Planning Area - ideas,code,etc.. in here
 

I assume this is for the image gallery?

Seems like the project has become some sort of vBulletin module

No -- This tool is used to manage the project. It handles bugs, features, requests, tracking etc etc.

vBulletin® - vBulletin Project Tools Features

I do not believe an actual topic has been decided on.

Not everybody on this project has the same instant messenger, and not everybody is on IRC all the time - might I make a suggestion? Just because I've noticed the communications seem to get a little mixed up from time to time.

Everytime your manager makes a decision on something, it would be a good idea to post it here and request discussion on it, however it might also be in your benefit to set up a mailing list.

Collect everybodies email, and whenever there's a major incident (such as the project gets chosen, a coder gets his hand run over by a drunk driver, or whatever), everybody could then be informed on their own grounds and time via email. They could then at that point choose to discuss the decision directly with the manager, hop in here to discuss it with the group, or go on IRC and talk dirty to all kinds of men masquerading as women. Ya know?
-m

I may stop part way though the list, if I do, I will return to it later. Assuming we are doing the image gallery:

End User

• Register

• Email Confirmation
• Image validation (to avoid bots)

• Upload Images

• Name
• Description (optional)
• Tags (optional)
• Watermark (optional) (may be a good idea to do post-release)

• Manage Images

• Delete Images
• Rename Images
• Hide/Show Images

• Gallery

• Display all
• Search/Order

• Gallery Items/albums

• Rate (1-5 stars)
• Comment

• Gallery Album Create

• Name
• Description
• Assign/upload Images

• Gallery manage

• Delete Comments
• Disable Comments/Ratings

End Admin:

• Create/Delete/Modify Users

• Search Users

• Have view all user features as owner would (delete comments, ect).
• Content Management

• Search Images/Albums
• Manage Images/Albums

Technologies we will need:

• PHP
• MySql
• Mod_rewrite (ISAPI rewrite if on IIS)
• ImageGD (for watermark feature)

This would probably be sufficient for a version 1.0, I would almost recommends stripping a few features out at this. Main reason for this is debugging, it will be hard as is to debug an application this size, last thing we need to do is make it harder.

I would suggest if you plan to use mod_rewrite at any point in time you make sure the system degrades gracefully without it. I started writing a system awhile back where I unabashedly abused the hell out of mod_rewrite partly because I had just learned it, and partly because I was having too much fun making my urls far too humanly readable (don't ask me why that was fun, I don't know), until I ran into the roadblock of uploading it to my live server and finding out mod_rewrite isn't as prevalent in the hosting world as one thinks it should be.

In addition to VI's list there, which is a pretty good start, I wonder if maybe the project shouldn't consider starting from the ground up incorporating something such as ADODB for a database abstraction (or if the project members feel frisky enough, writing one of their own). This would open up the audience of this product as wide as possible.
-m

I personally think this should be written around an Object Oriented Architecture. As mentioned above, using some type of database abstraction layer would be incredibly beneficial.

Also to add to the list:
categories: (user can assign image to 1 or many categories)
and of course an admin area for editing it.

Has the image gallery been approved for our project?

i haven't heard anything about us not doing the image gallery
PS, has some one asked wildhoney to install the vb project tools?



so i think we need on some level maybe set up a meeting with everyone online at the same time so we can get some things rolling or what do you guys think?

Why are we planning on releasing this to the general public?

Huh? It was originally planned to be an open source project.

Speaking for myself (and maybe some of the other members), none of my views have changed. I think you are doing a great job.

I thought that was the purpose of this entire exercise?

1) Do a group project.
2) Learn some new techniques from everybody else and the project itself
3) Provide the OSS community with a new product that could/would benefit others.
-m

You want people to buy it?..

We could just do some addons later on, that we could sell or something so the project gets a budget for building more stuff
???

I think trying to turn a profit or really any type of income for this is a bad idea. You never know though. Let us just take one step at a time though; we need a product to release before our heads should even be getting near this.

Open source! Open source!

It's healthy like being a vegetarian, except you still getta eat steak.
-m

Going in for profit is a terrible idea, we would all begin fighting over money and it would split before the end. Open source is the way to go because we are not professionals; we are a team of volunteers. Plus an open source project would gain more PR for the site because we have a viable resource useful to people.

The only profitable method I could justify is independently making extensions for people as a freelancer. It would be good to say you helped build it.

If anybody wants to earn a profit from this, I think their best bet is a variation on what has just been said... maybe not extensions per se for this particular project, but if the project is noticed, accepted and used by the OSS community, having your name on it is how you build your resume.
-m

delayedinsanity, that's true !
well, lets not think about that then :P
i just wanna learn a few things thats my price for this work :)

List completed