Comments on: DesignBais Tip - Dynamic Color and Images http://Nebula-RnD.com/blog/general/2006/08/dbtip-color-and-images1.html Welcome to the Nebula Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:49:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Tony Gravagno http://Nebula-RnD.com/blog/general/2006/08/dbtip-color-and-images1.html#comment-28 Tony Gravagno Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:09:36 +0000 http://Nebula-RnD.com/blog/general/2006/08/dbtip-color-and-images1.html#comment-28 <p>It took a few days to get through this but I'm glad I did. The answer to most of your points is that the features you describe are application-defined, and yes, DesignBais allows you to create an environment which will make these features available to your users.</p> <p>I just received some information about how v4.1 will allow for dynamic forms and I am absolutely stoked. (Err, that means "really happy and excited") After I get a chance to use it, and as time permits, I'll provide code samples in other articles. I don't think this extends to dynamic menus but I'll look into that as well.</p> <p>I personally am a bit reserved about using DB for internet usage, only because I lack experience in this area, but I'll be working with W3C-compliant forms soon and providing some notes here. I hope someone else will share their experience.</p> <p>To keep these comments on-topic I'll just re-iterate that it's great to get the most out of the toolkit(s) but be careful about over-doing the glitz on a business site that's intended for intranet, extranet, <u>or</u> internet. - Regards, T</p> It took a few days to get through this but I’m glad I did. The answer to most of your points is that the features you describe are application-defined, and yes, DesignBais allows you to create an environment which will make these features available to your users.

I just received some information about how v4.1 will allow for dynamic forms and I am absolutely stoked. (Err, that means "really happy and excited") After I get a chance to use it, and as time permits, I’ll provide code samples in other articles. I don’t think this extends to dynamic menus but I’ll look into that as well.

I personally am a bit reserved about using DB for internet usage, only because I lack experience in this area, but I’ll be working with W3C-compliant forms soon and providing some notes here. I hope someone else will share their experience.

To keep these comments on-topic I’ll just re-iterate that it’s great to get the most out of the toolkit(s) but be careful about over-doing the glitz on a business site that’s intended for intranet, extranet, or internet. - Regards, T

]]> By: sjdorst http://Nebula-RnD.com/blog/general/2006/08/dbtip-color-and-images1.html#comment-22 sjdorst Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:59:07 +0000 http://Nebula-RnD.com/blog/general/2006/08/dbtip-color-and-images1.html#comment-22 Tony, I have to answer the last question you asked, in parenthesis: (Are you?) In our case: MAYBE!!! We do have an ecommerce site, which is woefully out of date, NOT connected to our data, and driven by an archaic mode of uploading data and an even more restrictive ability to define product/new product pages. We are ALSO currently having a couple of programmers develop a robust Extranet, so that customers of our 2 stores (not the retail web customers) have full access to their accounts, order status, payment status, stock status, pricing and online ordering. As we work on this Extranet, it becomes more and more clear that our RETAIL website should be brought in house as a special case of the Extranet with a limited product offering. With our evaluating DB, part of the evaluation is whether or not we can use it for the Extranet/Website. It would certainly be a different site structure, one designed for the occasional user, while the main DB effort will be to replace the green screen interface for our internal use. The inability (or prohibitive difficulty) to use DB for the Extranet/Web work will NOT change our basic YES/NO decision on DB. Rather, if we CAN reasonably use DB for these purposes AND we decide to go with DB, then we will STOP work on the current Extranet. Biggest issues I see (and remember, I'm not really a DB user yet, just reading manuals, blogs and newsgroups) are dynamic menus, particularly side menus and dynamic content. We want to be able to drive this with (relatively) simple driver files and NOT have to design in DB each and every possible menu, ESPECIALLY since we want some side menu items to be USER defined (User specific, NAMED "Quick Lists" of products that that particular customer may order frequently enough to want to "Save") As far as dynamic CONTENT goes, the biggest need will be to restrict the offerings on a page to 1 variation of product. For instance, we might want to offer a number of different dimmer controls, each of which comes in a variety of colors, all on the same page, but allow the user to restrict the visible offerings on that page to just 1 color, for easier ordering of a room or house full of product without having to select the color for each and every offering. As regards the above, we will ALSO want to define similar products into groups and easily add them to page WITHOUT having to go back to a page designer for every little product change in the browsing interface. There you are, very long answer to a very short question! --Steve Tony,
I have to answer the last question you asked, in parenthesis: (Are you?)
In our case: MAYBE!!!
We do have an ecommerce site, which is woefully out of date, NOT connected to our data, and driven by an archaic mode of uploading data and an even more restrictive ability to define product/new product pages.
We are ALSO currently having a couple of programmers develop a robust Extranet, so that customers of our 2 stores (not the retail web customers) have full access to their accounts, order status, payment status, stock status, pricing and online ordering. As we work on this Extranet, it becomes more and more clear that our RETAIL website should be brought in house as a special case of the Extranet with a limited product offering.
With our evaluating DB, part of the evaluation is whether or not we can use it for the Extranet/Website. It would certainly be a different site structure, one designed for the occasional user, while the main DB effort will be to replace the green screen interface for our internal use.
The inability (or prohibitive difficulty) to use DB for the Extranet/Web work will NOT change our basic YES/NO decision on DB. Rather, if we CAN reasonably use DB for these purposes AND we decide to go with DB, then we will STOP work on the current Extranet.
Biggest issues I see (and remember, I’m not really a DB user yet, just reading manuals, blogs and newsgroups) are dynamic menus, particularly side menus and dynamic content. We want to be able to drive this with (relatively) simple driver files and NOT have to design in DB each and every possible menu, ESPECIALLY since we want some side menu items to be USER defined (User specific, NAMED "Quick Lists" of products that that particular customer may order frequently enough to want to "Save")
As far as dynamic CONTENT goes, the biggest need will be to restrict the offerings on a page to 1 variation of product. For instance, we might want to offer a number of different dimmer controls, each of which comes in a variety of colors, all on the same page, but allow the user to restrict the visible offerings on that page to just 1 color, for easier ordering of a room or house full of product without having to select the color for each and every offering.
As regards the above, we will ALSO want to define similar products into groups and easily add them to page WITHOUT having to go back to a page designer for every little product change in the browsing interface.
There you are, very long answer to a very short question!
–Steve

]]>