ATK Reference

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).

Graphical User Interface

ATK posesses serveral methods of output handling and automated generating of a GUI.

Testing

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

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 now 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).