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How to create an application Dashboard page?

JongosJongos
edited January 2012 in Vanilla 2.0 - 2.8

@Todd @Lincoln @Mark @hbf @whu606 @x00

I'm hoping that someone could make the learning curve for making an Application less steep for me

I already know how to

  1. Write/use a View
  2. Write/use a Model
  3. Write a plugin that use View/Model and modify data owned by a Controller.
  4. Write Module and load it in a Controller

But when I try to write a controller, I know there's a lot of essential stuff that's not covered in Controller & URLs.

Like, even though I managed to make side panel appear, I didn't know what I was doing as I was merely copying from another stock controller.

Tried to take a look at VanillaCMS, too many stuffs in there.

Can someone teach me how to create a simple Hello World (Dashboard, ie. backend) controller?

example :

  1. Getting the sidebar to appear.
  2. Adding link to your pages to the menu in sidebar (without using plugin)
  3. Controlling access to the page.

I'll contribute back with an app that's simple but useful... (If i know how)...

Answers

  • sahotataransahotataran Developer, Bay Area - CA ✭✭✭

    A suggestion - If u keep on tagging everyone like this - you might be banned by admins.

    I think this needs to be added to the documentation :)

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  • sahotataran said:
    A suggestion - If u keep on tagging everyone like this - you might be banned by admins.

    I think this needs to be added to the documentation :)

    hmm, but too bad I can't edit it anymore now...

  • sahotataransahotataran Developer, Bay Area - CA ✭✭✭

    It's ok :) just be cautious next time :)

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  • hbfhbf wiki guy? MVP

    i'm honored to be included in the list... probably won't get banned for targeting me.

    i'm hoping todd or lincoln can jump in to give you some pointers on it, i've never really peeled the covers on application development. I did some brief experimentation with it, but realized i could accomplish my devious plans through a more straight-forward approach.

    Maybe a brief explanation of the overall development goals could garner some direct feedback. Heck if it's a really trick, useful gadget, you may get some community members to pitch in on the dev.

  • JongosJongos
    edited January 2012

    hbf said:
    Maybe a brief explanation of the overall development goals could garner some direct feedback. Heck if it's a really trick, useful gadget, you may get some community members to pitch in on the dev.

    Well, when i said I will contribute back I didn't have anything solid in mind yet at that time.

    Just a simple Hello World app. But as a backend page. Maybe with a twist (a text input) that when submitted will replace Hello World. It will be suffice as long as it's with explanation on Permission, Menu, all those public methods and members in Gdn_Controller that matters.

    But I have a lot of ideas. And I don't mind taking request (if it's interesting and useful). It's part of my education process. So "use me" as long as you "feed" me.

    I've been trying to understand OO for 10 years (since college). C++ to Java to Javascript to PHP, I can't progress because I'm so stuck in procedural mindset. I'm stuck with C and Assembly (instead of having fun with PC I have to content with chips).

    And not too long ago I had this epiphany moment when suddenly everything became so easy. But I still need practice and I want to practice with Vanilla.

  • hbfhbf wiki guy? MVP

    Jongos said:

    hbf said:
    Maybe a brief explanation of the overall development goals could garner some direct feedback. Heck if it's a really trick, useful gadget, you may get some community members to pitch in on the dev.

    Well, when i said I will contribute back I didn't have anything solid in mind yet at that time.

    But I have a lot of ideas. And I don't mind taking request (if it's interesting and useful). It's part of my education process. So "use me" as long as you "feed" me.

    I've been trying to understand OO for 10 years (since college). C++ to Java to Javascript to PHP, I can't progress because I'm so stuck in procedural mindset. I'm stuck with C and Assembly (instead of having fun with PC I have to content with chips).

    And not too long ago I had this epiphany moment when suddenly everything became so easy. But I still need practice and I want to practice with Vanilla.

    oop is pretty cool. it becomes immensely powerful once you 'get' it. I really figured out oop by writing a bunch of apps in C#.net.... love the language, love the IDE, and it's entirely object oriented.

  • hbfhbf wiki guy? MVP

    that said, i find the best way to learn anything is through setting out to accomplish something specific. So throw a few ideas out there and i for one will surely provide feedback as to if it is of interest to me.

  • JongosJongos
    edited January 2012

    For example like a custom content.

    We already have an option to give option to users to either start a

    a) a discussion, or
    b) a question

    each of those come with it's own behavior, like, asker could pick an answer.

    but a question doesn't differ much from a discussion in respect to the nature of it's content. It's normally one bunch of text, just like the first post of a discussion.

    but let say you make a hobbyist site. You might want to have suppliers to enlist their services, as part of your forum, in a subcategory, not like a classified pages, because people always spam forums with buy/sell discussions anyway. In my part of the world people prefers buying from individuals in forums rather than shopping/auction site.

    It might need a special format. Namely :

    1. Website
    2. Phone number.
    3. Product name
    4. Manufacturer
    5. Price
    6. Picture
    7. Description

    While these can be implemented solely in a plugin package, try reading the source code of such a plugin.

    An Application could be packaged with a Plugin (or two) to hook into the Discussion controller.

    It will be much cleaner if it could have a few Controllers of it's own.

    One to receive data from the form and process it into it's own table in DB.

    One for admins and moderators use in moderating and monitoring such Discussion.

    Maybe another one for listing of such Discussion in it's own page.

    Or maybe a photography forum need a showcase type of discussion. Every Discussion needs to have an image attached to it, and maybe certain predefined text (location, description, tags).

    The first post of a Discussion will use the layout full width, under it will be some EXIF infos.

    Only then comes comments.

    Or maybe, I could rewrite the FAQ plugin by @422 (if he doesn't mind) into an apps, because it relies on Custom Pages plugin... make it easier for people to install.

    An advance search page would be useful.... But I think that's quite hard, plus my SQL is not that good.

  • 422422 Developer MVP

    No worries. All i ask is u mention us within plugin, ie link back to vanillaskins.com . Fine if its in the js . Good luck

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  • 422 said:
    No worries. All i ask is u mention us within plugin, ie link back to vanillaskins.com . Fine if its in the js . Good luck

    thanks, I would even hand over the whole code to you if you like.

    back to topic :

    sorted out the menu stuffs, making menu like a boss now.

    but seriously, that's after 12 hours of tinkering... not to say that the framework is hard (it's easy and flexible), just saying it could be a lot easier to noobs like me if there is a documentation/tutorial.

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