Geeklog Forums

This is an idea I had quite a few months ago but never acted on. Has anyone ever thought about a general repository plugin? This would be a general plugin that allows users with suitable rights to define forms based on standard elements, which are then used to enter data stored in the MySQL backend.

For example, the following common elements might exist:

- index pages (maybe?)
- category pages
- form elements

Editors can use form elements (defaults included such as text item, text area, integer field, etc - based on the MySQL field types) to build up forms, which are then organised by category elements. Categories are also built up of items such as ID numbers from forms and identifier category labels included in forms, and parent IDs to allow nesting of categories.

The result is a general plugin, which can be customised to perform various operations. For example, a links plugin could easily be built, or the Downloads plugin, contacts manager, and so on. The possibilities are limitless.

The other advantage would be the ability to define multiple form types/data types, for use within the same plugin - which would otherwise require multiple forms or a separate plugin. For example, a review plugin might have two or more forms defined depending on whether you are entering a magazine review, a fiction review, an academic review, a film review, an album review, and so on.

Example: Links plugin.

- top page is a category (or index page if this type is found to be necessary), contains links to all (sub)categories and buttons to create (sub)categories only - not allowed to contain data types other than links
- next page is a category, defined as child of top category, allowed to contain either data items based on a form (ie the links themselves) or other categories
- category pages contain clickable buttons/links to either create a (sub)category or a link item

The data entry forms etc would all be defined from the Admin page of the plugin. The average user would only be able to enter data to an approval queue for example, which the admin user would then approve/delete as usual.

But who would have time to build such a wonderful application?

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-- Heather Engineering
-- No job too small