Edit Flow stage two - Newsroom meta data

Development lead for stage two: Daniel Bachhuber

Contents 1 Features 1.1 Logistical information 1.2 Commenting 1.2.1 Storage Options 1.3 Extra 2 Notes 3 Open questions 4 Development timeframe

Features

The goal of stage two for the Edit Flow Project is to add newsroom-specific meta data to the post concept that will better allow the newsroom to capture information related to the workflow and production of content. This meta data will include:

Logistical information

• Location - Free text form for the location of the assignment. Might autosuggest locations based on a database in the future.
  • Custom fields location: _ef_location
• Due date - When the assignment is due for the next steps in the editorial workflow
  • Specifics: Either drop-down menus similar to how the publication date is handled or a calendar widget. Mirroring WordPress' default styling would probably be preferable
  • Location: _ef_due_date
• Workflow - If workflow is enabled, then the assigned workflow for the post
  • Custom fields location: _ef_workflow
• Description and notes - A textarea for assignment description and any notes about it
  • Custom fields location: _ef_note

Commenting

Not entirely sure of the best way for this to be build at the moment

• Comments or notes about the Post between users (would be threaded to allow for discussion)
  • Note: varying levels of complexity to build this

Storage Options

• Store as metadata
  • Mo: Poor solution; will be difficult to include additional details about comments and allow for threading
• Store as regular comments
  • Could differentiate from front-end comments using wp_comments.comment_type field
  • Mo: my vote is for this, since we can make use of existing functions/framework. The only thing is that we'd have to use a filter to hide the editorial comments from being displayed in the front-end, or get users to change the function call in their comments.php file in their theme
• Custom db table
  • Peter's Post Comments uses this method
  • Mo: would require a lot of extra (unnecessary) work, I think.

Extra

• Any multimedia, photo, or video requests

Most of this information will live within one meta box on the post edit screen. At this point, I haven't decided whether this meta data would be accessible through the "Quick Edit" screen.

Notes

• This meta data will be stored in WordPress' custom fields
• There are two relevant GPL'd plugins we might consider looking at before we build this

Open questions

• Is there any framework for adding fields to "Quick Edit", or would those have to be appended using Javascript?
  • Mo: Might be able to use quick_edit_custom_box; haven't ever used before though

Development timeframe

• Architecture & Design: June 15, 2009
• Development: June 17, 2009
• Alpha Testing: June 22, 2009
• Beta Testing: June 25, 2009
• Release: June 26, 2009