On the Salzburg sprint we discussed different editing modes and their naming to come to a clear definition of the term “structured-editing” that was over the years used for various different concepts. This document tries to define the terms we will use in future to talk about the various editing options neos offers now and in future.
Inline Editing refers to changing the properties by directly interacting with the rendered result or a simulation of the rendered result. Inline editing is implemented by RTE editors like CKEditor.
Structured Editing uses specialized widgets to modify the properties of a node. Those may be input fields or widgets like datepickers or media selectors. The inspector implements structured Editing of the meta-information of the Neos-nodes.
Inline structured Editing refers to editing node-properties at the location they are rendered in the frontend but using specialized widgets which may or may not be the same as are used in other structured editing modes. An example for such a mode is provided by the Flowpack.StructuredEditing package by using inspector-editors inside the content frame.
Raw Editing Mode refers to an improved raw content mode that would be using the structured editing widgets instead of Fusion rendering to modify the properties of a document node and possibly its children. By using the whole screen instead of the sidebar much more controls can be shown at a time and nested nodes can be edited as well. This mode should boost the usecase of Neos as a headless CMS, which would allow to use Neos as a content API source, without defining any Fusion code.
I couldn’t join the sprint so sorry for being late to the party. But I have to say I struggle with “Structured Editing” to refer to a mode that adds widgets for editing.
I associate structured editing with a mode that is focussed on the form of the underlaying nodes rather than the layout. So more or less what the Raw Editing Mode does today.
I would still see two core editing modes in Neos: Inline & Raw. And the former could use widgets where it makes sense (and where it is configured in the corresponding Node Type). And maybe they need to be “disableable” altogether (do they?) – but I don’t see a seperate mode there…
Again, I missed a lot of the discussion, so excuse me if that has been decided already.
We only discussed the terms to get the confusion sorted out since too many varying concepts of structured editing were floating around. We agree that all editing is either “Inline” or “Raw” but there are some mix modes we had to name aswell.
We can discuss how we actually call the widgetish-editing but in the end it is just a term and important is the common understanding of it and i have not a very strong opinion on that.
Thanks for clarifying.
In that case I don’t have a very strong opinion on this either, but I still think it would make sense to find fitting terms and I still don’t understand what a calendar widget has to do with structure.
I think the confusion started when some of us talked about a structured editing mode as an actual editing mode that displays all the (relevant) node properties in a customizable simple form (i.e. raw edit mode on steroids). And that term was picked up (IMO incorrectly) when experimenting with “inline widgets”…
Maybe that would be a fitting term for it, Inline Widgets or Content Widgets.
But, again, I don’t want to step on anyones toe and if I’m the only one that is puzzled by this I will get used to any term
I agree to @bwaidelich that the proposed terminology might not be perfectly describing what the modes or editors really do. IMO, there are the following two main modes with their features:
Inline Editing
Everything you directly manipulate in the “output”/rendered channel, that is basically WYSIWYG:
1.1 Inline Text Editing – the inline rich text editing experience
1.2 Inline Widgetized Editing – the inline editing using additional editors like date pickers, image editors or select boxes.
Structured Editing
Ways of manipulating properties using a more structured approach, like in the inspector or in raw editing mode:
2.1 Inspector Meta Editing – the editing of properties in the inspector, being only meta-like properties in the future (properties that are not directly visible in the output)
2.2 Structured Raw Editing – the to be improved editing of document and node properties and content independent of the “output”/rendered channel
To be more in line with the actual usage of these features, I guess the following terminology could be quite accurate:
Inline Editing for editing in the rendered channel, and if we have to differentiate the two:
1.1 Inline Text Editing
1.2 Inline Widgetized Editing / Advanced Inline Editing
Meta Editing for editing metadata, basically the current inspector
Structured Editing for editing in a channel-independent way
