Documentation Mailing Lists FAQ Roadmap - Questionaire Responses for AA CAMP 2004

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1. Main problems and annoyances you encounter when using ActionApps
I find that some features are incomplete or buggy.

At the moment I have encountered bugs in the code that handles hierarchical constants, forcing me to create an alternative system using a multitude of views.

I wish there could be more flexibility in terms of fields and constants. For example, at the moment it is possible for an editor to add items to a list of constants from the "add item" form, but only the administrator can remove an item from the list once it has been added. I generally tend to want more flexibility in terms of the ability to include information from one slice in the "add item" form of another.

My principal complaint, though, regards the AA documentation. There is a good installation FAQ, but the main AA FAQ is, in my opinion, very difficult to use. It contains a lot of information, but it is not very systematized and explanations are often incomplete. There is also lots of out-of-date information in the FAQ. I myself would be interested in participating in a project that worked on the AA documentation.

2. Features suggested for future development versions of ActionApps
I miss having hierarchical constants that work. I find the current implimentation to be very buggy and thus, ususable.

And more flexibility in terms of managing lists of constants in general would be great. It would be great if there were a way for editors to add items to, and remove items from, constants lists from the "add item" form.

I would love to be able to include a *filtered* list of items from another slice in the "add item" form. Such a feature would allow the construction of truly relational databases of information within the AA infrastructure.

The other feature that I would like to see is a better import/export system. At the moment, the export/import slice function only works with the slice structure itself and does not include the slice's views. Thus, it is very difficult to move a slice, with all its associated views and constants, from one AA installation to another. As I understand, there are some issues here with the sequential numbering of views that would have to be worked out.

3. Comments About Usablility
The FAQ can be quite incomplete or inaccurate and it not optimally organized.

The FAQ contains quite a bit of information. And I like that the FAQ is created and administrated as a Wiki, allowing anyone to add new items. However, this has also led to FAQ to contain a lot of fragmented information, that one has to view various items of the FAQ, written by different people, in order to understand a particular ActionApps function. The content sometimes is very results oriented--as in "here is the code that you should put there--without explaining in broader terms how the AA feature works, thus as a "techie" it can be frustrating because it is difficult to really arrive at an understanding of how the different features work without going and trying to analyze the actual PHP code. More often than not, I find myself following an example, perhaps without completey understanding how the example works.

I would say that there needs to be a work group formed to be in charge of doumentation. I think that basic documents regarding AA could simply be written and published on the AA web site. More in-depth documentation should be in a Wiki system similar to the current FAQ system, but that pool of information needs to be actively administrated and edited by a team of people in order to make it more coherent, up-to-date, and useful. This is something that I, for one, would be interested in participating in.

4. General future development suggestions
I really think that AA is a great tool, it gives a great amount of flexibility in the designing of contents and their structure. I think that it definately fills a good niche within the world of CMSs. It is a very good tool, though at some point the pace of development slowed down and thus, there are incomplete features and some areas where it is lacking maturity.

I do think that there needs to be a deliberate effort to find funding for AA's development, I see that recently development has been fairly slow because many developers work with APC affiliates and aren't able to dedicate much of their time to AA deveopment. So, I think that APC should look for funding in order to be able to pay one or two programmers for their work and thus catalyze the development of AA.

And I think that more of an effort needs to be made to create good, solid, up-to-date documentation for AA.

Submited by:
Ian Macdonald

Jun 3 2025

APC ActionApps is a free software content management system initiated by the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) APC - Internet and ICTs for social justice and development