I would like to create a public widget system. Let me explain:
I have a web application in VueJS, and I would like to allow the user to code their own widget/plugin (for example, if the user wants a particular table that I didn't code, he asks me for the data he needs, he codes the table, imports it in the application and I display it to him). I've searched a bit, and I can't find any article that deals with this subject.
Would it be possible to tell me where to look?
Related
I have an internal table whose records I would like to show in a list when user clicks details icon in application log. I know I should pass program, form and table with records to the BAL_S_MSG t_par and callback elements but its not working. Anyone can direct me to a example?
thanks
Check the example programs provided in the package SZAL, for instance SBAL_DEMO_06 (although I'd strongly suggest NOT to use the REUSE function module used in that example).
Is it possible to restrict part of a smart to only a certain user group and if the user trying to edit the smart form content is not of that group, then the user cannot change that portion of the content?
Example:
Let's say I have an Employee smart form with fields for EmployeeBio, EmployeeHireDate, and EmployeeDept. Would it be possible to allow the general author user group to be able to edit the EmployeeBio field, but restrict the EmployeeDept and EmployeeHireDate fields to only an HRAdmin user group?
If it helps, I am using Ektron 9.00 SP3.
As far as I know, you either can edit a content block or you can't; there isn't a way to subdivide permissions on a per-smartform-field basis.
What you can do, is group the "restricted" fields into their own smartform, and then reference that via a content resource selector field.
So your Employee smart form might look like this:
/root/txtName (not in your example, I know...)
/root/rtfBio
/root/cresHRID
Side note: I'm using hungarian notation on my field names here. txt indicates a plain text field, rtf indicates a rich text (html) field, and cres indicates a content resource selector.
Then you could have a second smart form... let's call it "EmployeeHR", and it would have the following structure:
/root/hireDate
/root/txtDepartment
That would, in theory, work. However, I must say that I really don't like splitting up this particular type of data in this way. First, department feels like it would function better as a taxonomy to which you could add the content block. Second, it feels like this type of data would be better served by housing it outside of ektron and then using a DxH (Digital Experience Hub) connector to bring the data into Ektron. This way the external system could handle permissions at a more granular level, and you would still have access to the data within Ektron for use elsewhere within the site.
UPDATE
As I ponder this question some more, another option comes to mind. You could write an ASPX page or UserControl that checks to make sure you're logged in and a member of a particular group before presenting you with a custom edit screen. The following code will check if the current user is a member of the admin group; you can swap out a different group id to fit your needs:
// Not sure off hand which of these using statements provides access to EkConstants...
using Ektron.Cms;
using Ektron.Cms.Common;
using Ektron.Cms.Content;
var userGroupApi = new Ektron.Cms.Framework.User.UserGroupManager();
var isInGroup = userGroupApi.IsUserInGroup(currentUserId, EkConstants.g_AdminGroup);
This could be implemented as an ASPX page on your site, or it could be implemented as a widget and placed on the user's Smart Desktop tab of the workarea. Either way, you have a lot of options for getting what you want, just nothing "out of the box".
Before I ask my question, i like to make clear what I am trying to achieve.
I have two modules i created in Sitefinity "Jobs" and "CareHomes". The CareHomes module contains fields such as "Address" , "Location" and several other information that identifies the CareHome while the Jobs module is meant to allow the client post jobs for CareHomes.
I also have a classification field/taxonomy which is also called carehomes this taxonomy is just a list of all the CareHomes operated by the client. This taxonomy field is available in both the CareHomes module and Jobs module
Now this is my problem: I want the to display information from the CareHomes module such as "Address" "Location" in the Jobs widget. That is I want a situation where when the client fills the Jobs module form and selects for example "Carehome1" in the carehomes taxonomy,I want to be able to retrieve the "address" information from the CareHomes that also has the same "Carehome1" taxonomy selected.
I know this is a forum with many professionals and my question may come across to some as silly, however I would appreciate if you are nice in answering my question or pointing me to a helpful resource because I am a newbie to Sitefinity and have only just started using it for about a few weeks.
You have a couple options, if you're stuck on 6.3 you might want to look at a dynamic items field control for the Jobs module that allows you to associate a Job to a CareHome. You can create the field using Sitefinity's Visual Studio plugin called Thunder and add it to your Jobs module. More info here. You would then have to use the api to find the associated CareHome information in your Jobs widget. There is boilerplate code to look this stuff up in module builder under Administration -> Module Builder -> {You Module} -> Code Reference, but it can be a pain.
The other option that I haven't used yet but saw in Sitefinity's last webinar is only available in Sitefintiy 7 and its the new Related Data field that is available to all custom content items and most built in content types. So you'd have to do an upgrade but the the api for getting related items appears to be much easier to work with, information on that is here and the webinar that shows the new features of Sitefinity 7 is here
For example,
I want to separate the online shop into three parts.
User: the user related information, for example, they login. logout.
Communication: sending email, or newsletter modules.
ShoppingCart: displaying order.
Ok, these three module is the main function of of my little online store.
Clearly, the user medule, deal with its own stuff, for example, user change their profile pic(ok, I think it is non-sense to have a profile pic for user, just think it is an example.)
user ---call---> user
But I got a problem here, is when the user doing some functions, which require cross-module call....
Let me give a example, if the user lost the password, the user needs to use the communication method to send a new password to him/her...The situation will become somethings like that:
user ----call---> communication
A worse situation is use all the modules, here is the situation:
The user using a shopping chart to deal with his/her shopping, after that, he /she make the order, and a invoice use communication modules to send to the user.
user ----call---> shoppingCart ---call---> Communication
Therefore, each module is not separate, all modules knows each others.... But I don't want to do that, for example, this time I am doing a new application, for example, I doing a video sharing web site which only use "user" and "communication", I don't really need the "shoppingChart. ", and having a new video module.....
It is ok for me "upgrade" my user and communication method to deal with the video module, but the question is, if I got something bugs fix, for example, the getFullName method is doing something wrong, when I need to "upgrade" back the online shop application, I need to take the "video" module too.....
What I wanna to ask is, how to separate their responsibility, and how to make the code more reusable? Thank you.
It is good practice to minimize the coupling in your application, but removing it entirely is not always possible.
My recommendation would be to build base classes User, Communication, and ShoppingCart that provide only basic interfaces, such as getFullName()
Then, for each application, write separate wrappers that are able to interact with your base classes. You may have an OnlineShopping class and a VideoSharing class, that contain the functions you need that are specific for each application.
There are a number of structural patterns that may help you out with your design. Also, take advantage of inheritance for functionality that is similar across all applications.
I have 2 1/2 years experience of VB.Net, mostly self taught, so please bear with me if I seem rather noobish still and do not know some of the basics. I would recommend you grab a cup of tea before starting on this, as it appears to have got quite long...
I currently have a rather large application (VB.Net website) of over 15000 lines of code at the last count. It does not do retail or anything particularly complex like that - it is literally just a wholesale viewing website with admin frontend, catalogue / catalogue management system and pageview system.
I don't really know much about how .Net applications work in the background - whether they are all loaded on the same thread or if each has its own thread... I just know how to code them, or at least like to think I do... :-)
Basically my application is set up as follows:
There are two different areas - the customer area and the administration frontend.
The main part of the customer frontend is the Catalogue. The MasterPage will load a list of products but that's all, and this is common to all the customer frontend pages.
I tend to work on only one or several parts of the application at a time before uploading the changes. So, for example, I may alter the hierarchy of the Catalogue and change the Catalogue page to match the hierarchy change whilst leaving everything else alone.
The pageview database is getting really quite large and so it is getting rather slow when the application is first requested due to the way it works.
The application timeout is set to 5 minutes - don't know how to change it, I have even tried asking this question on here and seem to remember the solution was quite complex and I was recommended not to change it, but if a customer requests the application 5 minutes after the last page view then it will reload the application from scratch. This means there is a very slow page load whenever it exceeds 5 minutes of inactivity.
I am not sure if this needs consideration to determine how best to split the application up, if at all, but each part of the catalogue system is set up as follows:
A Manager class at the top level, which is used by the admin frontend to add, edit and remove items of the specified type and the customer frontend to retrieve a list of items of the specified type. For example the "RangeManager" will contain a list of product "Ranges" and will be used to interact with these from the customer frontend.
An Item class, for example Range, which contains a list of Attributes. For example Name, Description, Visible, Created, CreatedBy and so on. The form for adding / editing loops through these to display relevant controls for the administrator. For example a Checkbox for BooleanAttribute.
An Attribute class, which can be of type StringAttribute, BooleanAttribute, IntegerAttribute and so on. There are also custom Attributes (not just datatypes) such as RangeAttribute, UserAttribute and so on. These are given a data field which is used to get a piece of data specific to the item it is contained in when it is first requested. Basically the Item is given a DataRow which is stored and accessed by Attributes only when they are first requested.
When one item is requested from a specific manager is requested, the manager will loop through all the items in the database and create a new instance of the item class. For example when a Range is requested from the RangeManager, the RangeManager will loop through all of the DataRows in the Ranges table and create a new instance of Range for each one. As stated above it simply creates a new instance with the DataRow, rather than loading all the data into it there and then. The Attributes themselves fetch the relevant data from the DataRow as and when they're first requested.
It just seems a tad stupid, in my mind, to recompile and upload the entire application every time I fix a minor bug or a spelling mistake for a word which is in the code behind (for example if I set the text of a Label dynamically). A fix / change to the Catalogue page, the way it is now, may mean a customer trying to view the Contact page, which is in no way related to the Catalogue page apart from by having the same MasterPage, cannot do so because the DLL is being uploaded.
Basically my question is, given my current situation, how would people suggest I change the architecture of the application by way of splitting it into multiple applications? I mean would it be just customer / admin, or customer / admin and pageviews, or some other way? Or not at all? Are there any other alternatives which I have not mentioned here? Could web services come in handy here? Like split the catalogue itself into a different application and just have the masterpage for all the other pages use a web service to get the names of the products to list on the left hand side? Am I just way WAY over-complicating things? Judging by the length of this question I probably am, and it wouldn't be the first time... I have tried to keep it short, but I always fail... :-)
Many thanks in advance, and sorry if I have just totally confused you!
Regards,
Richard
15000 LOC is not really all that big.
It sounds like you are not pre-compiling your site for publishing. You may want to read this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1y1404zt(v=vs.80).aspx
Recompiling and uploading the application is the best way to do it. If all you are changing is your markup, that can be uploaded individually (e.g. changing some html layout in an aspx page).
I don't know what you mean here by application timeout, but if your app domain recycles every 5 minutes, then that doesn't seem right at all. You should look into this.
Also, if you find yourself working on various different parts of the site (i.e. many different changes), but need to deploy only some items in isolation, then you should look into how you are using your source control tools (you are using one, aren't you?). Look into something like GIT and branching/merging.
Start by reading:
Application Architecture Guide