Reimplement as a server-side app

[paf31]

/cc @hdgarrood

I would like to integrate Pursuit with psc-pages, and I think that this would be a good time to think about restructuring the app as a purely server-side app written in Haskell.

Right now, getting the entire app running is a little tricky, but I think we can simplify it. I would like to get to the point where one person can get the app running by simply cabal running it, and then hopefully increase the rate of development.

My proposal:

• The entire app runs in-memory on the server.
• The database is contained in a TVar, and refreshed periodically using the existing generator code.
• data.json is not needed any more.
• The psc-pages code runs server-side to generate module documentation on the fly (may need some slight modification)
• Search is implemented in memory, and links to module documentation.
• The database structure is changed to accommodate packages, package search, etc.

Any thoughts?

[hdgarrood]

So is the main motivation for this to simplify the architecture? I can certainly get behind that.

Could you go into a little bit more detail about the new database structure?

[paf31]

Well, we could use something like Postgres, and I'm happy to set that up on the community server, but it's another headache from a dev standpoint when the data is so small.

So I suggest we put things in memory, and have the following "tables" (probably Maps and sorted lists, Data.Trie is probably overkill):

• Package
• Module (in a package)
• Declaration (in a module)

[hdgarrood]

Cool, sounds good to me. What about the UI? Do we just have a single search box that you type stuff in and it can give you back either packages, modules, or declarations as resuts?

[paf31]

I was thinking of breaking it up into

• Package list
• Package page for each package (with a list of modules)
• Doc page for each module
• Search page

[hdgarrood]

:+1:

Were you thinking of using Scotty? Also do you want to start this off, or shall I?

[paf31]

Probably Scotty and blaze-html, just to keep things simple. I can put together a repo with the basics this evening if you like.

[hdgarrood]

Yep, sounds good!