Alias: Creating a new page

[nils73]

Now that I have finished my first customer workshop on CMS made simple I can give some feedback on the system. One thing that people did not understand, was while creating pages. If you create a new page, you can enter almost everything except for the page alias. It would be great if you could specify it directly. If none is specified, the system could do the same as now.

However that was the main point. Other issues were also content related. It was hard to explain, why a Calendar is a plugin and not Content. Same with all other content-related modules. Maybe we need to focus on this issue in the documentation.

One person asked me if it was possible to check-out content only by one person. That would indeed be a good idea for websites where multiple users edit content but I know it is kind of difficult. The same person asked what would happen if the internet connection broke down while writing something. Word has a auto-save feature. Maybe we could address this issue with some javascript and have it as an option.

Regards,
Nils

[100rk]

Now that I have finished my first customer workshop on CMS made simple I can give some feedback on the system. One thing that people did not understand, was while creating pages. If you create a new page, you can enter almost everything except for the page alias. It would be great if you could specify it directly. If none is specified, the system could do the same as now.

Take a look here: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 090.0.html, it is 2 days old topic.

However that was the main point. Other issues were also content related. It was hard to explain, why a Calendar is a plugin and not Content. Same with all other content-related modules. Maybe we need to focus on this issue in the documentation.

I think this is not an 'issue' - just way how those modules works (in this time). There is allways a possibility to enhance those modules and implement method CMSModule::IsContentModule() and other 'ContentModule' related methods.

The same person asked what would happen if the internet connection broke down while writing something. Word has a auto-save feature. Maybe we could address this issue with some javascript and have it as an option.

I have one module for testing similar features - but not in admin interface. This module can handle remote JavaScript calls only from public interface of CMSMS. Take a look here: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 060.0.html

I think it is not so hard implement this thing (xajax) into admin interface (as other JavaScripts libraries like file/image manager, helparea etc...) and enhance class "content" (or even better class "ContentBase") by some way. Then - "autosave feature" can be presented as a checkbox in user preferences page. One problem existed here: project Xajax is version 0.1 beta, so we will have to use some other similar open source project. But there are options, it is 21. century. Question is, what exactly Made Simple means.

[nils73]

Take a look here: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 090.0.html, it is 2 days old topic.

Thanks for pointing me towards this thread, I must have missed it while being away for a few days. Will try to set it this one to 'true' in my config.php and see how it works afterwards.

I think this is not an 'issue' - just way how those modules works (in this time). There is allways a possibility to enhance those modules and implement method CMSModule::IsContentModule() and other 'ContentModule' related methods.

Ah ... now I understand better. So it is more a question HOW a module is being created. This is very helpful for the documentation project. Since I am a lousy PHP coder it usually takes some time until I understand what certain things mean.

I have one module for testing similar features - but not in admin interface. This module can handle remote JavaScript calls only from public interface of CMSMS. Take a look here: http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.ph ... 060.0.html

I don't know if AJAX is the solution. And I do not know much about the "made simple" in the name at all. Things should work  - and they should be easy to handle. And content - once written - shouldn't disappear. Very difficult to tell.

Regards,
Nils

[100rk]

And content - once written - shouldn't disappear

Once written content will not disappear when user edited it and lose internet connectivity.
I think You was speaking about changes, which user do not send back to server yet and then losing his connection. In this case will be AJAX-autosave helpful - user will lose only changes maded after last autosave. But question is, if user wants to have on his public interface content, which may be unfinished, with some typing errors etc.

[nils73]

Indeed I meant _new_ content (therefore the subject creating a new page). I always recommend to disable the "page is active" checkbox in advanced options. Then the page won't be online. But content might get lost when the server is down or the internet connection is broken. Ajax might be a good solution then.

Regards,
Nils

[iNSiPiD]

I reckon educating the end-user, though difficult, would be a better solution. If the page doesn't submit due to a timeout or lost connection the content doesn't get lost. It should still be sitting in the textarea box. They can either try again, try again after reconnecting, or copy the contents to a Word doc for later.

I know it's a pain and God I hate endorsing it but for my end users the only solution was for them to create content in Word and then paste it into a new or existing page using FCKedit. You can then use the cleanup button in FCKedit to get rid of all the mso crud.

These word docs are all named and added to an asset register. The benefit of this procedure is that there is a local backup of all site content and you can approve and edit content for the CMS before people upload it. I keep a very tight rein on who can add content and geneally don't allow users to add pages.

[iNSiPiD]

Yes, Wordpad is a good option if you don't mind styling the text in the WYSIWIG.

[nils73]

I wouldn't recommend Word at any time but that is just my 0.02 EUR ... and notepad isn't a good option either when it comes to creating new content. If possible I recommend OpenOffice or nothing at all ... that is why I asked if "auto-save" would be possible in CMSMS.

Regards,
Nils

[iNSiPiD]

Unfortunately not all of us have that luxury. Apart from my ability to have affected our online presence with opensource software the rest of the organisation is both dependent and constrained on and by MSware.

[nils73]

Then of course you are right. I wonder if there are other possibilities and I remember telling people to copy from M$ Word to clipboard, paste to Notepad, copy to clipboard and paste to Content Management System. That is hardcore. Users hardly understand the logic behind CTRL+C and CTRL+V (it's magic) and now they copy and paste and copy and paste from one program to another (just because M$ Word messes up the source code and does not copy plain text anymore). That was why I started recommending OpenOffice and suddenly I found myself using it more and more. Actually I am my own boss and of course I understand that companies can not easily switch from one software to another. Some middleware might be useful. Maybe it would be a good idea to use M$ Outlook for writing the text ... wonder if that works different.

Regards,
Nils

[iNSiPiD]

Sadly not. Outlook also uses RTF by default and copies both RTF and HTML.

You can set it to use Plain Text but, again, trying to convince the organisation that this is in fact a leap forward would be too tiresome to mention.

I'm going to suggest Notepad I think. They can then format text in the WYSIWIG. God forbid!