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        xmlns:py="http://genshi.edgewall.org/"
        xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">

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<title>Learning TurboGears 2.0: Quick guide to the Quickstart
pages.</title>
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<body>
${sidebar_top()} ${sidebar_bottom()}
<div id="getting_started">
<h2>Architectural basics of a quickstart TG2 site.</h2>
<p>The TG2 quickstart command produces this basic TG site. Here's
how it works.</p>
<ol id="getting_started_steps">
        <li class="getting_started">
        <h3>Code my data model</h3>
        <p>When you want a model for storing favorite links or wiki
        content, the <strong>/model</strong> folder in your site is ready to
        go.</p>
        <p>You can build a dynamic site without any data model at all.
        There still be a default data-model template for you if you didn't
        enable authentication and authorization in quickstart. If you enabled
        it, you got auth data-model made for you.</p>
        </li>
        <li class="getting_started">
        <h3>Design my URL structure</h3>
        <p>The "<span class="code">root.py</span>" file under the <strong>/controllers</strong>
        folder has your URLs. When you called this url (<span class="code"><a
                href="${tg.url('/about')}">about</a></span>), the command went through the
        RootController class to the <span class="code">about</span><span
                class="code">()</span> method.</p>
        <p>Those Python methods are responsible to create the dictionary of
        variables that will be used in your web views (template).</p>
        </li>
        <li class="getting_started">
        <h3>Reuse the web page elements</h3>
        <p>A web page viewed by user could be constructed by single or
        several reusable templates under <strong>/templates</strong>. Take
        'about' page for example, each reusable templates generating a part of
        the page. We'll cover them in the order of where they are found, listed
        near the top of the about.html template</p>
        <p><strong><span class="code">header.html</span></strong> - The
        "header.html" template contains the HTML code to display the 'header':
        The blue gradient, TG2 logo, and some site text at the top of every
        page it is included on. When the "about.html" template is called, it
        includes this "header.html" template (and the others) with a <span
                class="code">&lt;xi:include /&gt;</span> tag, part of the Genshi
        templating system. The "header.html" template is not a completely
        static HTML -- it also dynamically displays the current page name with
        a Genshi template method called "replace" with the code: <span
                class="code">&lt;span py:replace="page"/&gt;</span>. It means replace
        this <span class="code">&lt;span /&gt;</span> region with the contents
        found in the variable 'page' that has been sent in the dictionary to
        this "about.html" template, and is available through that namespace for
        use by this "header.html" template. That's how it changes in the header
        depending on what page you are visiting.</p>
        <p><strong><span class="code">sidebars.html</span></strong> - The
        sidebars (navigation areas on the right side of the page) are generated
        as two separate <span class="code">py:def</span> blocks in the
        "sidebars.html" template. The <span class="code">py:def</span>
        construct is best thought of as a "macro" code... a simple way to
        separate and reuse common code snippets. All it takes to include these
        on the "about.html" page template is to write <span class="code">
        <br />
        <br />
        $${sidebar_top()} <br />
        $${sidebar_bottom()} <br />
        <br />
        </span> in the page where they are wanted. CSS styling (in
        "/public/css/style.css") floats them off to the right side. You can
        remove a sidebar or add more of them, and the CSS will place them one
        atop the other.</p>
        <p>This is, of course, also exactly how the header and footer
        templates are also displayed in their proper places, but we'll cover
        that in the "master.html" template below.</p>
        <p>Oh, and in sidebar_top we've added a dynamic menu that shows the
        link to this page at the top when you're at the "index" page, and shows
        a link to the Home (index) page when you're here. Study the
        "sidebars.html" template to see how we used <span class="code">py:choose</span>
        for that.</p>
        <p><strong><span class="code">footer.html</span></strong> - The
        "footer.html" block is simple, but also utilizes a special "replace"
        method to set the current YEAR in the footer copyright message. The
        code is: <span class="code">&lt;span
        py:replace="now.strftime('%Y')"&gt; </span> and it uses the variable "now"
        that was passed in with the dictionary of variables. But because "now"
        is a datetime object, we can use the Python <span class="code">"strftime()"</span>
        method with the "replace" call to say "Just Display The Year Here".
        Simple, elegant; we format the date display in the template (the View
        in the Model/View/Controller architecture) rather than formatting it in
        the Controller method and sending it to the template as a string
        variable.</p>
        <p><strong><span class="code">master.html</span></strong> - The
        "master.html" template is called last, by design. The "master.html"
        template controls the overall design of the page we're looking at,
        calling first the "header" py:def macro, then the putting everything
        from this "about.html" template into the "content" div, and then
        calling the "footer" macro at the end. Thus the "master.html" template
        provides the overall architecture for each page in this site.</p>
        <p>But why then shouldn't we call it first? Isn't it the most
        important? Perhaps, but that's precisely why we call it LAST. The
        "master.html" template needs to know where to find everything else,
        everything that it will use in py:def macros to build the page. So that
        means we call the other templates first, and then call "master.html".</p>
        <p>There's more to the "master.html" template... study it to see
        how the &lt;title&gt; tags and static JS and CSS files are brought into
        the page. Templating with Genshi is a powerful tool and we've only
        scratched the surface. There are also a few little CSS tricks hidden in
        these pages, like the use of a "clearingdiv" to make sure that your
        footer stays below the sidebars and always looks right. That's not TG2
        at work, just CSS. You'll need all your skills to build a fine web app,
        but TG2 will make the hard parts easier so that you can concentrate
        more on good design and content rather than struggling with mechanics.</p>
        </li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck with TurboGears 2!</p>
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