrade the core Turbine framework
without having to make any modifications to your existing code! It also allows
you to simply distribute your web application as a standalone system and then
have your users download the Turbine framework as a separate requirement. Then,
multiple web applications can be combined to form a complete system.
</p>

<p>
<strong>Note</strong> that each of the modules must be multithread safe
since multiple threads may try to execute a single module at the exact same time.
These rules apply to general servlet programming so they are not that difficult
to understand. The basic rule is to not try to define any class global variables
within each of the modules unless it has been wrapped in a synchronized statement.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Factories">
<p>
Each of the loaders mentioned makes use of one or more factories to create the
different modules.  By default the only factory that is enabled is the Java
factory that creates requested modules from java class files.
</p>

<p>
You can easily create your own factories by implementing a simple interface
and registering them in the TurbineResource.properties.  This allows you a lot
of flexibility in the sense that you can load Turbine modules from <strong>any
</strong> source that is able to provide you with a java object, for example an
RMI server or scripting options like Rhino and JPython.  Keep in mind that
factories <strong>must</strong> be thread-save (the same applies to modules).
</p>

</section>

<section name="System Flow">

<p>
When a new request comes in, the Turbine servlet first checks to make sure that
a ServletAPI HttpSession object exists for the user making the request. If this
HttpSession object does not exist, a Http redirect header is returned that
redirects the browser to the "homepage" of the website (by default it is the
"Login" screen and this can be configured via the TurbineResources.properties
file). This redirect attempts to set a cookie that is unique for the visitor. If
the cookie is not accepted, it will not be returned in the new request for the
"homepage" and thus further session tracking will happen with modified URL's
that contain the session information within them.
</p>

<p>
<strong>Note</strong>: If you do not wish to require the user to login to the
system with a username and password before executing the pages, then set the
"Login" screen to be something else. This is done in the Turbine Servlet under
the data.session.isNew() check. Until the user actually logs in, it is only possible
to store temporary data for that users session. When the user logs in, it is
possible to store permanent information by simply putting data into a hashtable.
The implementation of the User object (ie: TurbineUser) in the framework takes care
of the issues involved with serializing that information to a resource such as a
database or file on the hard disk.
</p>

<p>
After a session with the user has been established, Turbine caches a few frequently
used pieces of data in the RunData object. This object is created for each and
every request and is passed around the system in order to provide all of the
modules with access to request specific information such as a database
connection, GET/POST/PATH_INFO (GPP) data (via the ParametersParser object), the
Action and Screen names (made available from the GPP data), and the Document
object where you put your Html output. The RunData object should never be stored
in a global context because it is not multithread safe and each of the modules
is expected to be multithread safe. Also, the RunData object may or may not
contain information that should be persistent across requests.
</p>

<p>
The Turbine servlet then checks to see if a user is attempting to Login to the
system by looking at the defined Action and checking to see if the value is
"LoginUser." If so, it will execute the "LoginUser" action (again, the action to
execute here can be defined in the TurbineResources.properties file). Within this
action, it is the coders responsibility to define the procedure for
authenticating the user with the validateUser() method. This will probably mean
validating the username and password against a database. The abstraction of
Action modules makes it easily possible to have multiple authentication methods.
</p>

<p>
Once the user has been validated (the RunData.save() method has been called) or
not validated, then the SessionValidator action is executed from within the Turbine
servlet. The SessionValidator action checks to see if a user has been logged in.
If the user has not been logged in, then the Screen is set to be the "Login"
screen. If not, then the users last access datestamp is updated. <strong>If you would
like to allow the user to view multiple pages without the need to login first,
you will need to implement your own version of SessionValidator that just
returns nothing as a result.</strong> Then, for the pages that you will want to make
secure, you should define a Layout that executes the SessionValidator action to
make things secure. Then, your Screens should call that "secure" Layout.
</p>

<p>
Next, the "DefaultPage" page is executed by the Turbine servlet. The "DefaultPage"
starts a chain of events that eventually leads to a complete webpage
development. First, the DefaultPage attempts to see if an Action has been
defined. If so, then it attempts to execute that Action. See the definition of
Action and Page above for more information. After the Action has been executed,
the Screen is then asked for its Layout and the Layout is then executed.
</p>

<p>
It is the Layouts responsibility to then execute the Navigation and requested
Screen. After the Layout has executed its parts, it is finished and control is
returned to the Turbine servlet which then sends out the page information.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Access Control Lists and User Permissions">

<p>
We have provided a beautiful system (because it is so simple and powerful) for
controlling what a User is allowed to do and not allowed to do. It is based on
the following concepts:
</p>

<p>
One or more Roles are assigned to a User. A Role is a collection of one or more
Permission's. The AccessControlList uses an AccessControlBuilder that
allows you to determine whether or not a User has a Permission to do something
or not.
</p>

<p>
Thus, a User can have both the "Admin" and "Guest" Role. Within those Roles are
the sets of Permissions that are allowed. In the "Admin" Role, one might have
the Permission, "Edit Users". Then, it is simple to use the AccessControlList to
check to see if the User has the permission "Edit Users" or if the User has the
Role "Admin", in which case, it does not matter what the Permissions are.
</p>

<p>
You will then use this system within any of modules to determine whether or
not to execute some code. This will provide you with both a Page level of
security (does the User have access to this page) as well as a Content level of
security (does the User have access to see the content on this page, ie:
hide/show content based on what Role the User is).
</p>

</section>

<section name="Exception Handling">

<p>
During execution, if at any time an exception is raised, the Turbine servlet
catches that exception and attempts to execute the "DefaultPage" with the Screen
set to be "Error". This is a simple debugging screen which displays a java stack
trace as well as any CGI environment variables that have been set. It is
possible to modify this Screen to display anything that you wish as well as
define an alternative error screen within your web application via the
TurbineResources.properties file. The idea is that all errors can be trapped in one
location in order to make debugging as simple as possible as well as provide a
consistent error interface to the users.
</p>

</section>

<section name="Utility Code">

<p>
There is a number of utility classes included with Turbine.
</p>

<p>
The Database pooling classes are helpful for defining the methods for obtaining
a connection to the database. This code is implemented as a singleton system so
that all you need to do is get an instance of the database class, get a
connection and go. There is no need to pass around a Connection object. Turbine
comes with pool implementations for many of the most popular databases. Creating
your own is quite simple as well, all you need to do is look at the existing
code and create your own. If you need help or want someone to create one for
your database, simply ask on the mailing list.
</p>

<p>
The *Peer classes are a great idea on how to abstract the database accesses so
that all you need to do is pass in a Criteria object and execute doInsert(),
doSelect(), doUpdate() or doDelete(). While not necessarily part of the Turbine
framework, because each implementation is different depending on your needs, it
is a great model to work from. Take a look at the TurbineUserPeer.java file for a
good example of this methodology in use.
</p>

<p>
The ParameterParser class takes all of the GET/POST/PATH_INFO data and parses it
into a hashtable where it can be easily retrieved in a number of forms with the
provided get* methods. This is how you can have access to form data that has
been posted by a users web browser.
</p>

<p>
The DynamicURI class should be used whenever a URI is needed within the system.
Each portion of a URI can be defined in order to produce a custom URI that also
includes the session tracking information if it exists. It is highly recommended
that you use this class for generating all of your URI's for your application
because it will allow you to easily add global functionality to your system.
</p>

<p>
The DateSelector class generates Html popup menus for month/day/year. The beauty
of this class is that you can provide a date for it to start with and it will
automatically generate the Html popups with that date.
</p>

<p>
The Mail classes make it easy to send email via the JavaMail API's. These
classes are just very simple classes and there is not a huge amount of
functionality here. Essentially they allow you to get the job done and that is
about it. Contributions to improve these classes are appreciated.
</p>

</section>

</body>
</document>