Facebook-style Statuses 6.x-2.0-Beta1 has just been released! The 2.x branch is now considered stable and more or less ready for production use. Now is the time to test it and submit any bug reports or feature requests before a full 2.0 release.
For those who don't know, the Facebook-style Statuses module provides each user with a small textual "status" they can use to express themselves.
Changes and New Features
A full list of the changes from 1.x to 2.x is available on the release node, but the most important ones are summarized below:
- AHAH-based status submission
- Views Integration and therefore integration with FriendList, User Relationships, Flag Friend, and more
- "Sharer" page to post links from other sites
- Integration with Trigger, Profile, Activity, and Token
- Complete, easy-to-use API, including theming functions
- Cleaner, more useful interface
- ...and a lot of other more minor tweaks that make the experience smoother.
In addition to the changes in the module, documentation has been moved to drupal.org and is now much more thorough and useful. Please see the documentation to find out how to get the most out of this module and the new features it brings.
Roadmap
Hopefully, a full 2.0 release will be coming in the next few weeks or months. After that a 3.x branch will be planned. The 3.x branch is envisioned as something closer to the Facebook Publisher, so that links, images, audio, and video can be posted via the status. This would be extensible so that other types of content could be posted as well. However, other developers' assistance is needed to achieve this goal. Also, it may be more practical to make this a separate module that integrates with FBSS 2.x. Feedback on this idea will be useful, but please don't clutter valuable input with "+1" posts.
Let me know if you're interested in helping in the future. In the mean time if you'd like to help, the best thing you can do is test the 2.x branch and submit issues to the queue (not here). Thanks!
Comments
As your module doesn't have
As your module doesn't have anything to do with Facebook save for emulating one of its features, you may want to consider the copyright implications of using the word "Facebook" in your module's name.
The Boise Drupal Guy!
I'm 95% sure it's entirely
I'm 95% sure it's entirely legal, but I'm discussing it with an intellectual property lawyer to make sure, and I may also try to get direct permission from Facebook itself.
Being original
Even if it's legal, why not give it its own name? Maybe it's too late at this point because it would be a pain to rename everything... But it wouldn't be the first time the name in code didn't match the name of the project. I'm not too fussed either way but I do admit I was never keen on the name. And it's even more confusing now that there's a facebook status module.
Michelle
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region
Rename is hard but left less
Rename is hard but left less confusion when searching modules.
User status used not only FB, some users never seen FB...
...
The name was chosen specifically because it's the most accurate and obvious description of what the module does. If you're using the module and you don't know what Facebook is, you probably either live in an obscure country or live in a hole. It's a social networking module, and Facebook is I think the second-largest social network and the one who most memorably pioneered this idea. Furthermore, if I said the name Facebook-style Statuses to my mother she would know immediately what I was talking about. I don't think there's any name that could even come close to that kind of instant recognition.
Also, I've just confirmed with my lawyer that the name is 100% legal.
Having said that... yes, there's some unintended confusion with the fbstatus module, and this isn't the first time this has come up. If there is an alternative name that I like, I may consider discussing it with d.o/CVS admin. I'm not inclined to change the name, but mystatus, userstatus, status_publisher, and user_publisher are potential ideas, especially given the direction of the 3.x branch.
Get a new lawyer. I can't
Get a new lawyer. I can't come out with a new car and call it a Ford-like Vehicle, or a new candy bar and call it Snickers-inspired Snack. Seriously, I hope you didn't pay this person to tell you that.
The Boise Drupal Guy!
...
Don't make up your own legal advice. My lawyer is an internationally recognized intellectual property lawyer who was a partner at one of the largest international law firms in the world for 18 years. It was a personal favor, so no I didn't pay him, but his verdict confirmed my own research into Fair Use and trademark dilution.
It would obviously be different if I had a new website that I called "Facebook-style Social Network" or something like that. This is code, so only developers see the word "Facebook," and the project page states "This module... is not affiliated with Facebook in any way" which is consistent with changes Facebook has requested that other, more flagrantly violating products have made in the past. And it fully qualifies as Fair Use under U.S. law (Facebook is incorporated in Delaware).
Name
I'm not too fussed about the name. It wouldn't be my first choice, but it's not horrible. If you do decide to change it, I would have picked user_status but that's already taken. user_publisher isn't, but I don't know if people would get what that means. Heck, now that I'm thinking it through, I'd just leave the name as it is. Changing it is a major hassle and I don't see enough gained to bother. If you'd picked another from the start that would be one thing but changing it now would just be a pain.
Michelle
See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out the Coulee Region
That's my logic too
...and I'd much rather hear some feedback on the module itself. :-P