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Hi Folks,
No, I haven't forgotten, a few detours--okay, many.
My initial plan was to put up a few quick subscription management
pages for the NNDL and then take my time with the actual migration
of the discussion list to the new server.
While prototyping these pages I saw that CSS-2 had matured and that
CSS-3 and HTML-5 were around the corner. So I thought, might well
brush up a bit. That, umm.. of course, naturally lead to the
alphabet soup of AJAX, JSON, JQuery...
A few weeks of delirious reading, and probably because of it, I started
looking into the current state of Content Management Systems (CMS).
The days of roll your own CMS are probably over.
First, there were the stalwarts like XOOPS and Plone. Then stuff like
PHPNuke, PostNuke, and Textpattern with a few wiki's thrown in. Finally,
the newer shinier Mambo/Joomla, Drupal and Typo.
The upshot, Drupal. CSS and AJAX mastery will have to wait. Browser
quirks and incompatibilities are maddening but the Drupal developers
seem to have carved an admirable path through the jungle.
Drupal 5.x was released while I was playing with 4.7, two releases as a
matter of fact, 5.1 and 5.2. More delays and more typing, but I was
determined to get some results before summer was over.
So after the longish ramble, ladies and gentlemen, I give you
http://northloop.14gram.com
Still a long way to go, but the foundation appears to be solid and holds
some exciting possibilities. Lots of things below the surface. The site
is capable of supporting full user interaction, including subscriptions,
comments, news, images, and forum submissions. For the moment they are
turned them off.
Quick overview of publicly visible modules:
1. NNDL discussion list integrated into NNDL forum
http://northloop.14gram.com/forums/nndl-0
2. Image gallery
http://northloop.14gram.com/image-gallery
(click on an image to see AJAX/JQuery in action)
3. Event calendar (sample entry Aug 24)
http://northloop.14gram.com/calendar/2007/08
4. RSS subscriptions.
You should be able to subscribe to any page, including the NNDL
forum, that displays the orange RSS icon (top menu-bar to the
right, below the header image). The address bar of your browser
should also indicate this.
Soon to come, simple web polls, news aggregation, and web directory.
For now, anything you post to the NNDL will (after some delay)
show up on in the NNDL forum. Currently, 3 such posts have
made in it in there. This will probably be the 4th.
And finally a request.
If you would like to help with debugging and testing, especially
access routes/permissions for the interactive/subscription parts,
please let me know.
Other areas you can help with are:
1. Developing, writing, proofing policies -- TOS, privacy, etc.
2. Classification/departmentalization, for example,
news aggregation, web directory.
3. Image submissions.
- I am actively working on accepting image submissions
via cell phones. If all kinks can be worked out this,
I believe, can have a material impact on improving
security--instant neighborhood watch.
4. Suggestions for polls
5. Establish need/usefulness of features and modules.
For example, should the site support:
- User/organic groups/groupings
- Classifieds
- Video
- Article submissions
- Sections, such as school/church announcements
6. Theming design and color combinations.
With your help, I would like to move the site along as quickly as
practical to where is becomes a useful/holistic voice for the
community by the community.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Regards
-bapi
> Hi Folks,
>
> We have acquired some new servers, and I lucked out by getting
> a VPS (virtual private server) entirely to myself.
>
> One of the first things I would like to do is migrate
> the NNDL to this server.
>
> Just a head up in case there's a hiccup or two. Not really
> expecting any, but one can never tell.
>
> Hoping to get started this weekend. Will keep you posted.
>
> Regards
> -bapi
>
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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in messages are solely that of the author
and not of the list administrators nor Druma Inc (sponsor 14gram.com).
Website: Northfield Neighborhood Assoc - www.main.org/nna
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