backend structure/categorize forms

marios · 2006-04-02 18:55:30

Do you have problems maintaining your forms, when you reach at a level of approximately 30 forms ?
Do you find it cumbersome and confusing to distinguish between them and find the proper relation between your forms and for example your article tags?
Do you port unactive forms over to an external editor as snippets, to make your life easier ?
I’ve verified this over and over again for myself.

How much easier would it be if :

1)the four default catgories of forms would be in 4 columns next to each other instead of alltogether in one column.

2)An additional form category could be assigned to each of them for better sorting within those columns.

3)An additional form sub category with a variation of those forms would be ideal that could be switched on and off through a checkbox. That way, you could just change your forms without even going to your page templates to change the tag attributes.

(As a work around, in the meanwhile I use a specific naming convention for my forms that makes it a little easier to distingiush between them.)

regards, marios

Last edited by marios (2006-04-02 18:56:15)

alexandra · 2006-04-04 15:25:09

Very, very good idea marios. Could you supply an image how that could look alive? that would help to think of a good naviagation.

mrdale · 2006-04-04 15:53:08

Good ideas. In lieu of a categorization scheme, I too have been using naming conventions to group like-forms together. One of the great things about TXP is simplicity of structure, so the trick with introducing categories for forms would be in keeping everything clear for the newbie. That is, how do categories in forms relate to categories in images, articles and files.

I agree though, what you propose would certainly make my life easier.

marios · 2006-04-04 18:10:58

I’m working on something in Photoshop , on how approximalely this could be envisioned, but hey, that will take some time.

regards, marios

alexandra · 2006-04-04 19:46:05

2 hours went by since you last posted marios .. still nothing new on the thread here. i am embarressed ;)

marios · 2006-04-04 21:41:44

I’ve been busy finding a programmer to code it, and it’s done.

Not exactly sure , if this is even doable even for a future release.

NOTE.:It’s allso available from the wiki, so if some working Group members want to grab it from there for general dicussion or editing,
it’s available.Basically it’s just throughn together without much thinking yet.

The basic Idea behind it, is that you use the Variant feature to better organise your forms and reduce the total amount to a basic denominator of functional core forms. All the form Variants (Named Variants to avoid confusion with TXP categories) can be administered from the drop down menus.

(Only one form variant could be active at the same time,there could be an option in the advanved prefs, on wether only one form should be active,then in this case switching from one variant to the other for a specific form Variant would automatically change the behavior of the relevant page tags, or if in prefs this is switched to off, then in that case variants could co-exist at the same time all around and this would then allow you to administer a huge amount of different forms, still good in that case, since when a form isn’t called anywhere it doesn’t do anything anyhow.In the first case though you get the bonus of the possibility of incredible instant site changes, let’s say on a specific date,and it would take only a couple of minutes to do them.)

The categories themselves are just meant as a means of sorting forms and Variants, for better organisation in the backend .

I’ve forgotten though to insert the sortby link, that would then allow you to swap the whole thing around and sort your forms not only by genre, but allso by name, category and variant.

regards, marios

Last edited by marios (2006-04-04 22:45:22)

mrdale · 2006-04-04 22:41:43

>marios
I applaud your ideas and your effort, and I think you’re on the right track, but I think your mockup might be really confusing. How about something like this, which, combined with sortable columns and or collapsible categories might achieve most of what we’re after.

Thoughts?

marios · 2006-04-04 22:59:28

I’ve thought about the collapsible thing allso that would be ideal to save screen estate.

As I sayd, I doubt, that what I describe above is even doable, But wouldn’t the Variant feature add a powerfull extra functionality to it.

Aren’t the forms one of the most important core features of TXP, like custom fields ?

And still they’re just not really maintainable with what there is.
Are the cat’s just meant as a sorting option in your example ?

I’m wondering wether a form sorting by cat or name could be done though,my guess is that only Zem, Sencer and Mary could answer these questions.

NOTE.:There could allso be an additional option in the advanced prefs that would allow you to activate and deactivate the advanved Variant feature all together, to adapt it to your needs (newbee,intermediate, advanved)

regards, marios

Last edited by marios (2006-04-04 23:17:24)

marios · 2006-04-04 23:22:52

Another screenshot, better resolution,

regards

Mary · 2006-04-05 03:45:21

It seems to me having further categorization of forms would just add extra complexity, but otherwise not be generally more useful. I can see separating the different form types more, though.

marios · 2006-04-05 05:10:32

That’s why one could think about switching it on and off from the admin/prefs pane.

regards

Last edited by marios (2006-04-05 05:11:03)

mrdale · 2006-04-05 05:26:45

>Mary

I agree about keeping it simple. I have built sites with Textpattern that had quite a few forms, and basically use naming conventions to keep them sorted. In an ideal textpattern I could apply a category to each form, and the long list of forms on the side would be collapsible by category (kind of like a recent enhancement to this very forum ;) ).

Of course, for me this item is a low priority, I don’t mind naming my forms to keep them manageable.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2006-04-02 18:55:30

backend structure/categorize forms

#2 2006-04-04 15:25:09

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#3 2006-04-04 15:53:08

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#4 2006-04-04 18:10:58

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#5 2006-04-04 19:46:05

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#6 2006-04-04 21:41:44

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#7 2006-04-04 22:41:43

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#8 2006-04-04 22:59:28

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#9 2006-04-04 23:22:52

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#10 2006-04-05 03:45:21

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#11 2006-04-05 05:10:32

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

#12 2006-04-05 05:26:45

Re: backend structure/categorize forms

Board footer