showing custom HTML for QuickEdit links

I did a search on this but couldn’t find anything applicable for my question. Also, if this belongs in a different forum, please let me know, the instructions said the General Support board. OK - I love QuickEdit, it’s great stuff. Solid, usable front-end editing is a must in any CMS as far as I’m concerned. I’m currently using the HTML method for placing the QuickEdit links - <quickedit:content /> This is great except sometimes it can interfere with the rest of the HTML on the page or is just doesn’t position it the way I want it. What I’m proposing is another tag that is parsed for HTML that is only displayed with logged in and in QuickEdit mode. Something like:

<quickedit:begin />
<span style="color: red">Instructions on how to edit this piece of content. These optional instructions only show up when in QuickEdit mode they they are great for editors and content owners.</span>


<quickedit:content />
<quickedit:end />

This concept is a total rip off of some mid-range CMSes like Reddot and Percussion but it’s also one of there most useful. I realize there may be a namespace issue with begin and end since those could be existing TV names so maybe something like this should be reserved:
<quickedit:mode type="begin" />
<quickedit:mode type="end" />

etc.

Thoughts?

I guess I don’t understand why you wouldn’t simply define these areas between quickedit:begin and quickedit:end as TV’s and then place them in the page as [*#tvName*] which activates the content links. What benefit do you see from your approach? My main concern is that parsing the content for those HTML tags will add significant overhead, and is essentially just duplicating what this other method already accomplishes, unless I’m missing something...

EDIT: ok, sorry, I missed the whole point I guess -- I see what you are saying and am thinking about ways to accomplish it in a more MODx tag-oriented way...

Well I may not full understand what is possible with the [*#tvName*] method since I usually use the HTML method for finer control of placement of the actual QuickEdit link. I wouldn’t want any of the HTMl between begin and end to show up in the regular page except for the <quickedit:content /> part, the real content from the TV. This other code, instructions and HTML should only be drawn on the page for editors in QE mode. If there is a way to do that with the [*#tvName*] method I’d love to explore the possibilities. I didn’t seem to see that from the QE instructions page or I just missed it totally.

OK, got a real world example of where I’d want to use this. See the following:
http://www.ciena.com/
So we want to rotate the main image there, let the editor upload 5 or 6 images and then the JS on the page will do a random image. How can I present a QuickEdit interface where the editor uploads images but only 1 will show on the page? I will basically create the 5 or 6 image TVs and I want to let the editor upload and choose the images for each "slot". Is there no built in way on the front-end so say "If I’m in QE mode, do this..."?

You wouldn’t want a simple auto-rotating simple Gallery that just pulls images out of a specific folder and uses them like on http://loudthought.biz/ with nice crossfades?

Quote from: rthrash at Dec 13, 2006, 03:24 PM

You wouldn’t want a simple auto-rotating simple Gallery that just pulls images out of a specific folder and uses them like on http://loudthought.biz/ with nice crossfades?

No thanks I’m not looking to rotate images on the page, just onload. I take it that what I’m trying to do isn’t possible with QuickEdit currently? So it seems like the only option is to create a special folder where the editor can place images and then load them from there? Not entirely sure how that will work. What I’m trying to do is let the editor place images in a set number of TVs but the image paths would be inside JS.