ScheduledResource

This gem is for displaying how things are used over time -- a schedule for a set of resources. It provides a way to describe what is being displayed, along with utilities and protocols to connect them:

  • Configuration (specification and management),
  • Query interfaces (a REST-like API and internal protocols to query the models), and
  • A basic Rails controller implementation.

So we have a way to configure the schedule, internal methods to generate the data, and a way to retrieve data from the client. But the gem is largely view-framework agnostic. We could use a variety of client-side packages or even more traditional Rails view templates to generate HTML.

In any case, to get a the most from a display like this we need some client-side code. The gem includes client-side modules to:

  • Manage time and display geometries with "infinite" scroll along the time axis.
  • Format display cells in ways specific to the resource models.
  • Update text justification as the display is scrolled horizontally.

Configuration Management

A scheduled resource is something that can be used for one thing at a time. Say "Rocky & Bullwinkle" is on channel 3 from 10am to 11am on Saturday. Then 'channel 3' is the resource and that showing of the is a resource-use block. Resources and use-blocks are typically Rails models. Each resource and its use-blocks get one row in the display. That row has a label to the left with some timespan visible on the rest of the row.

The ScheduledResource class manages resource and use-block class names, id's and labels for a schedule. A ScheduledResource instance ties together:

  1. A resource class (eg TvStation),
  2. An id (a channel number in this example), and
  3. Strings and other assets that will go into the DOM.

The id is used to

  • select a resource instance and
  • select instances of the resource use block class (eg Program instances).

The id could be a database id but more often is something a little more suited to human use in the configuration. In any case it is used by model class method (resource_use_block_class).get_all_blocks() to select the right use-blocks for the resource. A resource class name and id are are joined with a '_' to form a tag that also serves as an id for the DOM.

Something else you would expect see in a schedule would be headers and labels -- perhaps one row with the date and another row with the hour. Headers and labels also fit the model of resources and use_blocks. Basic timezone-aware classes (ZTime*) for those are included in this gem.

Configuration File

The schedule configuration comes from config/resource_schedule.yml which has three top-level sections:

  • ResourceKinds: A hash where the key is a Resource and the value is a UseBlock. (Both are class names),
  • Resources: A list where each item is a Resource Class followed by one or more resource ids, and
  • visibleTime: The visible timespan of the schedule in seconds.

The example file config/resource_schedule.yml (installed when you run schedulize) should be enough to display a two-row schedule with just the date above and the hour below. Of course you can monkey-patch or subclass these classes for your own needs.

The schedule API

The endpoint uses parameters t1 and t2 to specify a time interval for the request. A third parameter inc allows an initial time window to be expanded without repeating blocks that span those boundaries. The time parameters plus the configured resources define the data to be returned.

More About Configuration Management

Once the configuration yaml is loaded that data is maintained in the session structure. Of course having a single configuration file limits the application's usefulness. A more general approach would be to have a user model with login and configuration would be associated with the user.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'scheduled_resource'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install scheduled_resource

Usage

To Do: Write usage instructions here

Contributing

  1. Fork it ( https://github.com/emeyekayee/scheduled_resource/fork )
  2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
  4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  5. Create a new Pull Request