[Zope-PTK] CHALLENGE: PTK wizards

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 09:48 AM 2/22/00 -0500, Paul Everitt wrote:
>
>I'll start the ball rolling with a proposed change to the
>infrastructure.  I think the first step for all wizards should be one
>that:
>
>  o collects minimum necessary
>
>  o collects the same information for every kind of object
>
>  o collects Dublin Core information
>
>  o collects a mandatory ID and optional Title, Description, etc.
>
>  o the button says "Add"
>
>  o from there forward, it runs the "edit wizard" for the new instance
>
>Other thoughts?

I think the first screen should be one which asks you more detail about
what you want to create, so as to select an appropriate product and/or
template.  For example, in my apps, I would probably have a "Gather
Information" wizard which would select among products and templates for
surveys, polls, votes, discussions, etc., and a "Publish Information"
wizard which would ask about Files, Documents, etc.  (And a
"Projects/Administration" wizard which would deal with project folders,
schedules, job descriptions/positions, etc.  Just to name a few.)

The second screen could be like your first screen, but the first screen
would need to permit selection from a list, since otherwise the kind of
object wouldn't be known and thus couldn't be added.

In other words, I think there should not be assumed to be a 1:1 mapping
between Wizards and Products/Classes.  Otherwise, all we've done is
replaced the cluttered dropdown with a cluttered page of wizards.  Wizards
should provide a functionally-oriented grouping of object types and
templates, IMHO.

The idea of asking the same basic information for add, and then doing an
edit, makes a lot of sense from a programming efficiency POV, and it's also
great if the object would let you re-run the "edit wizard" at any time,
with your selections still in place.  However, unless the Dublin Core stuff
can be mostly filled in automatically, it does seem that putting it first
is an annoying interference.  As a user, I'd much rather fill in stuff like
the title *last*.  I want to get my result, not fill out forms.  Also, if
I'm exploring the Wizard's options, I don't want to have it actually *make*
something before I've gone through the whole process.  How do I know I
really want that object until I've seen the screens that are type-specific?