Bob Harner wrote:

[...]

Andreas, can you explain your thinking on why a document would be
based on just one asset rather than being a collection of asset references?

Here are some reasons:

The major reason is to avoid maintaining additional storage and
addressing facilities.

I like concepts where you can express many things using a few basic
building blocks. XML makes this easy for document-based systems.
You can store all your content, indizes etc. as XML documents.

Another reason is the GUI. From the user's point of view, I'd like
to include assets in other assets. IMO it is much easier to build
a GUI which supports adding XInclude expressions in existing assets,
than one which allows to assemble documents from assets. To me, it
feels more natural if I can write text and include assets in
arbitrary locations. But this is just a matter of personal preference.

----

In the Lenya repository, we could use assets for various applications:

- static content asset
- dynamic content asset (e.g., containing a reference to an RSS feed)
- collection asset (static or dynamic)
- structure / index asset (referencing an index generation component)

To find a specific asset, you need only a single lookup mechanism,
based on names, meta data, etc.

XML-based assets can support XInclude, CInclude and other reference
mechanisms.

A document is a (parameterized) view of an asset. It is generated by
resolving the references and expanding their content. The parameters
can either be provided explicitly or derived from a view context.

An example:

- There is an asset "report list". It contains a list of references
  to reports.

- If requested on a web page, the document (view) "HTML presentation"
  of the asset is generated. Parameters control whether all reports are
  included in a single page or if a multi-page site with index page
  is rendered.

- If requested as PDF, the document (view) "PDF presentation" is
  created (including a ToC and all reports in a PDF document).

The available views depend on the resource type of the asset.

WDYT?

-- Andreas


--
Andreas Hartmann
Wyona Inc.  -   Open Source Content Management   -   Apache Lenya
http://www.wyona.com                      http://lenya.apache.org
[EMAIL PROTECTED]                     [EMAIL PROTECTED]


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reply via email to