Documentation giving guidance about what Slush ML Node is good for

[damonfeldman]

The docs currently cover a lot about getting started, inner working, structure, but there is no overview about what it is for (that I saw in my quick read of the docs and wiki).

I suggest something covering:

• this is for faceted nav apps that people often build on MarkLogic

  • Search criteria up top
  • "Facets" on the left that let you drill into sub-categories of data (web link defining a facet)
  • Results in the middle
  • Optional map view in the middle
  • Analytics, dashboard widgets

• This supports Angular 2 (or is it still 1.5?) apps

  • pluggable
  • many plugins exist for this framework
    • list and describe some of them
    • say where to find the rest

• Caveats and limitations

  • three tier apps, not 2 tier
  • GUI, not headless
  • search, not workflow
  • etc.

This is my rough understanding of what this tool is for, and could be wrong, but the overall point here is that the correct set of use cases and caveats should be made clear and probably be top of the docs.

[grtjn]

Well, the idea is that this app is just a starting point, not the final product. But it is fair to say that we could do better at what you get out of the box, and in what ways you could extend it.

@patrickmcelwee Weren't you working on that?

@damonfeldman Not entirely sure what you mean with your Caveats and limitations though. Could you elaborate a little?

[damonfeldman]

My (limited) understanding is that you'd use Slush for a 3-tier web app with a GUI, having search and faceted nav, results display etc. If you're building a set of data services, maybe it's not the right tool. Similarly, if you don't want/need a middle tier. Basically the list of things a person should know about so if they should not use this slush generated angular structure they understand early (and conversely, if they don't see any issues, they know they are good to go with this framework).

[patrickmcelwee]

I worked on the docs at one point, and starting working on a tutorial, but I haven't written anything along these lines. I agree that it would be a good idea. I'd be happy to take a stab at it (or edit someone else's draft) when I get some free cycles.