[pmwiki-users] How do *you* like to edit data pages?

Ben Stallings Ben at InterdependentWeb.com
Wed Mar 21 16:31:09 CDT 2007


I'm making exciting progress with DataPlates and should have it ready to 
release by the end of the month!  At last!

But I need some feedback about how configurable it needs to be.  If you 
have a wiki that currently uses ZAP or DataQuery or UpdateForm, I'd 
appreciate hearing *how* you like to edit your data.  Specifically, 
where do you put your forms?  Here are three paradigms I'm aware of:

1) The way UpdateForm goes about it is to have the form on one page, for 
example Main.EditUserData, and if a record ID is supplied (for example 
as a GET variable from another page), then you edit that record; 
otherwise the same form creates a new record.  In this paradigm you 
never visit the place where the data is stored (because it's not 
actually in the wiki at all).

2) ZAP allows that technique but also allows you to put the form in the 
GroupHeader so that the record ID is supplied by the name of the page 
you're looking at, for example User.BenStallings.  (In this case, the 
record you're editing actually *is* the page you're on.)  To create a 
new record, you go to a new page and fill out the form.

3) The EditDataPages recipe presents a third way: put the form in the 
group's EditForm page instead of in the GroupHeader.  If you view the 
page, you see the contents of the record (thanks to the GroupHeader), 
but you don't see the form until you click the wiki's Edit link.  This 
technique allows the admin to restrict editing permissions and the users 
to edit pages just as if the data pages were ordinary wiki pages.  I'm 
partial to this paradigm, but I realize it's not right for every situation.

Are there other ways to go about editing data pages?  If so, what do you 
like about doing it that way?

DataPlates creates forms automatically to match the structure of 
database queries.  Where should it put them?  Which of these paradigms 
should it support?  All of them?

I can make the program flexible enough to put the forms anywhere the 
admin specifies, but it's turning out to be complicated because of the 
way page text variables are named... in GroupHeaders and EditForms they 
are simply {*$:var}, but on other pages they are {Group/{$Name}$:var}. 
I hate to use the longer syntax if I don't have to.

So, feedback welcome!  Thanks!  --Ben



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