[pmwiki-users] Request input on soon-coming FAST Data release

The Editor editor at fast.st
Wed Oct 4 13:59:27 CDT 2006


FAST Data 3.0 is rolling around soon, and while not adding many new
features, will be significantly reworked in terms of code to 1)
enhance flexibility (notably csv list handling and templating), and 2)
dramatically strengthen known security issues. There will also be some
ease of use improvements.

Here's some questions for any list members with an interest in this project:

Though I have not yet noticed any performance problems, a couple of
individuals have questioned whether or not this recipe is a massive
victim of feature creep. (Or is it just "full-featured"...).  Anyhow,
I'm not sure how to solve this--as most of the features make use of
the same set of functions, and keeping it all together allows an
author to perform multiple actions as well. IE, create a new member
account, email a verification message, and authenticate them in one
shot.  Or enter a csv list of page names, create the pages with data
extracted from their profile, and save them. For things like forums,
instant messaging, file management, etc., this combo thing is really
nice.

One solution is to leave as is, and suggest users simply delete out
any functions they don't want (my original thought).  Second solution
is to put the less used functions at the end, commented out, and have
authors cut and paste them into the data engine (at a point indicated)
to add those specific functionalities.  A third option might be to
break it up into several recipes, and dynamically include them as they
are needed into the main recipe (is that possible?).  Something like:

if (field == "email") {
     include data-email.php;
     email($value);
     }

Of course all this (except the first option) goes against the design
goal of having a powerful forms processing engine that would easy to
install and use without needing to know php.  Just drop it in the
cookbook, add a line or two to your config, and you are ready to go.
Any thoughts on the right balance?

Lastly, I'm thinking about changing the name to ZipData for various
reasons. Once the major development is over I want to start adding
recipes based on specific applications of this that could be called
things like ZipBlogs, ZipForums, ZipMessaging (I have this on my
site--and it is really awesome), ZipFileManagement, ZipCMS, etc.
These would all be based on the core recipe, but include cut and paste
snippets with instructions for the best ways to set these kinds of
features up.  Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Caveman




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