This is the top level index page for WHIFF documentation.
What is WHIFF?
WHIFF is a collection of support services for WSGI/Python web applications
which
allows applications to be composed by "dropping"
dynamic pages into container directories.
This mode of development will be familiar to developers
who have created PHP applications, vanilla CGI scripts, Apache/modpy Publisher applications,
JSP pages, or static web content. WHIFF requires Python 2.5 to run out-of-the-box.
The WHIFF implementation significantly generalizes
the "drop in" paradigm to support WSGI middleware components and
application fragments as well as stand-alone pages.
WHIFF provides other services in addition to supporting "drop in" components, such
as managed application resources.
WHIFF is simple and light weight. WHIFF enhances the underlying WSGI interface
and can be combined with other WSGI based technologies.
WHIFF goodies
The WHIFF infrastructure makes it easy to encapsulate complex
components and WHIFF includes some standard complex components
both for demonstration purposes and for general use.
WHIFF includes the jQuery and jQueryUI
javascript libraries as well as wrapper middlewares to assist in the
use of these libraries as described in the
JQueryUI widget tutorial.
For example the embedded frame below includes JQueryUI widget
mated to an AJAX callback to implement a geology challenge
question. Please try it out.
WHIFF includes support for the
amCharts and
Open Flash Charts
Flash-based chart libraries.
For example the following scatter chart is generated by a straightforward
invocation of the standard WHIFF
OpenFlashChart middleware:
If this text isn't replaced a chart
failed to load.
You may need to upgrade your flash player.
Please see the
Chart tutorial
for more information on formatting Flash based charts.
WHIFF includes standard support for small, large, or infinite interactive
tree view widgets like the one shown in the embedded frame below:
The
Tree View tutorial
explains how to use WHIFF tree views.
Please see the demos and other tutorials
for more information on WHIFF goodies.
Why WHIFF?
WHIFF
makes it easier to
create, deploy, and maintain large and complex Python based WSGI Web applications
by reducing the basic complexity of the Web development environment.
The primary tools which reduce complexity are
-
an infrastructure for managing web
application name spaces using tree structured hierarchies,
-
a configuration template language for wiring named components
into an application, and
-
an
applications programmer interface for accessing named components from Python and
javascript modules.
For example, this configuration template from the "resume" tutorial
constructs a document by piecing together a "scaffolding" named resume
and two "fragments" named experience and education
Use the name to find the thing.
All of the components in the example are identified by URLs which correspond to
files of the same name in the same directory. By helping keep different name
spaces consistent the WHIFF infrastructure makes it easier to construct and
understand web applications.
Stay in control of your design.
All supporting conventions and tools offered by WHIFF are optional.
WHIFF is designed to work well with other modules conformant to the WSGI
(Web Service Gateway Interface) standard. Developers and designers are
free to use those WHIFF tools that work for them and ignore or replace the others.
Grab the ingredients you need.
WHIFF does not provide a "packaged cake mix" for baking a web application.
Instead WHIFF is designed to provide a set of ingredients which can be
easily combined to make web applications (with no need to refine
your own sugar or mill your own wheat).
All of the documentation available here is implemented
using WHIFF and exercises a lot of WHIFF features -- I hope
you find it useful. Please leave a comment if you have a suggestion for an improvement.
the source for this documentation is available under the INSTALL/doc
directory.
