Posted by Rob Pinion
on 27.07.2007 22:23
Let me preface this by saying you all have done a great job.  This is
going to sound like a complaint, but it is really a plea for somone to
provide more a more simple approach to using the demos.  I realize full
well I am getting something for nothing and have no right to criticize.
I hope this post will produce a helpful response.

The demos are great for doing what they are doing.  However, can some
kind soul consider taking this a bit further and post some simple code
that contains everything needed AND NOTHING EXTRANEOUS for running the
various widgets?

My coworker said Rico wasn't well documented.  I can't determine if
that's true or not, but I would think it would be easier to find simple
demos rather than demos that just have the wow factor.

Here are my observations about trying to use the demos (again this is
not about the beauty of the demos, only their usability for me):

1. The demo samples are displayed in the original window rather than in
a new window.  This
needlessly complicates what the user has to do to pull in just enough
code to make the demos work "back on the farm" because there are
headers, extra script and css references, etc.

2. The demos show code within the examples.  This is nifty that you can
do that, but if you want a way to confuse someone, that's a good way
because there will be lots of PRE sections and angled brackets.

3. The "code" displayed doesn't say what needs to be imported to make
the samples work,
and I get errors, e.g. Object doesn't support this property or method. I
haven't been successful just importing rico.js and letting it find 
everything else needed, and I haven't found how
to make sure I have everything I need for the example.  I reference 
every file (js and css) that's being imported on the demo page and cross 
my fingers. But then I get errors and have to try to track errors down 
and hope to figure out what Rico thinks it needs but can't find.

4. The JS source objects used on the demo page (e.g. ricoAjax.js and
demosPage.js) are not all
part of the 2.0 src files.    How do I know which ones are needed for
the example?

5. The CSS source objects used on the demo page are not all part of the
2.0 src files.  How do I know which ones are needed for the example?

6. The file folder structure used on the demos page does not match the
source file folder structure. (e.g. /stylesheets/ should be /css/ and
/javascripts/ should be / (if you want to match the distribution)

7. The parameters given for calling the function (on the Rico code area)
is not necessarily the same one used on the page source.  For example,
on the Accordion demo, the function is passed a couple of css classes,
while the sample Rico code is passed a div by ID.