[opencms-dev] How to associate downloads with pages?

[Tristan Roddis]

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 12:56:06PM +0300, Dimitri Bougoulias wrote:

> I'm working on a module that does that easily and I may be able to publish
> it to the opencms site by the end of the month.

Unfortunately, I need to get started straight away :(

Can I ask where you're planning to store this information? Is it:

a) in a new database table (two columns: pageUri and downloadUri)
b) in an XML definition file somewhere in the VFS (lots of blocks along
the lines of:
<page name="/website/section/foo.html">
  <download>/downloads/gallery1/bar.doc</download>
  <download>/downloads/gallery2/baz.pdf</download>
</page>
c) as a Property of the page (along the lines of
Downloads: /downloads/gallery1/bar.doc,/downloads/gallery2/baz.pdf )
d) other (please state)

Also, does anybody else have any suggestions as to the best way to do 
this? You can just reply with a,b,c etc. if you want :)

Thanks,

-T.

> -----Original Message-----  
> From: opencms-dev-admin at opencms.org [mailto:opencms-dev-admin at opencms.org]
> On Behalf Of Tristan Roddis
> Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 1:34 PM
> To: opencms-dev at opencms.org
> Subject: [opencms-dev] How to associate downloads with pages?
> 
> 
> I need to let site administrators assign downloadable files to any page 
> within the site, and have them appear as a prettily-formatted table at the 
> bottom of the page with the following fields:
> 
> Title, file size, file type
> 
> Because the design dictates that these need to be in a table, then I can't 
> just use the standard HTML page editor, as our administrators don't know 
> HTML [plus the downloads function doesn't seem to work in 4.6.6 :) - see 
> thread 'Ledit is driving me crazy')] 
> 
> So, I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions as to the best (and 
> most OpenCMS-like) way of doing this?
> 
> Essentially I can see two problems: 1) where to store the information that 
> associates download files with pages and 2) how best to let the user 
> assign downloads to pages. 
> 
> For 1) I can think of:
> 
> a) in a new database table (two columns: pageUri and downloadUri)
> b) in an XML definition file somewhere in the VFS (lots of blocks along 
> the lines of:
> <page name="/website/section/foo.html">
>   <download>/downloads/gallery1/bar.doc</download>
>   <download>/downloads/gallery2/baz.pdf</download>
> </page>
> c) as a Property of the page (along the lines of 
> Downloads: /downloads/gallery1/bar.doc,/downloads/gallery2/baz.pdf )
> d) other (please state)
> 
> Then my display class can read from one of the above, get the resource
> title, filesize and type, and insert some prettily-formatted HTML as a data
> block into the display template.
> 
> For 2) I can think of:
> 
> a) A module or other admin template that will firstly allow a user to 
> select a page, and secondly allow a user to add and remove the downloads 
> assigned to the page
> b) Adding/reusing a button on the HTML editor to allow users to assign 
> downloads to that page
> c) other (please state)
> 
> Has anybody got any opinions on which of the above choices would be best?  
> Factors to consider include i) how easy is it to implement and ii) how well
> does it fit in with the rest of OpenCMS (e.g. I'd imagine that reading a
> page's properties is easier and more OpenCMS-like than using a sepearate
> database table). Efficiency isn't a great concern as it's a very small site,
> and we'll be using static export.
> 
> Also, any pointers or tips for how to use any exisiting OpenCMS components 
> (e.g. the file picker or the download gallery selection pages) would be 
> greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> -Tristan.
> 
> -- 
> tristan at roddis.org                              http://www.roddis.org
> _______________________________.oOo._________________________________
> "Software without secrets."                      http://www.linux.org
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-- 
tristan at roddis.org                              http://www.roddis.org
_______________________________.oOo._________________________________
"This is war!"      http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/26433.html