[Typo3-dev] Repost: Structural Ideas

Daniel Hinderink daniel at typo3.com
Thu Jun 26 17:37:12 CEST 2003


By public request, I am now bringing to you (again) this fabulous email :-)

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Hi folks,

This is collated from a mail conversation I had with K a while ago and I
would like to get your thoughts about this, expecially in the light of the
latest advances regarding DBAL.

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First Idea:

Try to think of typo3 as a black box:

Input -> typo3 -> output

With the extension manager the black-box has become extensible in the
directions of the output as well as some functionality within.

Now my idea is to introduce a new sort of objects to TYPO3:

Sources.

Sources are 

A.) in the site root, like filemounts.
They should hold Database-settings and can be attached to branches of the
page tree, that then make use of this asset, thus allowing multiple
databases.

Other source-types could be LDAP-settings, ODBC, WebService infos.
The general database settings from the install tool would create such a
default mysql-entry.

B.) Attached to a page: XML-streams (RSS/RDF), OODocs or even individual
Queries.

Reasons:

One of the major factors for TYPO3 to become a proliferating toolbox is it's
flexibility and openess on all sides. So the solution along the lines of the
extension logic would be to provide a source-format that can be created
through the extenion system and plugs neatly into the general architecture.

I am aware that this might seem like cosmetics at this point, but especially
with the DBAL coming up it would be wise to stop and think for moment if the
right place for data storage and retrieval is one that is so inseperably
entangled with the core.

I would be glad to find that you that have high stakes in the DBAL-creation
take a moment to consider this approach.

Second Idea:

The second idea goes like this:

The most interesting field of usage for TYPO3 is creating applications based
on the framework. In many cases these do nothing much but create front end
entry/edit situations based on user rights.

A perfect toolbox would provide us with an interface for creating not only
the database tables and backend forms, but also a front end generator that
shows the available fields in a selected table, make it possible to make a
selection among these and then generates front end forms that can be
inserted in the page.

I know this could only be done in some graphically simple form, but this
would suffice in 90% anyway.

Reasons:

This is the most widely used feature for frontend information storage and
retrieval, THE number one app in Intranets.

<--

Let me know what you think, thanks and cheers,

Daniel

-- 
TYPO3 - get.content.right

Daniel Hinderink
Marketing, Press Relations, Strategy
http://www.typo3.com






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