I'm looking some way to split complicated template to few ones.
When create page with few tabs - template file structure come to be ugly and complex. This is bad way. I can split templates with creating new by
template(name="some")
and then
{{>some}}
But it's mean i need to make helpers, events_handlers, etc for each template. But much of data for this templates will duplicate, so it's again not good way.
Maybe exist some way to split html, but not create few Template objects?
One solution is to divide your templates up as you suggested but have each inherit its events and helpers from a single template using the template-extension package. That should give you a logical division of template code without repeating yourself.
I found this template tag which allows me to run a counter inside a template. I have this requirement where I need to render out nested paragraph numbers but I can't use a CSS counter (for various reasons).
The problem I run into with the above mentioned template tag is that it only works inside the context of the template that includes the tag library. Unfortunately I do have a lot of different templates to include and the counter has to work across all of them with the same instance.
Is there a way to accomplish this with modifications on the given template tag or is it possible to get this done in any other way?
Ah, never mind. Should have thought a minute longer. Sticking itertools.count() into the template context does the job.
Say we want to Parse a XML messages to Business Objects. We split the process in two parts, namely:
-Parsing the XML messages to XML Grammar Objects.
-Transform XML Objects to Business Objects.
The first part is done automatically, generation a grammar object for each node.
The second part is done following the XML architecture so far. Example:
If we have the XML Message(Simplified):
<Main>
<ChildA>XYZ</ChildA>
<ChildB att1="0">
<InnerChild>YUK</InnerChild>
</ChildB>
</Main>
We could find the following classes:
DecodeMain(Calls DecodeChildA and B)
DecodeChildA
DecodeChildB(Calls DecodeInnerChild)
DecodeInnerChild
The main problem arrives when we need to handle versions of the same messages. Say we have a new version where only DecodeInnerChild changes(e.g.: We need to add an "a" at the end of the value)
It is really important that the solutions agile for further versions and as clean as possible. I considered the following options:
1)Simple Inheritance:Create two classes of DecodeInnerChild. One for each version.
Shortcomming: I will need to create different classes for every parent class to call the right one.
2)Version Parameter: Add to each method an Object with the version as a parameter. This way we will know what to do within each method according to each version.
Shortcoming: Not clean at all. The code of different versions is mixed.
3)Inheritance + Version Parameter: Create 2 classes with a base class for the common code for the nodes that directly changes (Like InnerChild) and add the version as a parameter in each method. When a node call the another class to decode the child object, it will use one or another class depending on the Version parameter.
4)Some kind of executor pattern(I do not know how to do it): Define at the start some kind of specifications object, where all the methods that are going to be used are indicated and I pass this object to a class that is in charge of execute them.
How would you do it? Other ideas are welcomed.
Thanks in advance. :)
How would you do it? Other ideas are welcomed.
Rather than parse XML myself I would as first step let something like CodesynthesisXSD to generate all needed classes for me and work on those. Later when performance or something becomes issue I would possibly start to look aound for more efficient parsers and if that is not fruitful only then i would start to design and write my own parser for specific case.
Edit:
Sorry, I should have been more specific :P, the first part is done
automatically, the whole code is generated from the XML schema.
OK, lets discuss then how to handle the usual situation that with evolution of software you will eventually have evolved input too. I put all silver bullets and magic wands on table here. If and what you implement of them is totally up to you.
Version attribute I have anyway with most things that I create. It is sane to have before backward-compatibility issue that can not be solved elegantly. Most importantly it achieves that when old software fails to parse newer input then it will produce complaint that makes immediately sense to everybody.
I usually also add some interface for converter. So old software can be equipped with converter from newer version of input when it fails to parse that. Also new software can use same converter to parse older input. Plus it is place where to plug converter from totally "alien" input. Win-win-win situation. ;)
On special case of minor change I would consider if it is cheap to make new DecodeInnerChild to be internally more flexible so accepts the value with or without that "a" in end as valid. In converter I have still to get rid of that "a" when converting for older versions.
Often what actually happens is that InnerChild does split and both versions will be used side-by-side. If there is sufficient behavioral difference between two InnerChilds then there is no point to avoid polymorphic InnerChilds. When polymorphism is added then indeed like you say in your 1) all containing classes that now have such polymorphic members have to be altered. Converter should usually on such cases either produce crippled InnerChild or forward to older version that the input is outside of their capabilities.
The problem is that if I call a templatetag into a block
and it fills me a variiable with the usual context[varname]=something,
then if I need that variable into another block, I have to call the
templatetag again. This for me means extra db queries, which is really
something I'm trying to avoid.
This templatetag is called in a base template which is extended by
many other templates, so I can't just change all the views to pass
something to the context, it makes no sense (WET principle?)
Even a context processor would be not good because I don't want to
call it for every page rendered in the site, even the ones not based
on that template.
I was thinking about writing a templatetag which would use the
internal context structures to put the variable in a global context,
but I'd feel too guilty doing it.
How would you solve this problem?
You said, "This templatetag is called in a base template which is extended by many other templates."
The question is: is this tag called from within a named block? If it is then you have a couple of potential problems.
{% block %} pushes a new dict on the Context stack and pops it off when it reaches the matching `{% endblock %}'. This means any context value created while in the block has essentially gone out of scope on block exit.
If this block is overridden by some other template that extends the base template, the value may not be available at all unless you do a {{block.super}}, and even then I'm not certain the value will be available to the template doing the extending.
If the tag is not called from within a {% block %} then the context value should be available to all of the code that follows it, either in the base template, any included templates and (I think) any extending templates.
This is one of those cases where building a set of careful tests will probably save you time and tears.
Alternatively, if you are always accessing this value, you could just put it in a context processor so that its availability is guaranteed.
Update for comments: OK, time to bring in the big guns! One of the most irritating, long-standing bugs in Django templates is that callables (ie. functions) that are top-level context values (as opposed to functions that are dict-values/methods of context values) are not called! This ticket is over 2 years old and takes about 10 lines of code to fix. We have several heavy-weight DB calls that we only want to happen if the template cache has expired. So we a) MonkeyPatched the template _resolve_lookup() code to fix the callable problem, and then b) curry functions to have all of the necessary parameters if needed, because you can't pass params to functions in the template "language".
I think you've accurately described the limitations in this situation. The most maintainable solutions will likely involve some restructuring of your template inheritance chain, though its hard to say without knowing the details. Can you introduce a new template in the inheritance hierarchy, probably somewhere near the top of the pyramid but so it only is inherited by templates that need this data, with a single block that encompasses the entire region within which you need this data? That big block can then be subdivided into smaller blocks that inheriting templates will override. If you call your templatetag at the beginning of that block, all blocks within it (including in inheriting templates) will have access to the data.
Update: I can't say much without seeing your templates, but introducing a new template in the middle of an inheritance chain very rarely involves "changing all the templates," in a sane inheritance structure it often can be done with changes to only one or two other templates. And I think what I am suggesting is actually not a hack, it's just better design. If you need a certain piece of data in certain parts of your site and not other parts, there should be a specific single template you can point to and say "this template represents the logical layer at which this piece of data is introduced, and encompasses the parts of the site where that data is needed."
Are you just trying to keep down the number of database queries or are you looking for a clever solution?
If it's the former, I would definitely go with caching. Would fragment caching work in your case? If not, perhaps you could put the caching in the template tag code (assuming it's not one of Django's own template tags your using)?
Just came across this trick from Liviu, Agile Bear (all credit goes to him)
Instead of doing
context['some_var']='some value'
do
context.dicts[0]['some_var']='some value'
May not be a by-the-book-coding-practice but works well enough
Assuming a largish template library with around 100 files containing around 100 templates with overall more than 200,000 lines of code. Some of the templates use multiple inheritance to make the usage of the library itself rather simple (i.e. inherit from some base templates and only having to implement certain business rules).
All that exists (grown over several years), "works" and is used for projects.
However, compilation of projects using that library consumes a growing amount of time and it takes quite some time to locate the source for certain bugs. Fixing often causes unexpected side effects or is quite difficult, because some interdependent templates need changing. Testing is nearly impossible due to the sheer amount of functions.
Now, I would really like to simplify the architecture to use less templates and more specialized smaller classes.
Is there any proven way to go about that task? What would be a good place to start?
I'm not sure I see how/why templates are the problem, and why plain non-templated classes would be an improvement. Wouldn't that just mean even more classes, less type safety and so larger potential for bugs?
I can understand simplifying the architecture, refactoring and removing dependencies between the various classes and templates, but automatically assuming that "fewer templates will make the architecture better" is flawed imo.
I'd say that templates potentially allow you to build a much cleaner architecture than you'd get without them. Simply because you can make separate classes totally independent. Without templates, classes functions which call into another class must know about the class, or an interface it inherits, in advance. With templates, this coupling isn't necessary.
Removing templates would only lead to more dependencies, not fewer.
The added type-safety of templates can be used to detect a lot of bugs at compile-time (Sprinkle your code liberally with static_assert's for this purpose)
Of course, the added compile-time may be a valid reason to avoid templates in some cases, and if you only have a bunch of Java programmers, who are used to thinking in "traditional" OOP terms, templates might confuse them, which can be another valid reason to avoid templates.
But from an architecture point of view, I think avoiding templates is a step in the wrong direction.
Refactor the application, sure, it sounds like that's needed. But don't throw away one of the most useful tools for producing extensible and robust code just because the original version of the app misused it. Especially if you're already concerned with the amount of code, removing templates will most likely lead to more lines of code.
You need automated tests, that way in ten years time when your succesor has the same problem he can refactor the code (probably to add more templates because he thinks it will simplify usage of the library) and know it still meets all test cases. Similarly the side effects of any minor bug fixes will be immediately visible (assuming your test cases are good).
Other than that, "divide and conqueor"
Write unit tests.
Where the new code must do the same as the old code.
That's one tip at least.
Edit:
If you deprecate old code that you have replaced with the new functionality you
can phase over to the new code little by little.
Well, the problem is that template way of thinking is very different from object-oriented inheritance-based way. It's hard to answer anything else than "redesign the whole thing and start from scratch".
Of course, there may be a simple way for a particular case. We can't tell without knowing more about what you have.
The fact that the template solution is so difficult to maintain is an indication of a poor design anyway.
Some points (but note: these are not evil indeed. If you want to change to non-template code, though, this can help out):
Lookup your static interfaces. Where do templates depend on what functions exist? Where do they need typedefs?
Put the common parts in an abstract base class. A good example is when you happen to stumble over the CRTP idiom. You can just replace it with an abstract base class having virtual functions.
Lookup integer lists. If you find your code uses integral lists like list<1, 3, 3, 1, 3>, you can replace them with std::vector, if all the codes using them can live with working with runtime values instead of constant expressions.
Lookup type traits. There is much code involved checking whether some typedef exists, or whether some method exists in typical templated code. Abstract baseclasses solve these two issues by using pure virtual methods, and by inheriting typedefs to the base. Often, typedefs are only needed to trigger hideous features like SFINAE, which would then be superfluous too.
Lookup expression templates. If your code uses expression templates to avoid creating temporaries, you will have to eliminate them and use the traditional way of returning / passing temporaries to the operators involved.
Lookup function objects. If you find your code uses function objects, you can change them to use abstract base classes too, and have something like void run(); to call them (or if you want to keep using operator(), better so! It can be virtual too).
As I understand, you are most concerned with build times, and the maintainability of your library?
First, don't try to "fix" all at once.
Second, understand what you fix. Template complexity is there often for a reason, e.g. to enforce certain use, and make the compiler help you not make a mistake. That reason might sometimes be taken to far, but throwing out 100 lines because "noone really knows what they do" shouldn't be taken lightly. Everything I suggest here can introduce really nasty bugs, you have been warned.
Third, consider cheaper fixes first: e.g. faster machines or distributed build tools. At least, throw in all the RAM the boards will take, and throw out old disks. It does maike a difference. One drive for OS, one drive for build is a cheap mans RAID.
Is the library well documented? That's your best chance at making it Look into tools such as doxygen that help you create such a documentation.
All considered? OK, now some suggestions for the build times ;)
Understand the C++ build model: every .cpp is compiled individually. That means many .cpp files with many headers = huge build. This is NOT an advise to put everything into one .cpp file, though! However, one trick (!) that can speed up a build immensely is to create a single .cpp file that includes a bunch of .cpp files, and only feed that "master" file to the compiler. You can't do that blindly, though - you need to understand the types of errors this could introduce.
If you don't have one yet, get a separate build machine that you can remote into. You'll have to do a lot of almost-full builds to check if you broke some include. You will want to run this in another machine, that doesn't block you from working on something else. Long term, you'll need it for daily integration builds anyway ;)
Use precompiled headers. (scales better with fast machines, see above)
Check your header inclusion policy. While every file should be "independent" (i.e. include everything it needs to be included by someone else), don't include liberally. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found a tool to find unnecessary #incldue statements, but it might help to spend some time removing unused headers in "hotspot" files.
Create and use forward declarations for the templates you use. Often, you can incldue a header with forwad declarations in many places, and use the full header only in a few specific ones. This can greatly help compile time. Check the <iosfwd> header how the standard library does that for i/o streams.
overloads for templates for few types: If you have a complex function template that is useful only for a very few types like this:
// .h
template <typename FLOAT> // float or double only
FLOAT CalcIt(int len, FLOAT * values) { ... }
You can declare the overloads in the header, and move the template to the body:
// .h
float CalcIt(int len, float * values);
double CalcIt(int len, double * values);
// .cpp
template <typename FLOAT> // float or double only
FLOAT CalcItT(int len, FLOAT * values) { ... }
float CalcIt(int len, float * values) { return CalcItT(len, values); }
double CalcIt(int len, double * values) { return CalcItT(len, values); }
this moves the lengthy template to a single compilation unit.
Unfortunately, this is only of limited use for classes.
Check if the PIMPL idiom can move code from the headers into .cpp files.
The general rule that hides behind that is separate the interface of your library from the implementation. Use comments, detail namesapces and separate .impl.h headers to mentally and physically isolate what should be known to the outside from how it is accomplished. This exposes the real value of your library (does it actually encapsulate complexity?), and gives you a chance to replace "easy targets" first.
More specific advise - and how useful the one given is - depends largely on the actual library.
Good luck!
As mentioned, unit tests are a good idea. Indeed, rather than breaking your code by introducing "simple" changes that are likely to ripple out, just focus on creating a suite of tests, and fixing non-compliance with the tests. Have an activity to update the tests when bugs come to light.
Beyond that, I would suggest upgrading your tools, if possible, to help with debugging template-related problems.
I've often come across legacy templates that were huge and required a lot of time and memory to instantiate, but didn't need to be. In those cases, the easiest way to cut out the fat was to take all of the code that didn't rely on any of the template arguments and hide it in separate functions defined in a normal translation unit. This also had the positive side-effect of triggering fewer recompiles when this code had to be slightly modified or documentation changed. It sounds rather obvious, but it's really surprising how often people write a class template and think that EVERYTHING it does has to be defined in the header, rather than just the code that needs the templated information.
Another thing you might want to consider is how often you clean up the inheritance hierarchies by making the templates "mixin" style instead of aggregations of multiple inheritance. See how many places you can get away with making one of the template arguments the name of the base class that it should derive from (the way boost::enable_shared_from_this works). Of course this typically only works well if the constructors take no arguments, as you don't have to worry about initializing anything correctly.