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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.

I came with an idea of much cleaner Osm Admin data class "markup", and more straightforward architecture, and I decided to give it a go in a separate experimental branch v0.2, and to see if it's viable.

After three weeks of implementation effort, I can say that it is viable, and it's so much better! And it's not a completely new effort, I mostly copy code from v0.1 and some parts of osmphp/framework:old_v4, and adapt it.

You can already define data classes using new markup, generate the database tables, and query it using new formula syntax. I really wanted to come with some UI working, but there wasn't enough time for that. It stays my priority for the next iteration.

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?

In Osm Admin, I've finished indexing. It means that whenever you modify an object in the database, the changes are automatically propagated to all dependent indexed properties in the database.

I've also introduced a grid/form pair as the main user interface concept that is optimized for performing operations on multiple objects. There is also a programming interface (API) that will internally work in the same way, but without visuals. I implemented a part of this interface - an object creation form.

Osm Framework and all projects built with it - including this website and Osm Admin - are upgraded to TailwindCSS 3.0.

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.

For the last two weeks, I figured out two core features that will allow Osm Admin to stand out from other CRUD applications:

1. It will allow mass editing of data objects.
2. It will automatically propagate data changes throughout the database.

The foundation for the mass editing feature is data queries. Data propagation will be ensured via indexing.

I've been working on the Osm Admin indexing engine, and it's still in progress. While working on it, I reworked the inner working of data queries. Finally, I've achieved a very clear separation of various Osm Admin concerns, and documented it.

In Osm Core, I added reflection over class methods.

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.

New Osm Framework version comes with improved, configurable and easily customizable Gulp script, modular NPM dependencies, standard page layout Blade component and brand new README. osm.software website contains an easy-to-follow new project installation instruction.

The first osm.software blog articles have been written, edited and revised. Content changes are deployed in semi-automated way. The website got some SEO improvements, and now it scores 100% in Google Lighthouse.