Asset/Resource Library Ideas

[Michael Ralston <mi...@ralston.id.au>]

I've been pondering what to do about the current Assets structure in 
Weblite. I'm not happy with Assets being associated with a page as they 
are at the moment. I'm going to have a bit of a rant here about the 
thoughts I've been having. Any feedback is appreciated.

I was thinking of making a global asset library which all pages could 
use, but I also wanted to use the Policy system to determine which 
assets could be modified by which users.

So I'd like to have resources associated with a hidden page, which can 
then have Access Policies associated with it. Resources can then also be 
grouped onto resource pages. The resource page can have its own class of 
repository node which says which resources that page has, really the 
same as the way Assets are associated with current pages. But i'm 
thinking these resource pages will not be real pages, only 'virtual 
containers' of resources.

I'm thinking of making a Resource Sitetree, stored as resources.xml in 
the same directory as sitetree.xml. The repository nodes contained in 
this tree would not be in sitetree.xml at all, and would not appear in 
any navigation.

I was then thinking of making a resource library usecase, which loads 
the resources.xml file in the same way as sitetree.xml is loaded to show 
the navigation. When a node in this tree is selected the user will be 
able to add / remove resources from that node.

The other thing I thought of doing was making the save usecase for the 
content editor, scan the xml for img src and other resources, and then 
recording which resources have been used by which pages. Then when a 
page is published it will know which resources to copy as well.

Michael R

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Re: Asset/Resource Library Ideas

[so...@apache.org]

On 6/20/06, Michael Ralston <mi...@ralston.id.au> wrote:
> I've been pondering what to do about the current Assets structure in
> Weblite. I'm not happy with Assets being associated with a page as they
> are at the moment. I'm going to have a bit of a rant here about the
> thoughts I've been having. Any feedback is appreciated.
>
> I was thinking of making a global asset library which all pages could
> use, but I also wanted to use the Policy system to determine which
> assets could be modified by which users.
>
> So I'd like to have resources associated with a hidden page, which can
> then have Access Policies associated with it. Resources can then also be
> grouped onto resource pages. The resource page can have its own class of
> repository node which says which resources that page has, really the
> same as the way Assets are associated with current pages. But i'm
> thinking these resource pages will not be real pages, only 'virtual
> containers' of resources.
>
> I'm thinking of making a Resource Sitetree, stored as resources.xml in
> the same directory as sitetree.xml. The repository nodes contained in
> this tree would not be in sitetree.xml at all, and would not appear in
> any navigation.
>
> I was then thinking of making a resource library usecase, which loads
> the resources.xml file in the same way as sitetree.xml is loaded to show
> the navigation. When a node in this tree is selected the user will be
> able to add / remove resources from that node.
>
> The other thing I thought of doing was making the save usecase for the
> content editor, scan the xml for img src and other resources, and then
> recording which resources have been used by which pages. Then when a
> page is published it will know which resources to copy as well.

These issues are solved in Lenya1.3 by making Assets (Files) into
Resources, just like Links (external <A HREF> and <IMG SRC> tags) and
XMLs (Documents).  They are available both flat (all Files in a
Publication) and using the "live" Structure (backwards-compatible with
Lenya1.2, human-readable URLs, an Asset can be the child of multiple
Documents).  As Resources, Assets gain revisions, multiple languages,
and workflow, meaning they are maintained/published separately from
the Document.  When the security system is added to Resources, it will
apply to all Resources, including Assets.

A Structure is similar to the Lenya 1.2 Sitetree, but more flexible,
and multiple Structures are allowed.  The "live" Structure should
automatically contain all the Links and Files used on a content page
as children of the XML Document entry.  This does not affect the
navigation, which is generated using the "live" Index, which uses the
"livemenu" Structure.  (The purpose and names of Structures and
Indexes are still being designed until all the editors, include the
Sitetree editor, are finished.  The "live" and "livemenu" Structures
should be maintained together with a "visible in menu" checkbox for
inclusion in the "livemenu" Structure.)

As in your last paragraph, saving a Document should create Link
Resources for any external A and IMG tags, and adjust the "live"
Structure for any File Resources (Assets).

Does that answer all your concerns?

solprovider

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