Latest Posts

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.

Yesterday, I identified the need to have some syntax in a formula query to join a notification table.

I'm still working on new Query::joinInsertNotifications() and Query::joinUpdateNotifications() methods.

I wanted to implement incremental indexing in one go.

Not so quick.

I hit some major roadblocks, and I'm working on removing them, one by one.

Use deleteAll() method on a search query to, well, delete all entries from a search index.

Yesterday, indexers started listening to query inserted, updated and deleted notifications and creating records in notification tables.

Now, saving a product complains:

Table 'admin2.zi9__products__inserts' doesn't exist

Fair enough. Let's create it.

While testing notification logic in Osm Admin, an exception is thrown in $db->committing() callback, and the logic in $db->rollback() fails.

Let's review how transaction callbacks work, and fix it.

Yesterday results:

• POST /create route handles the input of new object form.
• A decision to keep faceted navigation and search out of the editing page.
• Sending table change notifications.

I've got a little more organized, then fixed an error in selecting all products, and implemented filtered URL generation in the browser.

A list of references to the most useful blog posts about Osm Admin and Osm Framework. One day, they'll be a part of the official documentation.

Progress messages stopped working, and I fixed that. Then, I implemented a safety measure that prevent accidental deletion (or other operations) on all objects.

In Osm Admin, I've finished implementing editing behavior of input and select controls.

For other control types, a step-by-step guide is prepared.

In Osm Admin, object editing form is used not only for a single object editing, but also for editing multiple objects, and for creating a new object.

I also created the osmphp/extras package as an easy way of adding Font Awesome icons to a project. Later, I'll add more optional reusable goodies to this package.

On the list page, grid columns are implemented as control views. On the editing page, form fields are also implemented as control views.

The form Blade templates are completely migrated to Osm Admin v0.2.

I redesigned control rendering on list and edit pages. From now, a control contains view prototypes for a grid column, a form field, and other.

A View is a short-living object that is created and computed during page rendering. You can also create a pre-configured a View object prototype in advance, and then clone it for rendering.

It's important not to execute render-time properties while configuring the prototype.

Use view() helper function to create render-time view instances, and mark render-time properties using #[RenderTime] attribute to prevent accessing them before rendering.

After getting the list page to work, I returned to the editing page.

Done:

• new page layout based on template inheritance
• form header
• form field layout

Yesterday, I polished the product color facet, and, starting now, you can create a facet with a list of string options very quickly, just by marking a property as #[Faceted].

/**
 * @property string $color #[Option(Color::class), Faceted]
 */
class Product extends Record
{

In the product editing form, I implemented the id filter, and made the UI query work in database-only mode, too.

Three days ago, I started rendering faceted navigation, and namely, color facet on the product list page.

Yesterday, I continued working on it and got the first render of the faceted navigation, defined URL action syntax, and the first facet filter applied on the product list page.

Yesterday, I optimized search responses, made search hit limit explicit, and decided not to obfuscate ID in URL.

The implementation of the faceted implementation in osm.software blog has shown that sometimes you need only facet counts, or only total count of matching entries.

Until now, Osm Framework had always queried total count, ids and facets. Not anymore - and the search engine only provides the information that is actually needed.

The implicit ElasticSearch hit limit is confusing. And you can't get all the hits - there is 10000 maximum hit limit that you can't exceed anyway.

Be explicit about the maximum number of search hits.

In my opinion, obfuscating object ID in a URL is not worth the effort, and here is why.

My current goal is a minimum list page, a form page and a faceted navigation for a Product data class.

Today, I've:

• implemented ElasticSearch + MySql combo that gets the list page data
• started rendering the faceted navigation

Today, I finished indexing design, described typical indexing logic, implemented full search reindexing.

Starting today, I'll write a daily blog post about how the Osm Admin development goes.

This is the first one. It reviews where I am today, covers creation of a search index, and revisits the design of the indexing engine and how queries orchestrate the indexing.

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.

Install and use osm, osmc, osmt and osmh command line aliases for faster command typing.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

Once PHP 8, Node and Gulp are installed, create new projects quickly using the command line.

Note. This post is moved to Osm Framework documentation.

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.

Osm Framework introduced production mode and maintenance mode. osm.software website went live.

Osm Framework introduced JS controllers, and JS unit tests. osmcommerce.com website project was renamed to osm.software, it finalized the post rendering, and introduced a tool for checking broken links.

osmcommerce.com (now osm.software) blog got multi-select layered navigation, category management, FontAwesome icons, Tailwind CSS Typography. Osm Core allows debugging accidental assignments of the computed properties.