Oyatul

Abstract representation of a filesystem layout

Synopsis

This runs the tests identified by 'purpose' test which can be in any location in the layout with the library directory identified by the purpose 'lib' :

use Oyatul;

my $description = q:to/LAY/;
{
   "type" : "layout",
   "children" : [
      {
         "name" : "t",
         "purpose" : "tests",
         "type" : "directory",
         "children" : [
            {
               "type" : "file",
               "purpose" : "test",
               "template" : true
            }
         ]
      },
      {
         "type" : "directory",
         "purpose" : "lib",
         "name" : "lib",
         "children" : []
      }
   ]
}
LAY

# the :real adverb causes instance nodes to be inserted
# for any templates if they exist.
my $layout = Oyatul::Layout.from-json($description, root => $*CWD.Str, :real);

# get the directory that stands in for 'lib'
my $lib = $layout.nodes-for-purpose('lib').first.path;

# get all the instances for 'test' excluding the template
for $layout.nodes-for-purpose('test', :real) -> $test {
	run($*EXECUTABLE, '-I', $lib, $test.path);
}

Description

This provides a method of describing a filesystem layout in an abstract manner.

It can be used in the deployment of applications which might need the creation of a directory tree for data or configuration, or for applications which may need to locate files and directory that it needs but can allow the user to define their own .

The file layout descriptions can be stored as JSON or they can be built programmatically (thus allowing other forms of storage.)

The description can define directories and files in an aribitrary tree structure, each can optionally define a 'purpose' which can be used to locate a node irrespective of its location in the tree and name, a node object can also be given a role with the 'does' key which can give the node additional behaviours (e.g. create a file of a specific format, create an object based on a file or directory etc.) Template nodes can be defined which can stand in for real files or directories which can be discovered at run-time.

This is based on a design that I used in a large application that relied heavily on file storage for its data, but is somewhat more simplified and abstracted as well as preferring JSON over the original XML for the storage of the layout description. The features are designed to allow Sofa to load a CouchDB design document from an arbitrary (possibly user defined) file hierarchy unlike couchapp which requires a fixed directory structure. However hopefully it will be useful in other applications.

Installation

Assuming you have a working Rakudo installation you should be able to install this with zef :

# From the source directory

zef install .

# Remote installation

zef install Oyatul

Support

Suggestions and patches that may make it more useful in your software are welcomed via github at:

https://github.com/jonathanstowe/Oyatul/issues

Licence

This is free software.

Please see the LICENCE file in the distribution

© Jonathan Stowe 2016 - 2021