CMS Made Simple Forums

The time has now come to decide about what name should replace what is now called HTML Blobs. We feel the need for a name that better describes what this thing actually is there for.

And we need you to cast your vote on what you think should be the new name!

The Development Team has decided on six suggestions to vote for. There are of course more good options than these six, but these all describe what HTML Blobs are doing. Some better than others, that's up to you to decide.

The voting will be open for one week from the time this topic was posted. To vote you must be a registered user. Each user can only vote one time each.


So what are then HTML Blobs used for?

A short description could be "HTML code/content that can be reused and is available for any page or template to use".

Good things to know about HTML Blobs:

• HTML Blobs can NOT use php code, that is what user-defined tags are for.
• They can be used in templates, just like content and content blocks are used, with the only difference that blobs are not page-specific. That is, a HTML blob is edited in one place and all pages using the template where the blob is used will then be updated.
• HTML Blobs can be used in pages, either if the same content is used on several pages or simply to make that part of the content easier to edit separately.
• A user can be given access to edit a HTML Blob without having permission to edit the page or template where it is used.
• HTML Blobs can also be used for HTML code that is not necessarily content, such as part of the code for a template to make the template code easier to overview. For example code from other sites, that are inserted in your template (on the CMSMS site a blob is for example used for the banners that appear below the left menu links).
• On the default templates installed with CMSMS 0.11.x a HTML Blob is used for the footer content with the copyright text. It can then easily be edited by anyone with permission to edit that blob, without changing the rest of the template. And all templates using the same footer are using the same HTML blob.
• If you have enabled WYSIWG for your site it will also be used for HTML Blobs.

 
NB: The Development Team has the right to select another name than the one with the most votes.

Thanks to all who voted. Only 16 people decided to vote, with "Global Content Blocks" getting half of the votes. Now the Dev Team will take these votes into consideration and have a new name for HTML Blobs in future versions (although it may not make it until v. 1.0).

well, here's my .000015 (used to be .02, but ya know.. taxes are coming up, that's all i got left)

leave it the way it is (was?)...

backward compatibility (don't change the markup used in templates)

calling them some other name but still using {html_blob} to insert into a template may throw newcomers off a bit and take a little getting used to by some of the old-timers.

sounds better than html_spit, html_barf, or html_booger. 

a 'blob' is a more then adequate description of what it really is.. a blob of markup or a blob of content. and HTML_blob is a good short name.

none of the choices offered have a nice, short & sweet tag name apparant, such as {html_blob} -- you could use {html_block} but that brings up...

using something that incorporates 'block(s)' may confuse people coming from other software that uses them to describe modules or specific locations within a template. and there's a lot of other ones out there that call something a 'block'.