Dev Finding Things

Grepping through code

In the directory you want to search:

rgrep -i [search term] *

To output the results of that search into a file in your home directory:

rgrep -i [search term] * > ~/filename.txt

To browse through all files containing a search term (instead of just getting a list of matching lines):

less `rgrep -il [search term] *`

Directory Structure

An outline of a live site's directory structure, as created by running bootstrap.pl, can be found in Main development folder.

Managing the database schema

The database schema is managed by editing update-db-general.pl. Update-db-general.pl is organized roughly like this so:

• mark which tables are clustered (versus global)
• table creation, post-create table population, table deletion
• table alteration

Functions you may need to use:

• creating a new table

register_tablecreate( "tablename", <<'EOC');
CREATE TABLE tablename (
  ....
)
EOC

• drop a table
  • remove the relevant register_tablecreate code
  • drop the table if it exists already (for older installations)

register_tabledrop( "tablename" );

• adding a column to an existing table
  • add the column to the register_tablecreate code, for new installations
  • add this to the bottom of register_alter, for existing installations

# check that the column does not yet exist
unless ( column_type( "tablename", "columname" ) ) {
   do_alter("tablename", "ALTER TABLE tablename ADD ..." );
}

• modifying a column in an existing table / modifying data in an existing table

Similar to adding a column, but instead of checking whether a table exists, you may want to check against index_name, table_relevant, column_type, e.g.,

 if ( index_name( ... ) ) {}

• initialize a table with data from another table on table creation

post_create( "tablename", /*sql statements/code. Look at other examples in the file */ );

To update your database with your changes, run

$LJHOME/bin/upgrading/update-db.pl -r --innodb

Properties

Properties are listed in bin/upgrading/proplists.dat, broken down into three sections and listed alphabetically within those sections:

1. userproplist (user properties)
2. talkproplist (comment properties)
3. logproplist (entry properties)

When removing, remove the property from the file, and also do a grep over the codebase to remove any code which uses this prop.

Translation strings

Translation strings are defined in a few different files:

• bin/upgrading/en.dat - central location for strings for the backend code, e.g., things in cgi-bin, hooks, widgets
• htdocs/page.bml.text - scattered throughout htdocs; partner to htdocs/page.bml

There is a file, deadphrases.dat, which was meant for listing phrases that are no longer in use. However, everyone just forgets to use it anyway ;-) Ignore this file.

After making your changes, run

$LJHOME/bin/upgrading/texttool.pl load

to actually load the new/modified strings into your live environment.

Hooks

Hook implementations can be found in

Some hook documentation can be found in doc/raw/hooks.txt, but it is very outdated and incomplete, and probably should be ignored right now.

Memcache

A list of memcache keys can be found in doc/raw/memcache-keys.txt. You should update this if you add new memcache keys or change existing behavior.

Styles

• dw-free/bin/upgrading/s2layers.dat, dw-nonfree/bin/upgrading/s2layers-local.dat

Defines system layers + layer types + layer parents

• bin/upgrading/s2layers/$themename/layout.s2, bin/upgrading/s2layers/$themename/themes.s2

Contains actual layout layers, list of themes

• dw-free/cgi-bin/LJ/S2Themes.pm, dw-nonfree/cgi-bin/LJ/S2Themes-local.pm

Handles some logic surrounding themes, contains list of default themes for each layout

• cgi-bin/LJ/S2Theme/$layout

Contains logic for /customize/ and /customize/options.bml pages. Arranges properties into propgroups, puts themes into categories, contains designer