[RULE] Restricted requirements for RULE website

[M. Fioretti]

Hello again,

Please answer only on the RULE list, to make discussion
faster. Ernesto, please subscribe if you didn't already.

I have realized a couple of things about the requirements I posted on
Feb 20th (pasted below for your convenience).

Most CMS packages seem to me geared to maintain different kinds of
sites: news portals, where one posts announcements, and people
vote/discuss it in the attached forum. We need something where almost
no interaction with end users happens online, but I and other
volunteers can as quickly as possible (and from web browser behind
firewall):


   a)	upload / update semi-static many web pages at once, software
	tarballs, PC test data and and actual news

   b)   make the corresponding updates to a mysql database (always
        through php/html forms)

   c)   announce changes through the mail list and an RSS feed

All this should also have roles: registered contributors can upload
stuff/update database, but changes are not seen online (unless they
are already well known contributors, marked as "trusted" or
something). One admin (me) deletes or authorizes contributions from
others after checking them (always from browser behind firewall).

Everything else I posted last time is either optional or independent
from CMS (like setting up our mail/ISO ftp server) or we already have
it (site map and mirror generation) and should only patch the
existing scripts to make them work with any new solution.

Also one time maintenance stuff (creating new mysql tables, new
folders, whatever) I can do from home, ie ssh, any https ports, etc...
What matters is to make it possible for others to contribute *content*
quickly only from browser, and for me to do daily maintenance and
updates in the same way.

Enclosed please find the php forms (with dummy user and password) that
I tried to write last year to do the above. It may be faster to do the
new RULE website starting from them, rather than learning and
underutilizing any CMS package, I don't know. Feel encouraged to prove
me wrong.

Of course any final solution will have to pass Rodolfo's security
check. Rodolfo, may you post on the list the exact reasons why these
forms were a security hole?

(if you don't find attachments, the list manager stripped them: ask me
off list, and I'll send them the same way)

Ciao,
	Marco Fioretti

On Fri, Feb 20, 2004 11:06:52 AM +0100, io  m.fioretti at inwind.it  wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> following the several suggestions on how to manage the website, here
> goes a random list of requirements. The bottom line is that I know quite well
> what is missing, but have no deep experience of the several CMS
> solutions suggested, or of others. I do know my bit of perl, mysql and
> php, however, and am more than willing to maintain the site.
> 
> This means that I can patch and improve something that already exists,
> but very frankly have no possibility now to set it up from scratch
> (including building the required forms or installing any CMS sw).
> 
> Hence, please, please please somebody else do set up now whatever
> solution, according to the guidelines below. I'm eager to help with
> *testing* it and take since now the responsibility to take it over and
> maintain it, tweaking whatever configuration and PHP/mysql bits
> will be necessary later on the road.
> 
>  I "just" :-) need to find the initial framework as below in place.
> 
> Of course, almost nothing below is set in stone. Any feedback is,
> well, mandatory :-)
> 
> Deadline: none mandatory, but it would be really, really nice to be
> ready when FC2 is released (~ early april, IIRC) and for that
> Ethiopian ICT congress I mentioned yesterday.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Marco Fioretti
> 
> content in pure text format??:
> 
>     frankly, I personally find adding stuff in a web form (wiki-wise)
>     expensive for dialup contributors and in general cumbersome and
>     limited (unless you do everything outside in a real editor and
>     then just paste it into the form). This is why I tried to set it up
>     web content as today:
> 
> 	produce pure ASCII content, without an HTML editor, with such a
>         markup that the source is perfectly readable.
> 
>         upload the ASCII text
> 
> 	have a cron script converting it to HTML
> 
>     If this is not possible using standard CMS system nor recommended
>     by more expert webmasters, html is also OK for me as long as it
>     remains possible to
> 
> 	     not care of site layout, ie generate/maintain only the
> 	     actual page content (no headers, footers, etc)
> 
>              do it offline and upload the result
> 
>              upload at once many pages, specifying for each its
>              location in the directory tree
> 
> 	     insert in each page pointers to chunks of PHP code (see
> 	     as example the source of the current home pages)
> 
> Access to manage web site:
> 
>     everything below must be doable via web (https) but not on ports
>     usually blocked by company proxyes and firewalls. One big problem
>     I have with the current system is that I can't do RULE
>     housecleaning during lunch break.
> 
> roles:
> 
>     I must be able to delegate upload of files in some areas and
>     posting of news to other project members. It must also be possible
>     to external users to submit news, test PC data/reports and sw
>     packages in a "pending approval" mode: they don't show on the web
>     pages, but I am sent an email to go and reject or approve for
>     publishing the new material.
> 
> Interactive threaded web forums:
> 
>     not needed, really. Most of our subscribers, current and
>     potentials, have no decent conectivity to use them, and want/are
>     forced to stay online as little as possible.
> 
> news:
> 
>      it must be possible to insert news (title, link to complete
>      article, short description) so that the N most recent are
>      constantly shown on the home page. Complete news database must
>      remain readable online, as today.
> 
> useful links
> 
>      it must be possible to insert links to useful non RULE resources
>      (title, category, URL, short description) so they are all
>      displayed in a bookmark kind of page
> 
> threaded customizable site map:
> 
>      an evolution of the current one: show directory structure, size
>      and change date, show only some subdirectories, or only the pages
>      updated in the last N days.
> 
> web page management:
> 
>     it must be possible to show as today the N most recently changed
>     web pages on the home page
> 
> mirror friendliness:
> 
>      easy to mirror automatically: HTTP headers telling what changed
>      since last weeks, relative URLs, etc..
> 
> support of test PCs and software map at least as today.
> 
> when news, new pages, or new SW is added, they should be announced
> automatically on mailing list. RSS feed generation is also very nice.
> 
> *LIGHT* HTML code and page layout:
> 
>      The site structure and content must certainly become easier to
>      understand and navigate than today, but think to people trying to
>      know how to get RULE through a 14.4KBps modem, links, a 486 and a
>      monochrome monitor (not to mention blind users). Let's limit as
>      much as possible frames, nested tables, colors, JavaScript.
> 
> tarball(s) with all the site content and mailing list archive must be
> generated daily and available for download.
> 
>      the reason is to make possible easy download and offline
>      consultation of all RULE site, also for the purpose (as it
>      happened last summer for Linux Pakistan to burn and distribute it
>      on Cd-rom
> 
> multilingual support: yes please
> 
> search whole content: yes please
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Original home page of the RULE project: www.rule-project.org
> Original Rule Development Site http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/rule/> 
Original RULE mailing list: Rule-list at nongnu.org, hosted at http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rule-list
> 

-- 
Marco Fioretti                 mfioretti
Red Hat for low memory         www.rule-project.org

"To turn $100 into $110 is work. To turn $100 million into $110 million
is inevitable" -- Edgar Bronfman 
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