Oct 2nd, 2010, 2:54 PM
Hey Billy,
Yeah, I thought about that too, but I don't think it's really feasible. Take Form Tools' main submission listing page for example: there's SO much going on on that page - not just on the backend (figuring out which form, which View, which fields to show, whether or not the current user is allowed to see the info, etc.) but also on the client-side: figuring out which CSS and JS to include for the functionality required. And in addition to that, there's then the modules which plug into the page - which can extend that page in any which way.
So realistically I figured there's no way to provide an API to allow developers to embed all that functionality into another system / CMS - it's just too broad.
That said, something like it is possible by doing it manually - like with the Wordpress plugin, which utilizes a few core functions. But this approach will always result in a subset of the overall functionality.
I'm not at all averse to a major refactor of the Form Tools code to allow for integration with 3rd party scripts, but quite honestly I don't know how to tackle it! Scripts come in all shapes and sizes, and I haven't found a solution that would work for all scenarios... it seems like shooting for integrating a subset of the overall Form Tools functionality may be the most realistic approach. But I could be wrong.
It's a tricky problem, I know!
- Ben
Quote:How hard would it be on your end to create a generic api specifically for other devs to hook into this system?
Yeah, I thought about that too, but I don't think it's really feasible. Take Form Tools' main submission listing page for example: there's SO much going on on that page - not just on the backend (figuring out which form, which View, which fields to show, whether or not the current user is allowed to see the info, etc.) but also on the client-side: figuring out which CSS and JS to include for the functionality required. And in addition to that, there's then the modules which plug into the page - which can extend that page in any which way.
So realistically I figured there's no way to provide an API to allow developers to embed all that functionality into another system / CMS - it's just too broad.
That said, something like it is possible by doing it manually - like with the Wordpress plugin, which utilizes a few core functions. But this approach will always result in a subset of the overall functionality.
I'm not at all averse to a major refactor of the Form Tools code to allow for integration with 3rd party scripts, but quite honestly I don't know how to tackle it! Scripts come in all shapes and sizes, and I haven't found a solution that would work for all scenarios... it seems like shooting for integrating a subset of the overall Form Tools functionality may be the most realistic approach. But I could be wrong.
It's a tricky problem, I know!
- Ben