Changing the files on the server outside of the RW environment is exactly what each of the CMS solutions offers as their primary feature.
The reason I am looking to designate the resources folder is due to Total CMS and Easy CMS.
A long time a go I thought it would be a great idea to distribute “Foundation Temples”.
@hipsterweaver took that idea and created Hipster Weaver, which rocks! He actually made something so good that others have now started distributing Foundation Templates as well.
I’ve had several project files that have been ready to go for a while, but have been holding onto until I had time to release a couple versions of each; a standard version, a Easy CMS version, and a Total CMS version.
Some of my CMS versions get pretty complex with some unorthodox options that allow for an incredible amount of control. These projects in particular, along with the less complex, require the cmd-data folder that contains the necessary files to be uploaded to the server.
Imagine you were brand new to RapidWeaver. You chose it because you want to design a website, but you don’t want to code.
You read up and find out that Foundation for RapidWeaver is the only theme you will ever need. However, working with a framework like Foundation has a bit of a learning curve.
So you go and buy a Foundation Temple. There goes a major part of the learning curve to getting a Foundation site live.
Then, you realize that you need to edit a site from devices that don’t run RW. So, you purchase Total/Easy CMS. +1 goes to learning curves again.
Luckily, there is a CMS version of the Foundation Template you have. -1 to learning curve.
You publish the CMS Foundation Template, but can’t stop there. The moment you publish the site you will have errors for missing content all over the place.
You then need to either go though and fill out every admin form for your content so that your site doesn’t display “unable to locate…” or you need to upload the cms-data folder that came with your CMS Foundation Template.
Since the cms-data folder will save you a great deal of time, and in some cases is required, you decide to upload it to your server. But how…? What’s a Cyberduck? … +1 to learning curve.
Now instead imagine; you purchase a CMS Foundation Temple, open it, publish it to your server and your done. You swap out a few images and change some text and you’re done.
Not only that, but if RW could synchronize the files in the folder then you could have offline editing with Easy CMS and Total CMS that would be published the next time you publish your files.
You would then also have a backup of all your content inside of the Portable Document which is then saved in both your machine and on your server.
I know this may seem trivial to some of us, but there is a very wide range of users that use RapidWeaver. Some don’t even own Stacks because they seem too complicated.
While I have full faith that each user is capable of learning to use; FTP, CMS, Foundation, Stacks and all the things we love to use; I also think there is a portion of the RW market who would be more inclined to use these amazing tools if there was as little learning curve as possible.
Sorry this message was so long. I intentionally didn’t explain the use case in my OG Post because I couldn’t see a shorter way to describe my vision.
Cheers!
Brandon