[geeklog-devel] GSoC 2010 is on

[Randy Kolenko]

Based on some of the discussions around social networking for GL, a
major question of whether this is a core component or is a standalone
plugin are still not answered.  The answer to the plugin vs. core
question will drive the final architecture for this project.

For our nex* products, we do a dependency check for any other required
plugins and bail out of the install in the event that a dependency is
missing.  Likewise on other mainstream portals, many modules/plugins
depend on functionality from elsewhere that is outside of core and will
not install add-on products without those dependencies being met.  That
being said, I think anything for social networking should really be a
plugin.  

The plugin would expose an api for managing permissions, groups etc etc.
Any other plugin that wants to participate in social networking would
list the socnet (not a bad name) plugin as a dependency.  Static pages,
calendar, polls etc would have to be revamped to be able to handle hook
calls from the socnet plugin to secure/share content then.

This way for the current install base of Geeklog, nobody is FORCED to
incorporate social networking if they don't want to.  

Just my $0.00002.




> The current problem is that it isn't possible to hook into the
> permissions system currently to add friendship lists to the system.
> Once that ability exists, every subsystem will need to determine "is
> this something individual users should be able to add to their
> profile?" Currently Geeklog is very admin oriented. You give discrete
> abilities to a select few chosen people and they then pontificate to
> your users. Social networking turns that on its ear. They are all
> about allowing users to talk to other users without some
> administrator vetting the content.