Hi all,
siting at the new links since some hours i have again started to hack the code to my needs;
nothing special, im no programer at all, but simple things to improve the functionality.
For example: Different detailed + link.html for each category and/or each link;
different add-forms for different cats; the same to add_success and errors while adding;
the next would be the modify ...
The same to different email-templates for each cat.
Todos now:
- different mails to chosse while validating
- and very important second tables for the links;
imagine a field in links-table where u choose an aditional table for some special fields.
Example: you have pets and cars, but you need age and color for the cars, but height and weight for the pets;
till now i add any field i need to the links-table; but especially for one cat, i need 20 additional fields, so i must have a real big field-list; the better way seems to have only the needed fields for all links and to say in which additional table the other fields are.


I write this to see, if someone would or could program my mods to plugins; i dont need it (while the upgrade problem stays); but maybe some others would enjoy these hackz in form of plugins.

My english is not the best and if i could find someone in germany, especially around cologne, fine. But i will try my best to talk to every other, too.

Robert

Hi,

The multiple emails for admin validation -- is a pet peve of mine, and is now on my list of things to hit since 2.1 stable is out, and I'm assuming the only changes that will be "tweaks" to make it work with gossamer community for the next few months at least. I'm sure Gossamer COmmunity is now the main thrust at GT.

The other "features" are something we've talked about for a long time. In a way, it means multiple links databases for a site.

Alex has _not_ been agains this, he just has not devoted much time to it yet.

Once GT community is out (a lot of "logic" problems are having to be solved with this concept) the idea of using multiple "links" databases with a single Links install may be addressed.

This gets _very_ complicted -*-VERY-*- quickly.

One idea, would be to use the Links table as the "main" table. All links are entered into this table, but then a "link" would have an "extra" table that holds data specific to that link. The most logical first step would be to allow one "extra" table per root catgory. Each time a root category is set up, a new "extra" table is created (if that option in the admin is checked). That extra table can contain fields that are specific to links in that category. Searches would need to be done on both the Links+extra tables (and this too gets complicated).

But, taking this to an extension, when a "Link" is added, it could be given a "type" code (maybe from a drop-down list) and that would point to the extra table to use. This means a link-by-link customization, not root-category, it's slightly more complex, but it is pretty awesome :)



What this would do, is provide the "links" table enough information to operate, but put link-specific or category-specific information in an "extra" table that is joined, (or simply searched) when needed.

When this happens, the Link_Extra_Table field could also be used to mark a template set to use when displaying the link, or the actual Link_Extra_Table record could specific the template set, or use the default set for that table.

See.... it gets really complicated, very fast :) But the above "logic" is a bit better than using physically separate Links tables for main operation.


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