*klm 07/30/2000 - The WikiNG through-the-web object management
bullet briefly addresses this - coherently incorporating other types
of documents is something we see as key to our integration of wiki
with larger content management capabilities. We also need to focus
on the process of creating a page, which currently establishes the
page too early, before content has been committed. Also, i see it as
completely consistent for the other types of content - file uploads,
discussion objects, etc - to have some features of wiki pages, like
backlinks, parents, and even outgoing links and offspring.
Rather than creating an empty object and offering the option to
edit it, we should go directly into editing before the object
is created - since that's what users do first, the vast majority
of the time. The page will not yet exist, however - not until
they commit the initial content - and we'll also offer the
option for creating a different type of document - file uploads,
images, whatever kinds of objects are relevant - on the initial
edit page, as well. The immediate edit further streamlines the
current procedure for the common case, does not create the page
until there is something to hold, and provides for creation of
other kinds of content without disrupting the most common case.
(We may want to have some kind of placeholder, to mark the page
as "being created", during the initial edit period, to avoid
overlap in people clicking that question mark to create the page
- which tends to be tempting...)
Note that here is another domain where the lines of the wiki
nesting relationships may provides a suitable structure for
organizing policy - in this case, policy about the types of
objects available to be created in the hierarchy. Subpages may
further constrain or, if the user is permitted, enlarge the
range of choices available in their offspring. This way,
certain areas of the wiki may be set aside for delegating
creation of particular kinds of documents - project reports,
discussion objects, or whatever.
Oh, and i see no reason why other kinds of content contained in
the wiki can't have backlinks - in fact, i think they should be
contained like wiki pages, with the wiki footer and header, to
be well integrated. Even for references to documents elsewhere,
being able to identify the pages that make the reference is
useful - it has concept-index significance. We will probably
want to offer special slots for relationship metadata for
non-StructuredText content, so outgoing and child links can be
registered in the wiki organization objects in other ways.
The idea is to integrate the virtues of the wiki way with other
kinds of content, where appropriate, in this integration of wiki
with Zope's content management framework...
