[WIKI-UPDATE] LenyaUserMeetingSpain2004 WoodyScratchpad Thu Jun 17 23:00:04 2004

[st...@outerthought.org]

Page: http://wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=LenyaUserMeetingSpain2004 , version: 90 on Wed Jun 17 20:37:41 2004 by Scherler

+ {{{We are sorry - registration closed!!!}}}
- {{{We are sorry that nobody can register anymore but the room is for 15 people}}}
- Note:


Page: http://wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=WoodyScratchpad , version: 21 on Wed Jun 17 20:33:15 2004 by TimLarson

+ 
+ ----
+ 
+ !!! Masks
+ 
+ Evolution of an idea: union -> choice/case -> masks
+ 
+ What if instead of choosing between disjoint sets (union),
+ or choosing between cherry-picked widgets (choice/case),
+ we could specify action masks for trees of widgets (masks!)
+ 
+ A mask is similar to a "case" from the "choice/case" proposal
+ at: http-link-to-wiki.cocoondev.org/Wiki.jsp?page=WoodyScratchpad
+ except that it does not choose between states, but instead it
+ performs actions on a tree of widgets, changing various
+ attributes as it goes.  This would allow us to individually
+ control attributes like existence, visibility, validation,
+ enabled/disabled, processing of request parameters, and even
+ changing sets of labels on the fly.
+ 
+ I picture something similar to Jetty's configuration files,
+ where calls to java methods with parameters and calls to
+ simple setters and getters are all encoded into an xml format.
+ We can create a simplified xml format for these action masks,
+ and then either embed them in the form model files or supply
+ them externally via pipelines (using XSLT, etc. for freeform
+ transformations) for mask builders to parse into mask objects.
+ If we provide a good API we could even build our own masks
+ dynamically from Java or javascript.
+ 
+ A mask would sit in the middle between being declarative and
+ being procedural.  Instead of choosing between cases, we
+ could apply one or more masks in sequence to apply a series
+ of sweeping changes to trees of wigets.  You could think of
+ it as a type of shorthand for changes, possibly backed up
+ with some internal mechanism to make mass changes ligher
+ weight than individually performing each attribute change.
+ 
+ WDYT?
+