Appropriate uses of FormsPublisher?

DevNetters -
While running TeamSite for several years at our shop, we've never rolled out FormsPublisher - instead we're using the repository, workflow and OpenDeploy capabilities heavily to augment other templating / development tools. For us, it's worked out well.

Now, we've got a few interesting scenarios that we're looking at FormsPublisher at helping solve. The biggest one is probably to get some experience with it in case we implement SitePublisher / LiveSite.

But there're some other, less obvious possibilities. Here's one:

We've been approached by a group that saw a demo involving FormsPublisher and is thinking that maybe it could be used to create and maintain a set of application error messages that involve information on country, region, language, devices and sites.

Giving it some thought, I've come to the conclusion that this is -not- a good match of tool to requirement. This seems like an application that sits on top of a relational database so that you can call up the data by any of data types and manage it. Doing it with FormsPublisher seems like it would restrict functionality and possibly introduce a lot of data duplication.

This got me to thinking further about when -is- it appropriate to use FormsPublisher for something beyond web page creation and maintenance? Has you got some thoughts or examples? Dig deep!

Thanks!
Wally Box
Nike, Inc.

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nipper

DevNetters -
We've been approached by a group that saw a demo involving FormsPublisher and is thinking that maybe it could be used to create and maintain a set of application error messages that involve information on country, region, language, devices and sites.

This got me to thinking further about when -is- it appropriate to use FormsPublisher for something beyond web page creation and maintenance? Has you got some thoughts or examples? Dig deep!

If you use Forms Pub for only some basic web page development you are missing the boat.

Your example is a perfect use for Forms Pub. It collects structured content. This example is structured content. If you need structured content, then a form can do it.

What to with with the content (XML) after is the question. Take it and insert it in Oracle if you like. Have a service that reads an XML DB and provides the errors to applications.

I use Forms to feed other Forms (i.e. a hotel site, room amenities - instead of free form fields, the DCT reads another DCR which populates a list of amenities).

Migrateduser

We, as a company, would need to know there -was- a boat to know we were missing it. Smiley Happy

Having said that, I personally agree. On the other hand, I've probably saved a significant number of hours not managing dcrs, dcts..

As for the forms question: the info that we're being asked to capture has a larger potential usage than just in the CMS. These (region, country, language, etc.) entities could (should) be shared across multiple other systems. I want to make sure that we don't create yet another isolated instance of this information that quickly falls out of sync with the rest of the organization.

I can see that FormsPublisher could be made to work pseudo-relationally, but do I really want to manage a set of dcrs to emulate an rdbms, and then keep an rdbms in sync (to make the data available for other systems) with the dcr-based info?

I still think this data probably 'belongs' to a centrally available rdbms, with an app that directly updates the rdbms directly. I think because it's a nice forms processor, we're being asked to use it in ways that may ultimately be counter productive. However, I'm trying to see if my thinking is too restrictive here.

Wally

TrailingDots.rptdesign

ISCBorisB

If your goal is to maintain referential integrity of certain Data between various rdbms
then Forms Publisher *may* indeed not be the optimal tool for the task. In any case, it
has not been designed with this exact goal in mind.

That said, you have to compare your real options, not some nebulous Vaporware *best solution*.
To accomplish that integrity you will need some central Data *repository*, API/GUI for Authors
to modify it and mechanisms to either *reference* changing Data or reliably (transactionally?)
Copy/Deploy it to Targets.

Forms Publisher + OD + Wokflows Collection of tools can definitely fit this bill. You do not
want to "manage a set of dcrs"? That's fine. What is that you DO want to manage? To put it
another way, what is this "...app that [...] updates the rdbms directly" that you've mentioned?
Do you have it? If the answer is 'no', do you have resources to develop it in time and in budget?

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Migrateduser

Nice post ISCBorisB - that's getting closer to the core of the issue.

We actually do have options, have database and app dev folks - and that's why I've put up this question, to help figure out the correct 'home' for this info.

I want to manage the data that's specific to the web assets - and that's what I'm trying to nail down.

Adam Stoller

FWIW, I've worked on several projects where DCRs were used to manage what is essentially database entry. To the best of my knowledge they worked out well, but I think that's a combination of the design that was set forth and implemented, and the customer's culture.

One project used code to populate DCRs from one DB, to then allow editing / augmentation of the data, and then fed the DCRs into another DB.

Another project used on-the-fly DCRs that were generated from the DB data, edited and then pushed back to the DB without ever versioning the DCRs.

Is it a workable solution? Yes. Is it the only solution? No. Is it the best solution? Unclear.

Migrateduser

Thanks for the posts!

I've been diving deeper into forms and have some new appreciation of their capabilities.

I can see where the forms could be actually integrated with a database back end - but I want to see how flexible we can be utilizing just .dcts, .dcrs and .tpls. As ISCBorisB said: compare your real options.

So now we're experimenting with 'one form to many dcrs' scenarios to add more ways to 'get at' the content. Just can't get away from that relational model.