Dreamwidth Development

iDreamwidth code

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:43:30 GMT

Posted by: vlion

Hi,

I was wondering what had happened to the iDreamwidth app & code. Rumor has it that the developer disappeared after the GSOC 2010. I am interested in perhaps getting the app or maybe working on it... possibly helping admin the source control and such if I am not enough of an Objective C guru.

Anyway! What's the status? Does anyone have the code?

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GSoC 2010 - iDreamwidth Update

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:33:01 GMT

Posted by: i_xerxes

Hey Dreamwidth! This is Xerxes, one of the GSoC 2010 students at Dreamwidth, and I'm working on the mobile client for Dreamwidth, iDreamwidth for Apple's line of iOS devices. With the nearing of the end of summer and GSoC, I though it would be proper to give the community an update on the project.

What's iDreamwidth?

iDreamwidth is the mobile client for Dreamwidth on Apple's current line of iOS devices. The aim of the project is to provide users with an intuitive interface that will keep DW posters from having to keep pinching and expanding their web sites in MobileSafari and instead have them using a client application that will allow them posting easier as well as working on drafts offline. To give you a little more of an idea of what it looks like, I've provided a bit of a tour of the application below:( Read more... )

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GSoC Results

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:41:35 GMT

Posted by: denise

Congratulations and welcome to the following students who will be joining us for this year's Summer of Code:

anarres: Business and usage statistics
chiming: RTE overhaul
i_xerxes: iPhone client
jportela: Polling system redesign/improvement
mayank: Desktop client
panna: Calendaring system
the_wanlorn: "Named guest" commenting level

We're thrilled and excited to have you guys. Welcome. :)

To those whom we couldn't accept -- thank you for your proposals! There were a lot of great things in there :) I've already had someone ask me whether they could do their proposal outside the GSoC framework, and the answer to that is, yes, totally, in most cases! There's nothing wrong with our users having multiple desktop or mobile clients to choose from, for instance. If your proposal was for something that touches the DW code directly, and someone else was accepted to work on the same thing, we encourage you to get in touch with them and let them know that you're interested in helping out. And if no-one waas accepted to work on your proposal, we'd be happy to have you work on it anyway.

Congrats again to those whose projects were accepted. It's going to be an awesome summer!

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GSoC results coming soon

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:23:15 GMT

Posted by: denise

I wanted to take a second and remind everyone that the Google Summer of Code results will be announced in about half an hour! (Although I'm sure everyone's been biting their nails and counting the minutes anyway...)

We received an incredible number of applications this year, and our greatest regret is that we can't take everyone whose proposal was awesome -- not only do we not have the mentoring capacity, Google only allows us a limited number of slots. We had to make some very, very, very hard choices. (As an example, our first set of rankings by the mentors resulted in something like a 10-way tie for first place and a 5-way tie for second.)

Whether you get an email in half an hour saying that your proposal was accepted or that your proposal was rejected, please believe that we wanted to accept so, so many more proposals than we had the capacity to accept. We hope that you'll all consider sticking around as members of the community and working with us, and we'd love to see you in Bugzilla or in irc.

Thank you, all of you, for your interest in Dreamwidth. We really appreciate your interest, your effort, and your skill, and we hope to see more of you in the future :)

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Demo desktop client

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:08:44 GMT

Posted by: dimitar

I'd like to share a desktop client I made for demonstration purposes for my GSoC proposal. It's available for download here, give it a try and let me know what you think. The client provides some very basic functionality like reading the last 10 entries in your journal, posting/editing/deleting an entry.

To run the program a double click will usually suffice, in case that doesn't work it can be started from the terminal by executing "java -jar jdw-0.1.jar". I've tested it on Linux and Windows, it would be great if someone could check whether it works on Mac.

Warning: I've written this in a couple of hours, so it's not some production quality program. I've deleted my first post here when by mistake I clicked "Delete" instead of "Edit" :) Now I added a nice confirmation dialog to prevent such mistakes. Just to be safe, I'd suggest you try it with your Dreamhack account if you have one, or use this account alternatively:

username: test
password: f/K0WN:|
server: www.dimitar.hack.dreamwidth.net

Edit: I uploaded a newer version with many fixes and small improvements (huge thanks to foxfirefey for reporting them!), available for download here.

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Google Summer of Code -- applications done!

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:34:30 GMT

Posted by: mark

The Google Summer of Code application deadline has passed as of about 30 minutes ago, so all applications should be in. As they say in America (and maybe elsewhere) -- pencils down!

We have received a total of 68 applications. I'm impressed -- I really didn't expect that many.

Now we will start the process of reviewing applications. I know that acceptance letters won't be sent until Google has finalized all of our decisions and we've worked out any duplicates (students accepted to multiple organizations).

The next step for you: relax! There's not much else you can do at this stage to improve your odds of being accepted. We're going to be looking at all of the proposals next, and you will hear back one way or the other by April 26th, 2010.

One thing you may start thinking about, however, is what to do if you do not get accepted. Dreamwidth is a busy project with many, many things that need doing. If you aren't one of the few students we can choose, we would still love to have your help this summer! We can offer you the same mentoring support that we offer all of our contributors, and you will get all the same learning, experience, and satisfaction from contributing that you would get as an official student. The only difference is that Google does not subsidize your time.

Please consider this over the next few weeks, and if there's any questions we can answer or information we can provide, don't hesitate to comment here or email us.

Thank you all for your interest and applications, and we look forward to working with you this summer!

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GSOC Proposal - Improving the Polling System PLUS Usability Study

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:16:20 GMT

Posted by: jportela

This is the final version of my GSOC Proposal. I've included a rough schedule of the project and, most important, extended the usability study not only to the polling system, but to more components of Dreamwidth (I think the polling system alone wouldn't justify a usability study). The components to do the study will be selected by the community (apart from the Polling system).

I've also included a link to a demo Usability study session, from the book Rocket Surgery Made Easy, by Steve Krug (check out the 20 minute video).

Here's a link to the final proposal (exact copy from what I submitted):

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dhh82zgj_37g9s8c8ff

Comments are encouraged!

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GSoC Proposal (Timeline + Milestones)

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:52:06 GMT

Posted by: mrigeshpokhrel

Contact Information:

Your Name: Mrigesh Pokhrel
Email Address: mrigeshpokhrel@gmail.com

IRC nickname: _silentAssassin
Dreamwidth ID: http://mrigeshpokhrel.dreamwidth.org

Dreamhacks ID: http://www.mrigesh.hack.dreamwidth.net/
Skype username: mrigeshpokhrel

Webpage/blog: http://mrigeshpokhrel.dreamwidth.org
College-University: Indian Institute of Information technology

Major: Information Technology

Project:

Project Name: Desktop Client

Project Description:

The motive of this project would be to develop a desktop client which would enable the end-user to read posts,comment on posts (anyone can post on public posts, but user needs to be in the access list if he/she wants to post on a private post), edit his/her past journal entries and post a new journal entry with all available logprops(tags, crossposts,moods,set userpic,current location,comments). There would also be feature for multiple logins for users with multiple accounts. The client would be implemented using (Flat client/server protocol : http://www.livejournal.com/doc/server/ljp.csp.flat.protocol.html) C++ and xmlrpc using xmlrpc libraries for c++. The project would be built following "bottom-up" approach centering it along the linux platform. The application would be built on a cross-platform framework QT4 which supports Mac,Windows,Linux and mobile device OS like Symbian. The application would be developed on Linux OS(Ubuntu) and then subsequently ported to other Operating Systems.

Deliverables:

24th May : research on designing a gui client

12th June : work on testing the client, finding bugs and errors and finally port the client to a GUI framework.
12th July : submit the developed application to mentor for reviews and suggestions before finally submitting it for mid-term evaluations.

9th August : develop the GUI to work with most of the protocols defined.
18th August : submit the final application after properly creating the documentation, and cleaning up the codebase.

Give us details about the milestones for this project

1. Research and Preparation:

    24th May -- 11th June
    Research/study on developing and designing a bare minimum client with respect to the most necessary protocols and build flowchart and visual diagrams of how project would commence, posting it on the community side by side for suggestions and improvements.

2. Development(Alpha Stage):
    12th June -- 1st July
     Developing a bare minimum client which would incorporate following features.

The client would request the user for authentication(username and password)
The client would allow the user to "read" past entries and "post" a new entry after successful authentication.
The methods used would be (Flat client/server protocol : http://www.livejournal.com/doc/server/ljp.csp.flat.protocol.html)
1. login : logging into the client after successful authentication
2. sessiongenerate : generating a session after successful login
3. postevent : posting a blog/journal only if the login and sessiongenerate are both successful.
4. sessionexpire : close the session instance the user has created thus

3. Functional GUI and Installer(Beta release):
    2nd July -- 14th July
    The client should be fully functional and the GUI should be user-friendly. End-user help documentation for the user to understand the working of the application should be prepared and published. Developer's documentation which describes in detail about all the functions, classes, and methods incorporated must be uploaded with the source code itself.
    The client would be released on community forums for the community to test and provide feed back, suggestions and new enhancement requests.
    The client would be submitted to the mentor/organisation for review and expert comments before finally submitting for the midterm evaluations.

4. Expansion and Subtle(Release candidate):
   17th July -- 9th August
    Client with functionalities like reading and editing past posts, check public/private and access/subscription list and edit friend list(access/subscription)/groups(access/subscription)

The client would perform bare minimum functions as defined above
The user would be able to view his past posts and edit them.
The client would have a side pane/scrollbox where he would be able to view and edit his existing access/subscriptions list both for groups and individual users
The application must be ported to Windows(XP and beyond), Linux, Mac and tested as working and stable on all three platforms.
The application would have options for proxy support where the user behind proxy would be able to access and post.
The new methods implemented would be :
1. login : logging into the client after successful authentication.
2. sessiongenerate : generating a session after successful login. There would be multiple instances of session generate implemented in the application so as to allow the user with multiple accounts to access them all at once.
3. postevent : posting a blog/journal only if the login and sessiongenerate are both successful.
4. getevents : coupled with "syncitems" this would allow the user to view his past posts, events, to-do items.
5. editevent : this would allow the user to edit/delete past posts in his journal.
6. access/subscription list for individual users : this would fetch the list of users the current logged in user identifies as those who can access his private posts against those who are subscribed to his public posts only and displays them in the side pane/scrollbox.
7. access/subscription list for group: fetch the user defined groups which defines the access/subscriptions permissions for the groups
8. editfriends : change the access/subscription permission for any user to view public/private posts and subsequently comment on them
9. editfriendgroups : change the access/subscription permission for groups defined by the user to view public/private posts and subsequently comment on them

5. Finalize and Clean-Up(Final Release):
10th August -- 22nd August :
Clean up the code and test the program for errors while completing the documentation (end-user as well as developer's reference). The documentation would be going on side by side by the development of the application. Develop the application and port it successfully to all three platforms and create an installer for such(".exe for Windows", ".tar.gz for Linux", ".app for Mac"). Release the application for the community to use and suggest further changes.

Availability

How long will the project take? When can you begin?

I can begin anytime after 15th May, thats when my end semester break starts. The project would be finished before the final submission(2.5 months -- 3 months).

How much time do you expect to dedicate to this project? (weekly)

Taking Sunday as my weekend, and 6 hours daily,I would work on the project 36-40 hrs per week.

Where will you based during the summer?

I would be based in Allahabad,India. I have access to internet and would be available for most part of the day.

Do you have any commitments for the summer? (holidays/work/summer courses)

No, I do not have any plans for Summer. If any such un-foreseen events do surface, I would make sure to make my absence as less as possible and inform the mentor in advance.

(Please kindly go through the following as well : http://dw-dev.dreamwidth.org/45416.html)

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Banyan Speak (Permitting cross-posting of threads) - GSOC

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:51:41 GMT

Posted by: trob

As someone who came to DW from the LJ community (and who's still more active over there than over here), one of the biggest barriers I find to participation is that while DW provides very good cross-posting, there's no way to cross-post comment threads. So in order to avoid discussions fragmenting across the two services it's currently necessary to tell people from one service to go to the other to comment. While this isn't always a barrier to participation (with OpenID implemented), it does provide an extra step, and the "friction" involved in that interaction seems to decrease the amount of participation.

Since my primary use of either service is focused around social interaction, the lost comments from people just not feeling up to logging into another site (even if they don't have to register an account or anything) mean lost chances for interaction, and that's a shame.

Which brings me to my project.

Basically I propose to construct a framework for synchronizing comment threads across multiple instances of DW (with the hope of making the code changes light/modular enough to let them be applied back to the LJ codebase with little or no modification). I've got a working implementation of this in WordPress at the moment, but there would need to be some changes for it to work for DW.

Initially I'll be using Disqus for synchronization (using their account system to handle the 'canonical' central version of a thread, and then synchronizing to and from that for all accounts/posts/services that need it).

What I'm aiming for is something that's almost UI-invisible. There will be a couple of user-facing changes.

In account settings there will be a section for users to enable the system and save their Disqus credentials. This will be a simple username and password update which will save a token. (Sort of like OAuth, but not exactly. It's a Disqus-specific credential system, but the users don't have to deal with it.)

When writing a new post the user will be given a new option in the meta box (probably in-column with the "comments"/"comment screening" drop-downs) which allows them to either create a new thread for the post (the default) or pick an existing thread (from a previous post that they've made. Existing threads can be from any service that the user has connected to Disqus, so it allows bridging across multiple journals, and potentially multiple instances of DW (or in the future, possibly LJ).

The rest of the code changes will be on the back-end.

There will need to be a comparison between the way DW stores comments in the database and the way Disqus does. Since they're both threaded systems they should be relatively similar, so I anticipate little needed in the way of modification here. Possibly an extra column or two in the DW system.

Helper functions to make calls to the Disqus API will be needed.

A function which automatically synchronizes comments/threads between the two services whenever comments are viewed on DW, and one that posts them to both services whenever new comments are posted.

In the long-run, there may be some structural changes as well. I'm a bit uncomfortable using a third-party system such as Disqus to handle synchronization. They're a good bunch of guys, but they're outside the control of anyone working on a DW deployment. I'd like to begin looking at alternative systems such as building a synchronization API into the DW codebase directly, or implementing something like the Salmon Protocol.

To sum things up: the project I want to work on adds to the existing cross-posting systems by allowing the cross-posting of threads as well as posts. This means that no matter where a reader is seeing a post, they see the same conversation attached to it.

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"Named guest" commenting proposal

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:28:04 GMT

Posted by: aedifica

Hi, all! Here is the main body of my proposal for working on "named guest" commenting. I hope someone will be working on this project this summer. Whether the person chosen turns out to be me or not, I know the project will benefit from any comments people choose to make on this post.

( 'Named Guest' commenting proposal )

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GSoC Desktop Client Proposal Updates

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:33:38 GMT

Posted by: chopachom

Hi again, there are only a few hours until deadline and I have updated my proposal with more sketches, section about difficulties and timeline. What do you think about that?
Link to proposal - http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgj3g7fx_0f34hdrfb
UPD: There was something wrong with link just fixed that.

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GSoC Proposal: Usage and Business Statistics

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:42:10 GMT

Posted by: anarres

Dreamwidth Usage and Account Statistics

1. Introduction

The project has two sections:

-Usage Statistics: to give a detailed overview of how Dreamwidth is used, visible to all.

-Business Statistics: to give a detailed financial report over any desired time period, visible to site admins only.

Information to be presented both numerically and graphically.

2. Why this project?

Dreamwidth is a big project that has lots of people putting energy into it: coders, people doing the business side, documenters, and also end-users - Dreamwidth is a tool they use to express their dreams and ideas. All of these people will be able to spend their energy more effectively if they have useful, reliable information about how Dreamwidth is used. For instance, post-length: if most users are making short, Twitter-like posts, it would make sense to cater for this by having the simplest, quickest-to-use interface possible, and making it work with mobile phones and other devices. If users are including lots of images and video, it would make sense to cater for that as well. Similarly, succinctly presenting detailed financial information will make life easier for the people running the business side of things.

3. Graphics front-end

Graphing library: GD graph. A script will take an array or several arrays of numerical values as its arguments, and create a line, bar, or pie chart. Since essentially any set on numbers can be fed into this script it is flexible enough to be used for any new statistics that are desired in future.

( Read more... )

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Gsoc proposal for Desktop Client

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:50:59 GMT

Posted by: dhasthagheer

Dhasthagheer

Project : Desktop client

Abstract:

Dreamwidth is a blogging platfor and social network. Nowdays the usage of blogging is increased. If user wants to post newly they have to go webbrowser and have to do post their entries or edit existing one. Its pretty good but it has taking more time. So to increase the usablity of dreamwidth Desktop client is the solution.

Project Description:

It is a downloadable client (for the platform of your choice) that will allow users to interact with their journal remotely, without needing a web browser. Ideally, a client program will allow users to post entries to their journal, read their "reading page", and manage the settings of their account (to the extent available through the protocol), but at a bare minimum, the client program should allow the user to post entries to their journal.

Implementation

Livejournal client protocol contains functions to be implent

1.Setup with dreamwidth
             Register in Dreamwidth, enable all features of dreamwidth, permission setup with full user interface.
2. Creating new posts
            This client program allow user to posts there journal into their blog without use of browser.
3. Manage Settings
           This allow user to manage the settings of their account (to the extent available through the protocol)
4. Blog management
           It can manage blog by allowing user to edit existing posts, deleting postes, Current status of the blog, etc

Miscellaneous tools
         1.saving post as draft
         2.Tagging and categorizing posts.

Why I like this idea?
   Because:
               Creating graphical tool kit is very interesting one
               Desktop application

Tentative approach to it
        1. Get Communicate with dreamwidth development team
        2. Get the knowledge about Live Journal protocal
        3. Setup client

Details about the milestones for this project

Before June: Get knowledge of Livejournal core development process.

First week of June: Learn dreamwidth policies and rules and regulations

Second week of June: Understand the function of Dreamwidth Components

End of June: Implement the items mentioned in the implementation

First week of July: Implement Miscellaneous tools

Second week of July: Submitting the code for mid-term evaluation.

Third week of July: Testing and Documenting.

End of July: Complete all other pending work, test the code, fix the bug, submitting the code for final evaluation.

My proposal benefit for Dreamwidth

               It will extend the service of Dreamwidth
               It will reduce the wastage of time of blogging
               Dreamwidth blog will be increase

Open Source

My previous Open Source development experience

1. Multi youtube file downloader
I have created a python script to download multiple youtube file at running once. It is command line application integrated with youtube-dl. At running we have to give youtube vedio file link. It will download all files one by one. Here is my code http://code.google.com/p/autoyoutubedown

2. Multi Pdf file downloader

There are some website having lots of pdf file. If we need it all it is so hard to download. We have to click one by one. This is a simple python script in wich webscrabing technique is used. It is also command line tool. This script will search pdf file download link in a user specified website and it will download all the pdf file one by one. Through this we can save our precious time. Here is my code http://code.google.com/p/autopdfdown/

3. A simple address book in php

This is a simple address book managing script using php mysql. This script manage our contact list and stored it in a database. Here is my code http://code.google.com/p/managecontact/

Why I am interesting in Open Source?

Open source providing software freedom. I using Ubuntu for the last one year. You can understand my interest in open source by the following of my activity Me and my friends joined together started a Linux user group called Kanchilug and spreading awareness about FOSS. And we are conducting weekend lug meeting from the past one year.
Here is the blog http://kanchilug.wordpress.com/
To make awareness about open source application I am creating OAOD (One application One day) which means that In ubuntu operating system there are thousands of applications are available. So I started to send mail to all linux users about ubuntu software applications from synaptic package manager. On this am sending about a application and its features and the way of installation.
Here is the Blog: http://dowithlinux.wordpress.com/

How long will the project take?

This project takes two months to complete. I can begin after my current semester ends that is may 3rd week

How much time do i expect to dedicate to this project? (weekly)

Around 6 to 7 hours per day. So totally More than 30 hours weekly i can dedicate to this project

Others

Why I like to apply for the Google Summer of Code ?

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers to write code for various open source software projects. I want to spend my summer in useful way. And i can also get paid for working

Contact information
Your Name: Dhastha Gheer
Email Address: dhasthagheer [at] gmail [dot] com
IRC nickname: dhastha
Launchpad ID: Dhastha
Skype username: dhasthagheer
Webpage/blog: http://dowithlinux.wordpress.com ,http://dhasthagheer.dreamwidth.org/
College-University: Pallavan Engineering College, Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu, India
Major: Computer Application

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GSoC Deadline Approaching!

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:23:06 GMT

Posted by: denise

The deadline for students to apply to Summer of Code is fast approaching (April 9th at 19:00 UTC -- that page shows what your local time would be).

We've definitely received more excellent applicants than we'll be able to offer mentors for, or that Google will allow us slots for, and we're going to have to make some hard decisions. To help your application have the best chances, make sure that you:

* Include detailed information abour your plans. Describe your project as thoroughly as you can, include any descriptions/specs/ideas/timelines that you've developed, and give us a good sense of what you're already familiar with and what pieces of the project you think you'll need help with.

* Tell us why you care about your project, what gets you excited about it, and why you picked this project idea.

* Tell us (or show us) what you've already done. If you've posted your proposal to dw_dev, include a link in your proposal. (It will make it easier for us to cross reference.) If you've made sketches or screenshots, include those. If you've written any prototype code already, tell us where to find it. (Don't worry if you haven't made sketches or written code yet, but I know some of you have, and it's easier on us if all of your information is in one place and we don't have to go looking.)

If you haven't submitted your official application yet, do it soon! Waiting until the last minute is a bad idea -- there's likely to be a rush and you might not be able to save your application by the deadline. Even if you've been posting here, we can't consider you as an applicant unless you apply through the Google application process.

Good luck to everybody! We've really been enjoying seeing all of your ideas, and I hope that all of you decide to stick around and contribute even if we can't accept all of you for Summer of Code. Our Bugzilla installation has a list of the things we've got on our "to do" list, and we'd love to see you work on some smaller things over the next few weeks while we're doing the administrative work to see who we're able to accept.

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GSoC Project Proposal : Mobile Client for Dreamwidth

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:37:41 GMT

Posted by: pprahul

Greetings !
The following is my project proposal, to create an Android Mobile Client for Dreamwidth.

[I have reworked the schedule. After inputs from Denise, I do realize that the earlier schedule was too optimistic one. I do respect her experience, and now the project emphasizes on the protocol implementation part. I consider this to be a really enjoyable and challenging project to work on. I would greatly appreciate all your inputs as this would give me more insights to understand the project better :) Thanks for your time ]

Title : Android Mobile Client for Dreamwidth

Abstract

Social media is the place where people share their thoughts and meet new friends. It gives their life a whole new meaning in the cyberspace. It is the place where a whole new culture evolves through exchange of ideas.

Dreamwidth has created a place for itself, combining the guiding principles and applications that enhance the user experience. Now, more often than not, people find it easier to use a single device to access their data online. So, a native mobile client for Dreamwidth, will enable the users to keep in touch with their "home" (read it Dreamwidth), from anywhere.

This client program aims at allowing users to post entries to their journal, read their "reading page", and manage the settings of their account through a neat and user-friendly mobile interface. The client program will enhance the overall user experience with Dreamwidth, giving them more freedom, than ever. This application will enable the users to "Read" the latest posts, while waiting for a bus, or while they are travelling. I believe that the users will find it really exciting and helpful, reading through the posts of a diverse community of contributors. I imagine the application to be a friend while "travelling" and a "reader" for keeping themselves updated.

I have elaborated on my plan below [Implementation, project timeline etc...].
It would be really helpful if you could go through and comment on it. :)

( Detailed Proposal )

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Desktop Client Proposed GUI

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:05:44 GMT

Posted by: mrigeshpokhrel

hi all,

I designed a gui for my would-be application, kindly go through and make any suggestions or comments you seem necessary.

http://mrigeshpokhrel.dreamwidth.org/1184.html

regards,
mrigesh pokhrel.

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Named Commenting (GSoC 2010) Project Proposal/Ideas

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 01:29:04 GMT

Posted by: dostieer

As explained in this spec, the Named commenting level should allow users who do not have an account with Dreamwidth the ability to comment without being anonymous, but without registering.

Most modern blogging sites have some sort of Named Commenting form, usually asking for a Name and a URL to attach to the name.

Basics
The Named commenting level should ask for:

Name (Pseudonym)
URL

The Named commenting level could ask for:

E-mail (and send direct replies to the Named commenter's email)

Frontend
It would be most intuitive for users if the Anonymous commenting level and the Named commenting level were kept separate, to ensure no confusion over whether the user is posting with an entered Name and URL or if they are simply posting anonymously.

Journal Settings
The journal owner must be able to decide on a journal or per-entry basis if they want to force a commentor to provide a pseudonym or prevent pseudonyms from being used. If pseudonyms are prevented from being used, I assume anonymous commenting would also be disallowed on that entry/journal? I'm confused as to when pseudonyms would want to be disallowed but anonymous commenting allowed. Some clarification would be much appreciated.

E-mail System
If the e-mail system is created, it will be important to make sure that a commenter wants to receive e-mail about his/her comment. The e-mail should include a link to subscribe to further e-mails for that entry, and it should provide a link to unsubscribe from receiving e-mails about replies.

Should this unsubscribe them from all e-mails related to Named commenting from Dreamwidth or should it only unsubscribe them from that entry? The system could be abused (if the abuser knew a person's email) if the e-mails are only unsubscribed from that entry. It seems like unsubscribing them from all further e-mails about direct replies would make more sense, but what if they want to resubscribe at a later point?

Possibilities
Depending on how the project wants to advance, an automatically generated icon could be created for a Named commenter as described in the spec, but it would be most important to get everything else working first.

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[GSOC 2010] Calendar functionality summary

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:18:39 GMT

Posted by: panna

Hello!

Some time ago I posted on dw-dev some words about the calendar functionality (suggested in DwGSoC2010 projects page)(It can be found here:) ).
I'm really sorry for not posting this as I assumed - at least a few days ago:( My family spend Easter (and other holidays) very familial and I malestimated the time I intended to spend on preparing next calendar's outline. I'm very sorry for being imprecise.

I'd be very glad to receive some guidelines and comments and answers for the proposition of Dw calendar and all the below:)

I reconsidered the set of functionalities I've proposed and tried to organize them.

( more...:) )

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Named Commenting (GSoC 2010)

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 15:37:15 GMT

Posted by: onli

The "Named Guest" comment level should give people from outside of dreamwidth the opportunity to comment on an entry without registering and without remaining completely anonymous. A Specification is already given.

Comparison

A comment on other Blogsystems like Wordpress typically stores following additional information besides the comment-text:

Name
Email
URL
(Whether to subscribe the entry)

The introduction on the "Summer of Code"-Wikipage speaks only about Name and URL, not about email. It was explained to me that email-addresses should not be stored so that nobody could spam another by entering a foreign email-address on comments to entries.

Necessary changes

Frontend

It's not strictly necessary to add one additional commentform. The current anonymous-commentform could be replaced with a new one having the additional fields, a comment without a chosen name would be a "old" anonymous comment.

Draft:

Note the use of "URL" in the list and "Website" on the label of the inputfield. Website is default on such forms, URL used in the OpenID-form. Which one is better suited? Instead of using Name/"URL/Website" in the list, it could also get called "Named comment".

Also note that "unverified identity" shall be appended to the pseudonym in the commentlist. The presentation of the comment itself aside from that won't differ from the comment of a logged-in commenter.

Database

At the properties associated with a comment, a place for the url has to be created.

Possible Extensions

Settings

A blogowner could get an option to require the commenter to use a pseudonym. This probably isn't a real extension, more a necessary option.
The other way around, to not allow anonymous user to use a pseudonym but to comment anonymously, is possible, but I don't see a usecase for that. Can you think of one?

Saving

It's possible to store in the cookies of a user his data, so he doesn't have to enter his name and url again, the commentform gets prefilled. The specification says it shouldn't be prefilled after a session or on other journals or on other entries. This could made controllable by adding a checkbox to the commentform asking whether or not to save the entered data (maybe instead of the session). It's also quite possible that it'd be useful if this storing of data wasn't per entry, but only per journal.

Email-related

Also storing email-addresses would allow to

Subscribe to an entry by just entering an email-address
Add suggested support for gravatar.

To prevent the use of this system for spamming, a double-opt-in-system for each subscription on entries could be used. The first email would ask if the owner of that address really wants to subscribe to the entry and only send notifications about follow-up-comments when answered "yes" (by clicking on a link).
Also a checkbox would be needed to activate the subscription in the first place.

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[GSoC] Yet Another Desktop Client =)

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:33:35 GMT

Posted by: chopachom

Hi all, my name is Alexander Petrovich and I'm student from Soviet Russia =), I already have email conversation with Mark where I have discussed some details about my proposal, but I am not revealing it to public yet. Now I want to introduce my proposal, feel free to comment and ask questions.So, here is link to proposal:

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dgj3g7fx_0f34hdrfb

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Google Summer Of Code

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:37:07 GMT

Posted by: kartik

For the last few days I was busy with the scratch installation of dreamwidth on fedora. But now when its done so it feels great to me. I have been there on #dw and the community helped me whenever i needed it. I must say the community is really helpful and supportive. It provides you with the perfect ambience in which you can work and give the best in you. Now I am applying for Production Monitoring which comes under System Administration as my Gsoc project. I am choosing this project as system administration is something which admires me a lot. I feel that this is the backbone for any running website or system. Apart from that I have also cleared Red Hat Certification Engineer Certification Examination in November 2009, and so I am comfortable enough to deal with servers and configuring them. I want to apply my existing knowledge as well as eager and learning new stuffs like cacti and nagios which are the standard industry environment and are used by dreamwidth. As for now that I don't have much idea about them so my approach is to prepare some basic shell scripts and implementing them on cacti.

Now I am writing my proposal for Gsoc and will post that soon( as now only 2 days are left :P). I have some small doubt what are the things that I need to cover in the project abstact section. Does that include my working strategy and the overall schedule, actually i am a bit confused that to what extend do i need to mention in this section and to include what else. I am looking forward for the community review so that I shall include those features too. Your suggestions are always welcomed. :)

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GSoC Application : A Desktop Client for Dreamwidth

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:13:47 GMT

Posted by: mayank

Hi,

I am Mayank from India. I am a second year student of M.Sc.(Hons.) Mathematics.

I would like to take up the project of a Desktop Client for Dreamwidth. I have posted my complete proposal at http://mayank.dreamwidth.org/855.html.

A sample client which I wrote to start learning the protocol is posted at http://mayank.dreamwidth.org/580.html.

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Gsoc 2010: My vision about desktop client

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:45:51 GMT

Posted by: mircea

Hello,

     I am Mircea and I want to build a desktop client.You are probably asking: "why another post about a desktop client?" ... well, because I think that my proposal is different from those before mine. Many proposals means that community will benefit from a better product. I will describe the features I thought about leaving the most technical details for the eventual application.I have added 3 mockups for the app: MainView , EditView and MiniView .
     First thing first: I will develop the application in Actionscript 3 with Flex framework for Adobe AIR Runtime. AIR is a free cross-platform runtime for Flash, HTML and Javascript. It brings the web experince to the desktop enjoying the latter access to resources. Use of a runtime has the advantage that you write the same code for Win, Linux or Mac. Another advantage of Adobe AIR is the auto-update system for its apps.
     First thing I will focus on is user management. Each user will have one or more "identities", this means one Dreamwidth username and optional Facebook and Twitter accounts. Each "identity" will be assign to a tab (as you can see in MainView). There will be a "user info" one (left side in MainView.png) where the user will found: userpic , website ,location , birthday ,status on Twitter and Facebook, other contact info , bio ,interests. This items will be editable.The user will be able to change his userpics.In Facebook zone you will see your current status, inbox, requests and will have a link to your online page.In Twitter zone you will see your status and last tweets. There will be two modes to use the app: online mode and offline with sync. In online mode any action (change on profile , post entry, etc.) will be performed immediatelly , while in sync mode will be added to a queue and all the action will be performed at sync time (when the app will go in online mode). In online mode you will be able to select posts and messages that will be available offline. To make them available will be saved as files on harddisk.
     The second thing I will focus on is enhanced editing. There will be a separation between reading and editing. The main page is dedicated to reading posts and messages. The reading section will have a search (like that on the website).Any editing will be made in a separate window , one for every edit action. You can have as many edit windows as you want. The mockup for it is EditView. Every draft can be saved separately on a file (probably with a xml structure). You could load any previous draft, modify and then save it again or send it. The formatting options will resemble with those available on website.All drafts and saved posts/messages will form the "archive". Its content could be seen on reading section. Before posting something you can see a preview of how it will look on reading section.
     Third thing I have focused on is efficient use of resources. The app can run in "mini-mode"
(mockup is MiniView) without main window or any edit windows. There the user will see the last posts, messages or tweets (summarized , not the all content). The small sized window is cpu-friendly. To add functionality in "mini-mode" will be a command line like interface. Using this interface the user will be able to open main window , open a edit window or save one message/post to "archive". For example a command like: "new post -as Mircea -to dw_dev" will open an edit window with "Post as" and "Post to" input texts completed with "Mircea" and "dw_dev", and "post" selected in type of edit selector. This command line like interface will be found on main page too (as it can be seen on mockup :D). When new stuff appears in "Latest things" zone a customizable sound will be played.
     Another feature will be a theme editor where the user will modify text fonts , background colors or images. I want to use an agile like development method meaning that I will work in sprints (2-3 weeks). After each sprint there will be an usable app ready to get feedback from the mentor and community.
     This is a looong post ... the reason is that I wanted to describe ,as well as I could, my vision about how the desktop client should look like and how should it work.This is only a draft of my proposal so I am eager to hear your opinions about it. Thank you for reading.

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GSoC 2010: Desktop client Project (Part 2)

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:14:00 GMT

Posted by: toonsuperlove

Hello, everyone

Sorry for my invisible so long~~~

In this time I have got a lot thing to do with ( final exam, take flight , laptop broke) and also

I and my team have pass in Imagine Cup 2010: in Embedded Development to round 2 !

So, this 2 job (Imagine Cup + GSoC) will take me this whole summer~~

but dont worry, I can manage it !

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oops! I almost forgot an important thing

I have finish (almost) final GSoC proposal and I have list my feature in my blog you can go and see here!

toonsuperlove.dreamwidth.org

If anybody has a doubt or want some more, dont wait ! you can throw to me ! (and I will dodge)

Thanks

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Project Description: Improve the Polling System

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:47:01 GMT

Posted by: jportela

Here's the Project Description section of my proposal. You are very welcome to share your thoughts on this:

Project Description: Improving the Poll System

The goal of this project is to improve the Poll System, a paid-user enhancement in Dreamwidth. The improvements should focus on the User Controls/Experience, by doing a usability study and requirements specification for new features, and then implement the fixes/features needed. Some issues are already discussed in Bugzilla, and should be implemented in the early stages of GSOC, while doing the usability study and requirements specification.

The usability study should be a simple study, made with the help of the community. I will try to get some friends/relatives of mine to do some tasks on the Poll system (with no previous knowledge how it works) and have them tell what they are thinking and observe what they are trying to do. Maybe we can get the community to do this, by delivering some guide scripts and have them record the conversation.

The requirement specification of new features should be an informal specification of features existing poll users want to have. Some of them are already documented in Bugzilla, but if the project advances, then I think we can ask people for more features and help to document them.

So, during the whole GSOC I should be solving issues as they appear in the Bugzilla Polls section.

In parallel, a usability study and requirement specification of new features should be done to "enrich" the Bugzilla. This issues can be solved on parallel during GSOC, or may be documented for reference to solve post GSOC.

Some issues that are already documented that are good candidates for me to solve since day 1:

Bug 791 - Polls have poor semantic styling (and are ugly)
Bug 28 - Download CSV of poll results
Bug 1694 - More control for polls
Bug 1756 - "Tick N boxes" poll question option
Bug 1590 - AJAXify polls
Bug 1397 - Add option to collapse poll display
Bug 1106 - Ajaxify poll creator
Bug 703 - English strip /tools/fck_poll.bml
Bug 1861 - Poll answer redirection in the same style
Bug 2191 - Manage Polls page

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