Eugene Mirotin's dashboard

jhs, please, contact me via e-mail – Eugene Mirotin, on March 29, 2009 15:01

jhs, open source is quite ok for me, the current sources are hosted at google code.
Please, drop me a note at emirotin at gmail.com and I'll send you details – Eugene Mirotin, on March 28, 2009 07:07

sorry for intervening...
jhs, I have the 80% finished stand-alone js/dhtml app solving the task
if you are interested - I can incorporate you in the project (it's a bit suspended due to my lazyness :) – Eugene Mirotin, on March 27, 2009 21:56

Unfortunately this seems to be not fixed in 1.5.14.
I opened the mockups, changed it and tried to Save As. The dialog was opened, but the mockups was not saved with the name I provided.

After this the dialogs do not appear until I delete the #SharedObjects folder, and after deletion they do, but saving does not work (even simple Save, not Save As, as before)

I've wrote you the mail about the prototype I have, but I may explain my main ideas here:

1) for design-time we extend the number of supported file types to 2 by adding 'bpml' - a Project file
2) you can still create individual mockups and edit them as at the moment
3) you can create Project and add mockups to it - either add existing items or create new mockup initially linked to the project
4) all linked mockups still exist in the external files and can be edited separately /* all this repeats the popular IDEs' (VS, Eclipse, etc.) behavior */
5) while editing the _project_ file you get the new view with 2 panes. The left one contains mockups thumbnails, the right one is the working surface with the currently selected mockup
6) on the working surface you see the mockup that could be edited in place the same way as in the 'standalone' mode, but each control (every of the existing controls) gets the new 'link' property that allows you to choose one of the mockups added to the project. May be it would be useful to add special 'linking area' control in this mode, but I doubt. This linking information is stored inside the project file and do not affect the mockups files
7) you also get some extra properties like project title, mockup title, mockup comment, as well as 'hint' property for the element that has the link property filled (or may be not only for these elements, but for any desired element)
8) when in presentation (really better name) mode you see the mockup. Clickable (with filled link property) elements are marked somehow (with icon, or with border, or with colour highlight). The hints are shown when hovering the elements. The mockup title and the comment are viewed on the surface to allow users (like customers) to view your project (storyboard) without your explanation. When clicking the linked items you see the linked mockups in the same window
9) the links do not work in design-time

These makes the scenario really simple yet powerful enough for the most of real cases. I would also suggest ability to 'publish' (build, export) the project to the archive containing html presentation ready to be sent to the people nor having the BM (the same as when you export individual mockup to the png file).

There is a simpler workaround.
To create new files just clone some 'master' file in your OS.
To open the file just drag and drop it into the BM window.
The Save operation (not Save as...) works well for me.

I could suggest looking at DENIM (http://dub.washington.edu/projects/de...) with it nice idea on different scaling levels