SeattleWaterfront.org is being built around a different relationship between information and websites. Restaurants, parking, activities, public art and events can exist as structured entities that are maintained independently of the pages where visitors encounter them.
GW Framework connects that information to Waterfront-specific applications and presentation, while contribution and editorial workflows provide ways to maintain the information without rebuilding pages.
Almost every modern website displays data. The architectural question is whether the information belongs to a particular page, or whether the page is simply one way of presenting information that exists independently.
Restaurant page
└── restaurant information
Parking page
└── parking information
Things to Do page
└── activity information
Calendar
└── event informationContent and presentation are closely coupled. Reusing information usually means copying, synchronizing or rebuilding it somewhere else.
Restaurants ─┐
Activities ──┤
Public Art ──┤
Parking ──┼── GW Framework
Events ──┤ ↓
Locations ──┤ presentation
Organizations─┘ applicationsThe data can be maintained separately from the interface and then transformed into the experience needed by the site.
Treating these as separate layers creates more flexibility than treating the WordPress page as the fundamental unit of information.
Canonical records describe the actual entities: a restaurant, artwork, activity, parking facility or destination.
{
"id": "facility-example",
"type": "parking",
"name": "...",
"entrance": "...",
"hours": "...",
"rates": "...",
"clearance": "...",
"location": {...}
}Information can be submitted, edited, reviewed and approved without making the public-facing page the editing environment.
submit
↓
normalize
↓
review
↓
approve
↓
canonical recordGW Framework turns approved information into interfaces designed around what Waterfront visitors need to do.
listing cards
directories
finders
maps
event calendars
edit controls
future interfacesParking is a good example because the information is more complicated than a list of garages.
A parking facility has entrances, hours, rates, clearance, options and geographic information. A Waterfront destination has a different identity, location and relationship to parking.
GW Data models those as different kinds of records. GW Framework can then use the relationships between them to build a Parking Finder for visitors.
The important work happens before the card is displayed: the real-world problem has been converted into entities, fields and relationships that software can use.
PARKING FACILITY
Bell Street Pier Garage
├── primary entrance
├── additional entrances
├── entrance notes
├── hours
├── rates
├── clearance
├── parking options
└── coordinates
PARKING DESTINATION
Waterfront destination
├── location
├── parking zone
└── facility relationships
↓
GW FRAMEWORK
↓
PARKING FINDERA destination website has a basic maintenance problem: businesses and organizations often know when their own information has changed before the website administrator does.
The public does not need the same interface as a professional editor. Public contributors can receive a simple way to add or correct information without being given access to WordPress administration.
Authorized editors can see additional controls and direct editing tools that remain hidden from ordinary visitors.
Both workflows ultimately operate on the same structured information. The interface changes according to the user's role.
The calendar provides one of the clearest examples of the architecture. The canonical event repository lives at events.iloveseattle.org, not on SeattleWaterfront.org.
SeattleWaterfront.org consumes appropriate event information through an API. GW Framework then filters and presents those records as a Waterfront-specific calendar.
Another website can consume the same underlying event and present it differently. The event does not need to be copied into every website that wants to use it.
events.iloveseattle.org
Canonical EventON repository
│
│ API
↓
GW Framework
│
Waterfront rules
Waterfront filters
Waterfront design
│
↓
SeattleWaterfront.org
Same event record
Different presentationGW Framework is not the Waterfront database and it is not the Waterfront design. It is the reusable application layer that helps structured information become a working website or application.
The best evidence that GW Framework is reusable is that the same development approach is already being used for applications with very different content and purposes.
restaurants
activities
public art
parking
events
public contribution
editorial workflowsorganizations
events
calendars
relationships
directories
cross-site publishingstructured manuscript
custom Reader
custom Editor
change sets
validation
publishing workflowThe data model changes. The interface changes. The audience changes. The reusable architecture underneath does not have to start over.
Model the information.
Design the workflow.
Generate the experience.
The website becomes one interface to the information, rather than the place where the information has to live.
The structured-data architecture, custom interfaces and GW Framework implementation used on SeattleWaterfront.org were developed by Gerard Wirz.
GW Framework is also being used in other projects with very different information models. Similar custom systems can be developed for destinations, organizations and projects whose information or workflows have outgrown conventional web pages.