sorry for my stupidness. but how do I get off this mailing list...
thanx! On 2/21/07, Travis Snoozy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 02:22:04 +0900, Erik Grinaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > But take for example FTP accounts. If you set up an FTP template using > gFTP as the launcher, create 20 FTP accounts, and then decide to > change your FTP client to lftp, you're going to have to manually > change the launcher for all 20 accounts. Same goes if you just want > to add an extra command-line option or something. > > As for icons; if you create a web account template with a nice icon, > create 50 web accounts, and then find a much better icon you'd rather > use. You're either not going to bother changing the old accounts > (leading to inconsistency and confusion as you now have two different > icons for the same type of account), or you'll have to change each and > every one of the 50 accounts. <snip> Search, then bulk-change the results. That should totally be a feature, regardless of whether templates are used or not. <snip> > Both of these are quite serious usability issues, and I'd say these > alone are reason enough to keep a link between the accounts and the > account type. <snip> You'll have this issue anyway, with custom accounts. I think that going to completely generic accounts with some default templates is the way to go. <snip> > In this case; say you create a web template with the fields URL, > Username, and Password. After creating 30 accounts you find that alot > of sites ask for annoying stuff such as a control question, so you > add a field for this to the template. For new accounts, all is well. > However, when you'd like to go back and store this info for old > accounts you find you have to create the same field every time - > quite annoying, inconsistent, and confusing. <snip> Search. Bulk change. Done. <snip> > Or what if you included such a field when you created the template, > but when realizing that only a small number of sites actually need > it, you decide to remove it and instead add a custom field to the > specific accounts that need it. You would now have to go over each of > the 30 accounts and remove that field wherever it wasn't used. Again, > very annoying. <snip> Search. Bulk change. Done. Hell, you could even tag which template an account was generated off of, and have all the accounts automatically update (after confirmation) if you change the template. <snip> > After months of use, changing the template every so often and creating > new accounts, you no longer know which fields to expect when > viewing/editing an old account. <snip> It's just a matter of developing the right tool set to work with the data. Having everything be template-based is waaaay more elegant and extensible, and this will make the code way simpler to deal with (there are no "special" code branches for specific types of accounts). You don't lose any of the benefits of having "hard" account types -- you just have to think about things in a slightly different way, and all of the functionality is present and accounted for. If you can't tell, I'm a big fan of having things be data-driven. :) Just my $0.02. -- Travis
-- ~Patrick
