NAME
XAS::Docs::Objectives - the why of the XAS environment
OBJECTIVES
After working on several large systems, writing similar code, it becomes obvious that certain standards need to be implemented if the system is to be maintainable. These are the objectives that XAS is striving for.
Environment
The operating environment is abstracted away with XAS::System::Environment. By default, in a UNIX/Linux environment, everything resides under /opt/xas. This default can be changed upon initial installation. Additonal changes can be made using environment variables. On a Linux system they are defined in /etc/profile.d/xas.sh. Every path used within the system can be configured with a environment variable.
Option Handling
Any good system needs consistent option handling. This is handled by XAS::Lib::App for command line procedures and by XAS::Lib::App::Daemom for daemons. Every procedure has the following options available:
- --version
-
Display the procedures version number.
- --help
-
Display a short help screen on available options and there usage.
- --man
-
Displays detailed documentation on the procedure.
- --debug
-
Toggle debugging output.
- --[no]alert
-
Toggles wither alerts are send. By default they are.
Daemons have this additional options.
- --logfile
-
Override the default log file.
- --pidfile
-
Override the default pid file.
- --daemon
-
Wither to detach from the controlling terminal. Default is to not too.
Additional options can be easily added to the application as needed.
Parameter Handling
Consistent parameter handling for modules is important. Every public facing sub routine uses named parameters if there are more then two passed being passed. Each parameter is validated using Params::Validate and will throw an exception when validation fails.
Exception Handling
Every module will throw exceptions using XAS::Exception. They use a consitent naming convention, which will lead you to the offending routine. All command line programs will return 0 for success and 1 for error. Daemons can also return a 2 for 'process already running'. Every program has a global exception handler. If an exception is not handled, this will issue an alert and return the appropiate error code. Alerts can be turned off with the use of --noalert option.
Logging
All procedures use the same logging module XAS::System::Logging. This module produces a consistent format that is the same wither the logging is to stderr or to a log file. This format is easy to parse when you want to extract information. The format is as follows:
[YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS] <level> - <message>And the following levels are defined: INFO, WARN, ERROR, FATAL and DEBUG
Communications
Communications are important within a distributed application. This system uses a message queue. The message queue needs to be STOMP v1.0 compatiable. RabbitMQ and POE::Component::MessageQueue have been tested. All messaging uses the tried and true, store and forward strategy. The message queues themselves should be configured to store messages on disk when a large backlog happens. Using this methodology ensures that messages are not lost. The messages themselves are in a standard JSON format. When a message queue won't work, a RPC mechanism using JSONRPC v2.0 has been defined. An effort has been made to use standard text based protocals so that other systems and languages can easily intergrate with this one.
Notifications
Notifications are important within a distributed application. It allows you to know what is happening within the system. There are two different ways to send notifications. By email XAS::System::Email and by alerts XAS::System::Alert. Alerts are stored within a database and use the message queue for transport. Emails use an external mail system. Alerts can be processed by a management console. This allows for a response to problems. They can also be organized and reported on. Which can make manegement types happy.
Database
All access to the database uses DBIx::Class. This system has been tested against SQLite and PostgreSQL. Using DBIx::Class allows the system to be database agnostic.
SEE ALSO
AUTHOR
Kevin L. Esteb, <kevin (at) kesteb.us>
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2012 Kevin L. Esteb, all rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.