Forum OpenACS Development: Facelift for old CMS

Posted by Michael Steigman on 10/24/04 06:45 PM

I don't expect this will impact anyone as I don't think anybody's using the old CMS package but I'm posting just in case. I'd like to check in some UI changes to CMS on HEAD in the next few days. My intent is to preserve (or fix) existing functionality while integrating the package into the toolkit, i.e., ripping out the custom authentication/error functionality, etc. I've already done away with the frames (creating a tabbed interface based on the site-master CSS file) and reworked many of the old pages using listbuilder. I don't plan on touching the API anytime soon, if at all.

If anyone's interested in seeing a couple of screenshots, ping me in #openacs (or let me know if we still have a file-storage module somewhere on openacs.org).

Also, if anyone's keeping track, I'm OK with being listed as the maintainer of the package, since I believe I'm the only one using it at this point.

2: Re: Facelift for old CMS (response to 1)

Posted by Michael Steigman on 10/24/04 06:56 PM

Dave B pointed me to the file storage location so here are a couple of screenshots:

Item view
Folder view

3: Re: Facelift for old CMS (response to 1)

Posted by Matthew Geddert on 10/24/04 10:35 PM

Great! go for it!

4: Re: Facelift for old CMS (response to 1)

Posted by Andrew Piskorski on 10/25/04 03:05 PM

Excellent! Michael, just how much refactoring the old CMS (as has been talked about for years) to you plan or hope to do?

5: Re: Facelift for old CMS (response to 1)

Posted by Nima Mazloumi on 10/25/04 03:32 PM

why isn't this package not used anymore?

6: Re: Facelift for old CMS (response to 1)

Posted by Michael Steigman on 10/25/04 06:07 PM

Andrew - not sure how far I'll get. Certainly some of the ideas that are floating around now (e.g., form generation stuff) are outside of my scope at the moment - I'm really just doing this for the fun of it and to see if I can squeeze a little more use out of the package. Maybe if it reaches a point where it's seen as a somewhat viable UI to manage content, others will become interested and pitch in, especially given the lack of alternatives? I've chatted with a couple of people who seemed interested in the past few days.

Nima - others may be able to give a more complete picture but my understanding is that the package was created as a showcase for all of the CR features. The UI was so clunky and exposed so much, however that it was never used. Also, it was built as a stand-alone app on top of the CR with its own authentication screens, error screens and permission system which made it tough to use within an existing OpenACS install. I think aD took bits and pieces of the technology and created wizards out of it for their clients who required a CMS.

7: Re: Facelift for old CMS (response to 1)

Posted by Don Baccus on 10/26/04 01:57 AM

Michael, this is great news, yes. You're doing exactly the right thing ... having the CMS without the standalone aspects and with a better UI would be great.