Please submit your ideas on how to improve Cascade Server.
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3
Update Custom Metadata via Asset Factory Plugin
It would be great to have the ability to update custom metadata fields via an asset factory plugin. I’m using Database Publishing for an events calendar system and using custom metadata fields to store the event’s start/end date in order to use mysql’s date sorting functionality (as opposed to parsing through every event page’s XML to get at a date stored in the data definition).
In the future it would be nice to have either (A) the ability to add a Datechooser custom metadata field or (B) the ability to update custom metadata fields via an asset factory plugin, this way you could enter a date from the standard data definition date chooser and update a hidden custom metadata field.
Thanks,
Joel -
2
Open Help links in new tabs
Help links within the software that take you away from the software and to the Knowledge Base, Forums, or Idea Exchange should open in new tabs.
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4
Moving Assets in Sites
I need the ability to move assets from one “Site” to another. Once pages or assets are placed in a “Site” it appears that they cannot be moved to another site.
Migrating into “Sites” has been difficult not fully understanding how they work or what will be the best structure for us. We have realized that some “Sites” need to be placed under an existing “Site” but movement of assets into another site does not appear possible. -
0
Workflow by asset types
It’d be nice if Cascade can kick off workflow based on asset types and file types.
Use case: you only want to review .html pages via workflow, but not images, xls, pdf files etc.
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7
Change Create Resized Images Plug-in algorithm
The “Create Resized Images Plug-in” uses a less than ideal method for generating thumbnails. Change the implementation to use a method that will result in anti-aliased thumbnails with less distortion.
I searched Idea Exchange because I was sure I’d seen a discussion of this, but it seems to have been a discussion on the hi-ed-cascade mailing list. As I’m now faced with the issue I wanted to make sure I had voted for it to get fixed, but couldn’t find an entry to to vote up. -
0
Favorite assets in asset chooser windows
It would save a lot of time if I could pre-select a set of my favorite assets (especially blocks and stylesheets) to choose from when I am configuring pages. It would be kind of like the history function, but sticky. Maybe this exists already and I don’t know about it.
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1
Customize system labels
It’d be cool if system labels can be customized. For example, “Version Comments” on the Edit page and “Comments” in workflow.
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1
Preview changes in workflow
It’d be helpful if a user can preview the changes to a page that is in workflow before submitting the changes to the user at the next workflow step.
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1
Scheduled Publishing
It’d be cool if content can be published at a scheduled date and time, particularly for news related pages.
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3
In the asset chooser, allow more displayed assets
When a user attempts to choose an asset, only 5 assets display in the main window. Although all assets display in the folder tree, this is confusing for less technical users. Please allow users to view more (or all) assets in the main window.
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4
Use More JavaScript within Edit Tab
Not sure if this has been posted or not, but it would be nice if tasks such as adding/removing/reordering data definition elements within the Edit area did not reload the page, rather, it would be all JavaScript driven and updated on submit/cancel. This would greatly improve usability when performing these actions, not to mention performing these tasks would be much quicker.Also, I believe this would help with the cacheing issues when the user navigates away from changes without hitting submit or cancel, trying to edit again will show the recent changes even though they were never committed (I’ve noticed this in Safari and FF in v6.2). -
4
Expand Search and Replace
Currently, it only searches through assets, but it should be expanded to things like System Names and Metadata.
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6
Search for Groups, Users, Roles
Can we have a search for groups, users, and roles? With long lists, it gets harder to find users, and I’ve been having to cheat by changing the web address to the username I think it is – and I’m not always correct.
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3
Quicker View of Data Definition Pages
Load times for DDs can get cumbersome when they are very large pages. Would it be possible to use the group attribute as a way to collapse/expand a section and load only what we want visible to open and edit pages quicker and more easily?
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1
More XSL-FO Support
I’d like to see more support for XSL-FO for outputting files like PDFs. Information about how to edit the format to
- allow for line breaks,
- cell-merge without lines going through the cells when using borders on tables,
- allow for page breaks,
- separate counting of pages for different sections of a report
- and more.
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1
aligning multiple table cells
In the WYSIWYG, it is possible to align (e.g. center) the text within a single table cell (through table cell properties) or the text within all the cells of a table row (through table row properties). It would be nice if you select a group of cells, and then align the text of all the cells that are selected.
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5
WYSIWYG Toolbar request
Would be great to have the following buttons (as shown in the examples on http://tinymce.moxiecode.com):
Paste as plain text
cite
abbr
acronym
Insert/Edit attributes
blockquote
Insert predefined content -
2
WYSIWYG Content Snippets
Not sure if TinyMCE is flexible enough to support this, but it would be great to have a drop down menu of frequently used chunks of content (with markup) available for inserting. Maybe the contents could be managed through a data definition-controlled page that could be pointed at as a resource in the Site settings?
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4
Asset Factories: Apply to Children
I’d love to see an “Apply to Children” check box when assigning groups to Asset Factory Containers, like you would when you grant users and/or groups access to asset folders. We create asset factories by department since some of them have unique features or use base assets, and it’s very tedious to apply groups to every single asset factory.
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1
Dynamic Metadata types/groupings
Challenge: we need a way for users to add multiple values from a controlled vocabulary to a given metadata field (ex: Community Members [staff, alums, faculty, students, administration] > alums, students). For a small list like this we could use a check box, but for lists with 45 or so elements (like a list of our disciplines) this is a UI problem. If combo box was an option, we could use it, but I suspect that you guys steared clear of it for good reason - it’s a usability nightmare for unsavvy users.
Ideally, it would be great to have a multiple=“true” attribute available for the element. This could have the same UI behavior as in Data Defs where another dropdown would get added. Maybe a max=“n” attribute as well to govern the number of items that could get added?
Another UI enhancement for long dropdowns would be support of via maybe a element in the XML? So:<dropdown>
<item default=“true”>News Tips</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
</dropdown>
Could become:
<dropdown multiple=“true” max=“5”><item default=“true”>News Tips</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
<item>Opinion</item>
<item>Medminute</item>
</dropdown>
Which would render (with an option to create 4 more):
<select>
<
<span class="tag">option</span>default=“true”>News Tips</<span class="tag">option</span>>
<
<span class="tag">option</span>>Opinion</<span class="tag">option</span>>
<
<span class="tag">option</span>>Medminute</<span class="tag">option</span>>
<
<span class="tag">option</span>>Opinion</<span class="tag">option</span>>
<
<span class="tag">option</span>>Medminute</<span class="tag">option</span>></optgroup><br /><br /><optgroup label="Group 2"><br />
<span class="tag"><</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>Opinion<span class="tag"></</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>
<span class="tag"><</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>Medminute<span class="tag"></</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>
<span class="tag"><</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>Opinion<span class="tag"></</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>
<span class="tag"><</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>Medminute<span class="tag"></</span><code class="html"><span class="tag">option</span></code><span class="tag" /><span class="tag">></span>
</optgroup><br />
</select>
* Note - To input code samples, click the pencil icon (this will remove the WYSIWYG) then be sure to start and end code sections with @@@ (three '@' signs). For more information on textile markup, click here.
