[pmwiki-users] How to mix structured data and free content in a page?

[Oliver Betz]

Michael Continues wrote:

(BTW: his mail didn't show up im gmane)

>     (EditMore is more recent and has lots more functionality, but I
>     haven't looked at the implementation)
> 
> EditMore creates separate EditForm fields for Title, Description, 
> Keywords, Tags (Categories), and Notes. It can also make any of these 

One problem with hiding page markup is that you can't delete pages 
anymore by simply writing "delete" to the page (because there is 
still other, hidden text). This applies also to Eemeli's nicely coded 
EditAttributes.

The user has to clear all attribute fields to delete the page.

There might be other side effects arising from hidden page markup.

> fields mandatory. All of the info can be accessed as PTVs, so if you 
> just wanted to rename Title to "Full Name", Notes to "Contact Info", and 
> Tags to "Watched Pages" you could... It just isn't made to do much else.
> 
> I've always meant to expand it to allow the creation of arbitrary form 
> fields, like Address, Favorite Color, etc, but there's never been any 

EditAttributes seems to provide that.

> demand for it. Frankly, I'm surprised that this recipe didn't become a 
> standard yet, as there is nothing better for SEO and tagging in PmWiki.

For me it has been absolutely sufficient to write this as markup in 
the page text. I prefer a compact edit form.

My current target is to offer foolproof access to specific structured 
data, e.g. the fields of an issue tracking system or contact 
information.

Currently I use a template page to provide the correct markup to the 
user, but this has several drawbacks:

1. The user can overwrite the markup and render the data useless.
2. Adding fields to existing pages is not possible.

Therefore I want to access the structured data by forms. PmForms 
offers the basic interface, what I looked for was a switch between 
"view" and "edit". Something like an "edit structured data" button in 
addition to "edit (unstructured) page text".

EditMore and EditAttributes are interesting alternatives but they 
need some "tuning" for my specific needs:

I want to use it only in specific pages/groups and with different 
fields, e.g. one set for the  issue tracking pages and another set 
for the contact pages, nothing in the remaining pages. Therefore I 
have to add the required fields dynamically to the edit form. Well, 
(:include:) or a variable and per group customisation can be used.

And I'm not sure whether I like dynamically hiding and restoring page 
text. Maybe I will use a variant where the user can see the markup 
and the input fields. Or I offer two edit options - structured and 
unstructured. I have to do some usability tests.

Thanks to Michael and Eemeli for the nice recipes!

Oliver
-- 
Oliver Betz, Muenchen