I just finished setting up Pylons 0.9.6 with AuthKit and SQLAlchemy 0.4.4. I decided to write a tutorial that will hopefully serve to help others and avoid the same hair pulling that I went through. =)
Hopefully it makes sense, as most of the files are the FULL file, not snippets. Let me know what you guys think or if you have any questions. http://www.janisb.com/blog/2008/04/zero-to-60-with-pylons-in-just-minutes-part-1/ Hope that helps! John On Mar 29, 8:36 pm, "Mike Orr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 4:23 PM, mdoudoroff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Unfortunately, I can confirm that theAuthKitdocumentation situation > > is appalling. I spent hours sifting through the obsolete "Pylonsbook" > > chapters, their comments, the source code, and the cookbook documents > > before gettingAuthKitrunning. The enraging thing is that afterwards > > I realized that setting upAuthKitis actually quite easy! There's > > relatively little to it! Yet the documentation turns it into this > > monolithic, impenetrable thing. This is NO WAY to attract new users > > (and eventual contributors) toPylons! Fundamental stuff like this has > > to be fundamentally EASY, or people are going to look elsewhere. > > We need somebody who has usedAuthKitto write the simple HOWTOs that > people are asking for. It sounds like you're qualified, if you're > willing. The reason documentation is slow is that fewer people build > authenticated sites than use SQLAlchemy/Genshi/forms, so there are a > fewer number of people qualified to write auth documentation and to > compare alternative auth libraries. > > The two chapters are part of a book that aims to be a complete > reference ofPylonsprogramming, scaling to large sites. I guess they > don't work as well outside that context. The complete book draft is > supposedly going to be finished this week, so hopefully we'll have a > copy online soon. > > The fact that James wrote bothAuthKitand the book, and would like to > see both asPylons' standard, yet he responds to email sporadically > (sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes a month later), has made it > difficult to resolve the issues aroundAuthKit. This leaves the rest > of us in a bit of a take-it-as-is-or-use-something-else situation. > > > It seems to me thatAuthKitmay have a few warts: > > > 1) The "one group per user" limitation seems to be irritating people. > > I don't personally care, because all I need are roles, and I can't > > help but wonder if the people who are complaining about user groups > > really need the groups or if they're just confused about the > > distinction because the documentation is such a disaster. > > Could be. > > > 2) Some of the authentication plug-ins may be under-developed. Some > > people here are saying the OpenID stuff doesn't work very well. I > > don't know a thing about it, but I see that OpenID is getting pretty > > pervasive, so it will probably be increasingly critical to would-be > > Pylonsadopters. > > OpenID is a new and different kind of authentication system, so I > don't know if we've figured out the best way to integrate it yet. > Feedback from those who use OpenID would be helpful. > > > 3) The options for how log-in screens are presented withAuthKitseem > > too constricted or inelegant for some people. > > That may be. > > > > > I'm just starting to > > look into this myself, but I have no opinion, yet. I will say that > > it's something that should just happen "out of the box" and it should > > be darn easy to customize. > > > That several different parties have initiated their own parallel > > authentication kits forPylonswhile nobody can be bothered to put a > > few hours into updating and completingAuthKit'sdocumentation is > > really disconcerting. It does not say thatPylonsis a flexible > > platform with a wealth of options. It saysPylonsis a fragmentary, > > incomplete, incoherent platform that can only get you part of the way > > there. > > > I'm a refugee from an old python framework--Webware for Python--that was > > rife with derelict components from the get-go. It just looked > > terrible. It was embarrassing. There were consequences: the community > > waned far more than it waxed. I just got serious aboutPylons. I think > > it does a lot of things right, apparently with much credit due Ian > > Bicking. I apologize for dropping this rant into this thread, but I > > want to emphasize how big a problem this is forPylons. > > I also started with Webware after being disilusioned with monolithic > Zope. But I didn't like its servlet paradigm, borrowed from Java. Or > its accessor methods or .camelCase. Webware also named its > components *Kit, which makes me wishAuthKitwas called something > else. Quixote seemed much more streamlined and minimalistic so I made > several sites in that. But when WSGI came along I wanted something > that was fully WSGI and modular down to the core, andPylonsis the > only one of those. > > Pylonsaims to contain the most essential tools but does not make > arbitrary choices about everything. So it includes Mako but also > documents Genshi. It includes FormEncode/htmlfill/webhelpers but also > documents ToscaWidgets and Django newforms. That's because we're not > convinced that any of these form libraries are the "best" answer, but > FormEncode/WebHelpers are an unobtrusive set of modular tools, so more > in keeping with thePylonsphilosophy. Pylonshad built-in database > support but found it couldn't keep up with the libraries, so it > dropped that in favor of merely supporting SQLAlchemy in the > documentation. Pylons0.9.7 offers a default SQLAlchemy model as a > convenience, but you can take it or leave it. > > Regarding auth, that has never been seen as a corePylons > responsibility. If you want a framework with a built-in auth library, > see TurboGears. Nevertheless we want to support auth in the > documentation, either withAuthKitalone orAuthKitplus > alternatives. > > AsPylonshas partnered with TurboGears over the past six months, each > has focused on its unique strengths. TG chooses a set of batteries > for all aspects of web programming. Pylonsfocuses on a small set of > essential tools, yet the documentation also shows how to integrate > extra libraries. Generally we choose one library to recommend by > default, yet try to show how to use the alternatives too, so users > aren't reinventing the wheel from scratch. That has been one of my > personal goals, which is why I've worled so much on the sQLAlchemy > documentation even though SQLAlchemy is not aPylonsdependency. > > To answer another question in this thread, repoze is a set of > WSGI-compatible libraries spun off from Zope. It's the most > exciting contribution from Zope since ZODB, because it allows Zope > products like Plone and other WSGI apps to be mixed in the same site. > However, it's all brand new so it hasn't been fully evaluated which > parts are most useful inPylonsapps. Again, we need feedback from > people who try repoze.who. > > AuthKitwas written forPylons and uses thePylonsconfiguration > system. Nobody has yet evaluated how to integrate repoze.who intoPylons' > configuration, or whether it's worth it. I've heard praise > forAuthKit'sauthorization but not for its authentication. Maybe the > two will be split someday; that was part of my hope for the wiki page, > that we'd pin down exactly what we need in an authentication system, > and then make it easier forAuthKitto interoperate with other > compliant systems. And simultaneously fill the gaps inAuthKit's > documeentation and features to make it suitable asPylons' first > recommendation, since it is the only one specifically built forPylons. > > Nobody has put any feedback on the wiki page yet. :( I renamed it so > here's the current > URL:http://wiki.pylonshq.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=11698714 > > -- > Mike Orr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "pylons-discuss" group. 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