GraphDash 0.8

GraphDash
=========

`GraphDash` is a web-based dashboard built on graphs and their metadata.
For example, if you have:

```bash
$ ls default_graph_dir
graph.svg
graph.txt
```

The svg file is the graph, and must have metadata with YAML format:

```bash
$ cat default_graph_dir/graph.txt
name: graph.svg
family: Category 1
title: '*Real serious* graph'
```

You can put as many graphs as you want in the directory, then start the
graph dashboard. You will get a web interface with search box,
autocompletion and easy navigation.

```bash
$ GraphDash -r default_graph_dir
* Running on http://0.0.0.0:5555/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
```


Installation
------------

Clone and install (in user space):

```bash
git clone https://github.com/AmadeusITGroup/graphdash.git
cd graphdash
pip install --user .
```

Or install in a `virtualenv`:

```bash
virtualenv --clear --no-site-packages .env
source .env/bin/activate
pip install .
```

Launch the webapp
-----------------

For user-space installation, make sure your `$PATH` includes `~/.local/bin`.

```bash
$ GraphDash -r default_graph_dir
* Running on http://0.0.0.0:5555/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
```

The dashboard can be configured with a YAML config file and the `-c/--conf` option:

```bash
$ cat docs/example.conf
root: ../default_graph_dir
title: "Example of title ;)"
subtitle: "Example of subtitle"

$ GraphDash -c docs/example.conf
* Running on http://0.0.0.0:5555/ (Press CTRL+C to quit)
```

You can generate a template of configuration file:

```bash
$ GraphDash -C template.conf
```

Serve with Gunicorn
-------------------

If not already installed on your machine, install `Gunicorn`:

```bash
pip install --user gunicorn # on Fedora you may need to install libffi-devel before
```

Since you can import the webapp through `graphdash:app`, you can serve it with `Gunicorn`:

```bash
gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8888 --pid server.pid graphdash:app &
```

The configuration file of the webapp can be set with the `CONF` environment variable.
With `Gunicorn`, you can pass environment variables to the workers with `--env`:

```bash
gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8888 --pid server.pid --env CONF=docs/example.conf graphdash:app &
```

But you should *not* use these commands yourself, that is what `GraphDashManage` is for!

GraphDashManage
---------------

`GraphDashManage` is used to `start`, `stop`, `restart` the
instances of `Gunicorn` serving `graphdash:app`. It needs a
configuration file in the current directory:

```bash
$ cat settings.sh
ALL_MODES=(
['prod']="docs/example.conf"
['test']="docs/example.conf"
)

ALL_PORTS=(
['prod']=1234
['test']=5678
)
```

Then you can manage multiple instances of `GraphDash` using `Gunicorn` with:

```bash
$ GraphDashManage start prod
[INFO] Listening at: http://0.0.0.0:1234
[INFO] Booting worker with pid: 30403
[INFO] Booting worker with pid: 30404
[INFO] Booting worker with pid: 30405

$ GraphDashManage start test
[INFO] Listening at: http://0.0.0.0:5678
...
```

You can generate a template of settings:

```bash
$ GraphDashManage template > template.sh # to be moved to settings.sh
```

Webapp configuration file
-------------------------

Possible entries (everything is optional):

- `root`: the root directory of the graphs
- `families`: path to the families metadata file (optional)
- `title`: the title of the webapp
- `subtitle`: the subtitle of the webapp
- `placeholder`: the default text in the search field
- `header`: an optional message at the top (markdown syntax)
- `footer`: an optional message at the bottom (markdown syntax)
- `showfamilynumbers`: a boolean to toggle family numbering (default is true)
- `showgraphnumbers`: a boolean to toggle graph numbering (default is true)
- `theme`: change css theme (default is dark)
- `keep`: the proportion of common words kept for autocompletion
- `logfile`: change default log file of the webapp
- `raw`: when loading, look for all graphs and ignore txt metadata
- `verbose`: a boolean indicating verbosity when loading application
- `debug`: debug mode (enable Grunt livereload, enable Flask debug mode)
- `headless`: headless mode (only search is available, no page is rendered)
- `port`: when launched with Flask development server only, port

Graph metadata
--------------

Several attributes are supported:

- `name`: the path to the graph
- `title`: title of the graph, recommended for display purposes (markdown syntax)
- `family`: the subsection in which the graph is
- `index`: an optional list of keywords describing the graph (useful for search feature)
- `text`: an optional description of the graph (markdown syntax)
- `pretext`: an optional message appearing before the graph (markdown syntax)
- `file`: optional path to the raw data
- `export`: optional path to the exportable graph (for example, a PNG file)
- `rank`: integer, optional value used to change graphs order (default uses titles)
- `showtitle`: a boolean to toggle title display for the graph (default is false)
- `labels`: a list of labels (like 'new') which will be rendered in the UI as colored circles
- `other`: other metadata not used by GraphDash, but may be needed by other things reading the txt files

Note that if the `name` attribute is missing, the graph will not be
shown and the text will be displayed anyway, like a blog entry.

Family metadata
---------------

You may put a `.FAMILIES.txt` file at the root of the graph directory.
This file may contain metadata for families. It should be a YAML list:

```yaml
- family: chairs
rank : 0
- family: tables
rank : 1
text: This is a description
alias: This text will appear instead of "tables"
labels: new
```

Each element of the list should be a dict containing:

- `family`: the family considered
- `rank`: integer, optional value used to change families order (default
uses family name)
- `text`: an optional description of the family (markdown syntax)
- `alias`: an optional name who may be longer than the one in the url
(useful to build nice urls)
- `labels`: a list of labels (like 'new') which will be rendered in the
UI as colored circles

Available labels are "new", "update", "bugfix", "warning", "error",
"ongoing", "obsolete". You may give other labels which will be rendered
with defaults colors. For customization, you may specify your own labels
with a dict syntax:

```yaml
labels:
- name: newlabel
color: white
text_color: black
text: "NEW LABEL"
tooltip: null
```

Development
-----------

If you wish to contribute, you need `Grunt` to generate new css/js files
from sass/coffee source files.

```bash
npm install --no-bin-links # may need to repeat
grunt
```

Debugging can be made with source map files for browser supporting them
in their debugging tools. If not, the `Gruntfile.js` enables an option
to generate non-minified assets.

```bash
grunt --dev
```

With the `debug` mode enabled, Grunt will use the livereload mechanism
to reload the browser if any file has changed (and Flask debug mode will
reload the server as well).

```bash
GraphDash --debug & # or python -m graphdash
grunt watch
```

If you used `Gunicorn` with a PID file, Grunt will automatically reload it
if any Python files change.

```bash
gunicorn -b 0.0.0.0:8888 --pid server.pid graphdash:app &
grunt watch
```

You can use `tox` build packages and run tests.

```bash
tox
```