environmentStructure

| environment layout stylesheet |
	self flag: #pierconfig.

"structure then contents"
environment := (PRPage named: 'environment')
		addDecoration: PRHider new;
		addChild:
			(layout := (PRPage named: 'layout')
			addChild: ((PRComponent named: 'header')
[...]	
    


If you log-in (latest version, I suggest to always use this one) or
what do you mean? I have not seen any access to the environment offered when I log in. It took me three days to even find that the environment existed! Now I am actually using the latest version, though it took me more than a week to learn how to load and run this. 
if you directly type the path to the environment (older versions) you  
are able to simply edit those things from within your Web browser.

Lukas
I do understand that you are able to do this. Thats what I did in order to reverse engineer the code to put into environmentStructure. Although pier is very tightly and cleanly architected, I think that am at a different stage in the process. I feel that my contribution is part of the process of making things more usable for the uninitiated. I have the benefit of not knowing anything about pier and having to learn it all from scratch.

So I am taking a look at the raw features that pier has and putting them into a context for the new users, specifically power users, who need meta-tools. The old environment is simply a tool for editing one thing, the layout. My implementation of environment has/will become a development space for new layouts, styles and everything else which I dont think really had a place before. You are correct you can directly edit a sub-component by entering the direct url. But I ask the question, how do you learn how to do this if no one has told you, it has to be really obvious. I also think that it is best to get things to a point where the out of the box experience as easy to learn as possible, but we dont want to clutter up the main user wiki content with this stuff, which is what wiki's always used to do.

You may not see the need to mark the hard wired things. But for me they are a useful hook for learning things, particularly if you want to tweak things, which is where learning things often starts for me.

On reflection it looks like the direction this is leading to is to refactor all of the environment stuff, and some of the pierconfig stuff out of PRStructure into a separate extension module. For want of a better name "PREnvironment" and sons.

This would allow Environments (i.e. the out of the box style and configuration) to be selected in the seaside configuration panel, and offer a creative outlet for users to produce a range of pre-configured environments. This becomes the natural starting point for new 'power' users to begin creating bespoke environments, while allowing the core of pier to remain lean and fit.

best regards

Keith