concept model

Views 2 module concept model

Roy — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 21:38:38 +0000

Sub title

My first concept model

/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Views-sitemap.png?itok=L_1FwD9U

The redesign for version 2 of the essential Drupal module Views was one of my first impactful contributions. Much of the functionality is (still) over my head but somewhere in 2008, after many long conversations in IRC I arrived at a diagram that clarified a lot. I didn’t know of the term concept model then, hence the “sitemap” title.

In simple terms, you use Views to create lists of things. It lets you define what kind of thing to list, where to present it, how to format the list and how to format each item in the list.

What this concept model achieved was mapping the system objects to these simple what, where, how questions. It helped many people understand much better what this new version would be able to do.

I love to do this kind of visual clarification.

A scenario for using content workspaces

Roy — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 21:44:25 +0000

Sub title

Preparing the launch of a new campain.

/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/workspace%20scenario.gif?itok=633ivOvk

An example of how to use content workspaces to prepare multiple content items that you want to publish.

Say you want to launch a new campaign (product launch, a sales promotion, a fundraising drive). This means creating new content, updating existing items to link to that new content and maybe archiving some elements of a previous campaign as well. With content workspaces you can create, review, test all these changes on a copy of the live site. When everything is in place and ready to go live, these changes can be published to the live site and you've launched your campaign.

Setup: create a workspace
Create (add, change, archive, delete) content as needed
Review your work. While working inside your workspace, the content on the live site will likely have changed. Blog posts were added, products were updated, typos got fixed, etc. So, you can import (“pull”) these changes into your workspace. Maybe these changes interfere with your own work. Now is the time to fix those conflicts.
Happy with your work you set the workspace to “needs review”. This sends a notification to your team lead or editor who reviews your work as well. If it needs works till, she can set it back to “needs work” which means you’re back at step 2 to make the necessary changes.
All is well and ready to be published. First a final “pull” of any changes from the live site to make sure there are no conflicts, then the actual publishing of all the new items and changes you prepared in the workspace get “pushed” to the live site.

Content workflow initiative: what is a workspace?

Roy — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 21:47:53 +0000

Sub title

Similar to git branching but for content

/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/workspace%20definition.gif?itok=MsIvJkaN

A workspace is a copy of the live site, that exists in parallel to the live site.

Use a workspace when you want to prepare multiple new content items, that you want to go live at the same time, in a controlled manner.