Drupal Co-op/outreach project: for PLUG

Posted by jpabellon on November 22, 2007 at 1:34pm

Hi guys

Since our company is heavily involved in Linux and because we try to contribute to the community whenever we can, some of us have volunteered to do a new website for PLUG (Philippine Linux Users Group). We thought to do it in Drupal since I think it best fits the requirements of a community site and is open source and heavily community-driven.

Was thinking to share this with the group as one tangible project we can do together and to build bridges with other communities around open source.

Nothing's final yet--it all depends on how fast members of PLUG who are spearheading the effort come up with content they want. just wanted to give a heads up.

Graphic designers, CSS stylists, module experts welcome!

Let me know!

Comments

Sali ako :) Though not sure

Posted by Jhef.Vicedo on November 23, 2007 at 5:41am

Sali ako :) Though not sure if I can contribute code wise, maybe on other things like advising which modules are good or better.

PLUG Migration

Posted by rpfilomeno on November 23, 2007 at 11:09am

I think we should define the task for this effort first. So we can assign or pick which ever part we want to do. I can do module development, I can also do custom templates but somebody has to write the CSS for it (Im no good on design)

Thanks for coming forward

Posted by jpabellon on November 23, 2007 at 4:55pm

OK here goes:

We can take care of design and CSS (but help is always welcome), somebody from PLUG--FS3Consulting is already taking care of hosting. So far my personal ideas (have to be validated with PLUG--specifically thru Ryan Ching and Gabe Mercado) is to emphasize community features/capabilities of Drupal:

Initial ideas are:
1) Manage news-->story content regarading PLUG
2) Have a place for an RSS aggregator to consolidate RSS feeds from different resources that may be relevant to PLUG commmunity
3) Come up with a database of PLUG members which may be accessible to PLUG member (ie user profile to node> +views?)
4) Need someone tor Really hack away at Drupal to enable formation of groups within the website (ie social networking capability via hacked user profiles, buddy list, etc? groups via organic groups?)
5) Event management (calendars)
6) Others-->galleries, forums, use Drupal to sign up to mailing list (Mailman)

I can draft an initial plan--somehow convene a meeting between us and PLUG members to get things going. Will update you via this page.

Thanks guys for expressing interest!!!

Initial comments

Posted by rpfilomeno on November 24, 2007 at 12:58pm

1 & 2 - Story + Aggregator + Taxonomy
3 - nodeprofile + Views or profile.module + custom profile_theme
4 - Og + Og supporting modules, can be used with casetracker
5 - Event + Calender
6 - i recommend uieforums rather than the drupal stock forum
7 - Media CCK (i have a hacked version / no need to put video), images + views for user gallery then use views to display it user gallery. I have no idea what's best for mailing list tho its a between SimpleNews or Mailman integration.

check our fingerapps.com - i duplicated a social site using drupal. Got everything there including IM

It depends on PLUG's target community

Posted by marcrobinsone on November 25, 2007 at 6:36pm

I just found out recently na ang professor ko pala na si Sir Paolo Falcone ay isang important figure sa PLUG.

Anyways, my opinion in transforming their site is that they (PLUG officials) should have a limit on what they need/want. But I assume na they are all tech-savvy with different passions about Linux.

I humbly suggest na hintayin nalang muna ang release nang Drupal 6.0 para hindi off-track ang product.

Marckee for Short

Re: Drupal 6

Posted by jpabellon on November 27, 2007 at 2:33am

Gusto ko sana ma-leverage yung wealth of modules for Drupal 5.x--tsaka baka may migration path naman if irelease yung 6 later on (usually it will take a few weeks to a few months for someone to post tips on how to migrate)

Thanks Roger--mukhang OK yung figerapps--let me set up something over the long weekend siguro--a skeleton--and make accounts for you so we can work on it on our free time online...

Thanks!

+1

Posted by rpfilomeno on November 27, 2007 at 5:49pm

I agree. Drupal 6 Views is still being rushed to meet the deadline release by core developers.

linux.org.ph up on Drupal

Posted by rpfilomeno on December 2, 2007 at 10:19am

Dude,

I checked the site and it seems the installation is already up (godie). I signed up already but couldn't access the site yet, If you guys need help just send me email on rpfilomeno at g^ma^il. com

Can Plug create a project site here http://code.google.com so we can keep track? There are also some PHP devs that might want to help from phpugph.com

Go for it!

Posted by benc on November 29, 2007 at 6:50am

We've been meaning to do this pero naantala. Let's go for this. Jan, thanks for taking the lead on this!

"Work smarter, not harder."
The Power of Drupal Categories

User Experience Design
A Podcast for Mac Switchers

Pag nandyan si Gabe Mercado game aku!

Posted by marcrobinsone on December 3, 2007 at 11:32pm

Haha, I hope I can touch and see Gabe Mercado in real person. That would be cool!

Marckee for Short

Sandbox is up

Posted by jpabellon on December 5, 2007 at 9:21am

Naka live na agad yung supposed to be sandbox natin e--

The URL is at http://linux.org.ph/

I can give you admin accounts for those who are interested in volunteering. Email me at jan . pabellon AT itgroup . com . ph

Wala pa content--so we need to do the skeleton lang. If we need to take this private for discussion and brainstorming can create a Yahoo or Googe group--but Id rather we work here.

Thanks!

+1

Posted by rpfilomeno on December 5, 2007 at 10:46am

Even without contents maybe we can start by defining the content types required, we will then just need CCK and Views modules and start building from there.

Coop project

Posted by rpfilomeno on December 6, 2007 at 4:27am

Jan,

i promoted the project also on my other group at PHPUGPH
http://www.phpugph.com/talk/index.php/topic,3416.0.html

There are less Drupal developers there but a lot knows how to use the template, CSS and maybe help in importing the old contents.

How about it? I gave your email address to the officers so that they can contact you if the group decides to help PLUG website. We're all for OpenSource anyway =)

Galeng jan. Magandang

Posted by benc on December 5, 2007 at 10:38am

Galeng jan. Magandang simulain ito!

"Work smarter, not harder."
The Power of Drupal Categories

User Experience Design
A Podcast for Mac Switchers

Update: Accounts

Posted by jpabellon on December 6, 2007 at 6:27am

Hi guys

Nagbigay na ako ng accounts to those who are interested. The site webhosting sponsor is controlling file access--and we asked for FTP access to upload the necessary modules (ie CCK, Views, etc) so we can start. Ill send to you privately once OK na yon.

Thanks! Thanks!

Hello all!

Posted by ghmercado on December 6, 2007 at 8:53am

Hello all!

First of all, I'd like to introduce myself, my name is Gabriel Mercado aka Gary, but not the Gabe Mercado!

Magandang linawin ko muna ito bago tuluyang madisappoint si marc.robinsone LOL!

Anyway, I am the guy whose job is to more or less issue direction for PLUG's site. Thanks so much to Jan, Ryan and the rest for indicating their desire to participate. My ideas for the site are simple, with emphasis on getting it going and efficiency. Therefore we'll only probably need 2 or 3 guys to help out. Even CSS work can wait till later (if at all).

Jan's ideas posted previously are perfect. I'll just add a few comments in blockquote:

Jan's Initial ideas are:
1) Manage news-->story content regarading PLUG

I would like to request for a blog and newsletter feature so I can post PLUG updates asap. I made a sched for PLUG's progress and it is best to use the site to show this rather than the maillist. Also, PLUG's ongoing SEC Reg'n is constantly updating, so I'd be glad to use the site to show whats going on there as well.

2) Have a place for an RSS aggregator to consolidate RSS feeds from different resources that may be relevant to PLUG commmunity

Yes ang galing ni Jan, I was thinking about this exactly. I want PLUG bloggers to tag or categorize certain posts on their personal blogs as 'PLUG', 'Linux', 'Open Source', etc., and then PLUG's site will aggregate and arrange these and allow for comments - I want this to be the 'main draw' and on the index of the site so that it's always dynamic and fresh and worth constantly visiting. When this is ready I'll make an announcement on PLUG for bloggers to submit their feeds.

3) Come up with a database of PLUG members which may be accessible to PLUG member (ie user profile to node> +views?)

Yep, this is the meat of the site. We'll start out with the basic membership fields and later on think how to drill down more details. The purpose of membership is to gain important info re members and help determine what resources are available to PLUG (simply by asking 'how can you contribute to PLUG?', or something like that). For now membership is free and open, pero later when we determine events and fund - raising details we'll determine org membership by payment and the site will help a lot.

4) Need someone tor Really hack away at Drupal to enable formation of groups within the website (ie social networking capability via hacked user profiles, buddy list, etc? groups via organic groups?)

hmm.. up to you guys

5) Event management (calendars)

Needed probably by 3rd quarter of my sched pa. At the moment PLUG is concentrating on rebooting. Events are for later.

6) Others-->galleries, forums, use Drupal to sign up to mailing list (Mailman)

The mailing list is Jijo Sevilla's domain. I think at the moment its ok as it is and unless someone has a radical new idea I just wanna leave that alone. It's one of the oldest maillists in the country (if not the oldest) so status quo is good.

+1, Start with profiles

Posted by rpfilomeno on December 6, 2007 at 1:39pm

Jan,

Got your email and logged in successfully.

I enabled the profile.module so users can start filling them out. That IMHO is the first content type we can have. I think its the nicest feature the site could have so we can create a directory of Linux users.

If you have time, add up CCK and Views so from there any content can be created without programming.

So i guess ill take task #3 as Gabriel pointed out ^_^

Why not use Bio module?

Posted by Jhef.Vicedo on December 10, 2007 at 6:59am

Why not use Bio module?

Puede encoding work lang contribution ko...

Posted by cdelfino on December 7, 2007 at 12:04am

Not that well versed sa drupal stuff and loaded sa work pero still wanted to contribute sa group nyo. Thanks...cheers.

Hello and Welcome!

Posted by marcrobinsone on December 7, 2007 at 11:16am

Hello Gabriel! And welcome to the Philippines Drupal Users Group... ! (with a bang)

Don't worry, I'm not disappointed. I would be cool to have a Gary and Gabe Mercado here though. :)

About the groups, there's already the Organic groups module (for creating groups) and the OG Sub Groups module (for creating group hierarchies).

The really hard part is extracting the users from the old database, not to mention the db cleansing. However I think there are tools out there to save us from that kind of hell.

marc.robinsone caballero

Marckee for Short

hey guys me again! a few

Posted by ghmercado on December 9, 2007 at 6:08am

hey guys me again! a few topics:

1st topic: I just wanted to say we're gonna have a great time working on the PLUG membership portion. Here's a chance to work on a site with an almost guaranteed membership in the hundreds - developers, techies and geeks that we can relate to. As soon as we get the basic foundations up we can start working on how we can social network the thing together. I can't wait to work with you guys on that.

2nd topic: A wiki. I honestly wasn't excited about a Wiki at the start, but Ian and a few other guys on the mailing list has changed my mind. So, do we go with a Drupal based wiki or do we use something else instead, say Docuwiki? I am not familiar with either (I am just starting to use Docuwiki for one of my projects), so your honest inputs would be great. Of course this is a DUG, but if you think Drupal wikis suck, lets just go with something else then try and integrate the login. If not let's go for it. My deadline to make this decision is by the end of the week (12/14). ALL thoughts are welcome!

3rd topic: Not really on topic, but I have also used Drupal for some projects (http://philcouncilorsleague.com is the most recent), so I have a professional interest in seeing the work you guys are gonna put in. I suppose I can contribute but I really don't want to (I just want to coordinate), which is why I like the fact that Jan and Ryan have stepped up to become the point persons as far as the website is concerned. "Official PLUG Webmaster(s)" sounds like a great thing to put in a resume don't you think?

So pano? Let's start giving each other deadlines and benchmarks? That way umaandar and project natin and everyone knows the score. Email me anytime if you have questions or you wanna contrib or something (ghmercado at gmail.com). I'll coordinate.

Final topic: Nga pala. Can I please be able to blog on the site na? I need to upload a few updates. I dont need (or want) admin status, just the ability to add / remove / edit all content.

Salamat and Merry Christmas!

Great!

Posted by rpfilomeno on December 10, 2007 at 9:58am

Here is my take on Wiki, I tried DocuWiki and I say its great since its a flat file so no need for DB concerns. I give +1 for this. I'll try to make a module according to this http://foolab.org/node/785

The other thing that slows down things is we need a way to track and manage this. Example i need inputs on what user details PLUG needs. What are the features and to whom it is assigned. We can do this at code.google.com, im willing to create the project management there but it would be nice if the project initiator does this and delegate sub-mangers.

hows these for

Posted by ghmercado on December 11, 2007 at 12:55am

hows these for starters?:

surname
first name
middle initial
nickname
gender
pic
email (private)
mobile / telno (private)
date of birth (with option to display year)
street (private - must be a mailing address)
town / city / municipality
region
country
zip

website(s)
PLUG related blog feed (blog posts that are tagged or categorized as PLUG, Linux, Open Source, HowTo, etc., which the site will aggregate)

high school (since some are still kids)
college
profession

PLUG Related:
What part of your work is linux or open source related?
Is there any way you can contribute to the open source community / PLUG in general? (you can come back to answer this at a later time)

That'll do for the moment I think. Ok I'll try to learn how to use code.google.com I've never tried it yet. I'll post again kung ano result. Thanks!!!

On modules

Posted by rpfilomeno on December 10, 2007 at 7:51am

Thanks guys for the suggestions but I would also advice not using too many modules because it drastically raise the CPU and memory footprint. For example Bio, NopeProfile and the likes is nice for making a user directory but it can be done also by profile.module which is already part of core.

For now i can only give feedback on the profile part which im working on, please checkout this: http://linux.org.ph/user/37

Some of the fields were kept private like street address and BOD other than what's on there now I have no idea what other user info PLUG needs from its members so Id like to solicit you're inputs.

Cheers.

nag start na ba ang PLUG project?

Posted by benc on December 10, 2007 at 8:30am

Jan, nagsimula na ba ang PLUG project?

Taga-comment lang ako sa interface and usability :)

"Work smarter, not harder."
The Power of Drupal Categories

User Experience Design
A Podcast for Mac Switchers

http://code.google.com/p/plug-website/

Posted by ghmercado on December 11, 2007 at 2:59am

http://code.google.com/p/plug-website/

I've sent invites to jan, roger, ian, ryan and jijo.

I suppose I'll only reserve membership to those who are actually gonna do something on the site.

That doesn't mean other volunteers aren't appreciated! I just wanna keep the team tight for expediency. The moment we need help outside of the core we'll holler.

its all good!

Gary

Brainstorm Roadmap for PLUG Website

Posted by jpabellon on December 12, 2007 at 11:56pm

Lets try to brainstorm what we want to do with the PLUG website here:

http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show_public/3603439

Just some quick updates:

Dont have any FTP access yet. Lets continue work on the site in the Google Code website.

Updated the Wiki pages there.

Thanks Gary.

What will happen next?

Posted by marcrobinsone on December 20, 2007 at 3:50am

Hi guys!

I'm just curious about the on-goings of this Drupal adventure. Is it on hiatus due to Xmas season?

marc.robinsone

Marckee for Short

Dev through Xmas

Posted by rpfilomeno on December 21, 2007 at 12:10pm

Well im doing it more offline since net at province is really slow.

fyi to everyone : this

Posted by ghmercado on March 25, 2008 at 12:23pm

fyi to everyone : this project is still alive!

http://plug.exchange.ph <-- test site

At the moment, Jan and Marc have accounts on it, with Marc working on right now as in as I am writing this.

Re the delay, it was mostly my fault since I became terribly busy at the start of the year. Not that I'm not anymore, but I figured I'd make an extra effort otherwise we won't move forward. Hence, I met up with above guys 2 weeks ago and we resolved to get our asses moving.

Details later. Will take time to fyi everyone from now on. My apologies, again, for delays. Thanks much.

Gary

Was wondering about that.

Posted by rpfilomeno on March 25, 2008 at 12:36pm

Hi, im still willing to work on it. Was the changes we made before was also moved to this new test site? My last changes was on the user profile.

paging jan :)

Posted by benc on March 25, 2008 at 1:36pm

Isulong na natin ito. Let's move it to Drupal 6 na :)

benc

The Power of Drupal Categories
A Podcast for Mac Switchers

User Experience Design
A Podcast for Mac Switchers

PLUG Website now live at Linux.org.ph

Posted by ghmercado on April 7, 2008 at 2:31am

friends,

Here's a draft on most recent website updates:
http://linux.org.ph
http://www.linux.org.ph
http://plug.linux.org.ph

now point to the site.
Marc Robinsone deserves credit for improving the member profiles, however like all of us, he probably needs help as I assume he is busy. Therefore I will be accepting another developer into the fold, and will be contacting Roger re this.
I have managed to activate chrooted ftp accounts (dont ask me how cause I definitely wouldnt remember), and will be allowing access when Roger replies. Please please please take care of my server (although of course I know you will)!
Here's a further laundry list of what I think would help us:
- A sidebar counter showing number of members.
- Employment field (self - employed / student / employed), and if so employed, what. If student, which school.
- A Linux / FOSS group of fields asking:
  1. Which particular FOSS development are you involved in, if any? (ie, Apache, CMS, Radius, Web development, etc.)
  2. As a hobby or is this your work? (hobby / work / both radio buttons)
  3. Rank yourself 1 - 10 (with 10 as best)
- Additional Personal Information (Private):
  - Mobile Number
  - Landline
  - Home Address
  - Work Address
- Plug is always looking for volunteers. If you have a particular skill you wanna volunteer, pls. let us know here. (big textbox)
At the moment the member profile has two fields 'Website Title' and 'Website URL'. I need the 'Website Title' removed (useless), and I need an additional field 'Website PLUG Feed', with an explanation going to what a PLUG feed is, here.
Bug alert: I was trying to add users via /admin/user/user > Add User tab. I get the error 'The username %username% does not exist'. I turned off 'Use this content type as a nodeprofile for users' on the 'Content management > list > Member Profile > Edit, and it works. I saw relevant info here. I need someone better qualified than me to fix this please.

That's it for the moment.

Present!

Posted by rpfilomeno on April 7, 2008 at 1:04pm

Hey Gary,

I recreated my account (godie) on the plug-site and waiting for activation.

item #3 - Present po :D

item #4 - Ranking: would you rather want this as a 5-star voting where other users can rank you on your profile page or this is just a personal ranking feature?

item #5 - This can be done by allowing registered users to add news feed source via ACL, it can be set on default at disabled so moderators can check it first before it starts aggregating feeds.

item #6 - nodeprofile module needs to have pageroute module properly configured first before it will work properly. However nodeprofile works just like the built-in core profile module. The only difference is, node profile is saved as a node item. It was built to provide site owners a sort of custom profile feature without the need to develop their own module (or the lack of someone to write a code for handling custom profiles). Nodeprofile is buggy and it doesnt provide any better profile layout compared to profile module; additionally rest-assured im here to code for custom profile and templates anyway :D I suggest not using nodeprofile and use the built-it profile module included in core.

P.S. Don't worry ill make sure my contributed modules are generously commented so other developers can easily re-use or modify it.

I recreated my account

Posted by ghmercado on April 9, 2008 at 1:25am

^{I recreated my account (godie) on the plug-site and waiting for activation. On item #3 - Present po :D}

yup. 'sub-administrator' ka na with all the abilities of admin.

^{item #4 - Ranking: would you rather want this as a 5-star voting where other users can rank you on your profile page or this is just a personal ranking feature?}

members will rank themselves 1 - 10 (which is why I have to make a disclaimer at some point that your 'ranking' is not necessarily a PLUG endorsement. Baka gamitin ng mga iba to to get jobs. This is just to help PLUGgers know who to ask if they have a specific prob.)

^{item #5 - This can be done by allowing registered users to add news feed source via ACL, it can be set on default at disabled so moderators can check it first before it starts aggregating feeds.}

what's ACL? Pero yeah I get the point, although default na lang is 'enabled' tapos tanggalin na lang kung sablay. Less admin headaches and I think I trust most PLUGgers naman..

^{item #6 - nodeprofile module needs to have pageroute module properly configured first before it will work properly. However nodeprofile works just like the built-in core profile module. The only difference is, node profile is saved as a node item. It was built to provide site owners a sort of custom profile feature without the need to develop their own module (or the lack of someone to write a code for handling custom profiles). Nodeprofile is buggy and it doesnt provide any better profile layout compared to profile module; additionally rest-assured im here to code for custom profile and templates anyway :D I suggest not using nodeprofile and use the built-it profile module included in core.}

Pano to e nasimulan na ni Marc?

^{P.S. Don't worry ill make sure my contributed modules are generously commented so other developers can easily re-use or modify it.}

Not only that, I hope you write about it para ilagay ko siya as content :) Email kta re FTP.

Updated 2008 April 11

Posted by marcrobinsone on April 11, 2008 at 7:33am

We're getting there.

Happy that more people are getting involved in this community-driven effort,

Marc Robinsone

Marckee for Short

Drupal Co-op/outreach project: for PLUG

Comments

Group organizers

Group categories

Post category

New groups

Group notifications