[Plone-NGOs] Newsletter Musings - TALES like control for Non-ZMI users

[George L]

Is there anyway to let a non-power user of Plone define a newsletter layout
that takes, say, 15 upcoming events and lets them define how to display them,
e.g. like

<h2 tal:content="item/Title" />
<p tal:content="item/Description" />

but without forcing them to know TALES or go into the ZMI?

One of the newsletter products did something like use %s to indicate where
different things went, but I didn't know how extensible this was and also how
protective this was against user mistakes.

I suppose ideally one would be able to do something like associate each content
type, on a per-type basis, with a set of expressions like Title, Description,
MyCustomField1. There might be a toolbar with the different fields as buttons;
one could click the Title button and an image [[Title]] would appear, letting
you compose something like:

<h2>[[Title]]</h2>
<p>[[Description]]</p>

Then going farther, you would want there to be a way to loop through all your
items

<tal:block repeat="item items" />

so you'd want a way to specify

These are the upcoming events:
[[Begin loop of items]]
<h2>[[Title]]</h2>
<p>[[Description]]</p>
[[End loop items]]

I wonder if that would be good -- taking two key parts of TALES and putting them
into a more user-friendly UI that could be modified without going into the ZMI.

Thinking out loud; peace,
George


_______________________________________________
NGO mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/ngo

[fairsay]

> Is there anyway to let a non-power user of Plone
> define a newsletter layout
> that takes, say, 15 upcoming events and lets them
> define how to display them, e.g. like
>
> <h2 tal:content="item/Title" />
> <p tal:content="item/Description" />
>
> but without forcing them to know TALES or go into the ZMI?
<snip>
> [[Title]] would appear, letting
> you compose something like:
> <h2>[[Title]]</h2>
> <p>[[Description]]</p>

For the eCampaigning Tool we have developed (in Plone Collective
SVN now and due to be released in alpha this week) one of the
associated products we developed for it is ATDataMerge (also in
Plone Collective) which enables us to insert dynamic variables
into different content (e.g. firstname, title, description, etc.)

It needs to be integrated by a developer into other products, but
I see no reason why ATDataMerge it couldn't be used for the
purpose you describe as well. (variables are inserted via simple
[firstname] type square brackets)

> Then going farther, you would want there to be a way
> to loop through all your
> items
>
> <tal:block repeat="item items" />
>
> so you'd want a way to specify
>
> These are the upcoming events:
> [[Begin loop of items]]
> <h2>[[Title]]</h2>
> <p>[[Description]]</p>
> [[End loop items]]

At the moment it doesn't directly support looping, but with more
development a solution for this could be found.  It also doesn't
yet directly support conditional content (e.g. if firstname
exists, use it otherwise display this generic greeting).  I say
'doesn't directly support' because an approach could be found
using a 'getMergeData' python script which returns the right list
of variable for insertion (e.g. in a loop: [Title1],
[Description1], [Title2], [Description2], etc.)

As I said - ATDataMerge is a developer component so can't be used
directly and must be integrated.  But by releasing it as a
separate product from eCampaigning Tool we hope others will find
it useful and integrate it into their products (and help extend
it!).

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Duane

PS - my colleague - Saffe - was the one developing the product -
I identify the needs, set the priorities for development and test
it meets those needs)

===========================================================
Duane Raymond
FairSay
[phone]
http://www.fairsay.com


_______________________________________________
NGO mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/ngo

[Ungerleider, Jack]

 
Wouldn't wrapping RSS feeds do the same type of thing. Basically a user
performs a search or creates a Smart Folder that contains the content
that's needed. Either of these can be used to generate an RSS feed which
provides Title, description, dates, author, etc. It then becomes a
matter of XSLT to turn the RSS feed into an HTML newsletter. Various
"standard form" templates can be provided to kick start usage of the
product. There are plenty of decent books and tools for working with
XSLT available to help users through the process.


Jack Ungerleider
IT Professional
Community Involvement Programs
E-mail: [hidden email]
My comments are my own and do not reflect the opinions of my employer

-----Original Message-----
From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]
On Behalf Of George Lee
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 11:20 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [Plone-NGOs] Newsletter Musings - TALES like control for
Non-ZMIusers

Is there anyway to let a non-power user of Plone define a newsletter
layout
that takes, say, 15 upcoming events and lets them define how to display
them,
e.g. like

<h2 tal:content="item/Title" />
<p tal:content="item/Description" />

but without forcing them to know TALES or go into the ZMI?

One of the newsletter products did something like use %s to indicate
where
different things went, but I didn't know how extensible this was and
also how
protective this was against user mistakes.

I suppose ideally one would be able to do something like associate each
content
type, on a per-type basis, with a set of expressions like Title,
Description,
MyCustomField1. There might be a toolbar with the different fields as
buttons;
one could click the Title button and an image [[Title]] would appear,
letting
you compose something like:

<h2>[[Title]]</h2>
<p>[[Description]]</p>

Then going farther, you would want there to be a way to loop through all
your
items

<tal:block repeat="item items" />

so you'd want a way to specify

These are the upcoming events:
[[Begin loop of items]]
<h2>[[Title]]</h2>
<p>[[Description]]</p>
[[End loop items]]

I wonder if that would be good -- taking two key parts of TALES and
putting them
into a more user-friendly UI that could be modified without going into
the ZMI.

Thinking out loud; peace,
George


_______________________________________________
NGO mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/ngo

_______________________________________________
NGO mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/ngo

[David Bain-5]

ATDataMerge sounds pretty nice. I'll need to look into that.

On 1/8/07, Duane Raymond <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Is there anyway to let a non-power user of Plone
> define a newsletter layout
> that takes, say, 15 upcoming events and lets them
> define how to display them, e.g. like
>
> <h2 tal:content="item/Title" />
> <p tal:content="item/Description" />
>
> but without forcing them to know TALES or go into the ZMI?
<snip>
> [[Title]] would appear, letting
> you compose something like:
> <h2>[[Title]]</h2>
> <p>[[Description]]</p>

For the eCampaigning Tool we have developed (in Plone Collective
SVN now and due to be released in alpha this week) one of the
associated products we developed for it is ATDataMerge (also in
Plone Collective) which enables us to insert dynamic variables
into different content (e.g. firstname, title, description, etc.)

It needs to be integrated by a developer into other products, but
I see no reason why ATDataMerge it couldn't be used for the
purpose you describe as well. (variables are inserted via simple
[firstname] type square brackets)

> Then going farther, you would want there to be a way
> to loop through all your
> items
>
> <tal:block repeat="item items" />
>
> so you'd want a way to specify
>
> These are the upcoming events:
> [[Begin loop of items]]
> <h2>[[Title]]</h2>
> <p>[[Description]]</p>
> [[End loop items]]

At the moment it doesn't directly support looping, but with more
development a solution for this could be found.  It also doesn't
yet directly support conditional content (e.g. if firstname
exists, use it otherwise display this generic greeting).  I say
'doesn't directly support' because an approach could be found
using a 'getMergeData' python script which returns the right list
of variable for insertion (e.g. in a loop: [Title1],
[Description1], [Title2], [Description2], etc.)

As I said - ATDataMerge is a developer component so can't be used
directly and must be integrated.  But by releasing it as a
separate product from eCampaigning Tool we hope others will find
it useful and integrate it into their products (and help extend
it!).

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Duane

PS - my colleague - Saffe - was the one developing the product -
I identify the needs, set the priorities for development and test
it meets those needs)

===========================================================
Duane Raymond
FairSay
[phone]
http://www.fairsay.com


_______________________________________________
NGO mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/ngo

_______________________________________________
NGO mailing list
[hidden email]
http://lists.plone.org/mailman/listinfo/ngo