Branches

Sometime in the last couple years I added another item to my long list of Things I Want To Build (or See Built By Someone Else): an online, collaborative content gathering tool. What I had in mind was something that web developers and clients could use together to map out the structure of a site, then fill in the pages with all the necessary content. Content collection is the cat-herdingest part of website development. Despite the bevy of collaborative tools out there, nothing was quite right for collecting text and sharing, in real time, what was left to write.

Which is why I about cried for joy when I learned about Jumpchart, an online tool that does, well, pretty much exactly that. It takes the elemental concepts of a wiki—communal editing—and adds the ability to organize things hierarchically. It allows you to trim down your site to its basic components, pages and the way they’re ordered, and then open the floor up for content management until you’re ready to port it to the real site.

Jumpchart feels a lot like 37signals’ Writeboard tool, and it one crucial way, Writeboard is better—it tracks changes. For a certain type of client, like one who needs a collaborative tool to hash out internal disagreements about mood and style,
Writeboards’ are the way to go. Jumpchart hasn’t implemented anything like this, though I suspect someday it’ll come. But what Writeboards lack—hierarchy—is, to me, much more crucial. As one-off collaborative editing tools, Writeboards excel. Jumpcharts are meant for full-site content collection, and for that, they may be salvation.

Enough for hype; how’s it play out in practice? I’ve tested out Jumpchart with one project, a small one with just a few pages. It took a little prodding to get the client to sign up for yet another tool (they were already on Basecamp), but as soon as they were on board, I think they immediately saw the benefit. I know from my point of view, it saved me hours of collecting and managing ownership and reminding the client to send me their owed copy. Instead I simply opened up the Jumpchart floor to them, and pulled the content down in one final swoop shortly before the final site testing began.

For that small project, It worked really well. Yet, there are a few crucial missing features that prevent me from jumping on with both feet for all my projects, big or small. The most important:

• Control over export. They’re kind enough to let you export your file as XHTML, but they peculiarly wrap everything in a full page’s worth of code. I’ve got my own headers and footers; all I need is the code for the headers and paragraphs I’ve typed up. Bonus points for adding the option to export in Textile or Markdown.

• Versioning. Mentioned above. Not a deal-breaker, but it would be so helpful in those inevitable times the client changes something after I’ve moved the text over to the site.

• Mass entry. If my site is thirty pages long, I’d rather not have to use the interface to add page after page. Let me upload an OPML file, or simply type in the outline in a textbox according to a predetermined syntax.

• Quick formatting. It’s nice that I’, able to click a formatting rule and have it appear at the bottom of the editing textarea. What’d be even nicer is if I could select some text, click the rule, and have that rule apply to the selected text. I hate WYSIWYG as much as the next hand-coder, but this small concession would go a long way.

• Sitemap and overview. In thinking how I’d use this with clients, I’m realizing it’d be hella useful to have a description for each page. The more direction I can give my clients, the better, and a list of what’s needed would allow clients to simply surf through the outline and add whatever it said.

Bottom line: Anytime a company can tap into my brain and build something that so exactly meets my wishes, I’m impressed. A little frightened, but mostly impressed. Jumpchart is strong enough a product that I’m confident using it on small projects and recommending it others. Another version or two, and I’m sure it’ll be going into my core toolbox for site development.