Custom Types in HiFi with JSON and jQuery

4 Comment(s) | Posted February 24, 2010 | by Kris Jordan |

This page is currently under construction due to the relaunch of this site.

One of the cool features we're working on for HiFi are custom types. HiFi has a unique JSON based data store that makes adding custom types really easy. We wanted to put up an example of how this would work, so we built a custom "slide" type. As we've mentioned before, this site is running on a pre-alpha of HiFi. So the slideshow below is being driven by HiFi.

In effect, this is a "meta-slideshow". Flip through it to see how easy it is to add custom types to HiFi and to see some of the functionality you can get right out of the box.

If this seems a little technical, don't worry. This is an example of some of the extended features that HiFi will make available to developers. It should be a good example of both the power and user-friendliness that HiFi will provide.

Note that comments can be left on any of the slides individually. This is explained in the slideshow.

4 Comment(s) | Posted February 24, 2010 | by Kris Jordan |

Comments

Thomas J Bradley

February 25, 2010 at 12:42pm | Permalink

This is really interesting, guys.

Will developers have access to the custom types to edit them without the web service? Like, say, opening a file to make modifications or will all modifications have to go through the service?
Joel Sutherland

February 25, 2010 at 2:39pm | Permalink

Thomas,

We're still working on the mechanics of how the custom type editing will work. Likely it will come in two parts:

1. Defining the fields of the custom type. This will probably be done through a simple editor.

2. Building the admin interface. This will probably be done through a zip upload of files. Things like icons, or html/css/js for the editor.

Does that make sense?
Kris Jordan

February 25, 2010 at 3:08pm | Permalink

To briefly expand on Joel it is worth noting that the custom type editor will be built on top of the HiFi API. When we kicked off HiFi our philosophy was to make sure we built our application on top of the API and not the other way around. For developers this means there's no limits on what can be accomplished in a custom editor, client side via JSON AJAX, or from another server via REST.
Thomas J Bradley

February 25, 2010 at 3:31pm | Permalink

Yep, that all makes sense. Thanks. I can't wait to see more about HiFi.