ResourceSpace + WYMeditor + RadiantCMS

[Ash S]

Hi all,
   First off great project!
I've been using it for a few weeks now and this is one of the most full featured and flexible DAM's I've used, a real gem for the opensource community.
Great job and accolades to the core team!
There are a few issues as with any project but at the core ResourceSpace gets many critical jobs done well, and I am very excited to have run across it.

I am heading a CMS implementation project for a large organization which is centered around RadiantCMS http://www.radiantcms.org, a wonderful opensource CMS built using Ruby on Rails.
I've installed an inline editor called WYMeditor http://www.wymeditor.org which was released as an extension / "filter" to the CMS not too long ago, and it creates beautiful XHTML compliant code.

One of the downsides to this editor however (as with several editors used commonly in CMS's) is that it has weak or notoriously lacking media insertion support, relegated to manual URL linking by default.
Some editors such as FCKeditor allow for file browsers of some sort to maintain asset management. Yet for larger sites or organizations with multiple content contributors ( several dozen people in my situation ) the "file browser" concept is completely inadequate and confusing when dealing with thousands of files, multiple departments, branding continuity issues, multiple designers contributing graphics, several photographers, a video department filming constantly, etc etc.
Needless to say our situation may be fairly different from most implementations but when it came down to core functionality ResourceSpace really offered what we needed as far as the asset management went.

So, earlier this week I integrated ResourceSpace with WYMeditor as the media manager for the editor, and therefor the workhorse and backbone of the user experience in our implementation of RadiantCMS. :-D

I believe the integration is simple enough to be used outside of RadiantCMS and open the door for this mashup to be used in other content management systems.

A brief and simplified run down of how it works for the typical user:

Upon logging into RadiantCMS, the content writer also begins a session in ResourceSpace; ( this is started using variables listed in the user's profile, so they never have to actually login to ResourceSpace ).
We use a hierarchical workflow, where a department head assigns page assignments to staff level users. These assignments present the user with only the pages they are responsible for editing with the media (images / audio / video) for the page having already been selected and added to a collection either by their department head or a staff member in the art department. (No need for the user to go running around a file system looking for that "one version of that photo that one guy took....")
So once on the editor screen they are able to select the "Media" button which opens up a window containing a highly modified collections.php window in an iFrame. They select the collection for their assignment (which I might have done automatically based on the assignment category later on) and obviously select the media for the page.

Using ResourceSpace for this is great because with a few hacks we are able to preview the media (including audio and video) and enable the user to maintain publishing of such content on their own;
while keeping the management of the media in the hands of the professionals so to speak.

Is this functionality something the ResourceSpace community or anybody else would be interested in?
I am planning on extracting many of my modifications next week for public consumption, but feedback would be appreciated.

Cheers!
Ash
Musicheals & The Metropolitan Baptist Church

[Dan Huby]

This sounds very impressive!

Have you got any screen grabs you can post?

I integrated my own CMS (Muse) with ResourceSpace although it was a
little basic. You simply enter a resource ID to bring in a resource
then can drag and select a crop area. The image is auto-sized to the
image placeholder. Your integration at the collection level does sound
much more useful.

Dan

On 25 Mar, 20:32, "Ash S" <irisse...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>    First off great project!
> I've been using it for a few weeks now and this is one of the most full
> featured and flexible DAM's I've used, a real gem for the opensource
> community.
> Great job and accolades to the core team!
> There are a few issues as with any project but at the core ResourceSpace
> gets many critical jobs done well, and I am very excited to have run across
> it.
>
> I am heading a CMS implementation project for a large organization which is

> centered around RadiantCMShttp://www.radiantcms.org, a wonderful opensource

> CMS built using Ruby on Rails.

> I've installed an inline editor called WYMeditorhttp://www.wymeditor.orgwhichwas released as an extension / "filter"

[mor...@propix.no]

Hi Ash,

This sounds like a very exciting and potentially very useful solution  - I have been hoping somebody would come up with something like this for a while. So I think it would be great if you'd be willing to share this with the rest of the RS community!

Best regards,

Morten

[sokabs]

I, too, am very interested in this functionality. I am eager to hear
more.

Darrell

On Mar 25, 4:32 pm, "Ash S" <irisse...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Upon logging into RadiantCMS, the content writer also begins a session in

> ResourceSpace;.....

[Ash]

hi all!
I've been making a few updates and working on a bit of a problem.
The integration of RS into our editor is making the process of loading
content into our CMS actually FUN!
*GASP*

The biggest update I am working on so far has been creating an
extension to publish podcasts & audio / video streams via Radiant with
the management of the assets themselves done through RS; so the
ResourceSpace server doubles as the media manager and assets server.
This integrates very well into "blog-like" and straight "article-
style" sections of the site where I found it was beneficial to be able
to hyperlink directly to a media resource on the
assets server, with the end goal being that the user almost never has
to type a URL for anything.

Yet an interesting problem has arised ....
As stated previously I am running RadiantCMS, which runs on Rails; and
I am mashing up with RS through simple iframes and Julien Lecomte's
crossframe method to get the frames talking.
In prior tests I had used a simple onclick function and

$("input.wym_src").val($(this).attr('src'));

to insert the image's source into the wymeditor src field. This basic
method will work on most editors with a little hacking.
And this should suffice for installations which are running on the
same exact domain as the CMS ( ie www.mydomain.com/cms/ & www.mydomain.com/assets/
); however, in our scenario I have Radiant running on one subdomain
and RS running on a different subdomain which creates a cross-domain
scripting issue unfortunately. Yet using cross-frame & a proxy this
*should* not be a problem.

All works fine on the initial collections.php page presented to the
user when using the entering the image insert window, however there is
something weird going on when the user selects a different collection
that breaks the ability to send the image's source URL to the
receiving input field in the parent frame.

Take a look at the screenshot's I have linked to below to get the big
picture.
http://media.themetnet.org/Picture15.png
http://media.themetnet.org/Picture16.png
http://media.themetnet.org/Picture17.png
http://media.themetnet.org/Picture18.png
http://media.themetnet.org/Picture19.png
http://media.themetnet.org/Picture20.png

I am including a link to a down and dirty version of this mashup which
requires:
RadiantCMS with the Wymeditor filter installed.
ResourceSpace.

Copy the files into their corresponding folders on both sites and edit
the following files with proper URLs for your sites
(you can search for www.myradiantsite.com & www.myresourcespacesite.com
in the source):

jquery.wymeditor.js
collections_wymeditor.php (which resides alongside collections.php, so
don't delete collections.php)

Source: http://media.themetnet.org/wymeditor_radiant_resourcespace_mashup_0.1.zip

You should be able to get the basic idea of how to integrate RS into
other CMSs from this stripped down code.
If anyone can help with the cross-frame issue I seem to be having that
would be much appreciated.

Cheers all;
Ash