Page Comparison

Some schools have rewritten their themes to provide alternate interfaces for integratedModes and ALM by maintaining the format of the URLs but introducing tricks like AJAX, new controls, etc. This is a place to document these things.

Necessary Features

Add: Tab, Column, Channel
Move: Tab, Column, Channel (fragments?)
Remove: Tab, Column, Channel
Rename Tab
Minimize Channel

Some Initial Thoughts from Virginia Tech

...

No Format

XMLDocument getLayout()
       void setLayout(XMLDocument)
       void saveLayout()
       Node getLayoutRoot()
       Node addFolder(name, parentNode, nextNode)
       Node addPortlet(fname, parentNode, nextNode)
       void setParameter(node, name, value[])
       void deleteParameter(node, name)

Panel

borderColor	#ccc
bgColor	#FFFFCC
titleBGColor	#FFFFCC
borderStyle	solid
title	Modality

I don't really like the idea of save/set options, since I really think that the model should be non-modal. Right now there's this oddity of actions like remove channel which happen immediately, but other options which are applied and then saved. Getting users to save changes in particular seems like it's as hard as getting them to logout.

Looking at the example below for adding a tab, you'll see that the addTab method automatically saves the new tab when it is created. I think it should be up to the institution to decide how save should be implemented. Out of the box, all actions could be immediately saved. - Collier

So, for My VT, adding a tab might work like this:

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Customize Servlet: (in pseudocode)
Edit: Removed :: notation which was Virginia Tech-specific.

Code Block

	JavaScript
	JavaScript

 
function addTab(name) {
  var root = getLayoutRoot();
  var newTab = addFolder("tab::New Tab", root, null);
  var newPage = addFolder("page::default", newTab, null);
  var newMainColumn = addFolder("column::main", newPage, null);
  var newSideColumn = addFolder("column::side", newPage, null);
  saveLayout();
}

...

Code Block

	xml
	xml

 
<layout>
  <folder name="tab::New Tab">
    <folder name="page::default">
      <folder name="column::main"/>
      <folder name="column::side"/>
    </folder>
  </folder>
</layout>

...

Having two "IDs" for folders/portlets, one that is human-readable and one that is generated by the system (database ID numbers).
The "name" of a folder being the display name of the folder, or moved into a parameter described in the next point.
Code Block
xml
xml
<folder id="tab-home" name="Home" systemID="345-42"/>

I'd like to see arbitrary, multi-value parameters allowed for folders and portlets

Code Block

	xml
	xml


<folder id="tab-home" systemID="345-42">
  <parameter name="display-name"><value>Home</value></parameter>
  <parameter name="type"><value>tab</value></parameter>
  <parameter name="allowed-portlet-widths">
    <value>30</value>
    <value>60</value>
  </parameter>
</folder>

Versions Compared

Old Version 3

New Version Current

Key

Necessary Features

Some Initial Thoughts from Virginia Tech

So, for My VT, adding a tab might work like this: