Hercules Zeta CMS - Forms challenge

Challenge Objectives

Zeta is a CMS (content management system) that the Hercules client has built and uses internally for a number of sites.  There is very little documentation on Zeta, so we are going to run a few challenges with the goal of:

• Getting new members familiar with Zeta
• Building out some documentation that we can use for future challenges.

Zeta can be deployed locally via vagrant or Ansible.  We have scripts for either.

This challenge will focus on the forms functionality of Zeta, which is a separate, installable "feature" into Zeta.  We will generate documentaiton on how to install and use the forms feature, while also investigating if we can implement a sample form from the client.

Project Background

We have recently completed the Careers project for the Hercules client, which was our first project using Zeta.  We learned a lot about Zeta, and now we have multiple new projects that use Zeta and want to get better documentation available.  We also need to make sure we have a good base of members for future work.

Technology Stack

• NodeJS, MongoDB
• MySQL

Code access

There are a number of repositories involved in the Zeta deployment.  A link will be provided in the forum that will give members access to the group of individual repos in Gitlab.  

Individual requirements

Forms installation

We want to generate a markdown document that describes how to install the forms feature.  A sample set of instructions for a separate calendar feature will be provided in the forum.  The installation for forms should be more or less the same, but it will need to be updated and tested a bit.

Forms validation

As part of the documentation, we want to make sure we cover how to:

• Create a form
• Put a form on a doc-def and document
• Validate that the form works properly

This will likely take a little trial-and-error on the part of submitters because we don't have proper documentation on this particular feature.

Sample form

We have a sample form we'd like investigated.  Details on how to access the prototype are provided in the forum, but it's a complex form, with different types of fiels, and one whole set of fields that are conditionally shown, depending on if a user answers "Yes" or "No" to a particular question.  We'd like to evalute:

• If this form can be generated in Zeta
• How skinning of the form fields will work
• If it can't be generated, what features are missing from Zeta that prevent it from being converted
• If it can be generated, documentation on how that might be done

We'd like to get a form built that matches what's shown in the prototype.  Note that some minor differences are acceptable, and we don't have to implement the header details.

Final tests

To ensure everything is working:

1. We should be able to open up the web app at "http://localhost:8000" and view a form on the landing page, preferably matching the fields and general layout of the prototype
2. The CMS user should be able to edit the text or images on the Document, publish via the "Versions" tab, and see the results by refreshing the landing page

Deployment guide and validation document

NOTE:  Documentation is a *major* requirement for this challenge!  We'll be aggregating all our documentation to a single spot so that future challenges will have a good documentation base to work from.  Note that you should target the documentation to the requirements above.  

Your README.md should include:

• How to install and configure the forms feature
• How to generate and edit a form and individual fields
• How to skin a form
• How to add the form to a document so it shows on the website

Please ensure you include clear screenshots to document the items above!

Your Validation.md should include:

• How to deploy the required form
• How to set up the document and doc-def
• How to view the form on the website
• How to validate a submitted form

A video is required for validation

What To Submit

• Documentation on form installation and usage
• Any custom code or CSS needed to fully validate the requirements
• Validation.md, including video link

 

Final Submission Guidelines

Please see above