MMBase editwizards
One of the conclusions of the recently held MMEvent can only be that MMBase is ready for world domination. More and more companies are using MMBase as their main Web Content Management System. And rightfully so.
A quote from internetjournalist (in dutch):
Momenteel loopt een test met het gratis Open Source-systeem MMBase, waarvoor overigens wel programmeerkennis in huis moet zijn. Het systeem is aan een ware opmars bezig. Het is ooit gemaakt voor de VPRO, die het aan de samenleving aanbood. Tot de nieuw gebruikers hoort ook de gemeente Amsterdam.
Q42 has developed a new editing system for MMBase, called the Edit Wizards. At the MMEvent Kars presented this system to all attendees.
The wizard uses a ‘wizard-language’. In a single XML file administrators can describe the steps the wizard should present to the user and which fields and rules apply. The wizard itself interprets this wizard-schema and takes care of the web-presentation and the transaction.
Recently, the first version of the editwizard was used by the VPRO for placing newsitems on the DrumRhythm Festival website.
We are now (together with the VPRO, EO and NOS) taking a better look at the current version and the wizard language itself, and we’re trying to make the wizard language more easy to use.
We are also investigating how to automatically generate these wizard-schema’s so that the standard MMBase builders/editors can be replaced by the wizard interface.
A complex and prestigious (and fun) project: making a simple and intuitive edit-interface upon a large and complex system.