Plugin or Alternate Template?


Published on August 29, 2005 at 8:11 PM EST
Last updated on October 9, 2006 at 12:01 AM EST
In the Discussions category.

The BigPAPI plugin offers a lot of opportunity to do some exceptional customization to the Movable Type interface. In fact, it can do everything an alternate template can do—and much more! So the question: would you rather deal with an…

The BigPAPI plugin offers a lot of opportunity to do some exceptional customization to the Movable Type interface. In fact, it can do everything an alternate template can do—and much more!

So the question: would you rather deal with an alternate template or a plugin? If you’re not already using alternate templates, the plugin has the advantage that no setup is required. Aside from that, though, I can’t see that one offers any benefits over the other. What do you think?

This article is tagged as: Alternate Templates, Discussions

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Comments

So far, there are 6 comments and Trackbacks on this entry. Add yours!

1

By Tim , written on August 29, 2005 at 9:29 PM.

I prefer a plugin, I think, simply for ease-of-use and to keep them all consolidated in one area. It also allows an immediate way of disabling it if I so desire.

2

By Arvind , written on August 29, 2005 at 11:31 PM.

BigPAPI for me, here’s the reason why. Several people could create several modifications to one screen (albeit they could have a conflict, I’m not entirely sure what happens then) and all the user would need to do is install them. With Alternate Templates, supposing you posted an alternate template for edit_entry.tmpl and I posted another one that contained different features, people couldn’t have both easily, they would either need to hack one alternate template or chose which one is more important.

Does that make sense?

3

By Dan Wolfgang , written on August 30, 2005 at 10:02 AM.

Both excellent points, Tim and Arvind.

4

By kate , written on August 30, 2005 at 3:34 PM.

I prefer a plugin, as well, for the same reasons Tim and Arvind mention… easy management from the UI and to avoid repeatedly editing a template with multiple hacks. BigPAPI is sweet. :-) (Even so, I still find alternate templates useful for my own personal tweaks.)

5

By Anil Dash , written on August 31, 2005 at 1:54 PM.

For redistribution, I definitely prefer a plugin, but for my own little hacks, I use an alt template. Seems like a good compromise to me.

6

By KO , written on September 10, 2005 at 11:35 AM.

Definitely a plugin - it’s much easier to install and disable.

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