[pmwiki-users] new zap release...

DaveG pmwiki at solidgone.com
Fri Dec 22 08:56:42 CST 2006


A few comments below.

The Editor wrote:
> On 12/21/06, DaveG <pmwiki at solidgone.com> wrote:
>> Some problems on the site:
>>  - Some areas of the site still require login. Snipets in particular,
>> also Documentation.
> 
> I don't think this is correct.  I've checked and doublechecked.  Can't
> find anything still requiring logins...  Did you perhaps double click
> on a link?  If so--that calls up the edit window.  Maybe I should
> change that.  It's just very convenient....
Document editing from double-click is what requires the login. ref 
http://www.fast.st/zap/pmwiki.php?n=Docs.FieldReplacement


>>  - I actually can't login with Guest/test, nor can I register.
> 
> My mistake.  I upgraded the Register Snippet, but not the live
> Register form.  It should be working now.  Also, somehow the password
> was somehow delete on the Guest account.  It should be working again,
> with that account a bit better locked down.
Still not working with Guest/test.

>> I'm trying to get some basics working with Zap:
>>  - Getting a bunch of "Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach()
>> in C:\temp\pmwiki-2.2.0-beta17\cookbook\zap.php on line 103" errors on a
>> basic PmWiki install, only cookbook is Zap. Looks like this may be a
>> known issue.
> 
> No this is a new error--had to do with the part of the code that
> checks for other enabled modules. Only occurs when no other modules
> are installed.  Is now fixed and the updated download is up.
Fix works.

>>  - What I'm most struggling with is displaying data stored on another
>> page. How are those variables referenced?
> 
> You refer to them as any other text variable.  That is
> 
> {$:field} or
> {Group/Name$:field}
> 
> Text variables can be referenced in a pagelist like this:
> 
> {=$:field}
> 
>>  - It appears that you wouldn't store multiple records with the same
>> field names in a single page. Thus, lists would be constructed by
>> storing 'records' in separate pages, and displaying the records in list
>> format via pagelist. Is that correct?
> 
> That's right, normally each 'record' would be a different page in a
> group.  Then use a pagelist limited to that group, with whatever
> criteria you want, and it can pull up a table or 'report' of any kind.
> 
>> Some suggestions:
>>  - provide basic examples.
>>    - Show how to display data from another page.
>>    - Point out somewhere early on that Zap relies heavily on pagelists,
>> and provide some examples.
>>
>>  - I remember seeing a quote: "pages can be treated like db records,
>> with individual fields in them". If this is true, it helped put things
>> into context, and should be on the site.
> 
> These are some good suggestions. I've added quite a bit of
> documentation already.  But I could add a tutorial on retrieving and
> displaying data.  If you have other suggestions for improving the
> documentation, let me know.  I tried to update it all for the new zap
> but some things may still be unclear.  There's a lot of information
> there to update...  (Took more time than updating the code!)
> 
>>  - Context is important. Fox is very simple to understand as it sticks
>> with data and display templates for displaying data. Zap's concepts are
>> not well defined in the docs.
> 
> Fox is simpler, because it does one thing well, (Hans always does good
> work!)  Basically, it inserts templated page content (either append or
> prepend) into another page.  The reason zap is more complex, is it is
> a toolbox with building blocks you have to assemble yourself.
> (Actually, it has been able to do the equivalent of Fox back from when
> it was still FASTdata--I called it logging, but never used it much as
> I prefer a data-driven approach).
> 
> In my opinion, there are only two reasons one would want to use zap:
> 
> 1) if it happens to have some specific feature you can't find a ready
> made tool for.  If there is a specific tool--use it. If not, hopefully
> zap has a snippet you can just cut and paste.
> 
> 2) if you want a rapid development IDE.  Once you learn how zap works
> you can create very complex applications quickly. There's a learning
> curve--but once you get the hang of it, you do a LOT without ever
> having to touch php. Just hobble together a form. If you do a lot of
> custom coding, learning zap could save you much time in the future.
> 
> Hope this helps!
> 
> Cheers,
> Dan
> 




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