--- a/pyforge/docs/platform.rst
+++ b/pyforge/docs/platform.rst
@@ -2,6 +2,39 @@
===================================
I'm told that the reason you build a platform is to "reduce the marginal cost of developing applications." Sounds good. Well, actually it sounds a bit dry. But it's about right, we want to make creating new online development tools faster, easier, and more fun, which i guess is the "reduce the marginal cost" thing.
+
+Platform building blocks
+---------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Before we get into the details of how to extend the pyforge platform, perhaps it would be smart to explain some of the big pieces and why there are there.
+
+We wanted PyForge plugins to be fast, we needed them to scale, and we had some complex requirements for data storage and extensibility. So, we needed a **fast,** flexible, and easy to use data persistence system.
+
+We were very impressed by the general message architecture of Roundup, but we wanted to extend it from just email messages to include scm commits, and we added a message bus (RabbitMQ which we'll talk about in a second), to make it fast.
+
+.. image:: _static/images/messages.png
+ :alt: Message Architecture
+
+We were also impressed by the flexibility of Roundup's Hypertable system in allowing for ad-hock ticket schema additions.
+
+It definitely seemed like something we wanted in a next generation forge, because we wanted app plugins to be able to:
+
+* create and version their own document types,
+* extend existing document structures,
+* and to mange document revisions, access control lists, and other platform level data.
+
+In spite of the power and flexibility of the Roundup HyperTable implementation, we had some concerns about performance and scalability.
+
+Fortunately several of the PyForge authors (including me) used MongoDB in rewriting the download flow of SourceForge.net, and new that it could handle huge loads (we saturated a 2gb network connection on the server with 6% cpu utilization).
+
+We also knew that MongoDB's flexible replication system would allow us to build the forge in such a way that we could easily provide a package of all project data to developers concerned about lock-in.
+
+Not only that but Rick Copeland had built a couple of custom Object *Non*-Relational Mappers (ONRMs?) before, including one for MongoDB, and he whipped up Ming, which backed on MongoDB and gave us exactly what we needed.
+
+.. image:: _static/images/amqp.png
+ :alt: App Plugins
+
+As I mentioned before we also needed a fast, flexible message bus and queuing system. RabbitMQ was(lightning) fast, (shockingly) flexible, but not supper easy to use. Fortunately we didn't have to roll our own wrapper here, as the python community already whipped up Carrot, and Celery, which made working with the RabbitMQ based AMQP bus a LOT easer.
Application Plugins
---------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -21,17 +54,6 @@
* A robust and flexible permissions system
* Access to a real-time event publishing system
-How it works
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-We needed a **fast,** flexible, and easy to use data persistence system.
-
-We wanted app plugins to be able to create and version their own document types, extend existing document structures, and to mange document revisions, access control lists, and other platform level data. Several of the PyForge authors (including me) used MongoDB in rewriting the download flow of SourceForge.net, and new that it could handle huge loads (we saturated a 2gb network connection on the server with 6% cpu utilization). Rick Copeland had built a couple of custom Object Non-Relational Mappers (ONRM) before, including one for MongoDB, and he whipped up Ming, which backed on MongoDB and gave us exactly what we needed.
-
-We also needed a **fast,** flexible event message bus, and queuing system. RabbitMQ was (lightning) fast, (shockingly) flexible, but not supper easy to use. Fortunately we didn't have to roll our own wrapper here, as the python community already whipped up Carrot, and Celery, which made working with the RabbitMQ based AMQP bus a LOT easer.
-
-In order to facilitate more open processes, where more users can contribute -- while still protecting data -- documents can easily be "versioned", and the platform provides tools to manage versioned documents for you.
-
The most basic app plugin consists of a few things:
* A controller object (instantiated per request)
@@ -42,11 +64,24 @@
* Event listener plugins (optional)
* Event publisher (optional)
+In order to facilitate more open processes, where more users can contribute -- while still protecting data -- documents can easily be "versioned", and the platform provides tools to manage versioned documents for you.
Pluggable Event Listeners
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+Have we mentioned Roundup already? Because here's another idea we stole from them:
+
+**Reactors**
+
+Reactors are just hooks that get called when messages come in. Nearly everything in roundup is implemented as a reactor, and we've tried to do the same with PyForge. Except now reactors are called by a wider variety of events...
+
+TODO: Finish reactor docs (after reactor code is written)
Web Hooks
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+There's no reason a reactor can't call out over HTTP to some web service...
+
+TODO: Document reactors that implement web-hooks after we write some ;)
+