Re: [Phpwebsite-developers] One among many

[Matthew M. <ma...@tu...>]

> Is the point of this post just to ask what ideas should be on the todo
> list for phpWS, or is this implying that there is some interest in
> trying to make phpBB work more closely with phpWS?

I have nothing but respect for phpBB. However I am not requesting we work
with their team. They are more well known, therefore I think if they were
interested they would have contacted us. I just used this post as an
example of what people want now that content management has matured.

> Anyway, a couple of comments below...
>> Ability to add pictures to news posts, resize them etc.
>> Ability to set the order news appears on the site
>> ------> I would like to see this as well
>
> Haven't looked at the very latest releases of phpWS, and I'm not sure
> what the most generic/flexible way of doing this is, but I'd like to
> see it be possible to replace the standard topic icons with pictures,
> and then also be able to have attachments (pictures, WP documents,
> whatever) for each news article.

Agreed. I think a lot of people are in the Slashdot mind set of small news
opening to bigger news with a topic pic. While that may be good for some,
others may want more flexibility. I am not advocating which is better, but
I do think developers should allow the users to determine how far they want
to take the functionality.

>> Calendar
>> private and public events
> Calendaring is of course the big deal a lot of places.  I think it
> would be great if we could somehow make HORDE applications (IMP &
> Kronolith in particular) with phpWS since they already have such a good
> head start in calendaring and mail.  For example, I think it would be
> great if the "mail to a friend" option could just pop open an IMP
> compose window that was pre-populated with the article that you were
> forwarding.

You will understand that calendar is a sensitive subject with me. ;^) And
calendar WILL be better in its next incarnation. I am not sure what
direction it will go in the rewrite (most likely some group/user
functionality) but I still like event calendars more than groupware (which
are done quite well by others).

That said, I would like options to install different calendar modules on
phpwebsite. But others need to create that option. I would like phpwebsite
to be popular enough that project developers would WANT to create a module
for phpwebsite on their own. We can't develop all the things people want.
What we can try to do is make phpwebsite appealing enough for others to
develop for it. That is what we are concentrating on. Not features, but
flexibility, modularity, and ease of use.

> I think the main thing that people are seeing with all the different
> attempts at "groupware" are that no one open-source group can do
> everything and do it well.

Right, so phpwebsite needs to be flexible enough that others can fill in
the blanks. That is what we want.

> Unfortunately, the best of breed
> applications have wildly different foundations.  If we could find a way
> to make a few of the major ones talk to each other (sharing
> authentication sessions if nothing else), we'd be making a huge amount
> of progress.  And that diversity can still be a positive because if
> there's something I want to write, I can choose to make it a phpWS
> plug-in, a HORDE application, or whatever else makes sense.

Agreed. Future incarnations will have all that you are mentioning built in.
Modules will be able to communicate and work with one another seamlessly
through the core.

> While commenting on features, we have one functionality concern that
> we're looking at in choosing a CMS...  The first is that we have a need
> to have a lot of sub-sites.  For example, we have our university-wide
> web site, and then we have the departmental sites that want to have
> their own content.  It would be ideal if there was a way (with themes,
> or some kind of sharing between phpWS installs) to allow a user to post
> an article on the business school "portal" and have it optionally
> appear on the university-wide portal page.  We have a need for similar
> functionality in an event calendar (to display Business School events
> vs. university-wide events).

Funny you should mention this. We have the exact same need and we are in
the process of developing "hub technology." Sites will share information
with one another to make a community of web sites. I will let Brian or
Jeremy comment more on this because they are building it.

> With all that in mind, I do want to say that although development
> doesn't appear to be moving as quickly in phpWS as some other CMS'es, I
> still am a strong fan because it seems that this is one of the few
> projects that is really working to build infrastructure into the
> system, rather than just sheer quantities of features.

Well thanks that is what we are aiming for. A few quick points:
1) I have a new position so I working more directly on phpwebsite now.
2) We have a couple new developers that are doing some great things,
3) The students that code on the project are in exam hell right now. You
will probably see more of Adam, Jeremy, John, Steven, and Ryan once they
get done.
4) We ebb and flow with the university calendar (i.e. more gets done during
the breaks).

Have a good weekend everyone!

Matt


-----------

Matthew McNaney
Internet Systems Architect
Electronic Student Services
Email: ma...@tu...
URL: http://phpwebsite.appstate.edu
Phone: 828-262-6493
ICQ: 141057403