[geeklog-devel] Student developer with a question

[Dirk Haun]

Sean Clark wrote:

>For the test framework project
>(http://wiki.geeklog.net/index.php/SoC_test_framework), I'm not entirely
>sure what the focus is.

That's understandable, since the description isn't too sure either ...

We need both: Tests on the code level, so that we can see if, say, a
change broke the handling of special characters. But we also need tests
for, as you put it, the user experience, so that we can see if all the
various options in the story editor still work (or something like that).

The two types need different tools and there will be different ways to
approach them. Both types on their own could be full time GSoC projects
or you could only lay the groundworks for both, in which case you can
probably do it as one project. So the student has some degrees of
freedom here. Pick one of the various options and convince us that it's
the best approach :-)


>For the webservices project
>(http://wiki.geeklog.net/index.php/SoC_webservices_revisited), the
>difficulty level said medium to high - which may mean it's beyond my newbie
>grasp. If I were to work on image upload, however, would I be able to use
>something like (http://www.verot.net/php_class_upload.htm) through
>webservices?

Geeklog comes with its own upload class. It's used to upload images in
articles and userphotos. It can also resize images. I would think that
it can also be used for this project.


>It doesn't seem like a very difficulty project, compared to the
>test framework - but then again, these things are always easier in theory :D

The devil is in the details here. The AtomPub protocol seems to hold
some surprises (from my understanding). You also would have to craft
this onto Geeklog's existing code, which may require rewriting quite a
few pieces of code.

(dives into email archives) Ah, I knew I've discussed this before.
Quoting Ramnath Iyer, who implemented the current AtomPub support during
GSoC 2007:

>I think the image upload feature would be a major feature, because it will 
>require a rewrite in the way uploads are handled currently. At the moment, 
>the images are uploaded along with the content of the post. But in the case 
>of Atom, uploading of media is handled separately, so the webservice would 
>have to upload the image and the content independently, which would require 
>extensive changes to the existing upload code, and probably the database 
>schema as well.

I guess that could make updating images later especially "fun" ...

bye, Dirk


-- 
http://www.geeklog.net/
http://geeklog.info/