History of Bitweaver Framework

NOTE: This is unofficial documentation. This page imrpove on the framework information found on bitweaverArchitecture. If you are looking for official documentation, please see those pages. -Will

bitweaver is a web application that offers a complete suite of powerful feature sets in a higher modular design. To understand how bitweaver is designed, you must understand that it is completely modular, on multiple levels.

Our terminology:

• Package - the largest grain of our modular architecture, it is a intended to be a large feature scope - such as the WikiPackage or BlogsPackage. The term Package was introduced as a concept in TikiWiki by Dennis Hetzel.
• Modules - we have maintained the "Modules" term to be identical to the TikiWiki usage. Modules are the "blocks" (in *nuke terms) of data that appear on the sides of the page - such as "Last changes" or "Last blog posts"
• Plugins - Packages can contain plugins inside them to enable modular functionality. The LibertyPackage and WikiPackage both have their own plugin architecture to handle different data.

These feature sets are known as a bitweaverPackage. The primary goal for bitweaver was to place the fewest possible requirements possible on a bitweaverPackage and provide the most flexible environment possible.

This diagram uses a powertool metaphor to illustrate the functional inter-relationships of our packages:



There is a KernelPackage that provides a core set of functionality that provide global services (such as preferences, user authentication, themes, permission and such).

The Bitweaver application Framework offers a complete suite of core features in a higher modular design. The Bitweaver Framework is designed specifically for developer flexibility. To understand how Bitweaver is designed, you must understand that it is completely modular, on multiple levels.

All parts of Bitweaver are encapsulated in what we call Packages. Bitweaver Packages are the largest grain of our modular architecture, they are intended to be large collections of features, such as the Wiki Package or the Blogs Package.

Bitweaver has a set of required packages needed to be fully operational. These are refered to as the "core". The core includes:

• The Kernel Package is responsible for the setting up the database and manages package configuration.
• the Liberty Package is a handful of well designed base classes that are intended to be inherited from. By extending the classes, you get all the power of liberty - access control, content history, formatting like wiki parsing, HTML scrubbing, and more - without having to write any of the code yourself.
• The Themes Package manages the theming of your site
• The Users Package manages user data
• The Languages Package handles internationalization

The primary goal for bitweaver was to place the fewest possible requirements on a package and provide the most flexible environment possible.

This diagram illustrates the functional inter-relationships of the core packages and optional features packages: