Our aim with the new viewbook V3 pages framework was to develop a system that builds on our experience with the current viewbook pages tool, while expanding it’s capabilities with a brand new core setup. In essence this meant we wanted to take all the good out of the current tool, and put that into a new framework that was capable of producing any type of portfolio website we wanted.
When you don’t know exactly what needs to be build, but you have to start somewhere
This latter part was actually pretty important. The thing is that we at viewbook work as a small dedicated team (on average between 6 and 10 people), heavily relying on prototyping, user feedback and, most importantly, our own inspiration to fine tune the new V3 system. This meant we could not develop a custom fit system from start based on a clear and defined set of guidelines (which we did not know yet). But rather we needed a system that could quickly adapt to anything we could think of along the way.
Use things as they are, do not ‘hack’ them
The way we achieved this is by using HTML, CSS and the Web browser (DOM) as much as possible as they are in their purest form, without trying to change or improve them (by hacking around with Javascript). On top of that we designed an XML and XSLT based core framework for page (and module) generation, whereby the configuration for a page is made as abstract as possible. Also the framework needed to be loosely tied to our database environment for easy integration and optimal scalability. In essence this means we can now import any piece of data, ‘capture’ any styling, behaviour or content configuration in a generalized way and generate any type and form of output we want (more on how that works in a later post!).
Developing in this manner might be a somewhat slower approach as supposed to working with a fixed plan and feature set, and it means you might have to wait a bit longer for V3 then you’d like. But it also means we can afford to be really flexible when it comes to implementing new features based on our ideas and your feedback.
Importing plugins, feeds, designs, etcetera
The new system also makes it easy to integrate features especially for developers and designers. For Developers things like easily integrating custom jQuery plugins in your page and using V3 components in custom websites or WordPress (and other blogging environments), plus importing data into a component from any source you want. And for designers the importing and exporting of designs from and to your favorite design applications (Adobe Illustrator, Indesign), making custom design templates manageable by your clients or act as a third party reseller of your designs.
In any case the main focus for V3 will be the components you use to fill and style your portfolio. And each component can be made as exactly as we want them to be. So that will be the part where this flexibility will pay off the most, and where your feedback will be most valuable. But more on that later in our next update!