Posted by thinkround on March 14, 2008 at 3:07am
Yes, makes sense. I like it.
9% (3 votes)
I get the point, but...
24% (8 votes)
No preference
3% (1 vote)
What the?!
27% (9 votes)
No way!
36% (12 votes)
Total votes: 33
Comments
Outlines
Wasn't there some work being done to phase out books altogether and just improve the outline functionality? Outline is a common term used in various other software applications, so I don't think it's a difficult word for a person to understand.
I'll admit that this
I'll admit that this discussion did enlighten me as to how flexible book module actually is and what this outlining thing is all about. To me it seems more like making a 'collection', 'grouping' or 'album'… if it were music, we could simply call it a playlist. Folders and filing sounds too much like archiving, putting it away in a corner to gather dust.
Confusing
I think using folder/file terminology would conflate the Drupal concept of interrelated, outlined nodes with the desktop OS concept of folders and files, leading to confusion among end-users. There would also be potential confusion in documentation about installing themes and modules, file system settings, or the Upload module.
I agree, but disagree
I agree that it could be confusing in documentation of admin stuff, but I have to say that hierarchical content management is not something that should be underestimated in Drupal. The problem I have with book is that it is a metaphor, but if you don't get the metaphor, it sounds very limited.
I'm not sure whether outlining is the right word, but that's maybe because English is my third language.
don't forget about order
Books have both hierarchy and order: a node may be the parent or child of another node; a node may also precede or follow another node. "Outlining" encompasses both ideas. "Filing", at least in the desktop OS, does not.
I got 1 year ....
... to be absolutely clear about all functions and capabilities of Book and Book.module and really I am not an expert but changing now the Drupal "BOOK" to "FOLDER" is really a crasy Idea.
I get confident with that and I find that surely a lot of people will get confused after all if a change of a really
most important distinct FUNCTION of Drupal.
Cheers
Wolfflow
You can change the metaphore if you so wish
I agree with usonian who says: .
This being said, nothing prevents the 'user' to change the metaphore that's used.
Go to admin/content/node-type/book and change either, or both, the 'name' and 'type' of the content type.
I think that the default description given for the book page is missing an important point — and that's a usability problem — one can add any type of node to a 'book'. Including nodes of a type created with CCK. I am not reading this in the description of the book page, now:
A book page can indeed become part of a collection. Called 'book' ? However, anything, including a regular page, or story, or blog entry, can be part of the same collection... ie: book.
A book is not a book page. But a book page without relatives is a book.
As far as changing the tab name 'Outline'/Outlining to 'File'/Filing, this can be achieved with a simple translation, a *.po file. This can be part of a profile.
By default, I think the metaphore of book is superior to that of folder. But there might be an even better, default, metaphore to use, that someone will come up with.
Not only that
It's possible to create a book that contains ZERO book pages... the book has an outline and contains all kinds (ie: types) of nodes... but no nodes of type 'book page'. The parent node can be anything, ie: a story, a page, etc.
That's great. But this information, in my opinion, is somewhat hidden in the Drupal interface.