I recently attended a marketing seminar for NewType Portal Builder 
(http://www.newtype.com.tw/ENG/WebARENA_portal.asp)

It is an interested website development software with some good ideas.  As I watched 
the demo I kept thinking how much better the
program could be if it was written in Python/Webware.

The core of the idea is very solid and I've seen it before, but this interface was 
very slick and easy to use. Basically you pick a
main component from a menu, such as a BBS list, database listing, email form etc.  
Then you customize it and name it.
So you can select a database form, and then put in the db connection info and select 
what fields to display and in what order.  You
have basic control of fonts/colors - but only through a style sheet.

The third step is neat - you pick a template from a list. A template is basically an 
html page chopped up into table cells.  You can
fill as many cells as you want and then save it (So you can have a static header and 
top menu on all of the pages)

This is a lot like the SitePage.py concept or SkeletonPage.tmpl

To use the component you just drag it into the table cell you want to fill.

Pretty much like overriding sideBar or writeContent.

I thought that it was just technical enough to confuse non-technical people, and too 
restrictive for developers.

Has anyone seen any open source product like this?  <-- The question in this email

Zope comes close by allowing you to plug in products and customize them, but the use 
of a thick client and gratuitous drag 'n drop
really made it easy.


-Aaron



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