NXC Data Flow
This document describes the data flow in the NXC (Massive Wiki Builder) system, showing how information moves through the system during the build process.
Overall Data Flow
flowchart TD
A[Markdown Files] --> B[File Processor]
B --> C[YAML Front Matter]
B --> D[Markdown Content]
D --> E[MassiveWikiRenderer]
E --> F[HTML Content]
C --> G[Jinja2 Templates]
F --> G
H[Configuration] --> G
I[Static Assets] --> J[Output Directory]
G --> J
Wiki Links Processing
flowchart TD
A[Markdown Files] --> B[Parser]
B --> C[Extract Wiki Links]
C --> D[Build Link Dictionary]
D --> E[Build Backlinks]
D --> F[Process Transclusions]
D --> G[Process Image Links]
E --> H[Markdown Renderer]
F --> H
G --> H
H --> I[HTML Output]
The wiki links processing involves several steps:
- Extract all wiki links from Markdown files
- Create a dictionary mapping link targets to file paths
- Build a backlinks table for each page
- Process special link types (transclusions, images)
- Render links as HTML with appropriate classes and attributes
Configuration Flow
flowchart TD
A[Command Line Arguments] --> B[Argument Parser]
C[nxc.yaml] --> D[Config Loader]
B --> E[Build Configuration]
D --> E
E --> F[Template Variables]
F --> G[Jinja2 Templates]
G --> H[HTML Output]
Template Rendering Process
flowchart LR
A[Input Variables] --> B[Jinja2 Environment]
B --> C[Get Template]
C --> D[Render Template]
D --> E[Write HTML File]
subgraph "Templates"
F[page.html]
G[all-pages.html]
H[recent-pages.html]
I[search.html]
end
F --> C
G --> C
H --> C
I --> C
Search Index Generation
flowchart TD
A[Markdown Files] --> B[Extract Content]
B --> C[Create JSON Index]
C --> D[Node.js Builder]
D --> E[Lunr Index File]
E --> F[Search Page]
When the --lunr flag is used, NXC generates a search index:
- Extract content from all Markdown files
- Create a JSON data structure for indexing
- Pass this to a Node.js script that uses Lunr
- Generate JavaScript files for the search functionality
- Include these in the search page
File System Operations
flowchart TD
A[Input Directory] --> B[File Collection]
B --> C[Copy Files]
C --> D[Output Directory]
E[Static Assets] --> D
F[Template Assets] --> D
G[Generated HTML] --> D
H[Generated JSON] --> D
The file system operations include:
- Collecting all files from the input directory
- Copying non-Markdown files directly
- Copying static assets from templates
- Writing generated HTML and JSON files