Merge branch 'release/0.9.1'

[philo.git] / docs / contrib / shipherd.rst

diff --git a/docs/contrib/shipherd.rst b/docs/contrib/shipherd.rst
index 0f3b59d..9e03f67 100644 (file)
--- a/docs/contrib/shipherd.rst
+++ b/docs/contrib/shipherd.rst
@@ -3,28 +3,44 @@ Shipherd
 
 .. automodule:: philo.contrib.shipherd
        :members:
+       
+       :class:`.Node`\ s are useful for structuring a website; however, they are inherently unsuitable for creating site navigation.
+       
+       The most glaring problem is that a navigation tree based on :class:`.Node`\ s would have one :class:`.Node` as the root, whereas navigation usually has multiple objects at the top level.
+       
+       Additionally, navigation needs to have display text that is relevant to the current context; however, :class:`.Node`\ s do not have a field for that, and :class:`.View` subclasses with a name or title field will generally need to use it for database-searchable names.
+       
+       Finally, :class:`.Node` structures are inherently unordered, while navigation is inherently ordered.
+       
+       :mod:`~philo.contrib.shipherd` exists to resolve these issues by separating navigation structures from :class:`.Node` structures. It is instead structured around the way that site navigation works in the wild:
+       
+       * A site may have one or more independent navigation bars (Main navigation, side navigation, etc.)
+       * A navigation bar may be shared by sections of the website, or even by the entire site.
+       * A navigation bar has a certain depth that it displays to.
+       
+       The :class:`.Navigation` model supplies these features by attaching itself to a :class:`.Node` via :class:`ForeignKey` and adding a :attr:`navigation` property to :class:`.Node` which provides access to a :class:`.Node` instance's inherited :class:`.Navigation`\ s.
+       
+       Each entry in the navigation bar is then represented by a :class:`.NavigationItem`, which stores information such as the :attr:`~.NavigationItem.order` and :attr:`~.NavigationItem.text` for the entry. Given an :class:`HttpRequest`, a :class:`.NavigationItem` can also tell whether it :meth:`~.NavigationItem.is_active` or :meth:`~.NavigationItem.has_active_descendants`.
+       
+       Since the common pattern is to recurse through a navigation tree and render each part similarly, :mod:`~philo.contrib.shipherd` also ships with the :ttag:`~philo.contrib.shipherd.templatetags.shipherd.recursenavigation` template tag.
 
 Models
 ++++++
 
 .. automodule:: philo.contrib.shipherd.models
        :members: Navigation, NavigationItem, NavigationMapper
-
-Navigation caching
-------------------
+       :show-inheritance:
 
 .. autoclass:: NavigationManager
        :members:
 
-.. autoclass:: NavigationItemManager
-       :members:
-
-.. autoclass:: NavigationCacheQuerySet
-       :members:
-
 Template tags
 +++++++++++++
 
 .. automodule:: philo.contrib.shipherd.templatetags.shipherd
 
 .. autotemplatetag:: recursenavigation
+
+.. autotemplatefilter:: has_navigation
+
+.. autotemplatefilter:: navigation_host