[pmwiki-users] recipe configuration screens: best practice?

[Ben Stallings]

Caveman wrote some time ago:
> Just a thought Ben, but  as ZAP is (now) designed to be quite modular,
> and it already has all kinds of forms processing capabilities built
> in--would it be of any merit to make a ZAPdbase module--that adds the
> new fields and functions you are working on, and puts them right into
> the ZAP forms processing engine?

Sorry for the delay in responding.  I'm as unfamiliar with ZAP as you 
are with what I'm working on, but it seems to me that what you're 
proposing would lead to a lot of unnecessary duplication of 
functionality.  I know I'm taking a long time to get DataQuery up and 
running, but I swear it will be worth the wait.

What I have in mind is that DataQuery will work seamlessly with other 
recipes so that if ZAP tries to read or write a page in a group that 
DataQuery handles, (assuming it uses the standard read and write 
methods) it will read or write the database instead of a wiki page.  End 
of story, no changes to ZAP necessary.  The advantage of this will be 
that not only won't you have to add database functionality to ZAP, but 
other recipe writers won't have to add database functionality to their 
recipes either.  If you write a ZAPdbase module, that will undoubtedly 
help ZAP users, but nobody else.

Now granted, it's taking me a long time to get DataQuery working.  If 
you're eager to have database functionality in ZAP, I could really use 
your expertise with how ZAP works, because I'm already confusing myself 
by fighting on multiple fronts simultaneously; taking on ZAP as well 
would be too much for me right now.  --Ben S.