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@title Understanding Application Transaction Editors
@group developer
An incomplete guide to implementing and using Application Transaction Editors.
= Overview
Transaction editors, subclasses of
@{class:PhabricatorApplicationTransactionEditor}, provide a common abstraction
to applying mutations to an object in an extensible way. Each application is
responsible for providing a transaction editor for object types. By implementing
your object mutation logic as a transaction editor, you gain benefits like being
able to use standard CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) components like
@{class:PhabricatorEditEngine} which gives you standard edit and create forms
for your object types, as well as the transaction history for each object.
At a high level, an editor takes an object and a list of actions to apply, and
then in a rather large set of phases: Validates each action, applies the
mutations, performs various ancillary work (such as queuing Herald actions), and
inserts logs of the mutations into a transaction table which is used principally
to render timelines in the UI, but are general enough that you //could// do
more. As an example, they, like feed, can be used for incremental
synchronization with external or even internal sources.
It's important to understand that because the base transaction editor class is
attempting to consolidate a large amount of ad-hoc, legacy, and custom object
mutation code, it's //very// large and complex.
= Concepts
== Getting an Editor
The best way to get a transaction editor for an object type is to instantiate or
get an object of that type, which must implement
@{interface:PhabricatorApplicationTransactionInterface}, and call
@{method:PhabricatorApplicationTransactionInterface::getApplicationTransactionEditor}.
Editors operate in one of two modes: real or live, and "preview". Of course the
"live" mode actually applies mutations and triggers email, etc. The preview mode
is used when a form (such as in Phriction) wants to render a preview of the
changes to be made. In the case of Phriction, that means showing the new
rendered content. **The preview path is //not// expanded upon in this guide.**
== Transactions and Transaction Types
Transactions refer to the actual storage objects for an object type's
transaction table. These are typically referred to as `xactions` and are
subclasses of @{class:PhabricatorModularTransaction}.
Transaction //types// refer to the implementation logic for a particular kind of
mutation. These are typically referred to as `xtypes`, but very occassionally
they are also called `xactions` in the base editor code. There are two kinds of
transactions types: legacy, and modern or modular. Legacy transaction types will
not be discussed as no new legacy transaction types should be added. Modular
transaction types inherit from @{class:PhabricatorModularTransactionType}.
Certain core transaction types apply to almost all object types, and those can
be found in @{class:PhabricatorTransactions}.
Providing a list of mutations to an editor involves constructing transaction
objects for the object type and setting the transaction object's type to a
constant. Example code is worth at least 500 words, so here's an example to
clarify this relationship:
```lang=php
$xactions = array();
// ManiphestTransaction inherits from PhabricatorModularTransaction.
$xactions[] = (new ManiphestTransaction())
// You set the transaction type to a constant, and then the editor intantiates
// the appropriate transaction type class to perform the mutation.
->setTransactionType(ManiphestTaskTitleTransaction::TRANSACTIONTYPE)
// The value to set on the object. See below for a discussion of new/old
// values.
->setNewValue('A hot task title meant to inspire action');
$xactions[] = (new ManiphestTransaction())
// This is one of the core transaction types. It's applicable to anything that
// implements PhabricatorSubscribableInterface.
->setTransactionType(PhabricatorTransactions::TYPE_SUBSCRIBERS)
// This sets the subscribers to $some_phid, discarding any others.
->setNewValue(array(
'=' => array($some_phid => $some_phid)
));
// ...
(new ManiphestTransactionEditor())
// common builder methods not applicable here, see below for more details
->applyTransactions($a_task_object, $xactions);
```
= Edit Phases
The most daunting aspect of transaction editors is just how complicated the edit
process //is.// There's thirty primary phases with a large number of hooks for
applications to customize the process to varying degrees.
| # | Summary | Clones xtype | Can hook |
| --- | ------------------------------- | ------------ | ------------ |
| 1 | Open txn and lock object | no | |
| 2 | Edit params validated | no | |
| 3 | MFA requirements | **yes** | xtype |
| 4 | Object+viewer txn attached | no | |
| 5 | Expand transactions | no | editor |
| 6 | Implicit+support txns added | no | editor |
| 7 | Merge transactions | no | editor+xtype |
| 8 | Common attributes | no | editor |
| 9 | Transaction type validators | no | editor+xtype |
| 10 | Editor xaction validation | no | editor |
| 11 | Extension xaction validation | no | |
| 12 | Any validation errors thrown | no | |
| 13 | new/old values generated | no | xtype |
| 14 | Capability checks | no | xtype |
| 15 | No-op transactions are filtered | no | editor+xtype |
| 16 | MFA requirement execution | no | |
| 17 | //Initial// effects applied | no | editor |
| 18 | Fixup isCreate flag on xactions | no | |
| 19 | Transactions are sorted | no | editor |
| 20 | //Internal// effects applied | **yes** | xtype |
| 21 | Object committed | no | |
| 22 | handle duplicate key errs | no | editor |
| 23 | xactions commit | no | |
| 24 | //External// effects applied | **yes** | xtype |
| 25 | //Final// effects applied | no | editor |
| 26 | "did commit" callback | **yes** | xtype |
| 27 | Cache engine updates | no | extensions |
| 28 | Herald rules | no | editor |
| 29 | "did commit" part 2 | no | editor |
| 30 | Email+feed processing hooks | no | editor |
1. **Open transaction and lock object**
If it's an existing object and this isn't a preview edit, then it's reloaded
from the database, a db transaction is opened and the object is loaded with
`SELECT .. FOR UPDATE` to prevent concurrent modification.
2. **High level parameters of the edit are validated.**
E.g., all the actions to perform are instances of the base Transaction DAO,
that it's not a transaction that's already been applied.
3. **Checks for MFA authentication requirements**
If any xaction has such a requirement, a MFA xaction at the front of the
transaction list. The presence of such a transaction configures edit forms to
require MFA re-authentication to submit the form. An object or transaction type
that requires MFA to edit/apply cannot be edited outside the web UI, unless the
omnipotent viewer is used.
4. **The object-under-edit and current viewer are attached to the xactions.**
This is not helpful for implementing new types because it attaches them to the
transaction objects for internal purposes, not the transaction //types.//
Transaction types can always access the actor the editor is using
@{method:PhabricatorModularTransactionType::getActor}.
5. **Transactions are "expanded".**
Which means that a transaction like "resign from diff" also means "remove
myself as a reviewer." Hooks are provided but do not instantiate transaction
types. Transaction expansion runs in the context of the editor.
6. **Some implicit/automatic support transactions are added to the process**
for things like where your transaction has some reMarkup changes, or the
object has subscribers and those subscribers have changed... within some
reMarkup.
7. **Transactions are combined**
To coalesce two updates of one field into one update. Has hook on transaction
type objects, but only works if you have two of the same type in an edit.
8. **Common attributes are added to the transactions.**
**(NO HOOKS)** This is stuff like the author/actor, content source (e.g.,
web), edit policy.
9. **Transaction type validation logic is run.**
The transactions are grouped by their type and then all of the xactions of
that type are passed to the transaction type //once// for validation. Any state
you set on the input transactions to the editor (expect builtin state like
newObject) //will not be present.//
10. **The editor gets the chance to validate every transaction.**
This is presumably for domain specific editing logic.
11. **Transaction editor //extensions// get to validate the transactions.**
NOTE: Currently undocumented.
12. **Missing field errors are checked for and processed.**
These errors may not be raised if the editor is configured to not care.
13. **New/old values generated + some legacy file attachment handling.**
This is where new and old values are generated from the xtype as well as some
custom logic for fixing up the values for file type transactions.
14. **Capability checks are performed.**
Transaction types are allowed to declare additional capabilities a user needs in
order to perform the action.
15. **Transactions are filtered for effect and special effects.**
Transactions are allowed to define what "has an effect" means. This means that
they can conditionally filter themselves out based on arbitrary logic. There is
also a number of built-in filtering for comment and MFA transactions.
16. **MFA requirement tested and if needed executed.**
MFA requirements only work if the call is from conduit or web. Anything else
simply can't use MFA and transaction editors.
17. **Initial effects are executed.**
These allow the editor to prepare state to handle subsequent phases, as well as
other mysterious purposes. It's really important to note that
`shouldApplyInitialEffect` will get called **TWICE** because of some weirdness
around previewing.
18. **Marks all the xactions as create if needed.**
When an object is being created a special key in the transaction metadata is
set to indicate that the transaction group was the creation txn.
19. **Transactions are sorted for display purposes.**
An opportunity is given to editors to reorder how the transactions will be
committed to the database. There is also default behavior for comments.
20. **Internal effects are executed.**
Internal effects (defined on the transaction type) are where most
transactions apply the new state to the object being worked on and other
ancillary but closely related objects.
21. **//The object is saved//.**
All the internal effects have run successfully to build new object(s) state.
The object is inserted/updated in the database.
22. **The editor is given a chance to react to duplicate key errors.**
This is nominally to allow the editor to process the exception and throw
something else.
23. **The xactions themselves are saved to the database.**
This involves setting some final metadata such as the object PHID and
transaction group id. There's some special case logic around a new EDGE type
transaction format.
24. **External effects are executed.**
These effects (defined on the transaction types) are used to perform side
effects on other objects, enqueue daemon jobs, or potentially talk to
external services.
25. **Final effects are executed.**
This allows the editor to perform side final side effects before the overall
database transaction is committed. Immediately after this is transaction
commit, call it phase 25a.
26. **A "did commit" callback is executed on the xactions.**
Each transaction type is able to react to the fact that the overall database
transaction has been applied successfully. This is typically used for
notifying related applications of a change they need to respond to.
27. **Cache engines are notified of the object change.**
Someone ought to write some prose for this.
28. **Herald rules are run.**
This is kinda interesting. The editor can decide if there are herald rules
that need running based on all the transactions applied. If there are any,
then the editor must provide a @{class:HeraldAdapter} by some means. The
adapter then runs it's rules and afterwards the editor can generate further
transactions for the object for things like rules that automatically assign
tasks with titles starting with "[LOL]" to the team's intern.
Finally, the herald editor is run to commit those transactions.
29. **Editors can handle the completion of the primary edit portion.**
This doesn't include the major side effects of enqueueing the jobs to send
email and publish feed stories.
30. **Various hooks for email processing are called on the editor.**
The hooks are for things like deciding if mail should be sent, whom they
should be sent to, what mail content to create, queue final transactions to
be run after all is said and done. This is a wild scenario because a copy of
the editor will be created and then will be called all over again for the
transactions it just generated.
= Implementing an Editor
The process for creating an editor is rather straightforward. The overwhelming
majority of the logic is in the base class, and can't be overridden. In short
you must:
1. Create a subclass of @{class:PhabricatorApplicationTransactionEditor}
2. Implement @{interface:PhabricatorApplicationTransactionInterface} on the
object types of your application. I.e., your storage objects that descend
from @{class:LiskDAO}.
3. Implement zero or more transaction types by creating a subclass of
@{class:PhabricatorModularTransactionType} for each storage object type in
your application.
4. Use the editor!
If you need to exit an edit early, the only way out is to record an error in
`xtype` validation logic, or throw an exception in one of the editor hooks.
== Implementing Transaction Types
For simple object types, the majority of the logic will go into the transaction
types. There are a few methods that are largely mandatory to implement to have
any kind of reasonable logic.
The most important is
@{method:PhabricatorModularTransactionType::validateTransactions}. This is where
you'll ensure that the changes are well formed. Logic like ensuring a maximum
length for a value, or that it's a PHID should go here. This method will be
called with //all// of the transactions of this type that will be applied to the
object, so this is also where you could ensure that only one "Title" transaction
is applied.
Next is @{method:PhabricatorModularTransactionType::generateOldValue}. Typically
the implementation of this will just return the value already on the object, but
can also always return `null` if that's challenging or not meaningful to do.
There are two methods you can implement to actually perform mutations. The
first, and most common is
@{method:PhabricatorModularTransactionType::applyInternalEffects}. This method
should be used to mutate the actual object being edited. The second is
@{method:PhabricatorModularTransactionType::applyExternalEffects} which is where
you should place mutations that affect other objects such as caches or internal
state.
NOTE: It's important that your transaction types are **stateless**! Because of
how the types are cloned inside the base editor, it's very challenging or
impossible to have stateful transaction types.
= Next Steps
Try reading a few transaction editors and their transaction types.
@{class:PhrictionTransactionEditor} and @{class:PonderEditor} are both simple
editors that are not too difficult to understand. A much more complex one is
@{class:ManiphestTransactionEditor}.

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