[Phpgroupware-cvs] CVS: sitemgr/modules/sitemgr_module_guestbook INSTALL,NONE,1.1 README,NONE,1.1

[Michael Totschnig <address@hidden>]

Update of /cvsroot/phpgroupware/sitemgr/modules/sitemgr_module_guestbook
In directory subversions:/tmp/cvs-serv11982/sitemgr_module_guestbook

Added Files:
        INSTALL README 
Log Message:
a guestbook module for sitemgr (a test, probably not useable)


--- NEW FILE ---
Move this directory to the root directory of your phpgroupware
installation and go into setup and install it like a phpgroupware
application.
Inside sitemgr, you have to go to 'Manage site-wide module properties'
and check if the module guestbook appears in the list of selectable
modules, otherwise click on 'Register new modules' to register it. If
it still does not appear, check if the file
class.module_guestbook.inc.php is in the directory sitemgr/modules.
Once you have added the module guestbook to the liste of permitted
modules, select it in one of the select lists on the right, and click
on "Configure". In the following interface you can define guestbooks,
your contributors can choose from. There is a checkbox for configuring if
contributors can define their own guestbooks.
All guestbooks are accessible for contributors everywhere on your
site. In the real world, it would be necessary to make them visible
only on specific categories, or for specific content areas.

--- NEW FILE ---
This module is the result of a test. I wanted to know what it takes to
implement this classical examples of textbooks about dynamic webpages
with sitemgr. I think the result shows that the idea behind sitemgr, a
framwork for modules inside an application that is itself inside
another framwork (phpGroupWare), is not very efficient, at least the
way sitemgr implements it. And the poor reponse from users to sitemgr
since I proposed this modularized architecture probably shows the same
thing. These are the problems I encountered, and could not solve in a
satisfactory way:

- I did not find a way how a module could define its own database
tables, and those be installed in a simple way like phpgw's setup
does, but without blessing the module into an independent
application (what I did, since I did not know how to do better).

- In sitemgr's architecture there are two interfaces for a model: One
for contributors defining a block for which the module is a producer,
one for administrators defining properties that limit the options
contributors have or the way a module behaves. It works, but it seems
to restrictive, since you have to play tricks if you want to use it
for simple tasks like defining guestbooks.

- Sitemgr and maybe phpgroupware in general lack a simple model for
security and ACL. Sure phpgroupware has its ACL class, but it is not
easy to use it in a simple way, so that you can apply it to different
objects in a coherent manner. Or it might be my failure to grasp how I
should phpgroupware's ACL better. Sitemgr has its ACL for categories,
but I did not find a simple way how to extend this to the objects that
may appear on the website.

Anyway, here is what I have come up with, and if you stumble about
this, and are curious and courageous, try it for yourself (read
INSTALL in order to know how). If you want to make something actually
usable from it, tell me about it!