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Custom Widgets using Existing Data Record Types
Since we’re just tossing ideas out there in this forum, I though I’d suggest my own. I’d like to see some sort of custom widget capability. Nothing too advanced, and nothing that would require a lot of redesign really. A system to create a custom widget could literally use the existing database fields and the existing labels system to function, with maybe a few definable parameters.
For instance, if I wanted to drop a list of “item records” that were related to a specific game section, I could create a “Game Session #3” widget which would, when placed on the page, output a hyperlinked list of all items labeled with “Game Session 3” (or whatever tag I may have used to denote the game session). Alternatively, the same functionality could be used to display a current inventory of a character or npc.
It would prove useful for “character records” as well. If I wanted a list of all characters labeled with an association to a specific town to appear on a wiki page I created for that location, making a custom widget that selects all character with a labeled I’ve added to denote that location would provide this.
Then, if I add a NPC to a location (bearing the associated lable), they would automatically appear in the custom widget output that I’ve placed on that page.
The advantage of this? Flexibility of content within the existing data structure, and dynamic inline content that doesn’t require manual updating. The framework is already in place for this as far as data management goes, it would just be the matter of creating the record type for the widgets and including the functionality to reference and display that data into the editor.
Definable parameters could be: data type (character, item, page, etc.), key (label reference), sort order (title ascending/descending or date added ascending/descending). Formatting options could be: hyperlink, title only, title + blurb, show thumbnail, alternating field colors (2 definable colors), border + lines color, etc.
The output from the widget could then display as a dynamically generated table that can be inserted into the content of any page.
Just a thought, but I think such a feature could really make good use of the existing labeling system as well as the various data record types.
For instance, if I wanted to drop a list of “item records” that were related to a specific game section, I could create a “Game Session #3” widget which would, when placed on the page, output a hyperlinked list of all items labeled with “Game Session 3” (or whatever tag I may have used to denote the game session). Alternatively, the same functionality could be used to display a current inventory of a character or npc.
It would prove useful for “character records” as well. If I wanted a list of all characters labeled with an association to a specific town to appear on a wiki page I created for that location, making a custom widget that selects all character with a labeled I’ve added to denote that location would provide this.
Then, if I add a NPC to a location (bearing the associated lable), they would automatically appear in the custom widget output that I’ve placed on that page.
The advantage of this? Flexibility of content within the existing data structure, and dynamic inline content that doesn’t require manual updating. The framework is already in place for this as far as data management goes, it would just be the matter of creating the record type for the widgets and including the functionality to reference and display that data into the editor.
Definable parameters could be: data type (character, item, page, etc.), key (label reference), sort order (title ascending/descending or date added ascending/descending). Formatting options could be: hyperlink, title only, title + blurb, show thumbnail, alternating field colors (2 definable colors), border + lines color, etc.
The output from the widget could then display as a dynamically generated table that can be inserted into the content of any page.
Just a thought, but I think such a feature could really make good use of the existing labeling system as well as the various data record types.
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