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One of the things that threw me off when I tried Drupal out years ago was how there was no visual separation between the front end site that visitors saw and the back end site that administrators used. Joomla provided this nicely (though in a dated interface). This visual separation made a lot of sense to me as a new user. There were clearly-defined areas for doing totally different things. This separation gave me confidence as a new user.
However, one aspect of Joomla that still bugs me is the way frontend editing is handled. Frontend editing is a great feature that users (and many inexperienced clients) would much rather use, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen editor boxes and option menus extend beyond (or complete break) a frontend template.
My personal view is that frontend editing should be abstracted completely from the frontend template to a layer “above” the template. I think that through the magic of modal boxes already built into the backend of Joomla, frontend editing can not only become more useful but also more powerful.
I am in no way a UI designer, but I made a few rough sketches of my ideas. Here’s what I propose:
The Super Admin and Admins have the right to turn on or off the Frontend Maintenance Menu (FMM, for lack of a better name) for any level of user. Additionally, menu items in the FMM can be enabled or disabled for a particular user group. If the FMM is enabled for a particular user, the menu will show up collapsed on the left or right side of the screen, unobtrusively and out of the way of the site content.
When it is clicked, it will slide out to reveal the options available to the user. Some handy menu options:
- Content – used for article management.
- Menus – enables easy menu management
- Modules – used for module management
- Template – can be used to harness the preferences power being built into modern templates
Choosing an option will open a modal box above the site. The modal box will serve more as a ‘window’ through which they can perform various administrative functions, rather than a feature that’s shoehorned into the front-end template.
Some advantages of moving in a direction like this:
- There is a consistent view of Joomla frontend functions across all Joomla sites
- Users have a clearly defined place to perform their frontend functions
- Templates can focus on displaying the data instead of displaying ways to manage the data
I’d love to hear some thoughts or feedback on this. Thanks for reading.
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Do you also follow the discussions overhere?
http://groups.google.nl/group/...9ec9d6d276
Regards
Gerlof
http://groups.google.nl/group/...9ec9d6d276
Regards
Gerlof
LOVE the idea! I've often noticed the front-end editor breaking my templates: This is a much cleaner and user friendly solution.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
@Gerlof: Nope, I don't follow them, but I'll check it out. Not sure who to get ideas like this to or how best to submit them to the community.
@Sara: I totally thought of you when I mentioned the editor boxes breaking templates ;)
@Gerlof: Nope, I don't follow them, but I'll check it out. Not sure who to get ideas like this to or how best to submit them to the community.
@Sara: I totally thought of you when I mentioned the editor boxes breaking templates ;)
Hi James,
I am working on a similar summer project for Joomla! to enhance the frontend editing functionality. You can read more about it in the latest blogpost: http://community.joomla.org/bl...e-fly.html
Also, you can comment or give feedback at the thread: http://forum.joomla.org/viewto...1&t=396033
This is pretty similar to my approach as I also intend to use modal boxes.
I am working on a similar summer project for Joomla! to enhance the frontend editing functionality. You can read more about it in the latest blogpost: http://community.joomla.org/bl...e-fly.html
Also, you can comment or give feedback at the thread: http://forum.joomla.org/viewto...1&t=396033
This is pretty similar to my approach as I also intend to use modal boxes.
Hi James
This is great...
Such a slick & clean way forward.
This would make a lot of my Joomla clients very happy indeed ;-)
I would push this forward with the Joomla dev team/community - I'm sure they couldn't fault it as a route to take.
cheers & well done
Philip
This is great...
Such a slick & clean way forward.
This would make a lot of my Joomla clients very happy indeed ;-)
I would push this forward with the Joomla dev team/community - I'm sure they couldn't fault it as a route to take.
cheers & well done
Philip
@Ankit: I really like the approach you're taking to editing things front-end. I think your method is even more user-friendly than the one I described above, but I wonder how much your solution would run into the same interference from templates that current front-end editing gets? I'll keep an eye on what you're working on b/c it looks very promising. Keep it up!
@Philip: Thanks, mate!
@Philip: Thanks, mate!
James,
Love the idea. I'm actually glad it doesn't follow the Concrete5 / new Drupal model of frontend editing being located at the head of the page.
The only gotcha I see thus far is JS/CSS precedence if you have Uservoice / GetSatisfaction (and any other service which flies out from the left hand side of the page). You'd need some logic to negotiate CSS layer precedence, especially when I think most services force the flyout to be between 1000 and 10000 in the z-index.
Love the idea. I'm actually glad it doesn't follow the Concrete5 / new Drupal model of frontend editing being located at the head of the page.
The only gotcha I see thus far is JS/CSS precedence if you have Uservoice / GetSatisfaction (and any other service which flies out from the left hand side of the page). You'd need some logic to negotiate CSS layer precedence, especially when I think most services force the flyout to be between 1000 and 10000 in the z-index.
@dpk, You're right. I'm not a fan of the Concrete5 toolbar at the top, but I dig how easy it is for a user (especially a non-technical user) to edit things. I wonder if anyone else has any ideas that would make editing a majority of the elements on a page easy with Joomla?
I work strictly in Joomla and Wordpress and now Wordpress MU. The clear division in CMS is nicely brought out in both platforms, however, in wordpress module styling is a snap with the sidebar widget system. With a flexible template system like those that are available from BFA Wordpress Layouts, free by the way. Also with the disqus commenting and apture running full tilt, you can create facebook API's on the fly and twit your comments depending how you want to log in to perform your comment. We have OpenID running for registering but it is not implemented in the commenting system yet.
I like your theme here very much.
Stuart L
I like your theme here very much.
Stuart L
What if you could just change the style sheet when someone is editing from the frontend ... would this be possible to just add to the template.
If (userisloggedin) {
echo 'style2.css';
}
else {
echo 'defaultstyle.css';
}
...something like this ... the only thing is that I don't know what argument this conditional could take to make it go.
If (userisloggedin) {
echo 'style2.css';
}
else {
echo 'defaultstyle.css';
}
...something like this ... the only thing is that I don't know what argument this conditional could take to make it go.
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