ATK Reference: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:30, 29 April 2009

This part of the wiki aims to provide high level documentation on every part of ATK.
For further detailed information about the objects/methods and functions of ATK, please visit the ATK API documentation.

Reference categories

Modules

ATK is a modular framework and as such all functionality in ATK applications reside in modules.

Attributes

A node is built with attributes. Attributes are comparable to datatypes of fields in the database. They describe the content and house all functionality for dealing with that content.

Actions

In order to use a node ATK uses 'actions', these include but are not limited to CRUD functions of a database (corresponding to the Add, View, Update and Delete actions in ATK).

User Interface

ATK posesses several methods of output handling and automated generating of a UI.

Testing

ATK uses and extends the SimpleTest Testing framework for Test driven development and also supports PHPUnit.

Database connections

Information about database connections in ATK.

Languages

ATK fully supports the creation of multi-language applications.

Nodes

A node is comparable to a table in a database, which groups certain data elements in one collection.
An ATK node provides all the functionality for one such collection.

Relations

To associate nodes with eachother ATK makes use of Relations, these are comparable to relations in ERDs (one-to-one, one-to-many, etc.).

Meta functionality

ATK supports on-the-fly generation of nodes and attributes by using the metadata of your database. A very powerfull tool for quick development of web applications on an existing database.

Utilities

ATK provides various objects and functions for performing common tasks like traversing a directory, parsing stringings, debugging, etc.

Security

ATK supports various methods of authentication (users) and authorisation (privileges).

Sessions

ATK has advanced session handling methods for remembering and application data.

Configuration

ATK has many configuration options.

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 === [[ATK Testing|Testing]] ===
-ATK uses and extends the [http://www.simpletest.org SimpleTest Testing framework] for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_driven_development Test driven development].
+ATK uses and extends the [http://www.simpletest.org SimpleTest Testing framework] for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_driven_development Test driven development] and also supports [http://www.phpunit.de/ PHPUnit].
+===[[ATK Database connections|Database connections]]===
+Information about database connections in ATK.
 === [[ATK Languages|Languages]] ===
@@ Line 40: / Line 43: @@
 === [[ATK Security|Security]] ===
 ATK supports various methods of authentication (users) and authorisation (privileges).
+===[[ATK Sessions|Sessions]]===
+ATK has advanced session handling methods for remembering and application data.
 ===[[ATK Configuration|Configuration]]===
@@ Line 47: / Line 53: @@
 ===[[ATK Constants|Constants and Flags]]===
 Various constants and [[flags]] used by ATK, including [[Attribute Flags]], [[Node Flags]] and [[Module Flags]].
-===[[ATK Database connections|Database connections]]===
-Information about database connections in ATK.
 === [[ATK Extensions|Extensions in ATK]] ===
 Various 'extensions' in ATK, other Open Source software that is included in ATK.
-===[[ATK Sessions|Sessions]]===
-ATK has advanced session handling methods for remembering and application data.
-=== [[Magic Methods]] ===
-Magic Methods are methods that you can implement in your application that trigger some behaviour; like overriding certain functionality of attributes on the node level.
 === [[Patches]] ===