10 RedDot CMS elements - RedDot development and element name conventions
Ok, there you are, you developed this great solution with your RedDot CMS, maybe you are calling yourself a RedDot Partner and you think your solution is so called “state of the art”? And then, half a year later your main RedDot CMS developer is on vacation - but your client needs an urgent template update or something is simply wrong.
So there you are, maybe with your half-baked RedDot CMS semi-pro fallback developer (or maybe just a guy which develops his projects in another way) and your template code and maybe you have german, french or kiswahili names for your elements. And you are not able to know, which function or element content fits to each element unless you open each single element and look into it.
Or maybe you try to guess by the position its included inside your code, fun eh?
Ok Mr. G. what do you want to tell us?
No matter which language you are using (even kiswahili)
use naming conventions!
Here’s a short table of element naming conventions I prefer:
| Prefix | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| anc_ | A normal anchor element for linking other pages or external sites | anc_home |
| lst_ | A list element for teasing subpages or others inside your project | lst_teaser |
| cnt_ | Container elements for holding other content pages/blocks | cnt_main |
| std_ | Standard text element for text up to 255 signs, date, numbers | std_optional_headline |
| txt_ | Rich text element (if not configured to be ASCII) for the main cms thing - text like word | txt_article |
| img_ | An image element (By the way I don’t use background elements) | img_header |
| med_ | Media elements like PDF, ZIPs, Flash or anything else you allow the authors | med_article_pdf |
| opt_ | Element for creating a dropdown with a description and a value which will be written into your template | opt_article_type |
| inf_ | Information element for several predefined RedDot values for example the page URL, date of creation, creator of the page which contains this element… | inf_publish_date |
| att_ | An element for fetching some predefined values of other elements, maybe create a thumbnail image of another image element or automatically calculating the widht or height of an image. | att_img_header_width |
So far, my 50 cent. What are you doing to keep the chaos out of your projects?
(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
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Am 18. Mai 2008 um 03:37 Uhr
Good point. One more I would like to add. all programmers (except for the ancient cobol or fortran boys and girls maybe) already know this. use sensible names. You should be able to identify your element instantly and know exactly what it is used for.
dont go and call the elements std_item1, std_item2, std_item3 but rather, std_TopParagraph, std_Author, std_disclaimer.
More importantly, name your containers in a manner that people know what is hiding beneath them.
Am 18. Mai 2008 um 03:49 Uhr
Oh, and one more thing. On a similar note
When designing your container structure in Reddot keep in mind that you will be changing your mind on how things work later. Maybe not a year later, maybe not two but at some point in time the customer is going to turn around and ask you for X or Y. Simple example. Customer asks you for the request, that only in a particular language version a totally different site tracking code shall appear. The easiest way to do this is to create a new template and plonk a page of that template into a container at the bottom of the page only for that one particular language version.
OUCH. Now you have to update all 2600 pages in the project manually with this new container content or write a script that will do it for you.
Much easier:
When you design your site, include a container at the bottom which holds a page which holds a container. pull this page automatically throughout your site by predefining it on the masterpage template. Every time a new page is created, the content is automatically refrenced. Now all you have to do is add your special little page to the container in the container once and it will automatically appear everywhere where else.
Am 20. Februar 2009 um 16:32 Uhr
Not using Reddot, lol…
Am 5. August 2009 um 09:14 Uhr
Thanks a lot for this list - a few days ago i searched the web for a common identifier for a “standard text element” in reddot projects.
Am 5. August 2009 um 15:22 Uhr
You’re welcome!
Hoffe du bist wieder auf den Beinen?!