[Zope-CMF] Compound elements

[Seb Bacon]

* Jon Edwards <jon@pcgs.freeserve.co.uk> [011015 10:23]:
> How are people handling the problem of templates/layouts - i.e. the overall
> page-structure of a site/section?

A good question.  As I understand it, your solution is to provide a
set of structural layouts, into which content components can be placed
at will.  The page authoring process goes:

 - pick a layout (top bar, left nav, main area)
 - select content for each layout component (text widget -> top bar,
   image -> main area)
 - edit content components

In our approach, the layout stays the same on every page, since this
is a feature of the global look and feel.  so instead, the process is:

 - pick a layout (text & 2 images; photo gallery)
 - edit content components

I think the approach one takes is entirely dependent on the client
requirements.  Our approach is restrictive, but for our clients, we
regard this as a Good Thing: the standard look and feel is enforced,
and the authoring process is easy to understand.  We are often asked
for more flexibility, and explain that the fact they can't do what
they was is a *feature*.  This usually goes down OK ;-)

I think the best way of thinking about what a templating system should
be capable of TTW is to realise that there are two distinct roles
here: one is the template developer, the other is the site author.  
In our situation, we are the site developers, and the clients are the 
site authors, and we are happy keeping things that way.

On the other hand, a TTW template authoring process is obviously
necessary in a number of situations.  In this case, there are two
problems: creating the structural container, and creating the
components.  I think you have to offer the template developer the
ability to create new components by combining together other
components, since what constitutes a logical unit varies from problem
to problem.  

The main problem with providing this kind of fuctionality is the UI.
I am having problems visualising, for example, a structural layout
editing solution which is intuitive and simple.  There are wider
usability problems too: for most people, generalising between
structural containers, content components, and web pages, can be
tricky.  

Cheers,

seb




> 
> In our system I've separated these from the compound documents, so you pick
> a layout from a list, choose which "fixed" elements you want in it - header,
> footer, menu, etc. - then the "bit in the middle", the content, comes from
> whichever compound document you are viewing.
> 
> I guess you could build layouts by building up compounds/composites, but it
> seemed simpler to keep them separate, as layouts are likely to be used
> across many pages on a site, whereas each compound doc will usually be
> unique.
> 
> Hope that makes sense? It's hard to explain!
> 
> Cheers, Jon

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        seb bacon
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