Web-enabled LETS System / News: Recent posts

Still more progress being made, so holding off on a new release for a bit.

For the moment, please use CVS head, not the release file, as the release file has some serious breakage and is way behind compared to the CVS code.

WebLETS now uses a nice drop menu.
A printed currency, aka paper money, is on the way.

There are now several people helping test it, so the next release should be quite good.

The install has been simplified and is being simplified even more.

An exact release date for the next version is not certain, it will be when it is ready for release.

A nicer more user friendly layout is in the works. Some preparatory changes have already been made in CVS and more are on the way.

Once the new user-friendly changes are in place a new release will be made. In the mean time please use the latest CVS version as it has a great many bug fixes and improvements over the 2.1.5 version.

The new release will probably happen some time around the end of August 2011. There are now other people helping with the design, which I am quit excited about. The next release should be a major step forward for open source LETS software. A Drupal module is being considered.

The current CVS code base now has the ability for ads to have a price, price unit, quantity (of price unit), and when viewed the detail view of an ad has a place to make an offer (price and quantity). When the ad author next looks at the ad listings (via 'My LETS:My Ads') any offers will show up and can be accepted or declined.

Declined ads can be resubmitted, presumably with a better offer.
Ads can also be retracted so long as they have not yet been accepted.... read more

In CVS one can now find the partially functional new Community facility. This is were people can discuss ideas and vote on them, community based legislation. I have long felt that a true democracy would be an interesting thing to try and it seems to me that with the Internet it is now possible, just need the software.

It is taking shape as I work on it, so don't try to use it yet. This is just a note that it is coming. It will also include a community calendar, which I've not even started yet.... read more

Well, I've just been a-coden-away for a few days now, and the new release is here with significant improvements in the ads, how they are displayed, edited, delete, all is better then it was.

OH, and the ads can now include images!

There are two new constants in config.inc concerning where to put uploaded files. Only the one for the ad images is used currently. The other one is for check background images, and that code is unchanged, I still have to update it to use the constant.... read more

As it has been a couple of months now since the last changes and no one has found anything wrong, it seems time to make a new file release.

This release has some new features, notable a rating system not unlike that used on ebay. This release also has some bug fixes over the last release.

A note on migrating, the new features mandated some changes to the underlying database structure. While these were not huge, they do make upgrading an existing installation a little more difficult. At this point I forget every thing involved, so if you need to migrate an existing LETS, please email me for help: terry@mackintoshweb.com. Note that I use ASK (Active Spam Killer), so you will need to answer the confirmation email before I will get your email.... read more

Once upon a time I thought this project was complete, nothing more to do...

Now that I have stepped back from it for a while, I see many new features are needed. The first of these new features are now in CVS.

* Notices on the home page of things since ones last login, such as new members, new ads, and feedback that is still pending.

* Added the ratings system, which allows people to rate how satified they are with another person concerning a sale, or purchase.... read more

For a community to have it's own currency is only a starting point. To further empower communities it is necessary that members of the community be able to communicate about issues of importance to their community and then have some way to come to an agreement on those issues, that is, vote.

To that end, the next thing to do would seem to be to look around for existing open source software that can integrate with WebLETS to do this, or as a last resort create it from scratch.

If you go to approve a new membership with a first account, and get this error:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function newaccount() in /usr/local/domains/marslets/.inc/memberaddedit.inc on line 217

I have just found and fixed it. Check cvs for the update.

The problem occured when I combined, or thought I combined two almost identical functions, one to create a new account, and one to update an existing account. These functions have now been combined.... read more

A few problems have been found and fixed, others have no doubt been added or missed.

A few minor freature changes, nothing big.
One of the pending freature requests was taken care of: That ads be able to be sorted by date.

The testing is not as complete as I would like, but no show stoppers have been found.

At this time I will also consider the project to be "Production/Stable".

Terry Mackintosh <terry@mackintoshweb.com>

In CVS, all files with FIXME notes in them have been fixed. This takes care of all or nearly all of the known loose ends that were still left dangling.

It needs some testing befor making a file release.
I have done some quick testing and fixed the problems that I found, but there are sure to be more.

WebLETS just needs some testing and it is probably ready to be considered as production/stable, which would be nice.... read more

New Features:

Membership request form added, with admin approval/denial at the click of a button.

Added optional auto-create first account when creating a membership.

Added ability to delete accounts, transferring any balance to a given account.

Added ability to delete memberships, if they have no accounts.

Fixed a few bugs.

LETS go!

Terry

Yes, already I've found problems and fixed them.

This is a bug fix release, no major rework this time.

Bigger!
Better!
And free!

Many changes, much improved.

In the newest code (not yet in CVS) some major changes are in the works. The database (db) table transidlookup is gone, some fields have been added to the transactions table which also now has some rules attached to it. One of those rules returns the new transaction id upon insert and another does the accounting, and yet another rule processes the fees.

It is also my intenstion that sanity checking be done at the db level, like are either of the accounts restricted or closed or over their credit limit ... that sort of thing.... read more

OK, I forgot a few things.

Some of it is already in CVS, some more I am working on and will put into CVS once it is working.

I do not want to commit know non-working files.
It is my intention that the CVS should always be functional.

That said, it is preferable to get the lastest CVS then the latest tar ball. There will not be another file release untill I'm confident that everything is included and working.... read more

This is it, the first file release of the new PosgreSQL based version.

This took about two months work, almost every day.

There are still a lot of things to do, but every thing works (I think) including the install procedure. As such, the project status has now been moved to 'Beta'.

At this point I need to focus on some other things for awhile. So there is not likely going to be anything major happening on this for a few months unless someone else wants to do it. That said I will probably still make minor tweaks on a weekly bases or so.... read more

Some security stuff is now working and the ground work has been laid for more.

This may have cuased some breakage, but I think I found most of it and fixed it already.

Terry

At this point every thing now seems to work.

That said, many things still have little or no security checks, so it is only for use with honest people at the moment.

Also there are some cosmetic problems.

The file 'fivetraders.php' which would show guests (those not logged in) five random member profiles, is for the moment gone. This does not seem to me to be information that needs to be seen by just anyone. If there is interest in having it, then it would be a simple matter to add back in.... read more

The install directions are updated and the code changed to assume the need for initial configuration upon first visit by a web browser.

There are still a lot of loose ends, but for the advantures it should be possible to install it now without too much difficulty.

The more importent parts of the system are working. If clicking on a link and gets some error about an undefined function, then that part has not been done yet.... read more

After tagging (pre2008-5-18) the old version in cvs, most of the old files have been removed and new ones added.

This is the beginings of the new PostgreSQL based version. It is not working yet, not with out a lot of work anyway. In the coming weeks it is intented to tidy up to the point where it will be usable by others. At that point a file release with be made.

A major update is well underway and will be availiable in a few days.

This is such a drastic rewrite, with several loose ends still to be taken care of, that the status has been moved back to Alpha. This should be short lived and go to Beta as soon as some of the loose ends are tied up.

The biggest changes:
* Database changed to PostgreSQL
* Code broken into smaller sections and put into functions.
* Accounts do not expire or need renewed.... read more

I've just tried to install the "latest" version of WebLETS from the CVS and discovered that some of the more recent edits to the code have seriously broken the install script. It is possible to get the system working by renaming and editing the sample configuration file.

Please note that there is an error in the database.sql file that is included in the 1.2 release. The error is noted in the "Bugs" section of this site--a 't' is missing from the first field definition on the cheques table.

This will cause the install script to complain and fail.

You can fix this by replacing it with the correct version of database.sql (1.6) from cvs at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/\*checkout*/weblets/weblets/database.sql?rev=1.6... read more