Steven Zahm@ Mike
Sure, I can provide more detail… I have a feeling I’m going to bounce around a little, so hopefully this won’t be too confusing.
This is an API that I’ve built, meaning it is just the foundation for stuff to be built on. So, yes, using this at this point would require coding. A point and click user interface for building custom metaboxes will have to be built as a separate extension for Connections, but even with that, one would still have to modify their template of choice if they want some type of specific presentation of the custom meta.
With that said… I did build one thing into the core Connections and its core templates. Watch the first video again… Anything entered into the custom fields metabox will be displayed on any of the core templates as an unordered list. So one can put add any textual based meta to any specific entry.
I did give the ability for developers to hook into the method that handles the output of the custom meta so they can create their own way to present the meta. This is what I did with the Business Hours extension which is why it doesn’t dump out as an unordered list.
There is already two other dev out there building on top of this new API to customize Connections to better suit their requirements. The one has built/building three extensions that add additional features. The first is a metabox to define if the entry is an Affiliate or Member. I have seen it, but I’m guessing it’s just a simple radio selection or drop down. The second is some type of “discount” which collect and saves several pieces of info about the discount such as name, description and such. The last is is something to do with “level”. I don’t know any more specifics about that one. My impression is that he is quite happy with the flexibility.
This should definitely allow just about anything to be built for Connections … galleries, coupons, ratings, reviews and so on…
Hope that give you more insight!