RFC: CForms Roadmap

[Jeremy Quinn]

Hi All

Now that Cocoon 2.1.11-dev runs Dojo 0.4.1, I think we have a solid platform to complete the modernisation of CForms client-side code.

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I hope the main outcomes of this will be :
        Leaner: only the resources that are used will be loaded by cforms
        Richer: more interactive widgets with wider x-platform support





Replacements :

Date/Time widget : replace MattKruse stuff with Dojo's implementation.

Tabs: replace with Dojo Tabs

MultiValue Editor: re-implement as a Dojo widget
MultiList (OptionTransfer) Selector: replace with a new Dojo widget



Possible Additions :

Easy graphically rich buttons, dialogs, menus etc.
Charts to plot user data
Colour picker
Re-sizable textarea
Sliders: graphical selector for number ranges etc.
Spinner: adjust values up and down with ± buttons


Issues:






We are probably going to have issues with i18n and l10n.

Very few of Dojo's widgets are i18n enabled yet.



We ought to be adding i18n/l10n as we go along.




What did I miss out ?


I hope this whets your appetite !

Let's get on with the replacements first !!

WDYT ?

regards Jeremy

Cleaner: eliminate most of the messy <script> tags scattered through our forms Simpler: use more html templates to simplify our xslt (and simpler to adapt the widgets) Here is a list of specific goals I would love us to achieve for the next release. I hope to be working on this stuff, you would be very welcome if you'd like to join in !!!! If you would like to take on something from this list (or something I missed out) please discuss it on the dev list so no-one is duplicating effort. Help & validation popups: replace MattKruse stuff with a new Dojo implementation. RichText: replace htmlarea with Dojo Editor, using a new fi:styling, so htmlarea can still be used Maps: not even sure our current one is working, replace with Dojo (Yahoo and Google) Validation: plug in client-side validation where common datatypes exist between CForms and Dojo, make new ones We need to do this work in such a way that has the absolute minimum impact on existing cforms projects. eg. adapting Dojo widgets to work the CForms way and not the other way around. We need to make it easier to customise the style, layout and behaviour of our supplied widgets. Dojo is only just starting to deal with this area, while CForms has always delt with it. Dojo, performs i18n on the client instead of on the server as cforms does. Dojo uses a different format of i18n message dictionary than we do (all of this is kind of obvious). Most of the work above will involve either extending existing dojo widgets or making new ones. We need to decide whether we want to keep our message dictionary format (transforming it on the fly for dojo) or start using Dojo's format (for widget internals).

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