[pmwiki-users] (:dataset:) directive/concept
Henrik Bechmann
henrik at bechmannsoftware.com
Thu Nov 24 16:43:00 CST 2005
Patrick,
I'm looking for some strategic advice on my next main issue in using
PmWiki as a simple content management system (so far so good by the way,
my ability to create (:includefieldpage :) to support a Farm of fields
cross-referencing each other rounded out the basic requirements).
The next main issue is picture management, as the website that I'm
Webmastering is essentially in a kind of magazine format, with by now
(I'm guessing) thousands of pictures. Nonetheless the main problem is
just being able to see what's there, so that authors can reference
existing pictures in their articles. Nothing too fancy required or
wanted (all the tools I've seen so far are way overkill). PmWiki already
has a competent upload facility, and FileZilla can be used for bulk
uploads, and IrfanView for bulk processing.
I can see fairly easily listing picture repositories (perhaps with a
PmWiki directive extension of some kind, linked to InterMap listings),
and from those automatically generating pages of thumbnails (based on
images found on disk in the repositories), included generating standard
file caches of the thumbnails, and having a next/previous page listings etc.
What's missing is the ability to associate titles, descriptions, and
keywords with pictures, and I don't see that being handled in the
automated way I would like with the existing recipes in the cookbook
section.
So in other words I need a simple, small-scale, text database with which
I can associate picture attributes (titles etc) through the picture
name. I also need for the authors to be able to update this database
fairly readily.
I'm thinking that most of the pieces are available in the PmWiki
environment to solve this problem: php image generation, the PmWiki
directive engine, your new Input Forms. But the piece I don't see is the
repository for the simple text database. And I wondered if you could
give me some strategic direction for that.
I was thinking, for example, about a (:dataset name=DataSetName
fields=FieldA, FieldB, FieldC=image, FieldD, FieldE=wikipage key=FieldA
actions=insert,edit,delete displaymode=table:) directive which would be
analagous to the (:table:) directives, inasmuch as it would have nested
parts, something like:
(:dataset ... :)
(:fieldset:)
(:field FieldA:)
(:field FieldB:)
...
(:fieldset:)
...
(:datasetend:)
Something like that.
I envision that such a structure could have fieldset additions inserted
by script, so that I could generate an automatic inventory with blank
fieldsets for newly uploaded images, and I might even be able to write a
popup entry form per fieldset, with some Javascript (is this a no-no in
PmWikiLand?) to close the popup and refresh the underlying browser list
for the user.
One of the benefits of keeping all this inside the PmWiki environment is
that the keywords etc. would be searchable.
So the question: Is this a strategically sound direction? Is there
another direction I should consider (for example your entry for the
$WikiDir variable makes intriguing mention of the possibility of using
it for "something more advanced such as ... a .dbm-file")?.
Any thoughts you may be able to share about this would, as always, be
most appreciated.
Best,
- Henrik
--
Henrik Bechmann
www.osscommons.ca
www.bechmannsoftware.com
Webmaster, www.dufferinpark.ca
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