Sites and Modules

From CunningPlans

In a Baldrick installation, a master configuration file defines a Site. A Site generally has one Session Manager and one User Loader defined, thus functioning as a single entity from the user's perspective.

Within one Site there can be many Modules. A Module is a self-contained piece of functionality like a blog, message board, calendar, shopping cart, wiki... It is a principal goal of Baldrick that modules from different authors can be combined together into a single Site.

A user will typically log in once to a Baldrick Site and use several of the modules (the message board, the blog, etc.) without having to re-authenticate.

A Site is defined by the master configuration file, typically baldrick.cfg. Another installation of Baldrick using a substantially different config file, even if on the same domain, wouldn't be considered part of the same Site.

The PathMap section of the configuration file defines Modules.

When a new Module is added to an existing Site, a PathMap entry and a Module Definition are added to the master configuration file. If that module has configuration options, they will typically be stored in another configuration file - which may or may not be in the same directory as the master configuration file.

[edit] Example

A baldrick.cfg file includes settings for the Site as a whole:

   <SessionManager default>
       ....
   <UserClass myusers>
       ....

and definitions for modules:

   <PathMap>
   # link URLs to Module definitions
   /bin/myblog = BlogModule
   /bin/shop = ShoppingCartModule
   /bin/admin/users = UserAdminModule
   </PathMap>

   <Module BlogModule>
       handler-class = MyBlogHandler   # perl module
   </Module>
   <Module ShoppingCartModule>
       handler-class = FredCart::ShopHandler   # a 3rd-party module
   </Module>