Page Shell Idea: Nodes within Nodes

Sorry, meant to post this under modules. Although it does relate to themes in a round about way.

I put together a quick pdf of the different pages that I think the module will need. This should also help explain what I'm purposing. Check out the page outlines for this module here. And here is an html document that explains the db tables that I'm thinking of using.

Is there anyone who is interested in working with me on this?

This is my first module and it's been painful trying to figure out what the different hooks do. I'm also new to writing PHP and SQL statements

Thank you for your comments

- Strayhand

I've updated my description of the module. You can read about it here

I'm under a tight schedule for getting this done, and if I'm not able to make some serious headway in the next few days then I may hold off on developing the module or even using Drupal (I need more control over my Web site then the default system allows).

Thank you for all of your comments, I understand that many of you are not "programmers", but there are probably other ways that you can help with this module. Take a look at the outline that I've created for this project. If you see something that you're able to research, or contribute please feel free to do so here. I've also listed some questions at the bottom which I need help with.

Project Outline

1. Develop the database infrastructure.
   
   I've already mapped most of this out. You can review my table descriptions and structure here. I'm new to relational databases. I'm uncertain of the best method for linking the various database tables. If you have any expertise or knowledge in this area please share. As of right now I'm writing code that updates all of the tables when ever a change is made to one. I'm wondering if there is a better way.
   
   
   
   Question: What is the best method of linking data between multiple tables?
   
   
   
2. Develop the module
   
   I've made an outline of the various administrative pages that I think this module will require. I think that the most logical approach will be to add features to the module as we go along. Due to time constraints I don't think that everything can be accomplished in the first version of the module. Path alias, themes, region filters and scheduling are features which I believe will have to be in a later version of the module. I've tried to outline the process below:
   

• Pages - Write the functionality to create, delete and update pages. Data would be stored in the "shell_page" table and a new node instance would be added to the "node" table of the type "shell."
• Path Alias - Write the functionality to assign a path alias to the page shell. The path alias module maybe able to accomplish most of this. Data would be stored in "url_alias" with a column within "shell_page" indicated the path's id (pid).
• Theme - Assign a theme to the page shell. Data would be stored within the "url_alias" table. This would also require some module to scan the theme directory and populate the theme tables (theme_data, theme_template, theme_style, theme_style_id).
• Regions - Write the functionality to create, delete and update regions. Data would be stored in the "shell_region" table and should include the id of the parent page (pgid).
• Filter Regions - Write filters to determine how much, or which parts of a node to bring into a region. Although this will be necessary for the final module to be useful, I think it's best to add the filter component after the other components are in place. The data would be stored in "shell_region" and "shell_filter".
• Populate Regions - Write the functionality to browse all of the nodes by title (node repository). Then write the necessary code to assign a particular node to a region and give the node a weight (vertical placement). The data should be stored in "shell_data".
• Schedule Regions - Write the functionality to start and end a nodes appearance within a region. It maybe possible to use the schedule module for most of this. Start and end times would be stored in the "shell_data" table.
  
  
  

Questions

While working on this project I've used several other modules as examples (path.module, flexinode.module, taxonomy.module, etc.). One thing that I'm struggling with is "menu ( )" found within the _list function. It has several parameters and I'm currious what some of them mean. For example the path module:

<p>function path_link($type, $node = NULL) {<br>
if ($type == &quot;system&quot; &amp;&amp; user_access(&quot;administer url aliases&quot;)) {<br>
menu(&quot;admin/path&quot;, t(&quot;url aliasing&quot;), &quot;path_admin&quot;, 4);<br>
menu(&quot;admin/path/add&quot;, t(&quot;new alias&quot;), &quot;path_admin&quot;);<br>
menu(&quot;admin/path/help&quot;, t(&quot;help&quot;), &quot;path_admin&quot;, 9);<br>
}<br>
}</p>

This module passes the parameter "4" for the first menu item. What does "4" mean? I've seen this used with switch statements within the _admin function:

<p> $op = $_POST[&quot;op&quot;];<br>
$edit = $_POST[&quot;edit&quot;];</p>
<p> if (empty($op)) {<br>
  $op = arg(2);<br>
  }<br>
  <br>
  switch ($op) {<br>
  case....<br>
  } </p>

Where does "op" come from and what does the function arg( ) do?

I've also ran into a few bumps trying to update the URL of the admin page that I'm currently on. For example I'll execute a function and tell it to return to the overview page, however the URL in the browser still says that I'm on the previous administrative page. How do I update the URL to reflect the current admin page that I'm on?

If you read this far thank you :)

I'm making progress on the module. As of right now I've completed:

- creating, updating and deleting page shells

- creating, updating and deleting regions

- viewing a repository of nodes and assigning nodes to a region

I still have a lot of error checking to do. I also need to:

- add the path and theme functionality to page shells

- add the filter functionality to regions (this is a big one)

- work out some kinks with the assignment of nodes to regions

- add node scheduling (this will come later)

- hack xtemplate (mxtemplate) to render the regions

I hope to have something available for others to test by the end of next week. Hopefully a real programmer will be able to take things from there. I'm a content manager, not a code jockey ;)

Peace,

-Strayhand

I'm in the process of hacking xtemplate to render the shell regions and nodes. I was successful in rendering the shell information, however, the method that I used generated a permissions error and I'm concerned that it may present a security risk.

Does anyone know how to add new subsitution tags to the xtemplate system? I've posted a special thread about this here

So I've thinking about something and I wanted to get the feedback of the forum...

What is the best approach for capturing and parsing the nodes for each region?

As of right now, I have a db table called {shell_data} which holds the nid, and title of every node that will get inserted into a region. In addition to this information I have some additional fields which indicate the page and region ids. I'm using the page shell module to populate this db table, and I'm using mxtemplate to wrap the nodes in div tags and then parse the information.

I've been thinking that maybe this isn't the best approach. Should there be more distinction between the page shell module and the modified xtemplate module? Should the page shell module be responsible for filtering and wrapping the node content? I'm concerned that I'm making too many db calls from xtemplate and that performance is going to be an issue.

In part I'm asking this because I've hit a road block with xtemplate and this error message (read about it here) and I'm trying to find ways around the issue. I could use the page shell module to filter, and wrap each node and save it to a db table, but I didn't want to repeat the node data.

Does anyone have suggestions? Has anyone tried to download and install the module? I apologize for the current condition of the code(install at your own risk).

For any of you waiting on this module. I haven't given up on this project, however I have suspended its development while I work on my news and events Web site.

When I've completed my drupal news and events Web site, (Early September) I will more than likely start over from stratch. I've learned so much in the last 4 weeks about drupal and I think it would be best if I started this project clean.

Thank you all for your ideas...

Now that things are beginning to settle down from the 4.5 launch, maybe there will be a few more programmers who want to contribute to this module. I have again applied for a cvs account, lets hope I get approved :) Once I get a cvs account I'll setup a project, and try to find a permanent home for the related files.

I'm in the process of migrating my Web site, so the supporting documents for this module have been moved to here:

Module Outline

If you're interested in contributing your programming skills to this module, please e-mail me. In your e-mail please indicate your skills along with what you'd like to contribute. I'm a novice programmer with big dreams, but I lack some of the expertise to successfully implement this module.

I look forward to hearing from some of you.

-strayhand

p.s. See what i've been up to, News and Event. This site is the reason the page shell module has been delayed.