Search Workflow¶
PGD Search workflow is designed to take advantage of all of the features provided by Django: Models, Forms, and QuerySets. Search Models and Forms are interchangeable via methods provided by PGD.
Models¶
The Search class closely mimics a protein segment. It is composed of a three classes: Search, SearchResidue, and SearchCode. By creating Search as django models they can be stored and retrieved from the database.
Search¶
Search model contains all fields present in a protein.
SearchCode¶
SearchCode is a list of protein IDs to include in the search
SearchResidue¶
SearchResidue mimics a Residue object. It contains all fields that a
- Fields are all strings and can use the PGD Query Syntax
- Type fields such as AA_Type and SS_Type are stored as an integer with choices encoded in binary to conserve space.
Forms¶
SearchForms mimic Search Models exactly.
Conversions¶
Search and SearchForm are interchangeable.
- Use function name to convert a Search to a !SearchForm
- Use function name to convert a !SearchForm to a Search
Search can generate Django QuerySets
Use search.queryset()
Workflow¶
When submitting the search form, if the search is successful a Search object will be created and stored in the user’s session. The Search can be retrieved and converted back into a SearchForm to edit the search.
This Search object becomes the basis for rendering all other pages. PGD is taking advantage of two features of querysets:
- Lazy-execution of SQL Queries - the query is not performed until the results are requested from the object.
- Querysets can be further customized - the query can be refined further to filter the fields returned, statistical calculations, etc.
These features allow PGD apply view specific logic without recreating the base query for every view. The base query contains the set of records to operate on. The view applies its specific logic and calculations.
Examples¶
- Plot page only requires 3 properties to perform its calculation
- Statistics only needs to return Averages, Standard Deviation and other statistics instead of the residue values.