Internals of Aktiv (FFII Participation System)

--> [ Aktiv ]

(under construction)

(do not add security-related info here - this page is public)

Building blocks

(The division between front-end and back-end concerning implementation of "business-rules" is somewhat fuzzy. This has of - course - historical reasons...)

Front-end

• GUI + various process-flow (e.g. signup+payment procedure) + "business-rules" (e.g. amount of membership contribution)

• Consists of the CGI script "eintrag" (no .pl extension here) and the Knecht-Aktiv glue code in Aktiv2Knecht.pm

• eintrag.b is a separate copy of the script for beta testing
• All data is saved to and requested from the Knecht back-end.
• Written in Perl (procedural - OO rewrite planned)

• Uses HTML::Template, HTML::FillInForm and Mail::Sendmail (all on CPAN)

• Performs extensive data validation based on Data::FormValidator (see CPAN)

• Sends out eMail to user asking for confirmation of receipt of eMail (address verification)

• Sends out eMail to buero@ffii.org when a new user signs up

• Author: mwas AT ffii DOT org

• --> AktivDeveloperFAQ

• Aktiv uses (has to use) the Knecht naming conventions, see http://www.ffii.org/verein/profil/profil.de.txt

Back-end ("Knecht" aka Knecht.pm)

Takes data requests from the front-end and uses 2 redundant storage systems for user data

• text-based storage of user profiles (1 profil.txt file per user)
• parallel storage in a Postgres database
• Also implements some "business-rules"
• Author: phm AT ffii DOT org

• --> KnechtEn

Knecht also manages a MEP database and a patent database. Knecht also has an eMail interface described at http://www.ffii.org/verein/knecht/index.en.html

Explanation of Database Schema

• DB name is "ffii"
• Primary User table is "pnom"
• Todo: Use Postgres COMMENT ON feature!

• For historical reasons (since the primary data store originally was text-based), most definitions are found here: http://www.ffii.org/verein/profil/profil.de.txt