The module works well, with one big exception:
It's user access logic is based on "permission to creating new tables", when it should be "permission to VIEW and ADD/EDIT their OWN content into an EXISTING table."
Here's why...
What if you have a large community site 1000+ users, where users can create their own, for example, "Resume" table... OK... great, this can be done... (of course it'll be a bit confusing for most typical users asking the users about how many columns they want, and what they want to name each, etc.)
Anyhow...
Let's say that the users are smarter than your regular joe, and have no problems creating their own charts... fine... that's great and all.......
BUT... here's the biggie: each time a table is made, a new "permission" listing is made under "access control"
so what now? well... if you have 1000 users, and each creates 1 form... you then have a huge mess of 1000 permission listings added to "access control"....
Not good...
Nevertheless... what this module SHOULD have focussed around, is this:
1. allow only administrator to create specific forms (e.g. Resume: (3 columns) Title, Position, Year )
2. give users access to ADD their OWN content into theses forms
3. give users access to EDIT only their OWN content
4. List ONLY the content created by 1 specific USER (e.g. If viewing Joe Shmoe's Resume, ONLY list what he ADDED into the resume form--and NOT all other users (which is the way it's designed to do now)
I know you can make the argument that this wasn't made for large communities, but still, the current logic behind it insists on the use of "user created forms" and giving permission options to ALLOW OTHER users to ADD or EDIT someone else's forms (which doesn't make much usability sense)
Instead of having the permission settings to allow other users to edit ALL data on a single form... it SHOULD have been focussed on: ONLY display data from a single user, and allow that user to ONLY edit his own content.
Comments
Comment #1
pobster commentedYeah branch 1.x of the module isn't made for large tables/ communities; it was created specifically for one particular site and for one particular purpose. It just grew and grew so I thought I'd release it into the community as it seemed to become fairly useful once it became more 'generalised'. It's actually the first thing I ever programmed in php which I learnt from reading the php snippets page in the Drupal handbook and just following code/ coding practises from other peoples modules.
Version 2 of the module *is* focussed on larger tables with much more functionality and more of an emphasis on speed - the tables are created as nodes now and you're able to grant permissions actually from the table nodes creation and edit pages. All comments and suggestions have been taken into account now, but you really have to appreciate that I don't care particularly what people want - as long as my module fits my needs then that's fine, that's all I'm bothered about. I've no burning desire to be a programmer, I've never taken a course on it, I've no qualifications for it and as such it's a hobby. If you don't like the module then really, don't use it - I certainly won't lose any sleep.
Here's a good point, if your site is large enough that it needs more than this module can deliver, then maybe it's about time to pay someone to write something specific for your needs? I'm not offering btw, you couldn't afford me...
Pobster