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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 5905419" data-attributes="member: 8835">more stuff:as I determined, Block=Generator.  It can be plain text, html, or vbulletin markup.  It can have markup to roll dice and call other tables or blocks.the Parsing Engine is a chunk of code that takes an input of text that might contain markup and returns that text with the markup replaced with actual lookup results.We can wire up a new Generate button on this here post editing page, or hook it up to the submit button to run ONCE when I post it, forever remaining static after that.We have many ways the Parser gets hooked up.  That's like the least of our worries as we have many options on where to use it.Initially, I envisioned 3 basic screens, just to get the critter running:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Main I/O screen</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">List of Assets screen</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Edit Asset screen</li> </ol>1) Main I/O screen.This is where folks can play with the parser to generate their own results, etc.  Folks just type in stuff with tags and then hit the Generate button and it'll post back and return a pretty result (because Blocks can have html or whatever).  In theory, what folks type in COULD be saved as a new Block/Generator.2) List of AssetsWe need a word to describe all the tables, blocks and generators (because they are all the same thing from a high level view, tags to be handled.  I'll call them Asssets.  This screen shows a GridView that lets the user scroll through all of them, filter, search, and choose to execute or edit one.Here's a link to a GridView control I use, so we're all clear on what that means: <a href="http://demos.devexpress.com/aspxgridviewdemos/Filtering/FilterRow.aspx" target="_blank">Filter Row - DevExpress AJAX Data Grid for ASP.NET</a>there are other products that do the same thing for PHP, don't get bogged down in who makes it.3) Edit AssetThis is where the easy-bake editor for a single Asset lives.  An Asset as the following attributes: Name, Type, Description, Owner, LastUpdated, and Body.  Body is where the magic syntax for tables go, or the big pile of formated text for a Block or Generator go.Here's the trick, by making the user specificy Type, we do NOT have to expose the user to cryptic syntax like you see at TableSmith's examples.  That might be how it is stored, but when you say the Type=Table, the UI can show a nice, easy to use table that the user edits individual fields on, rather than hand-typing the exact syntax we need.The same for a Block/Generator.  We can show a nice WYSIWYG box with buttons to change font, etc.  We can also include a "picker" tool to help wade through the pile of Assets to add a tag into the text where the cursor is.With these 3 screens, a user can start making Assets and test them.  They can use it directly from the List screen, or use the Main screen to make something complex.</blockquote>

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