[support] managing pages with lists of information

[John Callahan]

I've been looking for a way to easily manage pages that contain a list 
of information.  For example, a single page with a list of US States, 
capital cities, and current population counts.  Or a list of volunteers 
including their interests and contact info.  Or even a list of 
organizations contributing to a project with a paragraph or two about 
each.  There are some modules that do things like TODO lists, task 
lists, etc, but nothing quite fits.


1) For maintaining a list of single items with attributes of each (like 
multiple rows in a table), how could this be done?  I'd like the user to 
edit (modify/add/delete) one item at a time without opening the entire 
page for editing.  You see this on things like Google Calendar, when you 
click on a field it turns into a text box ready for edits.  And maybe 
open text boxes at the bottom for easily adding new items.  For lists 
that get over 50, 100 items or so, editing the entire page to make one 
change to one item could be a nightmare.


2) For maintaining a list of items with paragraph descriptions for each 
(like a staff bio page with sections like interests, current projects, 
publications, background, etc...), I thought about creating a custom 
node type with each section being a different CCK field.  Users still 
have to open the entire page for editing but at least they can deal with 
one section/text box at a time.  Of course, this only works if I know 
the number of sections a priori, unless I allow my content providers the 
abilit to add more CCK fields!


Thanks for any ideas you may have for maintaining this type of content.  
The best I found so far is to use a filter (like TWikfilter ot 
flexifilter) module for easy editing.  However, this seems to be only 
part of the solution. 

- John

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John Callahan
Geospatial Application Developer

Delaware Geological Survey
University of Delaware
227 Academy St, Newark DE 19716-7501
Tel: (302) 831-3584  

Email: john.callahan at udel.edu
http://www.dgs.udel.edu
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