Finished the install-and-run topic and added docs for ZODB.config

documentation/guide/index.rst

@@ -12,7 +12,11 @@ If you haven't yet, you should read the :ref:`Tutorial <tutorial-label>`.
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
 
+   install-and-run
    writing-persistent-objects.rst
+
+.. todo:
+
    transaction.rst
    storages.rst
    configuration.rst

documentation/guide/install-and-run.rst

@@ -29,8 +29,8 @@ For more complex configurations, you'll probably find ZODB's
 configuration language easier to use.
 
 To understand database setup, it's important to understand ZODB's
-architecture.  In particular, ZODB separates database functionality
-from low-level storage concerns. When you create a database object,
+architecture.  ZODB separates database functionality
+from storage concerns. When you create a database object,
 you specify a storage object for it to use, as in::
 
     import ZODB, ZODB.FileStorage
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ a database.
 
 Sometimes, storages are created through composition.  For example, if
 we want to save space, we could layer a ``ZlibStorage``
-[#zlibstorage_]_ over the file storage::
+[#zlibstoragefn]_ over the file storage::
 
     import ZODB, ZODB.FileStorage, zc.zlibstorage
 
@@ -61,11 +61,11 @@ Python configuration
 --------------------
 
 To set up a database with Python, you'll construct a storage using the
-ref:`storage APIs <included-storages-label>`, and then pass the
-storage to the class:`~ZODB.DB` class to create a database, as shown
+:ref:`storage APIs <included-storages-label>`, and then pass the
+storage to the :class:`~ZODB.DB` class to create a database, as shown
 in the examples in the previous section.
 
-The class:`~ZODB.DB` class also accepts a string path name as it's
+The :class:`~ZODB.DB` class also accepts a string path name as it's
 storage argument to automatically create a file storage.  You can also
 pass ``None`` as the storage to automatically use a
 :class:`~ZODB.MappingStorage.MappingStorage`, which is convenient when
@@ -73,7 +73,147 @@ exploring ZODB::
 
   db = ZODB.DB(None) # Create an in-memory database.
 
+Text configuration
+------------------
 
-.. [#zlibstorage_] `zc.zlibstorage
+ZODB supports a text-based configuration language.  It uses a syntax
+similar to Apache configuration files.  The syntax was chosen to be
+familiar to site administrators.
+
+ZODB's text configuration uses `ZConfig
+<https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ZConfig/3.1.0>`_. You can use ZConfig to
+create your application's configuration, but it's more common to
+include ZODB configuration strings in their own files or embedded in
+simpler configuration files, such as `configarser
+<https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html#module-configparser>`_
+files.
+
+A database configuration string has a ``zodb`` section wrapping a
+storage section, as in::
+
+  <zodb>
+    cache-size-bytes 100MB
+    <mappingstorage>
+    </mappingstorage>
+  </zodb>
+
+.. -> snippet
+
+In the example above, the :ref:`mappingstorage
+<mappingstorage-text-configuration>` section defines the storage used
+by the database.
+
+To create a database from a string, use
+:func:`ZODB.config.databaseFromString`::
+
+    >>> import ZODB.config
+    >>> db = ZODB.config.databaseFromString(snippet)
+
+To load databases from file names or URLs, use
+:func:`ZODB.config.databaseFromURL`.
+
+Using databases: connections
+============================
+
+Once you have a database, you need to get a database connection to to
+much of anything.  Connections take care of loading and saving objects
+and manage object caches. Each connection has it's own cache
+[#caches-are-expensive]_.
+
+Getting connections
+-------------------
+
+Amongst [#amongst]_ the common ways of getting a connection:
+
+db.open()
+   The database :meth:`~ZODB.DB.open` method opens a
+   connection, returning a connection object::
+
+      >>> conn = db.open()
+
+   It's up to the application to call
+   :meth:`~ZODB.Connection.Connection.close` when the application is
+   done using the connection.
+
+   If changes are made, the application :ref:`commits transactions
+   <commit-transactions>` to make them permanent.
+
+db.transaction() The database :meth:`~ZODB.DB.transaction` method
+   returns a context manager that can be used with the `python with
+   statement
+   <https://docs.python.org/3/reference/compound_stmts.html#grammar-token-with_stmt>`_
+   to execute a block of code in a transaction::
+
+     with db.transaction() as connection:
+         connection.root.foo = 1
+
+   .. -> src
+
+      >>> exec(src)
+      >>> with db.transaction() as connection:
+      ...     print connection.root.foo
+      1
+
+      >>> _ = conn.transaction_manager.begin() # get updates on conn
+
+   In the example above, we used ``as connection`` to get the database
+   connection used in the variable ``connection``.
+
+some_object._p_jar
+   For code that's already running in the context of an open
+   connection, you can get the current connection as the ``_p_jar``
+   attribute of some persistent object that was accessed via the
+   connection.
+
+Getting objects
+---------------
+
+Once you have a connection, you access objects by traversing the
+object graph form the root object.
+
+The database root object is a mapping object that holds the top level
+objects in the database.  There should only be a small number of
+top-level (often only one).  You can get the root object by calling a
+connection's ``root`` attribute::
+
+    >>> root = conn.root()
+    >>> root
+    {'foo': 1}
+    >>> root['foo']
+    1
+
+For convenience [#root-convenience]_, you can also get top-level
+objects by accessing attributes of the connection root object:
+
+    >>> conn.root.foo
+    1
+
+Once you have a top-level object, you use it's methods, attributes, or
+operations to access other objects and so on to get the objects you
+need.  Often indexing data structures like BTrees_ are used to
+make it possible to search objects in large collections.
+
+.. [#zlibstoragefn] `zc.zlibstorage
    <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/zc.zlibstorage>`_ is an optional
    package that you need to install separately.
+
+.. [#caches-are-expensive] ZODB can be very efficient at caching data
+   in memory, especially if your `working set
+   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_set>`_, because the cache is
+   simply an object tree and accessing a cached object typically
+   requires no database interaction.  Because each connection has it's
+   own cache, connections can be expensive, depending on their cache
+   sizes.  For this reason, you'll generally want to limit the number
+   of open connections you have at any one time.  Connections are
+   pooled, so opening a connection is inexpensive.
+
+.. [#amongst] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WJXHY2OXGE
+
+.. [#root-convenience] The ability to access top-level objects of the
+   database as root attributes is a recent convenience. Originally,
+   the ``root()`` method was used to access the root object which was
+   then accessed as a mapping.  It's still potentially useful to
+   access top-level objects using the mapping interface if their names
+   aren't valid attribute names.
+
+.. _BTrees: https://pythonhosted.org/BTrees/

documentation/guide/writing-persistent-objects.rst

@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ record from the book record and is managed by ZODB independent of the
 management of the book.
 
 In addition to ``PersistentList`` and ``PersistentMapping``, general
-persistent data structures are provided by the ``BTrees`` package,
+persistent data structures are provided by the BTrees_ package,
 most notably ``BTree`` and ``TreeSet`` objects.  Unlike
 ``PersistentList`` and ``PersistentMapping``, ``BTree`` and
 ``TreeSet`` objects are scalable and can easily hold millions of
@@ -566,3 +566,5 @@ framework for managing schema-migration scripts.
    <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/zope.cachedescriptors>`_ package
    provides some descriptors that help implement attributes that cache
    data.
+
+.. _BTrees: https://pythonhosted.org/BTrees/

documentation/reference/storages.rst

@@ -89,6 +89,8 @@ MappingStorage
 .. autoclass:: ZODB.MappingStorage.MappingStorage
    :members: __init__
 
+.. _mappingstorage-text-configuration:
+
 MappingStorage text configuration
 ---------------------------------
 

documentation/reference/zodb.rst

@@ -31,6 +31,8 @@ Databases
              supportsUndo, undoLog, undoInfo, undoMultiple, undo,
              transaction, storage
 
+.. _database-text-configuration:
+
 Database text configuration
 ---------------------------
 
@@ -38,7 +40,7 @@ Databases are configured with ``zodb`` sections::
 
   <zodb>
     cache-size-bytes 100MB
-    <mappingstorage
+    <mappingstorage>
     </mappingstorage>
   </zodb>
 
@@ -47,6 +49,8 @@ storage and any of the following options:
 
 .. zconfigsectionkeys:: ZODB component.xml zodb
 
+.. _multidatabase-text-configuration:
+
 For a multi-database configuration, use multiple ``zodb`` sections and
 give the sections names::
 
@@ -136,3 +140,10 @@ TimeStamp (transaction ids)
    .. method:: year()
 
       Return the time stamp's year.
+
+Loading configuration
+=====================
+
+.. automodule:: ZODB.config
+   :members: databaseFromString, databaseFromFile, databaseFromURL,
+             storageFromString, storageFromFile, storageFromURL

zodbdocumentationtests/tests.py

@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ def test_suite():
         manuel.testing.TestSuite(
             manuel.doctest.Manuel() + manuel.capture.Manuel(),
             join(guide, 'writing-persistent-objects.rst'),
+            join(guide, 'install-and-run.rst'),
             join(reference, 'zodb.rst'),
             join(reference, 'storages.rst'),
             setUp=setUp, tearDown=tearDown,