Rails - Jun 2006 - User websites with templates.

Hi, I''m very new to Rails and have a general question.

What technique would you use to allow users who have a uniform set of 
data to create very un-uniform websites from that data?

One set of data, many different website/output possibilities.

It would have to go beyond CSS. I''m assuming there will potentially be 
some level of scripting involved for each template. The goal is to 
create a framework that will allow for nearly any design/functionality 
going forward.

Any advice? TIA.

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Two suggestions:

1) Engines
2) MasterView template engine

Engines allow you to have a base set of code and views and to override just
what you need to for each client. http://rails-engines.org/  Obviously you
can symlink or use svn to link the base code and views together if in
different apps.

MasterView template engine which is the project I am working on, allows you
to use html templates with the erb logic embedded in attributes so one can
work with it in a WYSIWYG editor. The part of this that would allow for
extended reuse is how the attribute directives are created. Custom
directives can be created to implement boiler plate code around things like
tables and such. So if you need to do things in addition to simple CSS,
writing your own directives for MasterView would be one way to ensure
consistency. (Caveot: We are currently in the process of simplifying the
directive api to make it easier to use and understand so the internals of
that may change over the next several weeks). http://masterview.org/

So two different ways to approach things. Depending on what you are wanting
to do, one may be better than the other.

Let me know if I can help you further.

Jeff


On 6/27/06, chap nap <brubyforum@says.mu> wrote:
>
> Hi, I''m very new to Rails and have a general question.
>
> What technique would you use to allow users who have a uniform set of
> data to create very un-uniform websites from that data?
>
> One set of data, many different website/output possibilities.
>
> It would have to go beyond CSS. I''m assuming there will
potentially be
> some level of scripting involved for each template. The goal is to
> create a framework that will allow for nearly any design/functionality
> going forward.
>
> Any advice? TIA.
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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Jeff Barczewski wrote:
> Two suggestions:
> 
> 1) Engines
> 2) MasterView template engine
> 
> Engines allow you to have a base set of code and views and to override 
> just
> what you need to for each client. http://rails-engines.org/  Obviously 
> you
> can symlink or use svn to link the base code and views together if in
> different apps.
> 
> MasterView template engine which is the project I am working on, allows 
> you
> to use html templates with the erb logic embedded in attributes so one 
> can
> work with it in a WYSIWYG editor. The part of this that would allow for
> extended reuse is how the attribute directives are created. Custom
> directives can be created to implement boiler plate code around things 
> like
> tables and such. So if you need to do things in addition to simple CSS,
> writing your own directives for MasterView would be one way to ensure
> consistency. (Caveot: We are currently in the process of simplifying the
> directive api to make it easier to use and understand so the internals 
> of
> that may change over the next several weeks). http://masterview.org/
> 
> So two different ways to approach things. Depending on what you are 
> wanting
> to do, one may be better than the other.
> 
> Let me know if I can help you further.
> 
> Jeff
Hi Jeff-
Our web designer had cranked out our website (with all static contents 
for privacy, faq etc) with dreamweaver. He had used dreamweaver template 
for designing the website. Now I am in the processs of taking that 
design and apply it to the application (dynamic content).What is the 
best way to do it? Does the masterview help with it?
thanks/thila

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Yes, that is one of the things that MasterView would help with. You can
start from a pure html prototype and add in MasterView attributes to make it
dynamic. And you can go back into dreamweaver or other editor and re-edit it
at any point in the development lifecycle.

So it makes it great for designers to be able to create prototypes and
developers just sprinkle the prototype with some attributes to make it
dynamic. And the designer can go back in later and tweak things if need be
too.

Plus you don''t have to give up any of the nice rails functionality
(layouts,
partials, helpers, etc), MasterView keeps all the power of rails that you
have with erb (rhtml) since it uses rhtml under the covers.

I will be putting together a demonstration video about how to start from a
prototype very soon. Right now the demos show starting from scratch using a
generator. There is documentation for the attributes so you can get started,
but I just don''t have any example videos ready yet.

Best,

Jeff

On 6/28/06, thila thila <isputnik_98@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>
>
> Hi Jeff-
> Our web designer had cranked out our website (with all static contents
> for privacy, faq etc) with dreamweaver. He had used dreamweaver template
> for designing the website. Now I am in the processs of taking that
> design and apply it to the application (dynamic content).What is the
> best way to do it? Does the masterview help with it?
> thanks/thila
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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