First draft of At A Glance article

docs/architecture/at-a-glance.md

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+# Workflow Orchestrator At A Glance
+
+!!! info
+    This article is for potential adopters considering Workflow Orchestrator (WFO) for their organization.
+    It avoids software implementation details and favors high-level terminology over the finer semantics of WFO's database models.
+
+
+Workflow Orchestrator is a software framework for modeling the lifecycle of subscriptions to arbitrary products.
+The framework is open-source and written in the Python programming language.
+In organizations using WFO, software teams define **products** using the framework, along with **workflows** by which end-users manage each product's lifecycle.
+
+When a user subscribes a customer to a product, they run a **create** workflow, which produces a **subscription** to that product.
+That subscription can then orchestrated by the other workflows associated with its product.
+For example, **validate** workflows ensure WFO's database is kept in sync with any external resources allocated to a subscription, and **terminate** workflows deprovision the subscription along with those external resources.
+
+# Scenario: Adding a Link
+!!! info
+    In this section, we highlight the experience of an end-user: in this case, a network operator setting up a link between two routers.
+    While this example focuses on networking, WFO can be used for any kind of service, and provides no specific support for network products.
+
+    All screenshots are from the [example-orchestrator][example-orchestrator] project, which you can set up yourself to explore the product further.
+
+Suppose that we have nodes in Amsterdam and London, and we want to establish a core link between them.
+
+On the Subscriptions page, we can see that we already have a subscription for each node, so we create a link via the New Subscription dropdown.
+![Create Core Link dropdown](../img/at-a-glance/create_core_link_dropdown.png)
+
+We're then taken to a form for creating the new core link.
+As seen below, the form is multi-part with choices pregenerated for the fields.
+
+In this case, the choices are generated dynamically from a Netbox inventory. Workflow Orchestrator makes it easy for software developers to generate templated forms entirely on the backend using the [Pydantic Forms][pydantic-forms] package, with no front-end code required.
+
+![Create Core Link form A](../img/at-a-glance/create_core_link_form_a.png)
+![Create Core Link form B](../img/at-a-glance/create_core_link_form_b.png)
+
+After submitting each part of the form, the Create workflow is started.
+A workflow is composed of multiple steps, and the status of each step is visible in the UI as it completes.
+Any step that generates data can be expanded in the UI to view its output.
+Below, we can see the output of the Assign IPv6 Prefix step.
+
+![Create Core Link workflow output](../img/at-a-glance/create_core_link_output.png)
+
+A link in the upper-right corner of the workflow output (above) takes us to the subscription we created (below.)
+
+On the left, we can see various details about both the Core Link subscription, the ports on either end, and the nodes (also subscriptions) each port resides on.
+
+On the right, the Actions dropdown lists the workflows available to us for further managing the subscription's lifecycle.
+
+![Core Link subscription page](../img/at-a-glance/core_link_sub.png)
+
+The General tab provides more extensive information about the subscription.
+
+![Core Link subscription page general tab](../img/at-a-glance/core_link_sub_general.png)
+
+# Additional Actions
+Above, we saw the Actions available to manage a Core Link subscription after it was created.
+
+`Modify core_link`: Users can define modify workflows to update the subscription database and/or an orchestrated external resource. Users define modify workflows for each subscription to facilitate changes mid-lifecycle.
+
+`Validate core_link`: Users can define validation workflows to verify the data in the WFO database against the external systems it manages. An error in a validation workflow places the corresponding subscription in an Out of Sync state, which flags it for remediation and blocks its workflows. For example, if WFO manages a resource in Netbox and that resource is then edited directly in Netbox, this could be detected with a validation workflow.
+
+Validation workflows are commonly run overnight using WFO's [scheduling](../../orchestrator-core/guides/tasks/) features, which can be customized to run at any time or frequency.
+
+`Terminate core_link`: Users can define terminate workflows in order to deprovision a subscription and any resources orchestrated on its behalf. Terminated subscriptions are still accessible for reference.
+
+Users aren't limited to these workflows.
+For example, it can be helpful to create distinct modify workflows for the same product to make unrelated changes.
+
+# Behind the Scenes
+
+So what's actually happening behind the scenes when we run these workflows?
+
+WFO provides none of the facilities for talking to Netbox, NSO, Ansible, etc.
+These features are implemented by other packages or by the software team leveraging the framework.
+
+In particular, each workflow is created from a number of user-defined **steps**.
+A step is just a Python function that can be re-used by developers across workflows.
+Usually, each step is responsible for interacting with an external resource: an inventory system, a database, a network device, an HTTP API, etc.
+When a workflow fails for some reason, it can be retried beginning at whichever step failed.
+
+If you want to see the code for yourself, the above example came from the [example-orchestrator][example-orchestrator] repo.
+The Core Link producted is defined by a [Product][example-core-link-product-type] and its constituent [Product Blocks][example-core-link-product-blocks], along with its [workflows][example-core-link-workflows].
+The workflows update the inventory system, Netbox, via [services/netbox.py][example-core-netbox-service].
+By convention, user-defined modules for interacting with external services are organized under `services/`.
+
+
+[nren-wikipedia]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_research_and_education_network
+[pydantic-forms]: https://workfloworchestrator.org/pydantic-forms/
+[example-orchestrator]: https://github.com/workfloworchestrator/example-orchestrator
+[example-core-link-product-type]: https://github.com/workfloworchestrator/example-orchestrator/blob/main/products/product_types/core_link.py
+[example-core-link-product-blocks]: https://github.com/workfloworchestrator/example-orchestrator/blob/main/products/product_blocks/core_link.py
+[example-core-link-workflows]: https://github.com/workfloworchestrator/example-orchestrator/tree/main/workflows/core_link
+[example-core-netbox-service]: https://github.com/workfloworchestrator/example-orchestrator/blob/main/services/netbox.py

docs/css/style.css

@@ -30,6 +30,48 @@ img[alt='pypi-downloads'], img[alt='npm-downloads'] {
     filter: drop-shadow(1px 1px 5px white);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Make it discoverable that images open in a lightbox (mkdocs-glightbox): hovering one shows a
+ * zoom-in cursor and a magnifier badge in its top right corner. The badge is drawn on the link
+ * glightbox wraps around the image, so it disappears together with the plugin if it is ever
+ * removed, and never covers an image that is not clickable.
+ */
+:root {
+    --wfo-magnify-icon: url('data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="white"><path d="M9.5 3A6.5 6.5 0 0 1 16 9.5c0 1.61-.59 3.09-1.56 4.23l.27.27h.79l5 5-1.5 1.5-5-5v-.79l-.27-.27A6.52 6.52 0 0 1 9.5 16 6.5 6.5 0 0 1 3 9.5 6.5 6.5 0 0 1 9.5 3m0 2C7 5 5 7 5 9.5S7 14 9.5 14 14 12 14 9.5 12 5 9.5 5m-.5 2h1v2h2v1h-2v2H9v-2H7V9h2z"/></svg>');
+}
+
+.md-typeset a.glightbox {
+    cursor: zoom-in;
+    display: inline-block;
+    line-height: 0;
+    position: relative;
+}
+
+.md-typeset a.glightbox::after {
+    background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .55) var(--wfo-magnify-icon) center / 1.1rem no-repeat;
+    border-radius: .2rem;
+    content: "";
+    height: 1.7rem;
+    opacity: 0;
+    pointer-events: none;
+    position: absolute;
+    right: .5rem;
+    top: .5rem;
+    transition: opacity 125ms;
+    width: 1.7rem;
+}
+
+.md-typeset a.glightbox:hover::after,
+.md-typeset a.glightbox:focus-visible::after {
+    opacity: 1;
+}
+
+/* Dim the page behind the lightbox rather than blacking it out (glightbox defaults to .92 alpha). */
+.goverlay {
+    background: rgba(0, 0, 0, .6);
+    backdrop-filter: blur(2px);
+}
+
 /*
  * Label search results with the project they belong to.
  *

docs/js/glightbox-instant.js

@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+/*
+ * Re-apply the lightbox image links after an instant navigation.
+ *
+ * With the privacy plugin enabled, mkdocs-glightbox emits the image anchors
+ * without an href and fills it in from the img afterwards, using a one-shot
+ * inline script. navigation.instant (inherited from orchestrator-core) swaps
+ * in a new page without re-running that script, leaving the anchors empty:
+ * the lightbox then opens on nothing and shows a spinner forever.
+ *
+ * Loaded via extra_javascript, so this subscriber is registered before the
+ * lightbox.reload() one that mkdocs-glightbox appends to the body, and thus
+ * runs first on every page load.
+ */
+document$.subscribe(function () {
+  document.querySelectorAll("a.glightbox:not([href])").forEach(function (el) {
+    const img = el.querySelector("img")
+    if (img && img.src) {
+      el.setAttribute("href", img.src)
+    }
+  })
+})

mkdocs.yml

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ nav:
       - Contact: contact.md
       - Leadership: leadership.md
   - Architecture:
+      - At A Glance: architecture/at-a-glance.md
       - The Framework: architecture/framework.md
       - Orchestrator UI: architecture/orchestrator-ui.md
       - Input Forms: architecture/input-forms.md
@@ -75,6 +76,8 @@ theme:
     repo: fontawesome/brands/github-alt
 extra_css:
   - css/style.css
+extra_javascript:
+  - js/glightbox-instant.js
 repo_name: workfloworchestrator
 repo_url: https://github.com/workfloworchestrator
 copyright: Copyright © 2018 - 2026 Workflow Orchestrator Programme
@@ -105,10 +108,14 @@ plugins:
         python:
           inventories:
             - https://docs.python.org/3/objects.inv
+          # Read every sub-project from its checkout rather than from the copy installed in the
+          # venv, so that docstrings cannot go stale: the checkouts track their main branch, while
+          # the installed versions only move when pyproject.toml is bumped. A page documenting a
+          # symbol added since the last bump fails the build ("Could not collect ...") otherwise.
+          # Each entry is the directory *containing* the package, not the package itself.
           paths:
-            - lso/lso
-            # Read pydantic-forms from the checkout rather than the installed copy, so that
-            # attribute docstrings cannot go stale between edits and a re-install.
+            - orchestrator-core
+            - lso
             - pydantic-forms
           options:
             show_source: true
@@ -152,5 +159,14 @@ plugins:
   # orchestrator-ui-library plugins
   - termynal
   - awesome-pages
+  # Click a screenshot to open it full size in a lightbox. Listed last so it runs after the plugins
+  # that inject HTML, and thus also covers images pulled in from the sub-projects. Images already
+  # wrapped in a link (badges, for instance) are left alone; add the "off-glb" class to opt an
+  # individual image out.
+  - glightbox:
+      draggable: false
+      zoomable: true
+      skip_classes:
+        - off-glb
   # workfloworchestrator.org general plugin that has to be loaded after awesome-pages
   - macros

pyproject.toml

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ requires-python = ">=3.13,<3.15"
 dependencies = [
     "mkdocs>=1.6.1",
     "mkdocs-drawio>=1.12.0",
+    "mkdocs-glightbox>=0.5.2",
     "mkdocs-material[imaging]>=9.7.0",
     "mkdocs-monorepo-plugin",
     # orchestrator-core docs plugins