Free panelized layouts and node_pane.module ?

Perhaps we've got another module (besides content_menu) that is worth some consideration for Spark, if it's going to use panels for layouting pages.

Node pane focusses on a better interface of getting nodes into panes. The module allows easy creation of new or selection of existing nodes (via filterable view) right in the panel layout management. We used it in several projects that needed free pages layouted by using any number of other nodes (for arbitrary text/image "bricks" or semantically specific node integration on panel pages or panelized nodes).

To see node_pane.module in action, watch this screencast, which compares panel's off-the-shelf cumbersome placing-node-into-pane process with node_pane's approach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1S6eHnnXkc

Here you can see a page of a productive website actually build with panels, node_pane and panelized page nodes that are composed with "brick" nodes (which allow combintations of title/text/image/image-description in this example):

http://www.ringier.com/en/about_ringier/corporate_responsibility

For a bit more background information also see the blog post at:

http://wunderkraut.com/en/blog/improved-way-put-content-panels-introduci...

You can clone the module from floretan's sandbox at:

http://drupal.org/sandbox/floretan/1478684

(merlinofchaos' "Fieldable panels panes" module is trying to solve that "brick for panelized node layouts" with dedicated entities, but this approach at the moment lacks support for translation and revisioning. Node pane focusses on a better interface of getting nodes into panes).