1.2. Creating a new cube from scratch

Let’s start by creating the cube environment in which we will develop

cd ~/cubes
# use cubicweb-ctl to generate a template for the cube
# will ask some questions, most with nice default
cubicweb-ctl newcube mycube
# makes the cube source code managed by mercurial
cd mycube
hg init
hg add .
hg ci

If all went well, you should see the cube you just created in the list returned by cubicweb-ctl list in the Available cubes section. If not, please refer to Environment configuration.

To reuse an existing cube, add it to the list named __depends_cubes__ which is defined in __pkginfo__.py. This variable is used for the instance packaging (dependencies handled by system utility tools such as APT) and to find used cubes when the database for the instance is created.

On a Unix system, the available cubes are usually stored in the directory /usr/share/cubicweb/cubes. If you are using the cubicweb mercurial repository (Install from source), the cubes are searched in the directory /path/to/cubicweb_toplevel/cubes. In this configuration cubicweb itself ought to be located at /path/to/cubicweb_toplevel/cubicweb.

Note

Please note that if you do not wish to use default directory for your cubes library, you should set the CW_CUBES_PATH environment variable to add extra directories where cubes will be search, and you’ll then have to use the option –directory to specify where you would like to place the source code of your cube:

cubicweb-ctl newcube --directory=/path/to/cubes/library mycube