[Zope-CMF] Collective Organization Aspect

Ken Manheimer klm@digicool.com
Wed, 09 May 2001 17:44:43 -0400


On 9 May 2001 19:07:35 GMT
 kent@goathill.org (Kent Polk) wrote:
> Collective Organization Aspect as Distinct Object
> http://cmf.zope.org/Members/klm/OrganizationObjects/view
> 
> I have a few half-baked ideas...
> 
> > Organization objects would keep track of associations
> for collections of
> > content items, including things like:
> 
> The following four items are almost a constant desire for
> any
> Zope-based project I have worked on. (The remainder
> mostly also,
> but not as high a perceived value)
> 
> > - Interlinking info - forward and backlinks, (and maybe
> change
> >   records, for forwarding of outdated references)
> >
> > - Lineage/thread - contains/is-contained-by,
> replies/in-reply-to,
> >   sibling
> >
> > - Path - next/previous, audit, and other sequences
> through other
> >   organizations
> >
> > - Dependency - "depends-on" / "dependents"
> 
> The ease with which information can be 'discovered' is in
> large
> part determined by the interrogation framework that is
> available.
> I continue to hold the position that standard search list
> results
> provide a fairly miserable interrogation framework. It
> simply isn't
> a natural way for people to discover information. Humans
> discover
> information by relationships (frameworks); computers by
> comparisons
> (searches).  The above items provide discovery frameworks
> that
> search results lists don't.
> 
> There are a number of different partial solutions
> available:
> 
> - Heirarchical item location. - Fixed relationship.
> difficult to
>   change.
> 
>   Wikis approach this by assigning parentage. Good start
> because
>   the parentage isn't fixed, but a bit stilted and
> doesn't provide
>   for additional relational frameworks on entry (just
> backtracking).
> 
>   Several attempts have been made to assign parentage
> according to
>   search/catalog criteria, but I haven't seen a
> general-purpose
>   example of this. Something like a heirarchical Topic
> would seem
>   to be a natural, if one could determine a way to assign
> and
>   catalog the appropriate metadata.
> 
>   Current CMF Topics invert the precedence here,
> narrowing the
>   search criteria instead of expanding it. (I haven't
> seen a way
>   to provide it). Some sort of heirarchy-building search
> object,
>   very much like CMF Topics, is likely the mechanism to
> use here.
>   However, I don't see a clear way to build descending
> heirarchical
>   relationships using the current metadata. Thoughts? (I
> think CMF
>   Topics are very close to doing this, if not there, but
> I just
>   can't see how to do it).
> 
>   Need to be able to change the sort heirarchy while
> inside the
>   framework.  This would essentially be like changing the
> sort
>   criteria in a list of items... (Remember Tabula's tree
> views?)
> 
> - Interlinking info. In short, something like WikiNames.
> Works
>   pretty good.
> 
>   Backlinks... In this environment, one can backlink
> according to
>   the framework, but what if you could choose another
> framework in
>   mid-stream? Personally, I think it would be pretty
> crucial to do
>   so (changing the sort criteria in a list of items).
> 
> What if, instead of implementing a CMF ZWiki, the
> different,
> successful components of a ZWiki were made available to
> all CMF
> items?  A WikiNames catalogger portal_types Action? A new
> framework
> metadata type for CMFTopic?  Seems to me that they would
> need to
> work in conjunction with each other to be able to
> restrict Wikinames
> to the current framework though...
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> 
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