[Phpgroupware-developers] new template-class with an interactive dialog-editor

[Ralf Becker]

Hi all,

you may have wondered what that new etemplate app in CVS is about:

It included a new template class called eTemplates (e for editable), a
dialog-editor to create eTeamplates and the DB-Tools an interactive
editor for db-table-definition-files eg. the tables_current.inc.php of
each app (it does NOT write the updates-files so far).

Here's a short introduction what these eTemplates are:

- they consist out of rows and cols with input-fields of several types
- there is a dialog-editor (one part of the etemplate-app) to create the
eTemplate
- eTemplates can be (and are usully) nested, eg. a template-field can
contain an other eTemplate
- each field / cell of the template can have a lable which is
automaticaly run through lang()
  (the content of the field can be run through lang() too)
- the dialog editor can write all labels in a lang-file (mergeing it
with the existing ones)
- eTemplates have a name of the form app.function[.subtemplate] which is
used to call them up
- they can have further keys, on loading the class picks the most
appropriate one for a user:
        1. group: the id of a group if the template is just for that group
(that allows admin to show differnt views to each group)
        2. lang: the 2 or 5 letter language code (or empty for a non-language
specific template)
        3. template set: they belong too (if the template-set key is empty it
is an default-template)
        4. version: version number like: '0.9.15.001'
- they are stored in an array and in serialized form in the db-table
'phpgw_etemplate'
- the dialog editor can dump all templates of an app for distribution
(so they can be in the CVS too)
- they encapsulate differnt UI (User Interface) types from the app: at
the moment only a HTML one is ready,
  but a GTK one (using php-gtk, running as native app under linux and
win32) and XUL is under development.

I wrote a tutorial how to use the eTemplates: as an example it explains
how to build a simple Media-Database.
The tutorial is in the doc-dir of the etemplates and, if i understand
the way the cvsdemo on phpgroupware is updated right,
it should be availible by tomorrow under the following link:
http://www.phpgroupware.org/cvsdemo/etemplate/doc/etemplate.html

It has screenshots of the eTemplate-Editor and the DB-Tools too.

Ralf
-- 
Ralf Becker
Outdoor Unlimited Training GmbH              Telefon: +49 (631) 31657-0 
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