user-submitted content object updates
By day , Section Code [] Posted on Tue Nov 19, 2002 at 12:00:00 PM PST
i plan to implement a mechanism for editing content objects via a web interface. i would like to keep it generalized, so i'm looking for ideas and concerns.

here's my favorite idea. rather than risk an authorization nightmare by granting access to immediately update the database, we use an approval system. A group perm would control which users can submit content updates. Each update would have something like the following properties: user  [submittor] time  [of submission] class [one of the site's content classes] id    [null if creating new] type  [update, delete, create] status [submitted, approved, admin-customized,whatever] comment [user's special instructions to the  approver] data  [hash of the proposed values for this  object's properties if updating or creating] the data hash would be entered using a web form which is based on a template editable by the admin; one edit template per class, with perhaps a default template to be inherited. each submission would be listed on a page analogous to the moderation queue. For many sites, "approval" (sounds more appropriate than "moderation" here) permission would be given to admins only. When a submitted object update is approved, the database is updated with values from the data hash. maybe we'll also want to backup the old values so that an approval can be undone. There may be complications if one submission needs to be dependent upon another... i.e. one is applied but then rolled back if the other one is not approved -- no, better yet that they need to be approved simulataneously... but this could be overcomplicated or messy. What do you think? are there any libraries i should be aware, such as for handling web form data that will be inserted into any number of column types and database types? or maybe something like SPOPS? Also what about interface concerns for the submitter? i remember imdb did something like this that was email-based, last i looked.

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