Using couchapp with multiple design documents

Here is what I did to use couchapp with multiple design documents. I want to setup a project for a new database test6 with a design doc called design_doc1

Make sure couchdb and couchapp are installed and that couchdb is started.

First check that test6 doesn't exist

$ curl http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6

{"error":"not_found","reason":"no_db_file"}

OK. That was expected.

Generate a new couchapp.

$ couchapp generate test6

On my machine (Debian squeeze), couchapp seems to generate the directory with owner root. Change owner to john

$ chown -R john ./test6
$ cd test6
$ ls

_attachments   evently  language  shows    vendor
couchapp.json  _id      lists     updates  views

$ vi .couchapprc

Now edit .couchapprc as follows so it looks like

{ "env":
  { "default":
    {  "db":"http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6" }
  }
}

Check that it was saved correctly:

$ cat  .couchapprc

{ "env":
  { "default":
    {  "db":"http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6" }
  }
}

NOTE: It looks like couchapp doesn't pick up the default db in what follows when I do couchapp push

Make a directory for design documents:

$ mkdir _design

Make a directory for design_doc1

$ mkdir _design/design_doc1

move the design doc files created with couchapp generate to the design_doc1 directory:

$ mv _attachments evently lists shows updates vendor views ./_design/design_doc1

review the directory structure

$ ls  _design/design_doc1

_attachments  evently  lists  shows  updates  vendor  views

now push design_doc1. Note that I have to include the url of the database as a parameter. Couchapp doesn't seem to pick up the default db when I push from the _design directory.

http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6     is the url of the new db

$ couchapp push _design/design_doc1 http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6
2010-08-23 15:47:45 [INFO] Visit your CouchApp here:
http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6/_design/design_doc1/index.html

Now check to see if db test6 was created:

    $ curl http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6
{"db_name":"test6","doc_count":1,"doc_del_count":0,"update_seq":1,"purge_seq":0,"compact_running":false,"disk_size":106585,"instance_start_time":"1282603665650439","disk_format_version":5}

Now go into a browser and take a look at the test6 db

http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils/database.html?test6

You should see "design/designdoc1" listed on the html page. That's good, it means that design_doc1 was created.

Take a look at design_doc1 in the futon web admin. Open this URL in your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils/document.html?test6/_design/design_doc1

You should see a nice listing of the design_doc1. Try opening the index page in your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils/document.html?test6/_design/design_doc1/index.html

This should serve up index.html from the attachments subdirectory test6/design/designdoc1/attachments/index.html

Couchapp generate had created a sample view called recent-items. Try querying it:

    $ curl http://127.0.0.1:5984/test6/_design/design_doc1/_view/recent-items

{"total_rows":0,"offset":0,"rows":[]}

That's it. Multiple design can be used to create different interfaces for users with different roles. For example, consider some data and the different ways that and admin versus a regular user interacting with it.

CouchApp.org: Multiple design documents

Using couchapp with multiple design documents