Introducing the JotSpot Data Model and API

JotSpot Developer Tutorial Introducing the JotSpot Wiki Storage Model and API DRAFT

Tutorial Overview

Benefits of Structure in a Wiki

JotSpot Storage Model Overview

JotSpot API Sneak Peak

Why Add Structure to a Wiki?

Why Structure in a Wiki?

Wikis are amazing for free-form text collaboration

But not all content in your wiki works well as free-form text…

Free-form text is simply not a good way to organize lists or view relationships

Ask Your Wiki for More…

We track project milestones in our wiki…

Can I see milestone roll ups across all projects?

We track feature requests & requirements…

How do I sort requirements by customer? By priority?

We create lots of similar looking pages, e.g. meeting agendas…

Can we make page templates so it’s easy to create consistent looking pages?

Summary: Benefits of Structure

Centralize : Store more types of info in a single place place

Simplify : Easier to organize and find “the good stuff”

Room to Grow : the more you use, the more you’ll need

Introducing Structure in JotSpot Wikis

What You’ll Learn

Everything is a Page in JotSpot (“Look ma, no database!”)

Pages contain properties

Properties defined by forms

In the end, pages stored as XML

Todo List Page: Free-form Text

Todo List Page: A Little Structure

Todo List Page: A Little Structure + some Ajax

Structure Under the Hood: Forms & Properties

In JotSpot, Everything is a Page

My Todos – 13 lines of code:

1 to add new todo pages

6 to render rollup table

6 to structure todo pages

Each todo a separate child page with 3 properties:

description

priority

when

BTW, here’s the code

Rows in a database Pages in JotSpot There is no database; Everything is a Page … … … … Daily Hi Walk the dog Today Lo Get Milk When Priority Description

RDBMS Vs.Page-based Model Storage Concept Relational DB JotSpot JotSpot form page Table schema Unique items defined by… Property in a page Column in a row Individual value in… JotSpot page DB Row Unique item stored in… Set of JotSpot pages DB Table Application data stored in…

But, How To Add and Edit Page Properties? (Hint: use Forms)

JotSpot Forms: Just Wiki Pages with JotScript

Create & Edit Pages w/Forms Edit Mode: mywiki.jot.com/GetMilk ?edit=1&form=TodoForm

Forms Define Views Too

In the End, Pages stored as XML Page “x-ray”: mywiki.jot.com/GetMilk ?xml=esc

Did I Mention Forms Define Properties?

Summary: What You Learned

Everything is a Page

Pages contain properties

Properties defined by forms

In the end, pages stored as XML

There’s More to Using a JotSpot Form than Meets the Eye

What You’ll Learn

Edit Different Properties of a Page Using Different Forms

Display Different Views of a Page Using Different Forms

Edit “Get Milk” w/TodoForm… mywiki.jot.com/GetMilk?edit=1 &form=TodoForm

Edit “Get Milk” w/PermissionsForm

mywiki.jot.com/GetMilk?edit=1 &form=PermissionForm

Each Form Edits Different Properties mywiki.jot.com/GetMilk ?xml=esc

Can Edit Pages w/Different Forms

Can View Pages w/Different Forms

Manipulating Pages & Properties: API Sneak Peak

What You’ll Learn

One Core Library (JotLib), 4 APIs

“ Tags” (aka JotScript)

Server-side Javascript

REST

XML-RPC

JotSpot API is Full-featured

3 Main API Syntaxes

JotScript (aka “tags”) <jot:search forFormName=“TodoForm” set=“results” />

Server-side Javascript (aka “ssjs”) var results = jot.lib.search({forFormName: ‘TodoForm'});

REST (aka “web service”) http://mywiki.jot.com/_/cmd/columns?col0=it/TodoForm/prio& format=xml&filter=util:isDefined(it/TodoForm)

Example: Display a Todo Page’s Properties Code to Display This Here

Code in JotScript

<jot:pageinfo href=“wiki:GetMilk” name=“pgVar” />

Desc: ${pgVar/TodoForm/description}

Do when?: ${pgVar/TodoForm/when}

Created: ${pgVar/createTime}

Code in Server-side Javascript

<jot:script>

var pgVar=jot.pages[“/GetMilk”];

jot.out.write(“Desc:”+pgVar.TodoForm.description);

jot.out.write(“Do when?:”+pgVar[“TodoForm/when”]);

jot.out.write(“Created:”+pgVar.createTime);

</jot:script>

Tags vs. SSJS: You Choose

var pgVar=jot.pages[“/GetMilk”];

jot.out.write(“Desc:”+pgVar.TodoForm.description);

jot.out.write(“Do when?:”+pgVar[“TodoForm/when”]);

jot.out.write(“Created:”+pgVar.createTime);

<jot:pageinfo href=“wiki:GetMilk” name=“pgVar”/> Desc.: ${pgVar/TodoForm/description} Do when?: ${pgVar/TodoForm/when} Created: ${pgVar/createTime} VS.

Lots More JotLib API: http://developer.jot.com/Reference jot.lib.attach() jot.lib.diff() jot.lib.image.newChart() jot.lib.mail() jot.lib.parseRows() jot.lib.removePage() jot.lib.rename() jot.lib.savePage() jot.lib.search() jot.lib.tree() admin.importZip() admin.log() admin.lookupEmail() …