[TYPO3-hci] Less ways to do it...

[Michael Scharkow]

Martin Kutschker wrote:
> Michael Scharkow schrieb:
>> Martin Kutschker wrote:
>>
>>> But why remove external and shortcut? At least the former is clearly 
>>> distinct from other page types.
>>
>>
>> Isn't external just a shortcut to outside the page tree?
> 
> No, they are handled differently. "external" results in a full URL 
> within a menu/link. But a shortcut isn't a redirect but more like a 
> show-content-from-page plus a change of the rootline.

This sounds like a horribly technical explanation ;) Apart from the fact 
that they're internally handled differently, aren't there just external 
and internal shortcuts - just trying to think from a user's perspective. 
The BE interface for both looks very similar, so I expect them to be 
similar.

>> I've never used it, but I wonder why we can't treat it as a shortcut, 
>> and have a shortcut tab where you can set the target and some options, 
>> etc.
> 
> It's technicall different and IMHO it is not easier for the user if she 
> has more options for "shortcut" rather than two clearly understandable 
> page types.

Right, what about a page object, a shortcut object and a sysfolder 
object. 1 and 2 are visible in FE, 2 and 3 cannot store content 
elements. (I'm not talking about implementation here, so it might be 
page types or distinct objects)

My point is that we should group options and remove the irrelevant ones 
where it makes sense. Why I can store records in shortcuts and external? 
Why don't shortcuts have meta data? What's the use of a general record 
storage in spacer or sysfolder or shortcut? Why can they be hidden?

I think I'll just make a list of grouped properties (= tab sections) and 
see which stuff fits to which object type.
The other issue is making TYPO3 more strict in what object to accept in 
what context. It makes no sense to be able to choose a spacer as general 
record storage, or link target, or display content from a shortcut, etc. 
I hope you get my point...

Cheers,
Michael

PS: If you think this strictness is useless or hurts flexibility, just 
remember how often your users created news in the plugin page instead of 
the sysfolder for news, or created content elements in the shortcut page 
instead of the target page.