Martijn:
Recently I've had an idea.
Excellent.
Ideally you'd want to put this stuff in subfolders. But you run into the following problem: acquisition works no more. That is, acquisition works, but to override any specific layout component that's in a subfolder, you need to override the entire subfolder and copy over *all* layout elements.
Yes it's a problem I have encountered. I have been forced to let the site get unorganized in order to take advantage of acquisition. However, for layout, I have started uwins a UIClass ZClass that my objects inherit from and I can reuse my code, so I don't have that problem as much anymore.
Analysis:
So, why do you want to use folders at all? To compartementalize the system so we can easily find stuff. To avoid long lists of methods in the root folder. But proper folders hurt acquisition, so..
Solution:
We need a new type of folder, the 'transparent' or 'virtual' folder. If we have a folder 'folder', and a subfolder 'sub', and sub is a transparent folder, anything we place in 'sub' is actually in 'folder' as well. It'll be acquired. It can be overridden (either in a subfolder of the same name, or in the folder that's doing that acquiring directly).
This way, we get to compartementalize things while keeping the benefits of acquisition.
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* is this a good idea at all? Any disastrous complications or consequences?
* is this technically feasible?
I think developing a new class to organize things with a "management interface" focus is taking a step backwards. The physical location of an item is important because of aquisition. But the *physical* location of an item is not important to organization. I think that the two should be kept separate. The Catalog allows you to manage items (very clunky) regardless of their location. You could very easily group those items for organization without effecting their physical place in the hirearchy. This goes along with establishing object relationships that are not 2 dimensional(hirearchy), but multi-dimensional(those 'relationships' or 'links' that pop up on the list every month or so). I truely think that physical location shouldn't be the only effect on aquisition. 2 cents gingles in the jar. All my best, Jason Spisak CIO HireTechs.com 6151 West Century Boulevard Suite 900 Los Angeles, CA 90045 P. 310.665.3444 F. 310.665.3544 Under US Code Title 47, Sec.227(b)(1)(C), Sec.227(a)(2)(B) This email address may not be added to any commercial mail list with out my permission. Violation of my privacy with advertising or SPAM will result in a suit for a MINIMUM of $500 damages/incident, $1500 for repeats.