I had some ideas for Jifty plugins that I thought I'd run by the list to see if anyone was already working on such things and to get some feedback on how bad these ideas might be. I've used Jifty to create one application for my company and that's worked pretty well. With a few additional tools, I think Jifty might be a good fit for a collection of similar tools we're currently gathering requirements for, but to become a good fit, Jifty needs a few more features. These are *ideas* of things I would like to implement if we were to choose the Jifty platform, but won't happen unless Jifty continues to look like a good fit and I actually get approval to build them. So here goes: Model/Schema Builder Plugin:
This plugin would provide additional functionality that would allow for the creation of new models and update of existing models from within the application. You would create a new model, be able to set up some of the basics, and build out the columns of the model from within the screens provided by the plugin. The goal would be that an authorized user would be able to visually develop models for the application. I can see some challenges regarding when to deploy the schema and how to cope with a user that adds a column, removes a column, and re-adds the column with a different set of settings or something, but I think that these difficulties can probably be overcome. Action/Form Builder Plugin: This is a compliment to the plugin above. This extends a similar visual tool to the development of custom forms. The actual action taken by the forms would either be limited to the built in Create/Update/Delete/Search functions or have to be implemented in the old-fashioned way (or have additional built-ins made available). The goal would be that an authorized user would be able to visually develop forms for the application. I see fewer challenges with the implementation of this plugin than with the Model/Schema Builder, but there probably are some that my quick considerations haven't stumbled upon. I have a few others I'd need as well, but I'll stick with just the two most important ones first. As you can probably tell from the plugins, I'm trying to make Jifty development more accessible. Here's why: I work for a general consulting firm and the consultants (CPA/MBA/HR types) would like to be able to build out form-based tools to help them during their engagements. Jifty is very close to providing the write feel for what they want for some simple data collection and reporting, but they really want something that they can tweak a bit. For example, we might have a general application developed for helping a firm perform a certain kind of planning. However, a given firm might want to record some internal project code with tasks in addition to the fields already provided. I would like the consultant to be able to modify the application with the extra field without having to wait on me. He could do it right during the engagement. We might also create the application and clone it and then let the client make the schema modification on their own. Eventually, it would be really nice if the consultants could build out whole new tools this way. The fact that Jifty's schema is so flexible makes this look like a good idea rather than trying to develop my own schema system by creating a generic set of "object" tables with "field" rows associated with them according to some "custom field" table defines things (i.e., how RT handles custom fields). There are some existing web services for doing similar things as well, but I've not found one that I'm happy with yet (but maybe I'm just picky). I'm also looking for a challenge at work where I can make a solid contribution to an Open Source project, which is supported by my employer. This could be it. Anyway, this might be a terrible idea or someone might already be doing something similar, so I thought I'd let the members of the list help me out one way or the other. Sorry for the long email and thanks for sticking with me if you've read it. Cheers, Andrew -- Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp Interaction Developer Boomer Consulting, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-537-2358 x17 1-888-266-6375 x17 610 Humboldt St. Manhattan, KS 66502 http://www.boomer.com <http://www.boomer.com/> _______________________________________________ jifty-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.jifty.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/jifty-devel
