Mephisto search

We've been hard at work implementing some of the remaining high-priority features in Mephisto. The most notable missing feature is Asset/File management. Well, we've started hammering away at getting this implemented the past couple of days and have the basics of it working, with that said, it's no where near finished.

Update: Major progress has been made in the trunk, check it out!

From the screenshot you can see we're gonna be sporting an OS X style search feature. Also, the last 5 or so images you upload will be shown on the new article page allowing you to quickly have access to these files.

When we were discussing how we wanted to implement assets, I didn't want to implement it like other systems have: Files are attached to articles. There really isn't any benefit of having a file belong to an article. If you want to use a file system wide, why shouldn't you be able too? Of course, other systems never prevented you from direct-linking these files (I suppose), but that defeats the purpose of attaching files to articles. Files belong to a site, they are merely used in articles or the design.

I would speculate the only reason files have always been attached to articles is because you can upload files directly from the same interface from which you create the article. I guess it only seemed right that the files belonged to that article. Not true--this is just the most natural process for publishers working with assets. You don't want to have to leave the article page to go to some separate assets area just to upload an image.

Although you can't see it in the screenshot above, we plan on also having an upload form on the new article page that allows you to do just this. But what if you like to prepare before you write? Lets say you would rather upload your assets from the separate assets area. It wouldn't be all that intuitive if you couldn't access those images you just uploaded from the interface which you write your article. Having the assets area open in one tab while having the article form open in the other tab is far from ideal. We're gonna solve this problem by showing the last few files you just uploaded on the new article interface so you can quickly access these images.

It can be assumed that if you just uploaded a few files, you plan on using them. But, what if you don't? What if you've uploaded a bunch of files, and the files you want to use in your new article are a month old? Well, we're gonna solve that problem too. We're also planning on implementing a search interface in the new articles area so you can quickly find the files you've lost long ago. I also have another really cool idea on how to handle these situations too that I'll talk about more once I get the details hammered out.

Article interface

Your probably wondering with all this stuff going on the new/edit article interface, won't it be cluttered? Well, it sure sounds like it could be, but I've thought about this one myself and have come up with a fairly simple solution. Tabs. Simple, effective, and it works well.

With all that said, it should be noted that none of this is complete and the SVN trunk is under heavy development. You will run into bugs under Mephisto edge. It's only recommended you run edge if you're wanting to help bug hunt, you're really brave, or you don't mind the occasional hiccup.