VuFind 2.0 an introduction Demian Katz VuFind Developer

Overview Why VuFind 2.0? PHP 5.3 concepts Zend Framework 2 concepts VuFind 2.0 concepts What’s next?

Why VuFind 2.0? Move to a standard framework Clean up code flow/organization Improve extensibility Take advantage of PHP improvements Move away from outdated technologies (PEAR, Smarty, Subversion, etc.) Bundle all dependencies

PHP 5.3: Namespaces Namespaces prevent collisions; VuFind 1.x suffered from at least one (SolrUtils). Key: Learn to love the backslash namespace VuFind\Config; use VuFind\Config\Reader as ConfigReader;

PHP 5.3: Closures A useful tool for functional programming. The old, procedural way to transform an array: $newArray = array(); foreach ($oldArray as $key => $value) { $newArray[$key] = doStuffTo($value); } $oldArray = $newArray;

PHP 5.3: Closures The new, functional way to transform an array: $callback = function($i) { return doStuffTo($i); } $array = array_map($callback, $array);

Dependency Injection A simple concept that is often handled in complex ways (“DI containers”). When one class depends on another, use constructors or setters to “inject” dependencies. Replaces use of statics/globals. Makes code more modular and relationships more explicit. Often makes testing easier.

Zend Framework 2 Concepts Module system Event system Routing system Controller classes Service managers Database abstraction layer PHP-based template rendering Watch the webinars! –

VuFind 2.0: Data Model Search classes produce record driver objects. Every record is represented by a record driver regardless of source. VuFind uses “duck typing” to extract appropriate data from record drivers.

VuFind 2.0: Controllers Old way: one class per action in web/services New way: one class per controller Advantage: easier to visualize flow Advantage: easier to inherit related functionality (AbstractRecord, AbstractSearch)

VuFind 2.0: Templates Old way: Smarty templates –{$myVariable|escape:html} –{if $this}that{/if} –Custom functionality through Smarty plugins New way: PHP templates – escapeHtml($myVariable);?> – that –Custom functionality through view helpers

VuFind 2.0: Themes Two officially supported themes: –blueprint: “standard” theme using jQuery and Blueprint CSS library. –jquerymobile: “mobile” theme using jQueryMobile library. Old YUI/iWebKit-based themes (classic/default/mobile) will not be included.

VuFind 2.0: Extension Points Local configuration directory –One VuFind install, many configurations Theme system –More powerful inheritance Plugin system –Based on ZF2 service locator system Module system –Override almost anything without touching core code

VuFind 2.0: Install Process Install dependencies (PHP/Apache/Java/MySQL) Download and unpack VuFind php install.php Link generated Apache configuration (or

VuFind 2.0: Source Control and Continuous Integration Git instead of Subversion –Fork to your heart’s content Jenkins for continuous integration –Runs tests, checks style, builds API docs –Sends alerts to vufind-admins mailing list –Automatically triggered by Git commits PHPUnit for testing –Please help us improve test coverage!

What’s Next? More architectural cleanup –Better Solr connector, better abstract search model, better-defined HTTP/cache/logging services (David Maus) –More intelligent AJAX handling New features –Better consortial support (ILS multi-driver) –Hierarchical collections –Multi-column search (i.e. Solr/Summon) –Web search