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Posted to dev@forrest.apache.org by Ed Steenhoek <ed...@pi.net> on 2003/02/07 16:53:31 UTC
How do tabs.xml and site.xml interact?
Hi,
I'm trying to get into the habits of Forrest as an "end-user". Just a
few days back I started using the 0.3 release that now has site.xml
for managing the sitemap.
What I haven't been able to find is some words about the way tabs.xml
and site.xml interact.
My first efforts lead to a navigation tree on the HOME tab that
contains the full sitemap. I would like to get to a solution where
the other tabs are not shown on the home tab. Is this something that
should be possible already in 0.3?
How does the engine knows which tab to link to which element in
site.xml? By element name?
I saw an example on the Forrest site where a tab showed only that
part of the sitemap relevant to that tab. Is this a goal ore already
reality for the current release?
I hope some of you can shine a sparkle of light on this by some
explanation or some words on the Forrest site that I apparently
overlook.
Thanks.
Kind regards,
Ed Steenhoek
Re: How do tabs.xml and site.xml interact?
Posted by Jeff Turner <je...@apache.org>.
On Sat, Feb 08, 2003 at 08:31:34AM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
> On 8 Feb 2003 at 18:03, Jeff Turner wrote:
...
> > Ah okay. Then you need to create a book.xml file in your site's
> > content/xdocs directory. This allows you to specify exactly what you
> > want in the root menu. Attached is a book.xml for the sample webapp
> > ('forrest seed').
> >
> > --Jeff
> >
>
> OK. Will do trials.
>
> I think this is beginning to become a design issue: I would have
> expected that this behaviour would also be generated from site.xml
> making usage of book.xml obsolete.
It is a design issue; specifically we need a flexible way of creating
'views' (in the SQL sense) of site.xml.
We also need a more flexible XML format for representing menus (book.xml
is limited to 2 levels, and menus aren't clickable), and stylesheets that
take advantage of the new format. So much to do, so little time..
--Jeff
> But first I have to become more familiar with all the aspects of
> Forrest to even think if starting a discussion on this.
>
> Thanks for now.
>
> Ed
>
>
Re: How do tabs.xml and site.xml interact?
Posted by Ed Steenhoek <ed...@pi.net>.
On 8 Feb 2003 at 18:03, Jeff Turner wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 08, 2003 at 07:27:49AM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
> > On 8 Feb 2003 at 12:33, Jeff Turner wrote:
> >
> > > On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 04:53:31PM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > I'm trying to get into the habits of Forrest as an "end-user".
> > > > Just a
> > > >
> > > > few days back I started using the 0.3 release that now has
> > > > site.xml for managing the sitemap.
> > > >
> > > > What I haven't been able to find is some words about the way
> > > > tabs.xml
> > > >
> > > > and site.xml interact.
> > > > My first efforts lead to a navigation tree on the HOME tab that
> > > > contains the full sitemap. I would like to get to a solution
> > > > where the other tabs are not shown on the home tab. Is this
> > > > something that should be possible already in 0.3?
> > >
> > > No, that's never a use-case we've encountered. Why wouldn't you
> > > want some tabs? Tabs are meant to be like tabs in a book: little
> > > indentations or sticking-out bits that allow you to quickly jump
> > > to a page.
> > >
> >
> > Seems like I didn't express myself well enough here. The point is
> > that I don't mind the tabs. I do want them but don't want the menu
> > items for all the tabs to appear on the home tab. In this case all
> > tabs (including home) show only the menu items that are in their
> > book. The current home tab is more like a complete sitemap which is
> > very useful but not as primary navigation. The way I look at it that
> > the collection of tabs is your catalog with books each tab being an
> > independent book and like within any catalog there is an index: the
> > sitemap. I would like to have such a sitemap as content and not as
> > left-hand navigation.
>
> Ah okay. Then you need to create a book.xml file in your site's
> content/xdocs directory. This allows you to specify exactly what you
> want in the root menu. Attached is a book.xml for the sample webapp
> ('forrest seed').
>
> --Jeff
>
OK. Will do trials.
I think this is beginning to become a design issue: I would have
expected that this behaviour would also be generated from site.xml
making usage of book.xml obsolete.
But first I have to become more familiar with all the aspects of
Forrest to even think if starting a discussion on this.
Thanks for now.
Ed
Re: How do tabs.xml and site.xml interact?
Posted by Jeff Turner <je...@apache.org>.
On Sat, Feb 08, 2003 at 07:27:49AM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
> On 8 Feb 2003 at 12:33, Jeff Turner wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 04:53:31PM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I'm trying to get into the habits of Forrest as an "end-user". Just
> > > a
> > >
> > > few days back I started using the 0.3 release that now has site.xml
> > > for managing the sitemap.
> > >
> > > What I haven't been able to find is some words about the way
> > > tabs.xml
> > >
> > > and site.xml interact.
> > > My first efforts lead to a navigation tree on the HOME tab that
> > > contains the full sitemap. I would like to get to a solution where
> > > the other tabs are not shown on the home tab. Is this something that
> > > should be possible already in 0.3?
> >
> > No, that's never a use-case we've encountered. Why wouldn't you want
> > some tabs? Tabs are meant to be like tabs in a book: little
> > indentations or sticking-out bits that allow you to quickly jump to a
> > page.
> >
>
> Seems like I didn't express myself well enough here. The point is
> that I don't mind the tabs. I do want them but don't want the menu
> items for all the tabs to appear on the home tab. In this case all
> tabs (including home) show only the menu items that are in their
> book.
> The current home tab is more like a complete sitemap which is very
> useful but not as primary navigation.
> The way I look at it that the collection of tabs is your catalog with
> books each tab being an independent book and like within any catalog
> there is an index: the sitemap. I would like to have such a sitemap
> as content and not as left-hand navigation.
Ah okay. Then you need to create a book.xml file in your site's
content/xdocs directory. This allows you to specify exactly what you
want in the root menu. Attached is a book.xml for the sample webapp
('forrest seed').
--Jeff
Re: How do tabs.xml and site.xml interact?
Posted by Ed Steenhoek <ed...@pi.net>.
On 8 Feb 2003 at 12:33, Jeff Turner wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 04:53:31PM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I'm trying to get into the habits of Forrest as an "end-user". Just
> > a
> >
> > few days back I started using the 0.3 release that now has site.xml
> > for managing the sitemap.
> >
> > What I haven't been able to find is some words about the way
> > tabs.xml
> >
> > and site.xml interact.
> > My first efforts lead to a navigation tree on the HOME tab that
> > contains the full sitemap. I would like to get to a solution where
> > the other tabs are not shown on the home tab. Is this something that
> > should be possible already in 0.3?
>
> No, that's never a use-case we've encountered. Why wouldn't you want
> some tabs? Tabs are meant to be like tabs in a book: little
> indentations or sticking-out bits that allow you to quickly jump to a
> page.
>
Seems like I didn't express myself well enough here. The point is
that I don't mind the tabs. I do want them but don't want the menu
items for all the tabs to appear on the home tab. In this case all
tabs (including home) show only the menu items that are in their
book.
The current home tab is more like a complete sitemap which is very
useful but not as primary navigation.
The way I look at it that the collection of tabs is your catalog with
books each tab being an independent book and like within any catalog
there is an index: the sitemap. I would like to have such a sitemap
as content and not as left-hand navigation.
Does this make clear what I'm looking for?
> > How does the engine knows which tab to link to which element in
> > site.xml? By element name?
>
> All the tabs are always present. The only thing to decide is which
> tab is 'selected'.
>
> Determining which is selected is done by examining the path of the
> current page, and selecting the "most specific" tab. For example, if
> the current page is 'community/index.html', and our tabs.xml contains:
>
> <tab label="Home" dir=""/>
> <tab label="Community" dir="community"/>
> <tab label="How-Tos" dir="community/howto"/>
>
> Then "Home" and "Community" will match (their prefixes match that of
> the path), and "Community" will be the selected tab, as "community" is
> more specific than "".
>
> Usually, tabs are made to subdirectories, but it's also possible to
> tab a single page, eg:
>
> <tab label="Community FAQ" path="community/faq.html"/>
>
Ok. Will play around with it.
> > I saw an example on the Forrest site where a tab showed only that
> > part of the sitemap relevant to that tab. Is this a goal ore already
> > reality for the current release?
>
> It's a reality in CVS, and looks like it will be in Forrest 0.3.1.
> For example, see the truncated menu at:
>
> http://forrestbot.cocoondev.org/sites/xml-forrest/community/
>
Ok. Have to wait because that's what I need.
>
> --Jeff
>
>
> > I hope some of you can shine a sparkle of light on this by some
> > explanation or some words on the Forrest site that I apparently
> > overlook.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Ed Steenhoek
> >
> >
Thanks already.
Ed
Re: How do tabs.xml and site.xml interact?
Posted by "Peter B. West" <pb...@powerup.com.au>.
Jeff Turner wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 04:53:31PM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>I'm trying to get into the habits of Forrest as an "end-user". Just a
>>
>>few days back I started using the 0.3 release that now has site.xml
>>for managing the sitemap.
>>
>>What I haven't been able to find is some words about the way tabs.xml
>>
>>and site.xml interact.
>>My first efforts lead to a navigation tree on the HOME tab that
>>contains the full sitemap. I would like to get to a solution where
>>the other tabs are not shown on the home tab. Is this something that
>>should be possible already in 0.3?
>
>
> No, that's never a use-case we've encountered. Why wouldn't you want
> some tabs? Tabs are meant to be like tabs in a book: little indentations
> or sticking-out bits that allow you to quickly jump to a page.
Nonetheless, variable tabs would be very useful in complex sites. For
example, you might have a set of top-level(s) tabs, and reserve some
space for subsets of tabs which are only activated when the parent menu
is selected. Tabs are a great idea, but the real estate is limited.
Peter
--
Peter B. West pbwest@powerup.com.au http://www.powerup.com.au/~pbwest/
"Lord, to whom shall we go?"
Re: How do tabs.xml and site.xml interact?
Posted by Jeff Turner <je...@apache.org>.
On Fri, Feb 07, 2003 at 04:53:31PM +0100, Ed Steenhoek wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to get into the habits of Forrest as an "end-user". Just a
>
> few days back I started using the 0.3 release that now has site.xml
> for managing the sitemap.
>
> What I haven't been able to find is some words about the way tabs.xml
>
> and site.xml interact.
> My first efforts lead to a navigation tree on the HOME tab that
> contains the full sitemap. I would like to get to a solution where
> the other tabs are not shown on the home tab. Is this something that
> should be possible already in 0.3?
No, that's never a use-case we've encountered. Why wouldn't you want
some tabs? Tabs are meant to be like tabs in a book: little indentations
or sticking-out bits that allow you to quickly jump to a page.
> How does the engine knows which tab to link to which element in
> site.xml? By element name?
All the tabs are always present. The only thing to decide is which tab
is 'selected'.
Determining which is selected is done by examining the path of the
current page, and selecting the "most specific" tab. For example, if the
current page is 'community/index.html', and our tabs.xml contains:
<tab label="Home" dir=""/>
<tab label="Community" dir="community"/>
<tab label="How-Tos" dir="community/howto"/>
Then "Home" and "Community" will match (their prefixes match that of the
path), and "Community" will be the selected tab, as "community" is more
specific than "".
Usually, tabs are made to subdirectories, but it's also possible to tab a
single page, eg:
<tab label="Community FAQ" path="community/faq.html"/>
> I saw an example on the Forrest site where a tab showed only that
> part of the sitemap relevant to that tab. Is this a goal ore already
> reality for the current release?
It's a reality in CVS, and looks like it will be in Forrest 0.3.1. For
example, see the truncated menu at:
http://forrestbot.cocoondev.org/sites/xml-forrest/community/
--Jeff
> I hope some of you can shine a sparkle of light on this by some
> explanation or some words on the Forrest site that I apparently
> overlook.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Ed Steenhoek
>
>