Gary Menzel wrote:
I think I know exactly what you mean, Steve. When you have large repositories of information there is always more than one way to
navigate that information and FarCry is a "single navigation" model
framework (almost)....
FarCry has any number of navigational models. However, by default we provide a mechanism for determining a fixed informational hierarchy. Our view is that regardless of the complexity of the data people expect a degree of fixed navigation, including things like breadcrumbs, to give them a sense of how the data is structured.
Obviously you may need supplement this topographical view with related
links, and related categorisation. Both of these functions are available by default in the dmHTML object Type. These cross-references can be coded into the template itself or implemented through the use of publishing rules.
Then of course you can develop your own custom relationships between content -- for example, session and speaker objects in http://www.mxdu.com/
What we're trying to do..... Pages are clustered by the logical grouping based on the way the user is drilling in. So, for example, pages on the automotive industry are all siblings (i.e., same conceptual nav node if we were to use FarCry) but could potentially be separated by keyword groups or responsible business area if that was the way a user drilled the site.
Lets say you had a glass manufactuer who produced windscreens for the automtovie industry and bulletproof glass for the security industry. Logically you might want users to navigate to this company either via automotive or security.
I'll outline one of many potential scenarios... you create a custom "company" object. You categorise it via a metadata tree placing it in both industry types. You build a site hierarchy with nav nodes and single dmHTML pages for both "security" and "automotive". You then build a publishing rule for use on those dmHTML objects that list all the companies in the relevant industry. This way our glass manufacturer appears in both pages.
I do exactly this on http://www.mxdu.com/go/agenda
The concept (in generic terms as I see it) is to have a whole mess of content that you can categorise and navigate in multiple ways.
You would still have to have a basic site navigation (in FarCry - because that that is how it works) but you want to be able to place ANY piece of content into one or more "categories".
Gary is spot on here. FarCry the solution provides a series of core CMS requirements out-of-the-box. FarCry the toolbox provides a robust and comprehensive framework for building your own content apps leveraging the FarCry API and underlying COAPI model.
I think this is also a good case for being able to have multiple "category" trees in FarCry (instead of the single category tree that
is there now). Yes, you can create "sub-categories" off the main
category root that could be your "mutiple" categories.
Actually the root node is really conceptual -- you wouldn't classify anything as ROOT. The idea is that you have as many trees as you like -- the root should not be considered a hierarchy itself. Perhaps the user interface needs to be modified to reflect this.
The underlying technical reason for this is that the nested tree model only allows for one construct per object type. This isn't a limitation or anything else -- it's just how we built it.
You could then present these category trees as pseudo-navigation in the site and display all documents that exist in the selected categories.
Indeed! And these trees could be represented as include objects, content type templates, custom tags, or publishing rules. Lots of flexibility.
In fact, the dmNavigation already works this way - it is just treated as a special case.
It's special only in that we include it by default as part of farcry_core. For example, Brendan and Pauls forum object is leveraging the "nested tree model" API in FarCry in the same way dmNavigation and the site tree do.
This is a case for being able to categorise ALL dmType derived objects. I think I previously asked about being able to place dmHTML into a "Category" instead of just the other derived types. I think I could code up the scenario Steve presented if this were the case.
Couple of things here... FarCry categorisation is a generic metadata system that can be applied to *ANY* content type. I'm not sure what build it kicked in on but categorisation is now a standard step in the dmHTML wizard.
Of course, with 2.1 just around the corner - and user extended core types - I may be able to do it just for my own system and pass back the extended dmHTML type.
Absolutely! Or you can also build your own custom content type and use the API to integrate it into the site hierarchy right alongside dmHTML, dmCSS and the other tree content types.
Clear as mud?! :)
-- geoff http://www.daemon.com.au/
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MXDU2004 + Macromedia DevCon AsiaPac + Sydney, Australia http://www.mxdu.com/ + 24-25 February, 2004
