dj-actions 0.0.1

A framework for performating complex actions on objects

DJ Actions

A framework for doing things slightly more complicated than CRUD.

1. Define complex workflows with datastructures
2. Self documenting
3. High level modular construction of compound actions
4. Monitor actions and progress
5. Replay
6. Reverse
7. Time travel

Getting started

Installation:

pip install dj-actions

Add the app to 'INSTALLED_APPS`:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ..
    'actions',
]

Your first action

dj-actions uses an ACTION_MAP setting to define how tasks are mapped to code.

There are a few strategies for generating your action map, but yaml isn't a bad option. In settings.py

import yaml
action_yml = """
hello_world:
  name: "HelloWorld"
  example_payload:
    msg: "hello!",
  tasks:
    sync:
      - name: say_hi
        execute: actions.tasks.debug.hello
"""
ACTIONS_MAP = yaml.load(action_yml)

.. or use the get_action_map helper:

from actions.helpers import get_action_map
ACTION_MAP = get_action_map([
    'example_project/actions.yml',
    'path/to/some/other/actions.yml'
])

Now you can cause this to execute with:

from action.models import ActionInstance
actor = get_user_model().objects.first()
payload = {"msg": "hi!"}
action = ActionInstance.from_config(actor, 'hello_world', payload = payload)
action.run()

API

You can add an API:

urls.py

from actions.api import router as actions_router

urlpatterns = [
    ...
    path('actions/', include(actions_router.urls)),
]

Documentation

Your ACTION_MAP can generate docs for you:

Dependencies:

We build on the work of much smarter people.

• Django
• Django Rest Framework

Add-ons/plugins:

• sentry
• dj-nosql -> push into firestore etc
• streamio -> push into stream
• ...

Concepts

Triggers

..

Actions

..

ActionInstance

..

Creating an action

POST /actions/:resourceName/:verb/:id/

{
  payload: { .. }
}

e.g.: /actions/invoice/send/123/

Models:

class Action:
    '''
    Stores an incoming request so that it can be tracked and replayed if necessary
    '''
    slug # used to look up action in Catalog
    payload(json)
    files
    actor(user)
    # models are stored as: `myapp.models.MyModel:id`
    # tasks can add models as they go
    models
    context(json) # tasks can add to context as they go
    status

class TaskExecutionStatus:
    '''
    Tasks must record their execution status for the action
    '''
    incomingaction(fk)
    task
    status
    input
    ouput
    notes


class RegisteredAction:
    """
    A calalog of available actions and their definitions
    """
    title
    description
    documentation # markdown docs for this action
    slug
    payload_map # optional, map a payload to arguments for the task
    permission_tasks: [],
    validation_tasks: [],
    sync_tasks: [],
    async_tasks: [],
    scheduled_tasks: []

class RegisteredTask:
    """
    Library of available tasks
    """
    title
    description
    documentation
    invokation # e.g.: path.to.my_task


class ActionEvent:
    actor(user)
    context
    template
    parsed
    object_ids # object ids which control who can see this event

Tasks provided by the library:

• add_to_feed -> Adds ActionEvents when actions happen
• trigger_action -> Creates a new Action

Adding a custom task pack:

• provide a python app
• app should have a management script named register_tasks .. you can guess what that does