Too many options [#906048]

On a huge site with 30 or more content types, and "Control formats per node type" enabled, configuration work quickly becomes a pain. Just too much work to configure each content type separately. Would be better if I only had to configure a few of them, and set the rest as "system default".

Ideas:
1) For each content type you can choose between "use default settings" and "override settings".
2) Allow to create different presets, so for each content type one can either choose a preset or "use system default", or "individual settings".
3) Use different presets for nodes and comments (and fields?).

On the one hand we made the configuration less work, on the other hand we can add flexibility:
4) Allow to configure allowed formats for specific combinations of node type and role.
5) Allow programmatic configuration via a hook implementation.

Now, this was some brainstorming. We don't need to have all of this at once, and maybe there are better solutions for some things..

Thanks!

Comments

Comment #1

dragonwize CreditAttribution: dragonwize commented 9 September 2010 at 14:33

Status:

Active

» Postponed

Agreed that it could get to be a much maintenance, but that is only if you are changing your default formats a lot. Changing your default format should only be a rare event.

As it currently stands, if you set the global BF defaults at admin/settings/filters/defaults then your content types automatically default to using those formats until you save your content type again then it will use the settings you set there. That is the point of sensible defaults. The whole module works on the idea that everything will work as you currently have set until you actually submit a form somewhere signifying that you have manually made a decision.

The only reason you would ever need to change all 30 of your content type formats is that all 30 of them are different from your global defaults which would make me question if you set your global default wisely. Also, if you get deep in a project and you decide you want to change all your defaults, the simplest way is just to uninstall and re-install BF. That will remove all your previous defaults and let you start again setting appropriate defaults and only make the changes where needed. You can even do this in a production site because BF does not affect any current or previous content, it only comes into play when a user enters NEW content.

I will think about this some more but I think it would just do more to complicate the system than help it.

Comment #2

donquixote CreditAttribution: donquixote commented 9 September 2010 at 15:09

Ok, let's consider the following story:
- for content type A, I have explicitly saved some settings.
- content type B uses the defaults.
- content type C settings are identical with the defaults, but they are explicitly saved.

Now I change the defaults. The changes will automatically apply to B, but not to A or C. Correct?

So the two things that I miss here are:
- It is not easy to see if some settings are explicitly saved or just inherited from the defaults.
- There is no way to "clear" the explicit settings.

Comment #3

dragonwize CreditAttribution: dragonwize commented 9 September 2010 at 15:39

Now I change the defaults. The changes will automatically apply to B, but not to A or C. Correct?

Yes.

- It is not easy to see if some settings are explicitly saved or just inherited from the defaults.

You can simple visit the content type page and it will show you what formats it is using.

- There is no way to "clear" the explicit settings.

Yes there is. You simply uninstall the module.

I see where you are coming from but I think you are making it more complicated than it has to be. If and when you actually decide to change you default format, which is not a light handed choice, you simply make the change if it is a small one and run any tests you would like to to ensure that everything is working as you like or if you are going to make a lot of changes it might be best to just start over. Again since there is nothing affecting existing content, uninstalling BF does nothing to your site except fall back to using the global core default as the default format for NEW content.

If you find yourself constantly changing your format defaults then I would recommend you change your workflow to ease your work.

That being said as the field level defaults are worked in then some of this might make more sense but it would probably only exist in the separate BF widget not the CCK defaults which will be standard.