[Dev] Re: mixinAClass vs Query

[John Anderson]

Very interesting.

I think it would be quite useful to have an AttributeBlock that just 
desplays any attribute and presents the appropriate U/I for whatever 
type the attribute happens to be. I think that's what I'm going to want 
for editing elements of the summary view. I like the idea getting away 
from specific kinds of blocks and replacing them with a more general 
purpose block, which might choose a natural default based on the type of 
attribute, but also have a style attribute which forces how the data is 
presented. This sounds so cool it makes me want to go write it :-)

John

Donn Denman wrote:

> John,
>
> It occurs to me that the mixinAClass/Attribute approach of attaching 
> behavior to Blocks acts a little like a query, in that it populates 
> the block, but appears to be much more flexible.  For instance, I'd 
> like to make a ComboBoxAttribute block that points to an Attribute 
> whose value is an Enum.  It would populate the ComboBox from the 
> different values available in the Enumeration, and select the current 
> value held by the Attribute.  I don't think you can do this with a 
> query, since Enumeration values are not returned by queries.
> I think in the long run we want a more general AttirbuteBlock that 
> looks at the type of the attibute to be displayed, and then takes on 
> the actual block kind appropriate for that attribute.  If the 
> attribute was a boolean, it would present a check box.  String 
> attributes would be displayed in static or edit text blocks.  
> Comboboxes for Enumerations, etc.
>
> Just food for thought.  I think I'm going to plow ahead with the 
> MarkupBar while we ponder AttributeBlocks.
>
> - Donn