[gentoo-soc] Progress Report - Setting Beacon Afloat

["Nandeep Mali" <n9986.mali@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

This report is a matchup of the original timeline and deliverables
with the progress so far.

My original deliverables were:

- Remove Mochikit and replace it with Dojo.
- Provide a GuideXML customized Rich Text Editor in place of normal text-boxes.
- Improve Various User Interface Elements such as the DOM tree and
remove CSS bugs.
- Design a Data Backend as an alternate to temporary file storage.
- Rewrite the drag and drop feature and improve formatting of generated code.

Now to go through them (not in order):

1. Remove Mochikit and replace it with Dojo:
Done. The aim here was to reduce the number of JavaScript libraries
used. I have included the Prototype framework[1] for easy AJAX
handling.

2. Improve Various User Interface Elements such as the DOM tree and
remove CSS bugs:
Done. Created a fluid layout to remove the annoying scroll bars and
will handle different browser sizes and resizing. The original cute
icons are still there. ^_^
The DOM tree can be used to jump to various locations in the document.
Also the different chapters and sections can be referenced in the
document.

3. Design a Data Backend as an alternate to temporary file storage:
Done. Created a wrapper for generic functions like read and write.
Also included a Gmail like auto-save feature. The XML view and save
features are all implemented using AJAX.

4. Provide a GuideXML customized Rich Text Editor in place of normal text-boxes:
& 5. Rewrite the drag and drop feature and improve formatting of
generated code:
The 5th feature has been replaced with the RTE. Now there is no use of
a drag and drop interface. What we had thought of was that the
document would be editable by using the inline text-boxes that Dojo
has. Since the editor will have to be collaborative it'll not be easy
to implement document manipulations on the fly. Therefore I thought of
using the Writely (Google Docs) approach where the entire document is
editable. The RTE is now a big undertaking and will be a continuous
work. The formatting of generated XML has been improved but requires
some more tweaks. The editor does not support some GuideXML elements
but those can be edited directly in the XML and the changes will
reflect back in the WYSIWYG view.

The editor is available at Tux Family[2]. It should run out-of-the-box
if you have:
- A web server
- PHP support (With XSLProcessor)
- The editor uses the system tmp to temporary save files.

Please go ahead and try it out. ^_^

I have also asked mentor-kun to put it up on his server so those of
you don't have a server set up you can soon access it up there.

My post mid-term aim is to implement the collaborative editor and
continue work on the RTE, XML generation and adding/revamping
features.

Kind Regards
Nandeep Mali

[1] http://www.prototypejs.org/
[2] git clone git://git.tuxfamily.org/gitroot/beacon/trunk.git
-- 
gentoo-soc@lists.gentoo.org mailing list