OpenACS Packages

If you're familiar with object-oriented programming, then you can think of package parameters as instance variables: Each instance has the same variables, but different values in each variable.

And just as different objects have different instance variables, different packages have different parameters. The calendar package might have a parameter asking for what language you want to use to display text, and whether weeks start on Sunday or Monday, and what the name of the CSS file is for that package. The bulletin board package might have a parameter to indicate whether it displays messages in threads or chronologically,

Permissions are explicitly not handled by parameters. Permissions are a separate animal, and are set with a different administration page.

In theory, a package can allow its look and feel to be modified using parameters. In reality, most packages only let you change some basic features, and expect the basic look and feel to stay the same. If you want to really change things, then you use CSS at the global level, or the "default master" for the particular site or subsite you're using.

I expect that over time, as people want to customize the user interface more and more, the number of parameters will grow. At the same time, OpenACS is designed to be taken apart and modified, for a variety of reasons.

Does this make sense?

Reuven