Symphony.

It was quite silent here in the forum and on the bug tracker over the last weeks concerning the upcoming revisions of the Symphony 2 beta. Are there any updates?

I'm quite interested in the localisation of the admin interface and in the improved section link behaviour. Anything new on these topics?

Thanks a lot!

We've been pretty busy with other aspects of Symphony. We may even have something to show you guys in a couple of days.

Anything new on these topics?

Not really. They are in the grand plan of course, but we haven't committed to a specific timeline just yet.

http://symphony21.com/forum/discussions/232/1/

This is something we have been doing.

Thanks for the information, Alistair.

I'm quite interested in [...] the improved section link behaviour.

Well it's a good thing we waited before implementing this, because the idea has changed completely since I first mentioned it. Rather than merge the section link and select box fields as I'd previously suggested, our new plan is to give section links centre stage.

Section links don't quite fit into the same category as fields, and they're much more useful as constructs in their own right. We realised that linking data sources is directly related to linking sections, so making section links much more tightly integrated into the system will allow this connection to be made more easily (without requiring "Param Output" management). This allows for improvements to the workflow/interface as well as performance, and may potentially pave the way to reducing the query count/overhead too.

Not too much will change from the author's perspective, aside from:

1. the ability to create a linked entry directly from the section list, without having to come from the "parent" section first
2. the ability to link to multiple entries
3. the ability to unlink or change which entry(s) are linked
4. the edit view will give more information about the entry it's linked to

Scott, all four items you listed are improvements I was going to make.

All these changes would help drastically improve managing/selling products. For example, something on back order and the customer changes their mind about ordering it; you would need to delete that item from their order (most likely update this section link). The nonprofit I work for needs to be able to change students that are linked to one course to another when they find out they do not meet the prerequisites, etc. Staff also wish more information was given about the parent entry.

I'm not sure why you don't currently allow more than one section link field in a section. I altered the section link field type to accommodate multiple section links. Seems to work just fine.

Nice changes on the horizon!

Sweeeeeeeeet. I should send you guys gift certificates for those Nandos lunches you like so much...

omg I am totally addicted to Nandos! O_O

@Lewis:

I'm not sure why you don't currently allow more than one section link field in a section.

Methinks this is a bug. There shouldn't be anything stopping you from adding multiple section link fields to a section, nor even multiple section link fields pointing to the same section.

Scott, all four items you listed are improvements I was going to make.

Let me know if you think of more, because I definitely don't want to leave anything out!

I should never assume. I thought the limit of one section link field per section was intentional. Thanks, Lewis, for pointing out that this feature can be easily added. Would you care to elaborate on how this can be added? Or, dare I ask, Scott, just how far away is revision 6?

Edit: Forget I asked. I should know better.

I've added the limit of one section field per section bug to the bug tracker.

Lewis: I'm not sure why you don't currently allow more than one section link field in a section.

Scott: There shouldn't be anything stopping you from adding multiple section link fields to a section, nor even multiple section link fields pointing to the same section.

This is a limitation due to the interface, not really a bug. Since you can only create new entries, in a section that contains a section link, via the parent section, there is no way to pre-populate both section link fields. The little number link on the parent section table tells the child section how to pre-populate. You cannot click on 2 links at once, so the child will not know how to pre-populate that additional section link field, and throw an error.

Not sure if that made sense. This behaviour will not exist in the next revision.

Or, dare I ask, Scott, just how far away is revision 6? Edit: Forget I asked. I should know better.

lol. Sooner rather than later, we hope.

Since you can only create new entries, in a section that contains a section link, via the parent section, there is no way to pre-populate both section link fields.

I was processing a front end registration form that created the additional section links.

ah okay. Well, its still not a bug. I have code intentionally in place to prevent the creation of more than one section link field in a section. However, that code is a single function in /symphony/fields/field.sectionlink.php:

public function mustBeUnique(){
    return true;
}

Get rid of that, and you will be able to add more than one.

Get rid of that, and you will be able to add more than one.

Indeed. I also made a few changes to accommodate displaying an array of section links on the backend. Nothing spectacular, but enough for my purposes at the moment.

Well, its still not a bug.

Oh, I knew it was intentional.

Ah, the semantics of bugdom.

It's a bug. It's not a bug.

No, it's a Tasmanian Devil.

Not too much will change from the author's perspective, aside from:

1. the ability to create a linked entry directly from the section list, without having to come from the "parent" section first
2. the ability to link to multiple entries
3. the ability to unlink or change which entry(s) are linked
4. the edit view will give more information about the entry it's linked to

Do you have some secret images that might give us an idea in which way the UI is evolving?

Actually, I still haven't gotten around to implementing this part yet. But expect section link fields to be select boxes -- with the option to make them multi-selectable -- which pretty much gives us the first 3 points of that list already. Somewhere near the select box, there'll also be a little summary block with a description and link to each selected entry.

An example of a workflow improvement this provides: Take the Spectrum ensemble's section link from Images to Articles, for example. Under the current implementation, you'd need to take the following steps to attach images to an article:

1. Create the article.
2. Follow the link "0" (under the Images column) from that article's table row to a filtered view of the Images section.
3. From here, create some image entries, making sure to use the "Create another?" link, or browsing back to the filtered table view.

With the new changes, it makes more sense to add a multi-selectable section link to the Articles section, pointing to the Images section. Using this method, the above workflow remains intact, however you also get the benefit of another alternate workflow:

1. Create some image entries directly from the Images table view. You can also skip this step if entries already exist for the images you want to attach to your article.
2. Create an article directly from the Articles table view. Here you'll select box containing options for the images you want to attach.

There are many more examples of section link workflow improvements, I just wanted to mention this one in particular because it really bothers me that the Images->Articles section link in Spectrum seems backwards.

Thanks Scott for the update. I'm eager to see the new implementation when it's done as I find sections links very useful for flexible data storage.