Patterns!
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Ethan McCutchen
Oct 30, 2009, 1:50:16 AM10/30/09
to wagn...@googlegroups.com
Hi all,
Even if you've been skipping emails on this list, read this one. You'll learn about an idea called "Pattern Cards" that has Wagn developers and planners really stoked. We're hoping you'll get stoked, too, may so much so that you want to help us design the thing. We need your help figuring out the best ways to interact with these Patterns. If we as a community build the right interface and implementation, Pattern Cards will be a big deal for people building collaborative websites collaboratively.
In short: Patterns will be a fun, efficient way to configure and manage Wagn sites.
The Problem: Messy Settings
Right now, learning how to configure Wagn means learning lots of somewhat arbitrary rules. Importantly different settings apply to different sets of cards. For example, every card on a Wagn has the same primary page layout. Permissions, on the other hand, are set on a per-card basis. (Yes, there are ways to set default permissions for a given type, but once set, they belong to the card. I can't change read permissions on, say, all Tickets at once.).
It gets worse. "Table of contents" settings have a site-wide default but the setting can only be changed on an individual card. "tforms" (or cardtype-based formats) apply to cards of a certain type, "rforms" to cards whose names end with a "+" followed by another certain cardname. +*edit settings (which govern edit cues) apply to both cardtypes and plus cards.... and on and on...
If that all sounds little dizzying to you, then you get the point! All the different settings have different rules about where they apply. What's a wagneer to do?
The Answer: Patterns
The basic gist of Patterns is that Wagneers should be able to apply settings to any set of cards and to change those settings around fluidly. You should be able to apply a certain layout, for example, to all cards, all "tickets", all cards ending in "discussion", or even just one card. We use Patterns to define those sets of cards, and Settings to configure them.
A Pattern is a card type that works like a Search card in defining a group of cards. For example, a simple pattern might be "All Ticket Cards", which is a search for all cards whose type is "Ticket". Setting cards indicated a configuration option, like "*layout" or "*table of contents". Combining these two -- <Pattern>+<Setting> -- we get a plus card whose content is the "value" of the setting. So, for example, "All Tickets+*table of contents" might have the content "auto" or "on" or "off".
But that's just how these configurations are stored in cards. How do we want to interface with this special collection of cards? We certainly don't expect everyone to remember all these pattern names and go editing them by typing the card names in the navigation bar!
I built a simple mockup (see attached) of one interface idea to help explain the concept and give us a good starting place for discussion. For the mockup, I used a sample "Ticket" from wagn.org. We have one specific Ticket card called "implement captcha." (Captchas are those things that show you a picture of fuzzy letters and make you type them in. Wagn will have spam-preventing captchas in a week or two!) The mockup shows what you might see in the Options tab of that "implement captcha" card.
Rather than explain to you in great detail what the mockup is all about (though some helpful commentary is available here if you're into it), I'm interested to hear whether we have to explain it: -- Does the mockup make intuitive sense to you? How do you experience the page? Do you think you mostly understand what's going on? ...what patterns are? Can you see some of the possibilities Pattern Cards will open? How do you think we could improve this interface? (For one thing, we know we need an easy way to edit it!)
OK, my email is long and my eyelids are heavy. Time to stop. But please do help push this conversation forward. Interface-wise, this is all very early, so it's a great opportunity to hop in and help shape a vital, innovative Wagn feature!
-Ethan
--
Ethan McCutchen
One of the Wagneers, Wagn.org
Patterns. They're not just for quilting anymore.
Even if you've been skipping emails on this list, read this one. You'll learn about an idea called "Pattern Cards" that has Wagn developers and planners really stoked. We're hoping you'll get stoked, too, may so much so that you want to help us design the thing. We need your help figuring out the best ways to interact with these Patterns. If we as a community build the right interface and implementation, Pattern Cards will be a big deal for people building collaborative websites collaboratively.
In short: Patterns will be a fun, efficient way to configure and manage Wagn sites.
The Problem: Messy Settings
Right now, learning how to configure Wagn means learning lots of somewhat arbitrary rules. Importantly different settings apply to different sets of cards. For example, every card on a Wagn has the same primary page layout. Permissions, on the other hand, are set on a per-card basis. (Yes, there are ways to set default permissions for a given type, but once set, they belong to the card. I can't change read permissions on, say, all Tickets at once.).
It gets worse. "Table of contents" settings have a site-wide default but the setting can only be changed on an individual card. "tforms" (or cardtype-based formats) apply to cards of a certain type, "rforms" to cards whose names end with a "+" followed by another certain cardname. +*edit settings (which govern edit cues) apply to both cardtypes and plus cards.... and on and on...
If that all sounds little dizzying to you, then you get the point! All the different settings have different rules about where they apply. What's a wagneer to do?
The Answer: Patterns
The basic gist of Patterns is that Wagneers should be able to apply settings to any set of cards and to change those settings around fluidly. You should be able to apply a certain layout, for example, to all cards, all "tickets", all cards ending in "discussion", or even just one card. We use Patterns to define those sets of cards, and Settings to configure them.
A Pattern is a card type that works like a Search card in defining a group of cards. For example, a simple pattern might be "All Ticket Cards", which is a search for all cards whose type is "Ticket". Setting cards indicated a configuration option, like "*layout" or "*table of contents". Combining these two -- <Pattern>+<Setting> -- we get a plus card whose content is the "value" of the setting. So, for example, "All Tickets+*table of contents" might have the content "auto" or "on" or "off".
But that's just how these configurations are stored in cards. How do we want to interface with this special collection of cards? We certainly don't expect everyone to remember all these pattern names and go editing them by typing the card names in the navigation bar!
I built a simple mockup (see attached) of one interface idea to help explain the concept and give us a good starting place for discussion. For the mockup, I used a sample "Ticket" from wagn.org. We have one specific Ticket card called "implement captcha." (Captchas are those things that show you a picture of fuzzy letters and make you type them in. Wagn will have spam-preventing captchas in a week or two!) The mockup shows what you might see in the Options tab of that "implement captcha" card.
Rather than explain to you in great detail what the mockup is all about (though some helpful commentary is available here if you're into it), I'm interested to hear whether we have to explain it: -- Does the mockup make intuitive sense to you? How do you experience the page? Do you think you mostly understand what's going on? ...what patterns are? Can you see some of the possibilities Pattern Cards will open? How do you think we could improve this interface? (For one thing, we know we need an easy way to edit it!)
OK, my email is long and my eyelids are heavy. Time to stop. But please do help push this conversation forward. Interface-wise, this is all very early, so it's a great opportunity to hop in and help shape a vital, innovative Wagn feature!
-Ethan
--
Ethan McCutchen
One of the Wagneers, Wagn.org
Patterns. They're not just for quilting anymore.
John Sechrest
Oct 30, 2009, 5:41:23 PM10/30/09
to wagn...@googlegroups.com
This is an important problem.
Drupal did this with Install profiles, which are inadequate and too complex
I look forward to understanding what you are doing on this angle.--
John Sechrest .
Corvallis Benton .
Chamber Coalition .
420 NW 2nd .
(541) 757-1507 . sech...@corvallisedp.com
.
.
Drupal did this with Install profiles, which are inadequate and too complex
I look forward to understanding what you are doing on this angle.
John Sechrest .
Corvallis Benton .
Chamber Coalition .
420 NW 2nd .
(541) 757-1507 . sech...@corvallisedp.com
.
.
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