Arbitrary data editor - what's the best method?
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I'm looking for some advice on the best way to go about administering arbitrary data, for example a list of frequently asked questions (question and answer), a selection of testimonials (quote, who said it, which company), a list of achievements (award, date received), a set of configuration items (Twitter username, contact email address, VAT rate, etc) or anything that doesn't require a page for each "object" or item.
I know that you can have page attributes which will allow you to create select lists or text inputs etc, but that's not what I'm after.
I'm thinking this needs to be some sort of dashboard item(s), but it needs to be flexible and easy for editors to use - and equally as easy for developers to set up and customise the data fields they wish to edit for each object, then just as easy to output the data in Page templates.
My question is does anything like this exist, either as an add-on, or is there just a simple way of doing this? And if so, how would you go about doing it?
i'm interested in hearing peoples ideas because at the moment I'm moving towards writing my own add-on to do this.
Edit; I already know about this.https://github.com/jordanlev/c5_boilerplate_crud...
I know that you can have page attributes which will allow you to create select lists or text inputs etc, but that's not what I'm after.
I'm thinking this needs to be some sort of dashboard item(s), but it needs to be flexible and easy for editors to use - and equally as easy for developers to set up and customise the data fields they wish to edit for each object, then just as easy to output the data in Page templates.
My question is does anything like this exist, either as an add-on, or is there just a simple way of doing this? And if so, how would you go about doing it?
i'm interested in hearing peoples ideas because at the moment I'm moving towards writing my own add-on to do this.
Edit; I already know about this.https://github.com/jordanlev/c5_boilerplate_crud...
![JohntheFish](/files/avatars/51576.jpg)
Have a look at hereNT's 'Best Suite Core'. With it you can set up a page type for your data and provide a dashboard and composer interface dedicated to that page type.
Cheers John - that does look like it could potentially work for me, but there's no demo. I'll try contacting the developer for a demo.
To add to JohntheFish's answer, I use Best Suite on a couple sites, and it's flexibility is amazing. As for rendering the attributes on the pages, I use John's Magic Data add-on. If you choose to go this route, you wont be disappointed, as this is just one of the literally HUNDREDS of things Magic Data can do!!
From the demo point of view, Best Suite and Magic Data share a similar problem. They are both so flexible that any single demo runs the risk of type-casting them. So scan through the reviews and forums and see what others have achieved.