<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<opml version="1.1">
	<head>
		<title>EpriseNotes.opml</title>
		<dateCreated>Thu, 28 Mar 2002 16:55:44 GMT</dateCreated>
		<dateModified>Wed, 01 May 2002 21:37:48 GMT</dateModified>
		<ownerName>Mark Woods</ownerName>
		<ownerEmail>mwoods1</ownerEmail>
		<expansionState>3, 8, 9, 12, 19, 22</expansionState>
		<vertScrollState>12</vertScrollState>
		<windowTop>35</windowTop>
		<windowLeft>230</windowLeft>
		<windowBottom>634</windowBottom>
		<windowRight>727</windowRight>
		</head>
	<body>
		<outline text="Questions">
			<outline text="What Are Merge Strings">
				<outline text="client.env.param - are &quot;static&quot;, that is, when an instance of the element is created (e.g. a page block), the user is prompted for their values with text blocks."/>
				<outline text="Others are dynamically merged during publishing, I think. Hey, how can I verify this?">
					<outline text="Most merge strings are resolved when the page is rendered. Only the client.env.param type are resolved during the authoring process."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="I can also evaluate javascript functions using client.env.eval(expression)"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Can I share physical files across multiple websites (e.g. masthead)?">
				<outline text="Do I care, if they are all generated via Eprise anyway?"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="How do I publish static content?">
				<outline text="Change Eprise map.cfg to set up a new mapping from content center files to physical directory in wwwroot.">
					<outline text="Four cryptic lines required to do this">
						<outline text="@!define@ map.URI./main/OffTheMark/=/OffTheMark/"/>
						<outline text="@!validate@ NONE"/>
						<outline text="@!define@ map./main/OffTheMark/:mode=physical"/>
						<outline text="@!validate@ NONE"/>
						</outline>
					<outline text="The server must be rebooted; stopping IIS does not release the Eprise Dlls (which run as ISAPI filters or something)."/>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="How can I do browser-based editing?">
				<outline text="By placing &lt;$client.env.editblock&gt; in editable page blocks"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Can page blocks contain other blocks?">
				<outline text="Sounds like page blocks move sequentially down the page. However, a page block may contain multiple elements. Probably no nested blocks.">
					<outline text="Aye. When working in a block I cannot add another block."/>
					<outline text="I think I can use the &lt;$include&gt; merge string to effectively include one block within another. This would give me the ability to create a Frontier style template. Much better than assembly multiple blocks of code in a linear fashion."/>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="How can I create a glossary mechanism in Eprise?">
				<outline text="I can create a config file to manage links, then use merge strings to reference those entries when pages are rendered.">
					<outline text="This works. I created glossary.cfg with a bunch of defined items - item.ScriptingNews=http://www.scripting.com. These are referenced as &lt;$config.item.ScriptingNews&gt; in page blocks"/>
					<outline text="However, Eprise must be restarted to pick up changes in a config file. That is not very workable."/>
					</outline>
				<outline text="I could create a database table of links, then use merge strings to query/reference entries. I have not tried this approach yet."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="If I can do a client.env.eval(expr), can I then create my own macro functions? Can I write functions to be called?">
				<outline text="Release 4.0 appears to give me this option. I need to install it before I can know for sure. If so, I can write common function libraries to handle">
					<outline text="image references"/>
					<outline text="glossary entries (and text substitution for link labels)"/>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="How does our own pageRender.asp fit into all of this?">
				<outline text="Do we use this to dynamically translate links based on the server environment?"/>
				<outline text="Does it serve any other useful purpose?"/>
				<outline text="What would it take to eliminate this? How badly would that hurt us on the search engines?"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Merge Strings. Will these work when we publish? ">
				<outline text="Yes, they will. I verified it by creating a physical directory and publishing my stuff to it!"/>
				</outline>
			</outline>
		<outline text="Stuff to try">
			<outline text="PowerCode elements in release 4.0 support javascript coding within Participant Server. That would be great!"/>
			<outline text="CacheSync - enables multiple servers using the same Participant Server database to be notified when a page is altered. They will then issue an HTTP-GET to update their own local copy.">
				<outline text="This could eliminate the need for Allstage!"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Eprise XMLGateway (edit content in Radio, Dreamweaver, then publish)"/>
			<outline text="Event-based Index">
				<outline text="Try using Events to generate a page that is an index. Do this by adding index elements to all of your pages."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Metatags">
				<outline text="Define an element to represent all of the fun stuff - title, description, keywords. "/>
				<outline text="Provide default values (can I get at the page name?)"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="&lt;$include&gt; merge string allows page includes!">
				<outline text="I could use this to include one (or more) blocks within another. "/>
				<outline text="&lt;$include; pathToPage&gt;"/>
				<outline text="Unlimited nesting in 3.0" type="link" url="http://its.eprise.com/eprise/main/KB/Content/Merge_Strings/TechNoteStyle_112"/>
				</outline>
			</outline>
		<outline text="Things That Bother Me Still">
			<outline text="Visual Editors Are Dysfunctional">
				<outline text="The Visual Editor is nice for people not yet comfortable with HTML. However, it does a little too much reformatting of my source text. It should be something that is based on user preference. Not an attribute of the element itself. If I want it, I should be able to flick it on. If not, I should be able to flick it off."/>
				<outline text="The Visual Editor Lite seems to work a little better. It allows you to switch back and forth between visual and source mode. It does not preserve formatting, but it does do Word Wrap. What it displays can be inaccurate. I created a table using a dark div for a thin border background. VEL kept showing an extra row that was not present in the published document."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Linear Templates Lead to Clutter, Discontiguous Flow">
				<outline text="Eprise forces you to build a page templates in a linear fashion. If you want something variable in between two pieces, then you need to create three separate blocks: the first fixed piece, the variable piece, then the second fixed piece. Ugh! I far prefer the ability to create a single template and drop macro references in it wherever I choose.">
					<outline text="Can I &quot;fake&quot; this in Eprise?"/>
					<outline text="*** Could I do it by placing &quot;macro calls&quot; in the midst of a page block???"/>
					<outline text="The &lt;$include&gt; merge string, just discovered, may solve this problem."/>
					</outline>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Bulk Import of Images Not Available in UI">
				<outline text="Importing and publishing images is painful. Each one must be individually uploaded to Eprise, then selected, then published. There does not appear to be a way to publish the contents of an entire folder. That hurts."/>
				<outline text="I did find a bulkUploadSQL.asp sample that purports to upload entire folders of resources into Eprise. This sounds swell."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="No Renderers">
				<outline text="Nothing like a patterned renderer. If I want an HTML effect, I will have to write the HTML or create a page block structure. I sure would like to write the content, then be able to say &quot;render it this way&quot;. Frontier and Radio set a high standard!"/>
				</outline>
			</outline>
		<outline text="Strategic Thoughts">
			<outline text="What is the structure of a page?">
				<outline text="Isn't it the stuff that is common to ALL pages?"/>
				<outline text="An anology: When bulding with Legos it is hugely advantageous to use a baseplate - a flat plan on to which you can stick your Legos. Our use of the Eprise page structure is a little like devising a special purpose baseplate that provides an exact outline for what we are building. If you want to add something to the bottom of your Lego structure, you would have to aquire a new baseplate with the appropriate outline. A simpler approach is to get a large baseplate and simply build on top of it."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Eprise is a page assembler. Is it wrong to use a page assembler to insulate authors from HTML? It may depend. I see some problems...">
				<outline text="Loss of semantic tagging and the wholistic view. Rather than editing a page and marking a section as a &lt;i&gt;news release&lt;/i&gt; or a &lt;i&gt;summary/detail link&lt;/i&gt;, the author must edit the page structure representation itself, specifying text as a parameter to the desired new page block."/>
				<outline text="No matter how we gussy it up, our current model requires authors to work with a database-like view of the page structure. Putting Word or Dreamweaver on top of the current structure will not hide this representation from the author. Rather, it will increase their frustration because they will have to first locate the page block within the page structure (creating the page block, if need be, within Eprise) before they can begin to edit it."/>
				<outline text="Authors cannot easily use HTML editors (e.g. Dreamweaver) except on minute pieces of text"/>
				<outline text="It results in a complex Eprise page structure that is expensive to maintain"/>
				<outline text="Adding elements (e.g. a list item) requires a change to page structure, rather than a simple content edit"/>
				<outline text="While this approach does not prevent the use of Cascading Style Sheets, it also does little to encourage their use. A good HTML Editor, on the other hand, should promote the use of style sheets. This, in turn, simplifies site redesign efforts."/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="Using Dreamweaver with Eprise. I see a couple of areas for use">
				<outline text="Developing the general page layout templates. These may just be copied and pasted into Eprise, unless there is some better way to map logical page components to physical page blocks"/>
				<outline text="Editing content belonging to the content window within a page"/>
				</outline>
			<outline text="If I can use ASP to do page assembly, what is the Eprise advantage?">
				<outline text="Workflow"/>
				<outline text="Multiple author support"/>
				</outline>
			</outline>
		</body>
	</opml>
