Forum OpenACS Development: Response to Open 4.6 items & project status

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Posted by Vinod Kurup on
Because of my new job, I haven't been as active as I have in the past. For that reason, I'm also opening up all the packages that I've been working on to others who would be interested in maintaining them. I'm still going to be following OpenACS closely, but I feel guilty being partly in charge of documentation when there are probably so many people in the community that could do it better.

Here's the packages that I've worked on:

  • acs-core-docs - plans:
    • those that roberto mentioned above
    • incorporate all the comments that people have made on the pages into the docs. I've done a lot of this, but I'd specifically like help with revamping our AOLServer instructions to take into account Pascal's comments about proper security measures on this page (https://openacs.org/doc/openacs-4/aolserver.html)
    • I added a Makefile inside acs-core-docs/www/xml so the HTML docs, example files and images can be created with 1 command (assuming you have DocBook and xsltproc installed on your system). If you do edit docs, please only edit stuff under the xml directory. *Everything* above that directory (ie. HTML files, config files, images) is generated from substrate below the xml directory.
    • enduser's guide (i know that some are working on this)
    • OpenACS for admin guide. I've converted a prelim outline to WP (https://openacs.org/wp/display/453/. Now it needs content 😊 Greg McMullan is helping out here.
    • revamp developer guide (update for OpenACS)
  • acs-mail and acs-messaging - as Jon mentioned, these should either be combined or perhaps replaced. I haven't touched these in a while, but i wrote some thoughts about them way back when (http://kurup.com/acs/openacs-mail.html). acs-mail has some very rudimentary pieces in place for incoming mail. It also can send out multipart mail. But it's pretty ugly... in any case, i have no plans to change anything here for 4.6.
  • download - No plans for 4.6. This package seems to work OK, although it does the *wrong* thing by inheriting from cr_items and cr_revisions. Down the road, this package could be simplified.
  • notes - haven't touched this much since I ported it.
  • ticket-tracker - also no changes planned for 4.6. A drawback of this package is that tickets inherit from acs_messages, which as mentioned above, may be on its way out.
  • ticket-tracker-lite - Got a UI makeover from Jun for 4.6. Upgrade script provided (added 1 PL/SQL function).