Templating, Workflow, and Previews Question

[gludington]

The templating system looks very intriguing, but raises one workflow question.  If the templates are stored in the repository (as opposed to fixed in the classpath), will any future admin component contain a preview step?

I am not talking so much about having a workflow by which a template change can be rejected or approved by a higher class of user, but a step that runs a given Model against the Template, so the user can see the results before committing it to the repository?  Setting aside malicious users, it is still simple either in Freemarker or XSLT for an inexperienced user to get unexpected results, or to write a template that throws some manner of exception.  Will there be any means for admins to catch these mistakes before committing them, or, if this is a concern, is the best option to keep templates in the classpath instead of allowing them to be administerable?

Thanks,
Greg Ludington

[kevinr]

Hello,

That's an interesting question. I see what you mean, if someone edits an active template and then saves it back to the repo then anything using the template will immediately change without a chance for previewing it first. So yes, I think we will have to think about some way to preview changes - as otherwise it will cause the issues you highlight.

I'm not sure what the best option is yet, I think having the templates in the repo is very powerful, but obviously it creates the issues you mention, so a preview function would probably work best.

Cheers,

Kevin