[Opensource] RE: [Opensource] Réf. : [Opensource] Transition Proposal

[Malcolm Wise]

Hi,

A new 'disabled' attribute for the Transition object gets my vote.  As far
as Thierry's idea for extending this to Inputs and Outputs (not sure if
you'd want this for an Output as this is inherently read-only anyway), the
extended Struts html tags (text, textarea etc.) allow a 'disabled' attribute
already, although I think this has been removed from the expresso-html.tld
(any ideas why?) and you can also use CSS styles.

Malc

-----Original Message-----
From: opensource-admin at jcorporate.com
[mailto:opensource-admin at jcorporate.com]On Behalf Of Thierry Clement
Sent: 19 November 2002 10:41
To: opensource at jcorporate.com
Subject: [Opensource] Réf. : [Opensource] Transition Proposal



>Hey All,

>A lot of people have requested the ability to disable or remove transitions
>that a user doesn't have permissions to follow.

>I had been struggling on how best to do this, but I think I have a decent
>idea :)

>The transition would have a new attribute called 'disabled'.  If a user
>doesn't have permissions to follow a link, [which the transition itself
>would determine], then the disabled attribute would be set to "true".
>[Actually the mere presence of the disabled attribute would cause disabled
>behavior]

>Now, if Transition.getUrl() is called on a disabled transition, the
>transition will return "#" which effectively blocks its use.

>Secondly, the jsp page designed [at least using struts-based tags] can
>check for the presence of the disabled attribute and either set the normal
>css style or a disabled css style to gray out any link text.  And
>furthermore if icons are used, the jsp designer would be able to swap out
>"grayed out" icons rather than the normal one.

>I like this approach better than just not having the link available since
>it lets the user know that the ability is there, but it is not active.
>[most likely due to permissions, but a controller could also disable
>certain actions as well using this format based upon certain criteria]

>What do you guys think?  This would go into Expresso 5.1 or later and would
>not be in the bugfix release since it would mean changed controller
behavior.

>Thanks for the feedback!
>                                                                           
                           -Mike

I think it is interesting to let a user know that an information is present
but disabled for writing (or accessing) by the means of a "gray" cell. I
also wondered how to do this, and the way I imagined was to set an attribute
such as "disabled", "readOnly", or smthg more general like "accessRights" on
a Block containing the information (inputs, outputs and/or transitions) I
want to "gray out". But it would be cleaner to have it as a special
attribute of Transition (as you suggest) - I just suggest it could be
extended for Inputs and Outputs, with corresponding modifications in the
expresso:InputTag and expresso:OutputTag so that the information appears as
"grayed".

If choosing a more general "accessRights" attribute, I suggest to use Unix
convention, with values ranging from "" to "RWX" : an input with attribute
"R" would just be displayed ; "RW" would allow modifications, "X" being used
for enabling transitions... but may be I am going too far and such
flexibility is not desired ?

Thierry


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