Documentation
What is RingMaster
Simply put, without a lot of hype or buzzwords, RingMaster is a website production framework.
RingMaster is a site based tool, it is not used to edit or create individual documents.
RingMaster does not act, or interact directly with a web server an so can be integrated with any web hosting environment.
Perhaps the best way to think of what RingMaster does is think of RM as a site project manager and compiler.
RM takes a set of source files (such as text, HTML, image, and database files) and renders them into a website.
Project Management
The Project management side of RM acts as a library for your source files. It will:
- Keep track of which files have been modified since the last website release
- Allow specific user and group access to different parts of the source document tree
- Provide custody management so that no two people may edit the same source file at the same time
if a user has the proper clearance, they can check out a project file to make changes
only one person can check out a file at a time.
- Provide versioning and backup of source files
An entire project can be exported, or backed up incrementally
Individual project files can be put under version control, so that the past X versions of a document are saved
and can be restored at any time.
Website compiler
The process of compiling or rendering a website provides site oriented features that can't be achieved working with
source files as stand alone documents. Most editors that one uses in building a website are focused on a single file, whether that be
an HTML file or an image. The rendering process takes the content of the source files, and uses additional information from the
website project to generate a cohesive website.
The compiler side of RM offers the following production features
Properties
Properties are bits of information stored in the RM framework that RM uses to integrate the content of individual source files together
into a single website. For example only the BODY portion of a source HTML file is used by RM when rendering a page.
The rest of the HTML document, including all info in the HEAD of the document is determined by RM properties.
Templates
Templates provide a way to seperate the content of HTML files from a 'look and feel'. You may want a standard Graphic banner
at the top and a navigation bar at the bottom of every page. A template offers a location to store these elements without requiring them
to be repeated on every page. Templates can also be nested, providing a way to wrap one or more templates around the content
of an HTML page.
macros
A macro is a small program embedded in the content of a HTML page. When the source file for a web page is rendered by the
framework, the program is run, and any text returned by the program is inserted into the final HTML file. If you have every used
any kind of server side includes (SSI) on a server, you are already familiar with this concept. However the evaluation of the macro into text
occurs at a time when the framework renders a source file into its final website file.
Linking
A website is almost always composed of more than one file. Much of web authoring is the construction of links from one file
to another. However these links are usually tedious to construct and fagile. RM provides a way for you to link to other files
in the website project by simply refering to them by name. The format will work with any HTML editor, and will not break if files
are moved around within the framework. Linking to another object in the framework, generates HTML appropriate for the target object.
Linking to another page will generate an HREF tag, while linking to an image object will generate an IMG tag.
In its simplest form a link is generated by typing the name of the target object preceded by a colon, in quotes:
":Home Page", or \":banner graphic"
Navigation
It often happens that you have an overall organization to your site, and that many of the
links you have from one page to another are for providing a way to navigate around that structure.
RM provides a way to automate the creation of these navigational links.
In addition to the hierarchical organization of the project that controls the layout of the
rendered website and property inheritence - you can also create and work with a Site Structure View.
In this view you arrange the objects as they would be navigated in your site organization.
Here you determine which page is neighbor, parent, or child of other pages. This information
can then be used to generate Next, and Previous style links automatically in page content or templates.
Staging/Producing
The source files or a website project are not replaced as a result of the rendering
process, instead, the resulting website files are rendered to a destination. Each website project
is assigned two destinations, a staging destination, and production destination. The
staging destination is usually a local drive, or test server. It is here that you preview
and review content as you build the site. The production destination is the location where
the final version of the website will go. When you stage or produce an object you tell RM
to render a source file or files to that location. An object will only be rendered to a location
if it's content has been modified since its last render.
When you render a folder, all modified files containe in that folder are rendered.
By controling access to who can stage or produce a given part of the project, you can distribute
editorial control over what content makes it onto the production website.
Complex types
While many sites may contain only HTML and image files, RM is extensible to support other types
that have more sophisticated rendering. For example the stuffed file Object type included in the
standard install. With this type, you designate a source file, and when that source file is
rendered, it is automatically stuffe and optionally binhexed before being sent to the render
destination.
Website Management
Management side
scheduling
removal of obsolete content
archiving
adding and revising content
edit in browser
folder watcher
email
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