--- /dev/null
+<chapter id="introduction">
+<title>Introduction</title>
+
+<section><title>Architecture overview</title>
+<para>
+ Mir is a fairly large piece of software (over 50.000 lines) written in java.
+It relies on the tomcat servlet framework for administration and open publishing
+tasks. However, unlike many other CMS's that generate html on the fly
+(usually using a cache), Mir writes html pages into a static site.
+Normally, users that visit the mir site, will only see the static site.
+Users that want to publish content (open publishing) will contact
+the dynamic site. Administrators will also contact
+the dynamic site (see figure).
+</para>
+
+<figure><title>mir architecture (single host)</title>
+<mediaobject>
+<imageobject>
+<imagedata fileref="../diagrams/mir-architecture-singlehost.eps" format="EPS"></imagedata></imageobject>
+<imageobject>
+<imagedata fileref="../diagrams/mir-architecture-singlehost.png" format="PNG"></imagedata></imageobject>
+<textobject>
+</textobject>
+</mediaobject>
+</figure>
+
+<para>
+This architecture is interesting because most page requests will be done
+on the static site. Static pages are efficiently handled by the web server.
+It is also interesting because it permits easy mirroring of the static
+site. Mirrors are simple to set up, since only static pages are involved
+(see figure).
+</para>
+
+<figure><title>mir architecture (mirrored)</title>
+<mediaobject>
+<imageobject>
+<imagedata fileref="../diagrams/mir-architecture-mirrored.eps" format="EPS"></imagedata></imageobject>
+<imageobject>
+<imagedata fileref="../diagrams/mir-architecture-mirrored.png" format="PNG"></imagedata></imageobject>
+<textobject>
+</textobject>
+</mediaobject>
+</figure>
+
+</section>
+
+<section><title>Concepts used by Mir</title>
+<para>Here's a list of important terms and concepts used by Mir.
+Many of these concepts will be further detailed latter on in this guide.
+</para>
+<glossentry id="producers">
+ <glossterm>producer</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>As mentioned in the architecture overview, mir
+generates a set of static html pages called the static site.
+Generating these pages involves using a template engine to
+replace variables (representing data) in template files. Template files
+are written by web designers.
+In many CMS systems, the available variables (data) are hard-coded into the
+software. In practice, this is often not flexible enough
+for web designers.
+Mir allows designers to request the data they need by using
+the producer framework, configured in the "producers.xml" file.
+</para>
+<para>Originally producers were
+mostly used to generate pages, but they are now used for a lot of
+other tasks. In fact, the producers.xml file provides a
+simple, xml-based, programing (scripting) language, so that
+site administrators can script their own custom tasks without
+changing the java code.
+For example, on indymedia.org, producers are used to pull rss
+feeds for the global wire.
+</para>
+<figure><title>An example of article generation with the producers framework</title>
+<mediaobject>
+<imageobject>
+<imagedata fileref="../diagrams/article-generation-example.eps" format="EPS"></imagedata></imageobject>
+<imageobject>
+<imagedata fileref="../diagrams/article-generation-example.png" format="PNG"></imagedata></imageobject>
+<textobject>
+</textobject>
+</mediaobject>
+</figure>
+<para>
+Further information on producers may be found at XXX and in the javadoc
+(classes Producer, NodedProducer, roducerNode...).
+</para>
+ </glossdef>
+</glossentry>
+
+<glossentry id="database">
+ <glossterm>database</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+Mir uses a postgres database to store it's data.
+Currently, the mir.storage, mircoders.storage, mir.entity, and
+mir.entity.adapter
+packages
+are used to acces the database in Mir. However, these packages
+are obsolete and will be replaced by the
+<ulink url="http://www.hibernate.org">hibernate</ulink>
+object/relational persistence system.
+</para>
+ </glossdef>
+</glossentry>
+
+
+<glossentry id="localizer">
+ <glossterm>localizer</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+FIXME localizers are to allow mir installations to add code seperate from the
+main code. A lot of things can be changed in an installation (and are
+by various mir sites). Think of custom open posting mechanism, open
+posting validation, data model enhancements.
+</para>
+ </glossdef>
+</glossentry>
+
+<glossentry id="generator">
+ <glossterm>generator</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+A generator is an abstraction for a template engine.
+Different template engines are
+supported right now:
+<ulink href="http://freemarker.sourceforge.net">freemarker</ulink>
+(used most often), tal (used by some
+sites) and velocity (not used at all but supported anyway).
+</para>
+ </glossdef>
+</glossentry>
+
+
+<glossentry id="logger">
+ <glossterm>logger</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+Logging is understood here as "sytem logs" : information written
+out to files that may be used to track what is going on in Mir,
+especially errors and warnings. Mir uses the <ulink href="http://logging.apache.org/log4j/docs">log4j</ulink> logging system.
+This alows us to split logs into different files, making them
+easier to understand.
+</para>
+ </glossdef>
+</glossentry>
+
+<glossentry id="mircoders">
+ <glossterm>mircoders packages</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+Originally, the mircoders packages were meant for local developpements,
+as opposed to the core Mir code. This distinction is now obsolete
+and these packages will probably be reorganized in future releases.
+</para>
+ </glossdef>
+</glossentry>
+
+<glossentry id="bundle">
+ <glossterm>bundles</glossterm>
+ <glossdef>
+ <para>
+bundles are key/value pairs in a text file, used for configuration
+and internationalization
+</para>
+ </glossdef>
+</glossentry>
+
+
+
+</section>
+
+
+
+</chapter>
projects / mir.git / blobdiff