[Helma-user] Helma docs and first-restarts

[Chris Zumbrunn]

On Mar 7, 2007, at 0:37 , Rowan Kerr wrote:

> Hey, all.
>
> I keep coming back to Helma every few months to build some little toy
> apps just for fun, and I find myself continually having the same
> problems which leads to a bunch of extra time hunting down all the
> docs I read previously.
>
> My main pitfalls are things like .. expecting objects to be exposed
> at URLs..
> i.e. with a Root/main.hac and Page/main.hac ... going to "/" will run
> Root/main.hac
> but going to "/page/" will not run Page/main.hac
>
> Maybe something could be added to the docs that explains how Helma
> matches its URls to objects inside an app, and how to properly trigger
> actions on different objects.
>
> Or maybe that documentation is already written and I just keep
> forgetting where to find it. :)
>
> One day I'll spend enough time with Helma to write a production app..
> and I won't need to keep searching for the same answers  over and  
> over.

Hi Rowan,

Three major aspects play into how URLs are resolved in Helma:  
Actions, HopObjects and Prototypes.

 From the prototypes introduction page mentioned below...

"Root" is the prototype of the application's root object. The root  
object of the "welcome" application therefore uses the combined code  
from these three prototypes, with code in "Root" overriding code from  
"Guide", which in turn overrides code from "HopObject".

When Helma receives a request to http://localhost:8080/ it will look  
for a "main" action to handle the request. Since it will not find one  
in "Root", it will use the one defined at ./apps/welcome/code/Guide/ 
main.hac. Requests pointing to a generic HopObject such as http:// 
localhost:8080/first/ on the other hand will use the main action  
defined at ./apps/welcome/code/HopObject/main.hac.


...and here are some pointers to the relevant sections in the docs:

The short introductions:

http://helma.org/docs/guide/introductions/prototypes/
http://helma.org/docs/guide/introductions/actions/

And the longer treatment:

http://helma.org/docs/guide/framework/#prototypes
http://helma.org/docs/guide/framework/#renderframework

Do these sections contain what you were looking for?

Chris