Kees, Thanks for your elaborate answer. I do intend to use a Struts-like ActionServlet but instead of getting my "Forwards/jumpers" from a struts-config file I would like the servlet to retrieve it from MMBase. For this I intend to use a Category Node with a self referring posrel much like you did in WIABII and Page Nodes that are related to the Categories as leafs on the tree. The only thing the servlet will have to do in this model is find the right page node id using the URL as an input, e.g. "kennisnet/onderwijstype/onderwijs/nieuws" -> index.jsp?id=123412 (the URL in my previous mail was fictitious).
The actual content is related to the page node but not too strict and can of course be related to several pages in several categories at the same time. The situtation here is that the information structure is roughly the same as the navigation/site structure and mainly hierarchical. Where this is not valid, I compensate by allowing content to be reused in several pages. Furhtermore, I intend to use a hierarchically embedded template mechanism in which the outer template is defined by the category (and it's location stored in the Category node), a inner template defined by the page (and it's location stored in the Page node). The actual content elements might have a template defining their article layout attached to them as well. One nasty thing about maintaining a category structure in the Cloud is the complexity of the maintenance screens we have to build. > On Tuesday 27 May 2003 04:09 pm, Jaco de Groot wrote: > > Peter Reitsma wrote: > > > Has anybody faced this problem before and some solutions, > best practices, > > > suggestions or hints ? > > > > A filter works fine in this case. > Yes I think a filter can be used, but I think struts might > be a better > choices here because the view (read generic template) are not > bound to URLs( > read semantic) > > I think the hard bit doesn't really lay in the front > servlet/struts , it is > creating a mapping between a tree and a web structure (MMBase > cloud) and a > reverse mapping item(read node) to tree that is difficult > > the simplest way in your case is to use something like jumper > (so just a list > of "old URLs" and new "URLs"). but in that case you will lose > the nice URLs > and your breadcrum. > > If that doesn't suite your needs and you want to keep working > in a hyrachical > manner you can choose to approaches > > categorizing you content with categories(recursive)/content > or give it a more meaning full structure > kennisnet/onderwijstype/onderwijs/nieuws > > (both are possible, the last one is less generic and thus > easier to make, but > i prefer the upper one that is more generic) > > after you have categorized your content you need to decide if > your site > structure will be the same as your content structure and to > what extend. > > for example some sites only use the category structure to > define "where am i" > and use extra parameters to define "what do i need to show". > thats probably > why in your example multiple parameters are used > sector=2&cat=12342&article=23423412 > this is what I call "the single JSP page site" > > other sites use JSP pages to define "what am i seeing" > /elements/news.jsp?item=123. > In those site you see that you often lose you navigation and > start spinning > the web of mmbase > > I am shure there a more trics > > Butl when you are a item level and you start creating > relations to other type > of content (say an article with related articles) you need to > decide if you > are relating to an item (/elements/news.jsp?item123) or to an > item in a > category > (index.jsp?sector=2&cat=12342&item=123). if yout choose the > last one you need > to know where in your structure the item is placed in order > to generate the > desired url > > so far so good? > > OK now you have your structure and you want to relate 2 > categories to each > other. At that point you are starting to loose you hyrachical > structure > that's why you create a new type of relation between > categories. one that > defines that 2 categories are related but don't have a parent > child relation. > The tree structures that defines your site can't match your > web structure > anymore) that not nececarly bad I just tells that the tree is > only a view of > the web structure and that there is now magic formula to > convert a tree to a > web and vice versa. > > the bottom line.. category/content structure should not be > your navigation > structure. > so your need to split the navigation and the categories / content. > there are many way's of doing that i have tried 2 in the past > kenniswijk/wiab I: > -for every content/category create a "view" and on the > web-site use the view > number to display the content ( that's a lot of work . but it > works, thanks > to virtual web masters) > > -wiab II > generate a XML site tree based on the category structure. for > every element > create a pointer to a category. store the xml in a > "navigation" node and > write some util classes to show the breadcrum etc. > > additionally and finally ... (your initial question and not > present in wiab) > write the servlet/struts that as input gets the navigation > (/home/onderwijs/test/test/mooi.html) > and maps that to "generic JSPS". the generic jsp should then use the > navigation XML if they want to create new URLs. > > Im quite sure that this doens't really answers your question. > but hopefully it > wil prevent you from reinventing the wheel. > > > > >
