path: root/docs/tutorials/wiki2/definingviews.rst

==============
Defining Views
==============

A :term:`view callable` in a :term:`url dispatch` -based
:app:`Pyramid` application is typically a simple Python function that
accepts a single parameter named :term:`request`.  A view callable is
assumed to return a :term:`response` object.

.. note:: A :app:`Pyramid` view can also be defined as callable
   which accepts *two* arguments: a :term:`context` and a
   :term:`request`.  You'll see this two-argument pattern used in
   other :app:`Pyramid` tutorials and applications.  Either calling
   convention will work in any :app:`Pyramid` application; the
   calling conventions can be used interchangeably as necessary.  In
   :term:`url dispatch` based applications, however, the context
   object is rarely used in the view body itself, so within this
   tutorial we define views as callables that accept only a request to
   avoid the visual "noise".  If you do need the ``context`` within a
   view function that only takes the request as a single argument, you
   can obtain it via ``request.context``.

The request passed to every view that is called as the result of a route
match has an attribute named ``matchdict`` that contains the elements placed
into the URL by the ``pattern`` of a ``route`` statement.  For instance, if a
call to :meth:`pyramid.configuration.Configurator.add_route` in
``__init__.py`` had the pattern ``{one}/{two}``, and the URL at
``http://example.com/foo/bar`` was invoked, matching this pattern, the
matchdict dictionary attached to the request passed to the view would have a
``one`` key with the value ``foo`` and a ``two`` key with the value ``bar``.

The source code for this tutorial stage can be browsed at
`http://github.com/Pylons/pyramid/tree/master/docs/tutorials/wiki2/src/views/
<http://github.com/Pylons/pyramid/tree/master/docs/tutorials/wiki2/src/views/>`_.

Declaring Dependencies in Our ``setup.py`` File
===============================================

The view code in our application will depend on a package which is not
a dependency of the original "tutorial" application.  The original
"tutorial" application was generated by the ``paster create`` command;
it doesn't know about our custom application requirements.  We need to
add a dependency on the ``docutils`` package to our ``tutorial``
package's ``setup.py`` file by assigning this dependency to the
``install_requires`` parameter in the ``setup`` function.

Our resulting ``setup.py`` should look like so:

.. literalinclude:: src/views/setup.py
   :linenos:
   :language: python

.. note:: After these new dependencies are added, you will need to
   rerun ``python setup.py develop`` inside the root of the
   ``tutorial`` package to obtain and register the newly added
   dependency package.

Adding View Functions
=====================

We'll get rid of our ``my_view`` view function in our ``views.py``
file.  It's only an example and isn't relevant to our application.

Then we're going to add four :term:`view callable` functions to our
``views.py`` module.  One view callable (named ``view_wiki``) will
display the wiki itself (it will answer on the root URL), another
named ``view_page`` will display an individual page, another named
``add_page`` will allow a page to be added, and a final view callable
named ``edit_page`` will allow a page to be edited.  We'll describe
each one briefly and show the resulting ``views.py`` file afterward.

.. note::

  There is nothing special about the filename ``views.py``.  A project
  may have many view callables throughout its codebase in
  arbitrarily-named files.  Files implementing view callables often
  have ``view`` in their filenames (or may live in a Python subpackage
  of your application package named ``views``), but this is only by
  convention.

The ``view_wiki`` view function
-------------------------------

The ``view_wiki`` function will respond as the :term:`default view` of
a ``Wiki`` model object.  It always redirects to a URL which
represents the path to our "FrontPage".  It returns an instance of the
:class:`pyramid.httpexceptions.HTTPFound` class (instances of which
implement the WebOb :term:`response` interface), It will use the
:func:`pyramid.url.route_url` API to construct a URL to the
``FrontPage`` page (e.g. ``http://localhost:6543/FrontPage``), and
will use it as the "location" of the HTTPFound response, forming an
HTTP redirect.

The ``view_page`` view function
-------------------------------

The ``view_page`` function will respond as the :term:`default view` of
a ``Page`` object.  The ``view_page`` function renders the
:term:`ReStructuredText` body of a page (stored as the ``data``
attribute of a Page object) as HTML.  Then it substitutes an HTML
anchor for each *WikiWord* reference in the rendered HTML using a
compiled regular expression.

The curried function named ``check`` is used as the first argument to
``wikiwords.sub``, indicating that it should be called to provide a
value for each WikiWord match found in the content.  If the wiki
already contains a page with the matched WikiWord name, the ``check``
function generates a view link to be used as the substitution value
and returns it.  If the wiki does not already contain a page with with
the matched WikiWord name, the function generates an "add" link as the
substitution value and returns it.

As a result, the ``content`` variable is now a fully formed bit of
HTML containing various view and add links for WikiWords based on the
content of our current page object.

We then generate an edit URL (because it's easier to do here than in
the template), and we return a dictionary with a number of arguments.
The fact that this view returns a dictionary (as opposed to a
:term:`response` object) is a cue to :app:`Pyramid` that it should
try to use a :term:`renderer` associated with the view configuration
to render a template.  In our case, the template which will be
rendered will be the ``templates/view.pt`` template, as per the
configuration put into effect in ``__init__.py``.

The ``add_page`` view function
------------------------------

The ``add_page`` function will be invoked when a user clicks on a
*WikiWord* which isn't yet represented as a page in the system.  The
``check`` function within the ``view_page`` view generates URLs to
this view.  It also acts as a handler for the form that is generated
when we want to add a page object.  The ``matchdict`` attribute of the
request passed to the ``add_page`` view will have the values we need
to construct URLs and find model objects.

The matchdict will have a ``pagename`` key that matches the name of
the page we'd like to add.  If our add view is invoked via,
e.g. ``http://localhost:6543/add_page/SomeName``, the ``pagename``
value in the matchdict will be ``SomeName``.

If the view execution is *not* a result of a form submission (if the
expression ``'form.submitted' in request.params`` is ``False``), the
view callable renders a template.  To do so, it generates a "save url"
which the template use as the form post URL during rendering.  We're
lazy here, so we're trying to use the same template
(``templates/edit.pt``) for the add view as well as the page edit
view, so we create a dummy Page object in order to satisfy the edit
form's desire to have *some* page object exposed as ``page``, and
:app:`Pyramid` will render the template associated with this view
to a response.

If the view execution *is* a result of a form submission (if the
expression ``'form.submitted' in request.params`` is ``True``), we
scrape the page body from the form data, create a Page object using
the name in the matchdict ``pagename``, and obtain the page body from
the request, and save it into the database using ``session.add``.  We
then redirect back to the ``view_page`` view (the :term:`default view`
for a Page) for the newly created page.

The ``edit_page`` view function
-------------------------------

The ``edit_page`` function will be invoked when a user clicks the
"Edit this Page" button on the view form.  It renders an edit form but
it also acts as the handler for the form it renders.  The
``matchdict`` attribute of the request passed to the ``add_page`` view
will have a ``pagename`` key matching the name of the page the user
wants to edit.

If the view execution is *not* a result of a form submission (if the
expression ``'form.submitted' in request.params`` is ``False``), the
view simply renders the edit form, passing the request, the page
object, and a save_url which will be used as the action of the
generated form.

If the view execution *is* a result of a form submission (if the
expression ``'form.submitted' in request.params`` is ``True``), the
view grabs the ``body`` element of the request parameter and sets it
as the ``data`` key in the matchdict.  It then redirects to the
default view of the wiki page, which will always be the ``view_page``
view.

Viewing the Result of Our Edits to ``views.py``
===============================================

The result of all of our edits to ``views.py`` will leave it looking
like this:

.. literalinclude:: src/views/tutorial/views.py
   :linenos:
   :language: python

Adding Templates
================

The views we've added all reference a :term:`template`.  Each template is a
:term:`Chameleon` :term:`ZPT` template.  These templates will live in the
``templates`` directory of our tutorial package.

The ``view.pt`` Template
------------------------

The ``view.pt`` template is used for viewing a single wiki page.  It
is used by the ``view_page`` view function.  It should have a div that
is "structure replaced" with the ``content`` value provided by the
view.  It should also have a link on the rendered page that points at
the "edit" URL (the URL which invokes the ``edit_page`` view for the
page being viewed).

Once we're done with the ``view.pt`` template, it will look a lot like
the below:

.. literalinclude:: src/views/tutorial/templates/view.pt
   :linenos:
   :language: xml

.. note:: The names available for our use in a template are always
   those that are present in the dictionary returned by the view
   callable.  But our templates make use of a ``request`` object that
   none of our tutorial views return in their dictionary.  This value
   appears as if "by magic".  However, ``request`` is one of several
   names that are available "by default" in a template when a template
   renderer is used.  See :ref:`chameleon_template_renderers` for more
   information about other names that are available by default in a
   template when a Chameleon template is used as a renderer.

The ``edit.pt`` Template
------------------------

The ``edit.pt`` template is used for adding and editing a wiki page.
It is used by the ``add_page`` and ``edit_page`` view functions.  It
should display a page containing a form that POSTs back to the
"save_url" argument supplied by the view.  The form should have a
"body" textarea field (the page data), and a submit button that has
the name "form.submitted".  The textarea in the form should be filled
with any existing page data when it is rendered.

Once we're done with the ``edit.pt`` template, it will look a lot like
the below:

.. literalinclude:: src/views/tutorial/templates/edit.pt
   :linenos:
   :language: xml

Static Resources
----------------

Our templates name a single static resource named ``style.css``.  We need to
create this and place it in a file named ``style.css`` within our package's
``static`` directory.  This file is a little too long to replicate within the
body of this guide, however it is available `online
<http://github.com/Pylons/pyramid/blob/master/docs/tutorials/wiki2/src/views/tutorial/static/style.css>`_.


This CSS file will be accessed via
e.g. ``http://localhost:6543/static/style.css`` by virtue of the call we've
made to :meth:`pyramid.configuration.Configurator.add_static_view` within our
``__init__.py`` file.  Any number and type of static resources can be placed
in this directory (or subdirectories) and are just referred to by URL within
templates.

Mapping Views to URLs in ``__init__.py``
========================================

The ``__init__.py`` file contains
:meth:`pyramid.configuration.Configurator.add_route` calls which serve to map
URLs via :term:`url dispatch` to view functions.  First, we’ll get rid of the
existing route created by the template using the name ``home``. It’s only an
example and isn’t relevant to our application.

We then need to add four calls to ``add_route``.  Note that the *ordering* of
these declarations is very important.  ``route`` declarations are matched in
the order they're found in the ``__init__.py`` file.

#. Add a declaration which maps the pattern ``/`` (signifying the root URL)
   to the view named ``view_wiki`` in our ``views.py`` file with the name
   ``view_wiki``.  This is the :term:`default view` for the wiki.

#. Add a declaration which maps the pattern ``/{pagename}`` to the view named
   ``view_page`` in our ``views.py`` file with the view name ``view_page``.
   This is the regular view for a page.

#. Add a declaration which maps the pattern
   ``/add_page/{pagename}`` to the view named ``add_page`` in our
   ``views.py`` file with the name ``add_page``.  This is the add view
   for a new page.

#. Add a declaration which maps the pattern ``/{pagename}/edit_page`` to the
   view named ``edit_page`` in our ``views.py`` file with the name
   ``edit_page``.  This is the edit view for a page.

As a result of our edits, the ``__init__.py`` file should look
something like so:

.. literalinclude:: src/views/tutorial/__init__.py
   :linenos:
   :language: python

Viewing the Application in a Browser
====================================

We can finally examine our application in a browser.  The views we'll try are
as follows:

- Visiting ``http://localhost:6543`` in a browser invokes the
  ``view_wiki`` view.  This always redirects to the ``view_page`` view
  of the FrontPage page object.

- Visiting ``http://localhost:6543/FrontPage`` in a browser invokes
  the ``view_page`` view of the front page page object.

- Visiting ``http://localhost:6543/FrontPage/edit_page`` in a browser
  invokes the edit view for the front page object.

- Visiting ``http://localhost:6543/add_page/SomePageName`` in a
  browser invokes the add view for a page.

Try generating an error within the body of a view by adding code to
the top of it that generates an exception (e.g. ``raise
Exception('Forced Exception')``).  Then visit the error-raising view
in a browser.  You should see an interactive exception handler in the
browser which allows you to examine values in a post-mortem mode.

Adding Tests
============

Since we've added a good bit of imperative code here, it's useful to
define tests for the views we've created.  We'll change our tests.py
module to look like this:

.. literalinclude:: src/views/tutorial/tests.py
   :linenos:
   :language: python

We can then run the tests using something like:

.. code-block:: text
   :linenos:

    $ python setup.py test -q

The expected output is something like:

.. code-block:: text
   :linenos:

   running test
   running egg_info
   writing requirements to tutorial.egg-info/requires.txt
   writing tutorial.egg-info/PKG-INFO
   writing top-level names to tutorial.egg-info/top_level.txt
   writing dependency_links to tutorial.egg-info/dependency_links.txt
   writing entry points to tutorial.egg-info/entry_points.txt
   unrecognized .svn/entries format in 
   reading manifest file 'tutorial.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
   writing manifest file 'tutorial.egg-info/SOURCES.txt'
   running build_ext
   ......
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   Ran 6 tests in 0.181s

   OK