Idea: Standard Usage Notes/Tips/Help Attached to Classes (not objects)

Monday 28 June 2004 1:21:27 pm

Hi all,

This may be a half-baked idea (so be kind), but how about a way to attach some "help text" to content classes (not objects) describing their intended use (i.e. "help", "usage notes", "tips" or something similar). Then the admin interface could output this text whenever the user begins to a create a new content object using that class (or perhaps only if they click on a "tips for using this class" button).

It seems to me that this would go a long way towards helping site developers communicate day-to-day usage notes/tips to editors on how exactly to use a given content class.

Example usage: a short set of instructions and a list of allowed XML tags could be added to the Article class "usage notes". The particulars of which XML tags are allowed, and the level of instructional detail would vary from site to site (so editing this text should be easily done via the admin interface).

Obviously this idea could grow much more complicated in a hurry (i.e. allow different text for different user classes, attach the "usage tips" to the attribute level, not the class level, etc.), but I think a single property added at the class level would be a simple way to help end users, particularly on sites where complex custom classes are being created.

Any thoughts?

-Eric