[Zope-PTK] DISCUSS: Creating news and the portal box

[Paul Everitt]

[Oops, my first attempt sent this to zope-ptk@digicool.com!]

[FYI: URL for PTK docs below]

Howdy folks.  I'd like to brainstorm a couple of items.

First, do people think the way news is done Zope.org is the right
rhythym?  Someone creates content, then creates a different piece of
content that points to the content.

Can these two steps be more productive and more seamless?

On the second point, I've posted the PTK docs at:

  http://www.zope.org/Products/PTK/PTK.xml

*** Do NOT pass around this URL!! ***

Mike, could you get the mockups moved up there and email everybody a
link?

In order to view that, you'll need a Mozilla build from the last week. 
Later today (when I get with Amos) I'll get the XSL stylesheets in place
to convert the docs to HTML.

In the docs, I discuss the "PTK Interface".  Particularly I have
something called the "Member Box" (which I'll be renaming the Portal Box
later today).  The purpose, name, and appearance of this "Portal Box" is
something I'd like to start discussing ASAP.

Right now the Portal Box is a functional merger between the left-margin
area on Zope.org, pieces from the Zope mgmt screen (verbs), and new
ideas.  In appearance it resembles the Membership Box at UserLand, and
thus its appearance needs to change.

Here's the basic idea: there's less of a difference between browsing and
managing.  When you "switch" to the manage view, most things look the
same.

The Portal Box is the area of the main, regular, browsing view of some
portal site that is reserved for management operations.  At least that's
the plan so far.  The box has a few areas separated by HRs: membership
(join, login, logout, preferences, My Stuff), operate on the current
resource, and "convenience" links such as Undo.

Here are some questions to start the brainstorming:

1) Should the three functions go in one box?

2) How can the functions be presented on screen that makes it distinct
from other sites?

3) Is the idea of having one reserved part of the regular portal pages a
valid one?

4) What other idioms could be expressed?  For instance, we've gone back
and forth on having an Outlook-style box that had icons linked to
"Documents", "Images", "News", "Links", etc.

5) Should the switch into editing the contents of a page *also* include
the rendered version of the page?

--Paul