Use of MidCOM toolbars

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Hi!

To make the life of layout developers easier I would like to propose  
some guidelines on how to use toolbars in components. I'm posting it  
here for discussion first, and will later turn it either to mRFC or  
simply a documentation page.

The basis of all this is the midcom_helper_toolbars class originally  
written for Aegir toolbar handling.

## Using toolbars in components

The toolbars class provides a static toolbar instance (i.e. one set  
of toolbars that all components of a HTTP request can manipulate).  
First you need to get it by:

     $toolbars = &midcom_helper_toolbars::get_instance();

Inside this object you have four midcom_helper_toolbar instances that  
you can populate by adding buttons:

* top
* bottom
* aegir_menu
* aegir_location

Buttons are added in the following way:

     $toolbars->top->add_item(
         array
         (
           // Normal toolbar item array
         )
     );

## Displaying the toolbars

Site layout can display the toolbar in the following way:

     $toolbars = &midcom_helper_toolbars::get_instance();
     if (count($toolbars->top->items) > 0)
     {
         echo $toolbars->top->render();
     }


## Why use these toolbars?

If all components use the toolbars in consistent ways, it is much  
easier for layout template writers to place and style the toolbars in  
consistent and fitting manner.

It also means that all components will have more or less consistent UI.

## What should go into each toolbar

I would propose the toolbars to be used in the following fashion:

* `top`: actions user can take, including "Create article", "Report  
as spam"

* `bottom`: different views of the same object or listing, including  
"Edit", "Delete", "Revisions"

* `aegir_menu`: Global actions like "Help" and "Logout" (help should  
be contextual help using the midcom.admin.help component)

Please comment.

/Bergie

Henri Bergius
Consultant Partner, Nemein
henri.bergius-ZpG/[email protected]

Midgard CMS
www.midgard-project.org



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