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Section
titleThe Tool

We created a first beta version of the DTSMP that should make it a lot easier to create these three kinds of pages. We say 'should' since we just started the journey.

Everything starts with the archetype project. But you control the archtetype for doctype add-ons with the doctype:create goal which sets some defaults and makes creating new add-on projects quite easy.

To create a blueprint you need to touch a number of files.

  1. There is the XML file containing the template,
  2. the Soy file to specify the wizard.
  3. A JavaScript file for the validators for the wizard,
  4. probably a Java file to manipulate the blueprint context
  5. and finally a number of edits to the atlassian-plugin.xml file.

To simplify this process, we do specify one descriptor and then generate all the blueprint related stuff.

We think of pages as documents with properties (key-value pairs) and sections (a title with text, possibly nested). We call this a projectdoc document. With this in mind, we define a document type with a doctype descriptor (there is also a descriptor for spaces and one for the context of the add-on).

Example Box
titleSystem, System Type, and Lifecycle Phase

Here is the example of a doctype (it-system) with it own type category (it-system-type).

Expand
titleClick here to expand the System Descriptor
Code Block
languagexml
titleSystem doctype (with a type)
<doctype
  xmlns="http://smartics.de/xsd/projectdoc/doctype/1"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  id="it-system"
  base-template="standard"
  provide-type="standard-type"
  category="operations">
  <resource-bundle>
    <l10n>
      <name>IT System</name>
      <description>
        Provide information on an IT system to be deployed to.
      </description>
      <about>
        IT systems are part of environments where products are deployed to.
      </about>
    </l10n>
    <l10n locale="de">
      <name>IT-System</name>
      <description>
        Erstellen Sie eine Akte zu einem IT-System.
      </description>
      <about>
        IT-Systeme stellen Funktionalität bereit, die von Services genutzt werden.
      </about>
      <type plural="IT-Systemtypen">IT-Systemtyp</type>
    </l10n>
  </resource-bundle>

  <properties>
    <property key="projectdoc.doctype.common.type">
      <value>
        <macro name="projectdoc-name-list">
          <param name="doctype">it-system-type</param>
          <param
            name="property"
            key="projectdoc.doctype.common.type" />
          <param name="render-no-hits-as-blank">true</param>
        </macro>
      </value>
    </property>

    <property key="projectdoc.doctype.it-system.lifecycle-phase">
      <value>
        <macro name="projectdoc-name-list">
          <param name="doctype">lifecycle-phase</param>
          <param
            name="property"
            key="projectdoc.doctype.it-system.lifecycle-phase" />
          <param name="render-no-hits-as-blank">true</param>
        </macro>
      </value>
      <resource-bundle>
        <l10n>
          <name>Lifecycle Phase</name>
        </l10n>
        <l10n locale="de">
          <name>Lifecycle-Phase</name>
        </l10n>
      </resource-bundle>
    </property>
  </properties>
</doctype>

If you are looking for the declaration if the it-system type, its here:

Code Block
provide-type="standard-type"

The type doctype provides a section to dynamically list all documents that are associated to this type.

The it-system blueprint does not only provide the two properties explicitly stated. Since it derives from the standard template, all standard properties and sections are automatically generated.

Expand
titleClick here to expand the Lifecycle Phase Descriptor
Code Block
languagexml
titleLifecycle Phase (a type)
<doctype
  xmlns="http://smartics.de/xsd/projectdoc/doctype/1"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  id="lifecycle-phase"
  base-template="type"
  provide-type="none"
  category="reference">
  <resource-bundle>
    <l10n>
      <name>Lifecycle Phase</name>
      <description>
        Define a lifecycle phase.
      </description>
      <about>
        Lifecycle Phases define phases that are bound to a lifecycle.
      </about>
    </l10n>
    <l10n locale="de">
      <name>Lifecycle-Phase</name>
      <description>
        Definieren Sie eine Phase.
      </description>
      <about>
        Phasen von Lifecycles dokumentieren einen Abschnitt im Zyklus von Ressourcen.
      </about>
      <type plural="Lifecycle-Phasentypen">Lifecycle-Phasentyp</type>
    </l10n>
  </resource-bundle>

  <properties>
    <property key="projectdoc.doctype.lifecycle-phase.lifecycle">
      <value>
        <macro name="projectdoc-name-list">
          <param name="doctype">lifecycle</param>
          <param
            name="property"
            key="projectdoc.doctype.lifecycle-phase.lifecycle" />
          <param name="render-no-hits-as-blank">true</param>
        </macro>
      </value>
      <resource-bundle>
        <l10n>
          <name>Lifecycle</name>
        </l10n>
        <l10n locale="de">
          <name>Lifecycle</name>
        </l10n>
      </resource-bundle>
    </property>
  </properties>
</doctype>
Section
titleLimitations

We started our internal beta (although the sources are already published on Bitbucket) to check how it is working. Needless to say that at this early stage it has some limitations:

  • The syntax for defining sections is not final - property values (with alternate forms as seen above) and whole sections (without alternatives if you need to specify more than a placeholder) are specified in their storage format within an xml element
  • Only one space blueprint can be defined
  • There are grammatical problems with the boiler plate texts (especially in German), so there is the need to run over the generated localization bundles
  • No roundtrip: You should not need to edit the generated files (or if you do, should not use the descriptor again)
  • Very simple wizards currently
  • No support to add CSS or JavaScript
  • Currently the localized resources need to be written to the descriptor
  • There is also a redundancy specifying the central base templates - but you won't see this until you need to create your own base template

We'll work to improve the tools to remove these limitations.

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