[opencms-dev] Development of Backoffice Modules and XMLTemplates

[Jesus Gabriel y Galan]

From: "kevin fong" <kfong at spto.org>


> Hi all,
>
> Just wondering if anyone out there has created a Backoffice module without
using XMLTemplates for the administration point? Is it
> workable? Are there any limitations?  My preference would be to use jsps
instead of the XMLTemplates.

Hi Kevin. I am currently working on an administration point based on jsps,
instead of XML templates. Currently I haven't found any limitation to this.
Just make your index.html under system/modules/xxxx/administration/yyyy a
plain type (I suppose it should also work with jsp type), and you can code
whatever you want inside. In my case I am developing a single administration
point to create/edit/delete entries for several different content, which is
stored in different database tables. I have several jsps that get called,
which present forms for editing and listing of entries.

You just have to take some care about the top.body.admin_head frame if you
want to keep the blue arrow, or create some filters as OpenCMS does for you
with the XMLTemplates.

I have not yet look into permission issues, like locking or unlocking
entries for editing, because I don't know if I'm going to need it, but I
suppose you could do something similar to what the backoffice does, with
your own code.

If anybody knows a reason to not continue with this approach, please let me
know. Until know, things have worked fine.

Jesus.