WHIFF applications are deployed as files in file system hierarchies and the URL identifying
an application is closely related to the location of the file in the file system.
Furthermore references between configuration files and applications observe familiar file
path reference conventions.
For example consider the following configuration template ~/resume/register.whiff
taken from the resume wizard
tutorial
{{env whiff.content_type: "text/html",
whiff.parse_cgi: true
/}}
{{include "whiff_middleware/session"}}
{{include "whiff_middleware/newProfile"}}
{{using user}} {{get-cgi user/}} {{/using}}
{{using password}} {{get-cgi password/}} {{/using}}
{{using password2}} {{get-cgi password2/}} {{/using}}
{{using page}} {{include "main"/}} {{/using}}
{{using elsePage}} {{include "registerform"/}} {{/using}}
{{/include}}
{{/include}}
This template essentially attempts to create a new profile using submitted user
and password information and on success returns the
main page, or on
failure returns to the
registerform page.
The register template refers to 4 other applications. The location of the implementation of
each of the applications can be easily determined from the names used in the configuration file
- "whiff_middleware/session" is the standard WHIFF middleware for establishing an HTTP session
implemented by the Python code
INSTALL/whiff/middleware/session.py.
- "whiff_middleware/newProfile" is the standard WHIFF middleware for creating a user profile
implemented by the Python code
INSTALL/whiff/middleware/newProfile.py.
- "main" is the main page for the wizard
implemented by the configuration template named
main.whiff in the same
directory as register.whiff.
- "registerform" is the registration form for the wizard
implemented by the configuration template named
registerform.whiff in the same
directory as register.whiff.
By using a simple correspondence between HTTP URLs, Python module paths, and file system paths,
WHIFF makes the process of constructing and understanding complex web applications easier.
