what makes a good component candidate?

[Colin Clark]

Hey Heidi,

Sounds like you got some good advice from the community about component ideas we've had over the past few years.

For my two cents, I'd suggest you start with something really simple and small. This will give you a chance to focus more on the mechanics of using the framework, rather than being distracted by the subtle details that inevitably emerge when creating fully polished user experiences. This will also make for nice bit-sized code examples for our "How do I...?" documentation.

Think of a small user interface or a bit of data to display on the Web, and then build a component to embody that behaviour. Almost anything is a good candidate. Components are very lightweight things, and in real-world situations Infusion developers tend to build their code up from lots of smaller, self-contained components. So for example, when we talk about a "component" like the Uploader, it's actual a composition of whole bunch of smaller, cooperating components.

Hope this helps,

Colin


On 2011-02-08, at 3:58 PM, Valles, Heidi wrote:

> I'm setting out to make a component, as a means of learning the ins and outs of infusion, writing documentation as I go. However, I'm stumped already on deciding what to make, and wondering if it'd be possible to come up with a checklist for what makes a good component candidate. Or the other way, if I have an idea, how to flesh out the component-ness of it, if that makes sense.
> 
> Anastasia and I were also talking about a component wish-list on the wiki - it might be good for inspiring others to contribute, but also to give an idea of the possibilities with infusion.
> 
> Suggestions?

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Colin Clark
Technical Lead, Fluid Project
http://fluidproject.org