[pmwiki-users] Modes in PmWiki (Was: Supporting different modes)

[chr at home.se]

On Sun, 7 Aug 2005, Bronwyn Boltwood wrote:

I restarted this thread since it was already getting big... I also 
summarized some stuff here:

	http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/Temp/Modes

Feel free to add to it as you like. It's a free for all now with ideas :-)

> Correct me if I'm wrong: The mode expresses the user's current emphasis.  
> The interface should change accordingly, so that it is *easier* to find
> and use controls relevant to the current emphasis, while irrelevant
> controls are de-emphasized or even hidden.

Exactly!

> Examples:
> - Visitor: mostly reading, with occasional editing.  Needs navigation,
>   search, and big attractive "Edit Page" control.
>
> - Author: spends as much time editing as reading.  Still need search
>   and navigation, but perhaps a little less prominently.  One or more
>   easy to find "Edit Page" controls and links to appropriate
>   documentation, but *also* page history and uploading.
>
> - Admin: Primary activities are editing and administrative tasks such
>   as updating navigation or user interface pages, copying or moving
>   pages.  Needs plenty of navigation pages that collect links most
>   useful for certain tasks or topics, e.g. wiki customization, skin
>   development, recipe development, and lots of access to documentation
>   and site maintenance pages like Site.Sidebar.

The above sounds like a pretty good start. The author mode might for 
instance get an edit form that's always at the bottom of a page.

> Having a bar across the top, or a block in a sidebar that showed the
> modes available and marked which one you were using would be perfect.

I think people would at least be relatively comfortable with the idea of 
tabs as mode selectors.

> > > Being an admin I know my special (Site/)-pages and I know how to handle
> > > attributes and stuff.
> > 
> > Ah.. that gives me an idea of something that'd be useful in admin mode.
> > Let the sidebar indicate the attributes of the current page, i.e. what
> > kind of passwords it requires etc.
> 
> Ooh....how about a second sidebar ...

A second sidebar is a pretty good idea (or maybe a bar at the top?).

I do however think that we should really focus on the first two modes 
(even if we as administrators immediately get all these cool ideas...)

/Christian

-- 
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44               http://www.md.kth.se/~chr