Fixing Squishdot

["Michael R. Bernstein" <webmaven lvcm com>]

On Sun, 2001-08-26 at 00:38, Christian Schaller wrote:
>
> On 25 Aug 2001 15:53:56 -0700, Michael R. Bernstein wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 2001-08-25 at 13:23, Christian Schaller wrote:
> > >
> > > Exact quote from Chris was: 'This, sadly, is posting_html bogosity that
> > > I'm nto gonna fix for Squishdot. Wait
> > > for Swishdot, when I get a chance ;-)'
> > 
> > Hmm. It's not listed as a current known bug in the release notes for
> > 1.3. I'll let Chris answer this (since this is still being crossposted
> > to the Squishdot mailing list).
>
> According to the latest mail from Chris you should be easily able to fix this :)

Well, I'm not sure how *easy* this will be, but I'll give it a shot.

> > > > > b) A sidebar for birthdays. People are not happy about having birthdays
> > > > > displayed in the main news area, so moving birthday posts into a sidebar
> > > > > might be nice.
> > > > 
> > > > You mean a separate subsection for birthdays (like slashdot's
> > > > 'Interviews' section)?
> > >
> > > I mean like a separate sidebar which we currently have for software, older 
> > > stories and GNOME events. Would be nice if this could be handled by just selecting
> > > the birthday subject in Squishdot, but moving it into a separate system
> > > is also an option. Look at the example sidebars at news.gnome.org to see
> > > what I mean.
> > 
> > Hmm. So you want 'Birthday' subject articles to be excluded from the
> > front page, but listed in a sidebar so that they can be clicked to, is
> > that right?
> 
> Yes, thats it.

Creating a sidebar with the Birthday stories isn't a problem, but I'm a
little less certain about excluding a subject from the front page. I'll
see what I can do.

> > > > > We also need time controlled posting. We need to be able to approve a
> > > > > story and set it to be published at a later time. (Important in order to
> > > > > time press releases etc.)
> > > > 
> > > > An interesting requirement. The CMF supports this, but I'm not aware if
> > > > the current swishdot does.
> > >
> > > This is actually quite important, cause with the current setup we need someone to be
> > > available at the right time with the right access to do this. And it
> > > also is more error prone since that person needs to remember posting
> > > this stuff.
> > 
> > This is something that would have to wait for a move to CMF + Swishdot.
> 
> Well, considering we have survived this far without it, I guess we can wait with 
> this point, but I hope you can look at the moderation issue short term at least, 
> especially since Chris said it was a piece of cake <g>

If it was really as easy as Chris implied, it would have been fixed
already. I think he just wants someone else to take care of it. ;-)

BTW, I've got confirmation that the CMF supports delayed publication as
well as content expiration. If Swishdot doesn't already expose this in
the UI when we make the switch, it won't be hard to add.

> > > > What is your time-frame? I am currently under the gun to complete a
> > > > first draft of a book on Zope(scheduled for february publication), so I
> > > > can't commit myself full-time, though I can probably help out quite a
> > > > bit.
> > > 
> > > Well the timeframe isn't set in stone here, I guess what I need to see
> > > is actuall progress being made, so if you could start fixing one problem
> > > at a time as your time permits that would be enough for me, even if it
> > > would be some months before the last of the requested features is
> > > implemented. If you don't have the time to start looking into this at
> > > all until february, we either need to have someone else volunteer to
> > > work on Squishdot now, or accept the offer to have a PHP4 based setup.
> > 
> > My deadline for the first draft is actually the end of September, and
> > I'll be fairly busy until then.
> > 
> > I can *start* looking at these issues now, and begin making progress
> > (not much, but some). Presumably I'll be able to get some input and help
> > from the Squishdot and Zope communities.
> > I'll go post that query on the CMF list now...
> > 
> 
> Thanks for doing this Michael, I really appreciate the effort you have
> offered to put in so I hope I have not come of as a demanding bastard :)

After some research, the easiest thing to do right now will be to add a
right-box for the TROVE RSS feed, since it doesn't involve fixing any
bugs. How are the current 'Software' and 'Events' sidebars being
generated?

I can also easily add a sidebar that lists all the subjects. See
http://www.fiawol.com for an example (in the 'Quick Links' box). Yes, I
know I haven't been updating my site in a while. I've been busy. :-)

Michael Bernstein.