ShowMe API for generic alternate link presentations (such as Lightbox, Thickbox)

A recent issue posting (here) prompted us to reconsider the way I are using Lightbox2 and other such "pop-up" or alternative presentation modules.

The problems, as I see it:

• The proliferation of modules such as Lightbox, thickbox, greybox, etc. is confusing, and it's not easy to choose. They have features which "hook" into many other modules, have significant interdependencies, and often are doing tasks suited to the original module (pop up login boxes, contact forms, fields whose links behave differently).
• There is no way for fields to publish their suitability for use in such pop-up contexts. Therefore, emfield must know about Lightbox2 and Lightbox2 must know about emfield. If you want to use a different video type with Lightbox2, you're out of luck and need to implement your own (or hack Lightbox to support your field).
• There is an endless list of desired behaviors which can be triggered when links are clicked that can never be satisfied by integrated "all in one" modules and it is not reasonable for every field implementer to be responsible for all possible ways that field data may want to be viewed.

As a result, I implemented a prototype called the "Show Me API" which has the following features:

• Allow any number of plug-in presentations for field data. Such presentations are triggered when links are clicked, and are not limited to visual representations. So, presentations like Lightbox, Thickbox, or even audio players like iTunes can be developed as separate modules without any relationship to the fields where their data originates.
• Allow any number of data providers (such as field implementations) to publish methods whereby their source links (which appear on pages) and target data for display (video, audio, graphics, html).
• Very clean separation between modules which provide data, and those which display it, essentially creating a more versatile layer which can completely replace field formatters (if desired) in any field implementation, and inherit significantly more functionality while consuming fewer lines of code.
• Implemented so that code is loaded only when needed by a page. So, there is almost no overhead in having many extension modules if they are not actually used on pages.
• Lean, robust API built in a manner similar to views.

Included in the prototype package are the following modules, each designed mostly to demonstrate a feature of the API:

• ShowMe API - provides the basic framework. Required. The rest are optional modules.
• ShowMe Lytebox Presentation - uses Lytebox (a Lightbox2 derivative) to display graphics or html content.
• ShowMe Browser Window - provides an extremely simple "targetted browser" window as an alternative to Lytebox.
• ShowMe Link - provides support for "link" types so that pages can be displayed using any available presentation module.
• ShowMe Image - provides support for images in imagefield or filefield fields, and automatically creates formatters so that link and presentation presets can be chosen.
• ShowMe Text - provides basic text fields as data sources (this truly is useful only as an example).

We have also added a ShowMe provider interface to our internal video modules. We have our own player and video server API so these modules are not useful outside of our system. However, it was enough to prove to me that the API is robust enough to handle video easily.

Installation is simple. Enable the modules, and you should instantly find new field display options present for existing fields. There are no settings whatsoever. However, during implementation it was obvious that some of the sub-modules could benefit from some customization settings, but none of that was needed to create a demonstration. Also, there is no consideration for "user login" or "contact form" providers, though those could be implemented as well after considering how such "link scraping" additions should best be done in a generic fashion.

Of course this code is free for anybody to do anything they want with, or nothing at all. It is a prototype, really just for discussion or experimentation. Though I have tested it thoroughly, it has only been used in a limited environment and of course there are bugs. But, I believe it works well enough for demonstration purposes. My environment:

• Drupal 6.14
• Firefox

Some of this has been based upon various bits of code and the good examples of how to do things set in the Thickbox, Lightbox2, and jQuery Lightbox modules, but it is mostly new code.

Note that I have never contributed any Drupal code, but am testing the water to see if this makes sense. So, I expect that there are coding standards gaffes and I am certain there are things which could have been done much better if I were more familiar with the Drupal core APIs.

Let me know if it is a useful demonstration of the concept and whether there are any such efforts underway that duplicate this effort.

The working code is available in the issue posting on drupal.org: http://drupal.org/node/582334