[geeklog-devel] SOCNET

[Joe Mucchiello]

At 09:25 AM 2/27/2010, Randy Kolenko wrote:
>http://wiki.geeklog.net/index.php/SoC_social_network_support
>
>There's the initial wiki page for Socnet.
>I just put it together this morning and is by no means a definitive
>final version spelling out requirements.
>Based on what I put in the requirements, I think this is a GSoC project
>that is 100% do-able in the allotted time frame.  All critiques welcome.

I still think the core modifications should already be in place 
before Summer starts. I've started doing a diff and it is not all 
that hard. It's more an issue of tracking down all the group table 
references and checking them. (Oh, and I've discovered there's no 
need to modify grp_gl_core at all. Simply adding grp_owner is enough. 
If grp_owner is zero, the group is maintained by the group admin 
feature only. If the grp_owner is non-zero, only the user with that 
uid can access the group. Thus the socnet plugin would need to ensure 
that all group manipulation occurs to groups with non-zero owner records.)

>The area that is currently "lacking" in substance is the messaging --
>that is, how should an end user receive notifications that something has
>changed and how should that be managed.

I would assume the plugin would hook plugin_getuseroptions_socnet to 
add a "messages" or "alerts" link. They could also hook through 
templatesetvars to add "popup" text to header (through javascript) to 
alert the user.

The messages would of course be stored in a table created and 
maintained by the plugin. The plugin would have functions to handle alerts:

SOC_createAlert($uid_to, $uid_from, $objid, $plugin, $state = 
'UNSEEN') returns list($state, $datetime_created)
SOC_displayAlert($uid_to, $uid_from, $objid, $plugin) calls 
socnet_displayalert_$plugin($uid_to, $uid_from, $objid) returns text to display
SOC_markAlert($uid_to, $uid_from, $objid, $plugin, $state = 'SEEN') 
returns list($state, $datetime_created)
SOC_deleteAlert($uid_to, $uid_from, $objid, $plugin) returns nothing
SOC_findAlert($uid_to, $uid_from, $objid, $plugin) returns 
list($state, $datetime_created) or null if there is no such alert. 
Used to do things like "You have requested friendship with {username} already."
SOC_ignorePluginAlerts($uid, $plugin) allows the user to ignore 
annoying plugins

So a plugin that enhances stories or the calendar plugin could tell 
you a story or event you are subscribed to has changed: 
SOC_createAlert($observer_uid, $editing_uid, $sid, 'story'). When the 
user clicks the menu item that says they have an alert, the story 
plugin is called. If uses the $objid to get the story title and 
produces the text: <a href="link to item">item title</a> has been 
modified by $editing_uid.  Or the socnet plugin itself could handle 
friends through the API: SOC_createAlert($uid_to, $uid_from, 'friend 
request', 'socnet'). Inside socnet_displayalert_socnet if they are 
not friends it would generate the text <a 
href="profilelink">{username}</a> wants to be your friend <a 
herf="accept link">accept</a>, <a>deny</a>, <a>block user</a>. If 
they are already friends if would generate "{username} became friends 
with {username}". (The accept button would create a similar alert 
swapping the uids.)


----
Joe Mucchiello
Throwing Dice Games
http://www.throwingdice.com