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I stopped working on the Osm Admin project, for financial reasons. Did it hurt? A lot. Was it necessary? Unfortunately, yes. This post is a short retrospection on this matter.

Use config:nginx, config:host and install:nginx commands to automate Nginx configuration of your project. Now, it's fully automated!

Yesterday, I tested the instructions for installing Osm Admin locally as a contributor.

Yesterday:

• Osm Admin in-browser functionality was fully restored after creating search index in the indexer.
• All test suites started passing again, and being run automatically on git push.

Yesterday started as usual, planning new iteration, and then BAM! - one folk - Saif - joined the project. It made me correct the course a bit, and take care of potential contributors:

• README explains what the project is about, and how to get started as a contributor;
• I'm fixing things to make the project actually runnable just after installing it.

Yay! After implementing invalid data conversion, I finished the iteration #18 dedicated to diff-based migrations!

I must say, it's a bit disturbing to implement the same thing for the third time. Still, the goal is to get it finished, and have it sustainable.

After the effort, the code has become su much easier to read!

I continued working on property diff algorithm that plans all the migration details.

Yesterday, I finished implementing data conversion for int and string property types.

Then, I started refactoring it.

Last time, I pushed through string property migrations and created a migration log.

Today, I continued solving data conversion issues.

• I finished implementing string property migrations.
• Migrations have got a meaningful log explaining what migrations take place, and why.
• Along the way, I fixed numerous issues.

Yesterday, I finished writing int property migrations. True, testing it is still a todo.

The major part of the code (type change, nullability and other attribute handling) will be reused in other property types.

I refactored Property::migrate() using additional Migration classes. It's so much more convenient to compare property definition versions and generate migration SQLs!

New code structure already handles property explicitness changes.

After enumerating what kind of changes can happen to a property, I started implementing the most hard one - changing property type.

The Query::bulkUpdate() method is implemented in the TDD way.

My current goal is to get some minimum Osm Admin user interface and API working - just for one property, one data type, one UI control type, and then improve.

And there is a lot of space for improvement. The main areas are listed in this document.

I'd really appreciate a helping hand, so if you are into this sort of things, DM me on Twitter.

I feel that both attributes decorating data classes, and object model parsed from it are too complex.

Let's have a fresh look at Osm Admin. If I had to start from scratch, how would it be?

Today, I finished implementing an object creation form.

It works according to the specs on Interfaces and Forms. Currently, it only supports string and integer input fields; later, there will be a lot more.

Let's review how it works.

In Osm Admin, a form is an integral part of the class user interface. It's a very specific kind of HTML form.

In this article, I'll review what's in a class form, and how it's reflected from the application code.

Yesterday, I described a user interface pattern for managing data of a certain data class using a grid/form pair. Let's call this grid/form pair class interface in the admin area.

In this article, I'll examine what moving parts are inside a class interface.

So far, I've been concerned about how application data is modeled, stored and handled internally.

Yet, the final objective a user interface for viewing and editing it visually.

Let's dream a bit about how it might look like.

Yay, indexing works!

It's changed quite a bit, so let's review how it works from the very beginning.

I'm still working on indexing, and it seems to get one more refactoring. But more on that later.

Meanwhile, let's review Osm Admin modules, their responsibilities and dependencies.

After 3 days of intensive work, I've got dot syntax working!

Along the way, I refactored the query internals once again, which reminds me a heuristics saying that you've got to implement something three times to get it right :)

New query implementation uses the concept of formulas - SQL-like expressions used for selecting, filtering and sorting data. Currently, formulas are quite limited, but with time, they should be a really powerful feature.

I decided to support selecting, filtering and ordering by properties of a related object using dot syntax: product.price, parent.level. This syntax will automatically join the table that stored related objects.

I realized that implementing joins requires a better query model than my current naive wrapper around Laravel query. This article describes the new query model.

This article is about running SELECT and INSERT queries on data objects stored in the database.

In short, use the query() function. It runs on top of Laravel Query\Builder. It handles the mapping of data class properties onto table columns, and initiates the computation of indexed properties.

Currently, you can only SELECT and INSERT, other operations are coming soon.

Today, I implemented computation of indexed properties during insert. The implementation dictated some changes in indexed property definitions compare to the initial design, and how indexers are reflected into the data schema.

Also, I implemented a table query class working on the top of Laravel Query\Builder. More about it next time, for now I'll review how indexed properties are computed during INSERT operation.

It's often needed to compute, or index, data in database tables based on data in other tables.

This article is the first sketch of a consistent indexing solution.

I've finished refactoring how Osm Admin stores data objects in the database. Also, in order to support multi-website, multi-vendor, multi-language applications, I've introduced the concept of scopes.

Most reasoning from the first version is still valid, so let's take a fresh look of what's changed.

I developed dehydrate()/hydrate() functions for a very practical need - storing the data class schema:

• in cache - to reduce processing time spent on reflection;
• and in database - to compare current and new database schema, and only add new tables and columns.

This article describes the information stored in the schema, and unit tests that I prepared in order to be sure that schema classes are property hydrated.

Recently, I developed a couple of helper functions for transmitting PHP objects over the wire, and saving them in database records:

• dehydrate() - recursively converts an instance of a PHP class to a plain untyped object. Then, store the plain object in the database, or convert it to JSON and send it to a browser.
• hydrate() - recursively converts a plain untyped object back to a PHP class instance. Use if after decoding a JSON received from the browser, or after loading a database record.

This article describes how to use these functions.

When active, modal elements - dialogs, pickers, or AJAX spinners - need to prevent user interaction with the rest of the page.

A common approach is putting an overlay <div> under the modal element covering the rest of the page, as a click shield. However, user can still navigate the page with the keyboard.

Today, I implemented a better solution by capturing mouse and keyboard events outside the modal element, and keeping focus inside.

Currently, I'm working on Osm Admin package, and I need a module to inject its HTML markup around some well-known place in a Blade template. However, Blade template extensibility is not a problem that's specific to Osm Admin project. It's a generic problem. Let's solve that.

As described in Migrations, most data objects of the same class will be stored in a database table.

But what about subclasses? In an e-commerce application, bags, dresses, and digital products, collectively known as subclasses, are all products stored in products table, and they may have bad-specific, dress-specific or digital product specific properties that should also be stored there.

This article describes how subclasses are defined and stored in Osm Admin.

Different data classes have repeating structural patterns. For example, most data classes stored in database tables have the auto-incremented id property. Use PHP traits to effectively introduce the same properties to different data classes over and over again.

I partly implemented data schema migration. It takes data class definitions, and incrementally creates or alters underlying database tables.

The article below describes how schema migration works, and what's not implemented yet, but most probably will be.

Note. This topic is continued in the new article.

After you got a project up and running, let's have a look what's inside. Every directory has its purpose. Learn where to put your creative efforts!

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

In Osm Framework, an application is a set of modules that you run as a whole. There are several applications defined in the project, each having its own PHP class. Mostly, deal with the main one, Osm\App\App. Beside the class name, every application also has a name, the main one is named Osm_App.

Access the current application object, and the main parts of Osm Framework, via the global $osm_app object and its properties. Add your own long-living objects there. Run an application using its HTTP or console entry point, or using Apps::run().

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

Modular software development is a well-known practice of dividing your application into several modules, each doing one thing, and doing it well. It increases readability and simplifies maintenance, as application concerns are fully separated from one another, easier to reason about, and to debug.

Modular development also encourages reuse. It's like a puzzle. Using one set of modules, you'll get an e-commerce application, using another set of modules - you'll get a blog application.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

Using dynamic traits, customize anything. Inject your code in the beginning, in the end, or instead of any standard method. Even more, add new properties and methods to the existing standard classes.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

Computed properties are one of Osm Framework pillars. They help to execute code only once, and only if it's actually needed. Computed properties control object serialization and caching. They provide meaningful insights into class interdependencies. Finally, computed properties are easy to test.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

Osm Framework uses Monolog library for logging. Use standard loggers defined in the $osm_app->logs object, or add your own. Control logging in the settings.{app_name}.php and .env.{app_name} files.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

After pushing changes to GitHub, osm.software website is updated without any additional manual action. On push, GitHub executes the deployment script on the production server. Most changes are done to content only, and in this case, the deployment script only updates the search index. Otherwise, with the website being on maintenance, it additionally updates Composer and Node dependencies, builds JS and CSS assets, and runs the database migrations.

Today, osm.software reached an important milestone - 100% Lighthouse score.

This article explains how to manage and assign blog categories.