[Xerte-dev] Re: Modules and htaccess

Pat @ Pgogy xerte at pgogywebstuff.com
Wed Apr 10 13:05:06 BST 2013 

Yep, you just add a switch statement to the show template code

It'll work for export too

And if someone wants to send an unsupported engine through, then it ignores it and defaults

So you could release the bootstrap too

Pgogy Webstuff - http://www.pgogywebstuff.com
Makers of web things of a fair to middling quality

On 10 Apr 2013, at 12:02, Tom Reijnders <reijnders at tor.nl> wrote:

> Hmm...
> 
> It is already kind of modular isn't it?
> 
> I mean the root play.php checks security etc, and determines whether it is allowed to display the LO, and than it includes ' module/<framework>/play.php'  that should have the proper 'show_template'  and 'dont_show_template' routines. Only in the latter should we check for what engine to use, because that is xerte specific. We could call the column in the db about what engine top use in the templatesdetails 'extra_args' so other templates types can use this as well for other purposes.
> 
> No need to have an extra play in the root then, only in the module/site/.... 
> 
> That seems like a nice way out of this. I'll implement it this way for play and module/xerte/play
> 
> And you can use url params on play that would only make sense for certain modules, i.e. you could request play.php?template_id=4&engine=xenith and if this happens to be an eBook, the engine parameter would just be ignore. No harm done....
> 
> So: The author determines what he or she would like to be the most appropriate engine, nothing will change on the urls, there is a way to overrule the author's wishes (we can even let the author prohibit that if we really want that) and there is a nice way to introduce new play, preview, peer etc.
> 
> Tom
> 
> 
> Op 10-4-2013 12:24, Julian Tenney schreef:
>> Is there any way we can do both things, i.e. leave the existing stuff in place so things don’t break, but build a new modular play engine that handles the modular stuff much better? When I put the site template in it was obvious that it was a bit of a pain, as you say having to add new files to the root folder is bad news, and having to modify other files in the root folder is also not so plug and play: there is specific (if (thisSortOfTemplate) do this else do that)             code in there, which shouldn’t be there really.
>>  
>> We wanted to put a new zip out on 26th April, a tentative deadline. I don’t mind waiting a few more weeks, but we really need to get this out there so that it can be             installed in places before the summer – so those who want to build materials for next year can use it over the summer. The end of May would be about as far as I’d want to wait I think.
>>  
>> What do others think?
>>  
>> From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of xerte at pgogywebstuff.com
>> Sent: 10 April 2013 11:19
>> To: For Xerte technical developers
>> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: Modules and htaccess
>>  
>> True, and happy to shut up
>>  
>> But I first raised this in November - http://listsnottingham.ac.uk/pipermail/xerte-dev/2012-November/002868.html - but it didn't go anywhere
>>  
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From:
>> "For Xerte technical developers" <xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
>>  
>> To:
>> "For Xerte technical developers" <xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk>
>> Cc:
>>  
>> Sent:
>> Wed, 10 Apr 2013 09:41:32 +0100
>> Subject:
>> [Xerte-dev] Re: Modules and htaccess
>> 
>> 
>> Always we seem to hit something fundamental right before we're due to finish the work. There is a degree of frustration here with two things:
>> 
>> - we have already worked through this twice: Fay has worked through it once with Pat to get the html5 links working, and I have worked through it with Pat to get the site template working. Now we want to do it differently?
>> - if you take pre-release code and it changes, well, that's sometimes life. Play_html5 was always intended as a way of beta testing the templates, rather than anything else.
>> 
>> At this stage of things, I think we should go with what we have, and Tom's database solution solution, and get this phase of work done, and then address it later when we have a new cycle underway. I appreciate the issues, but there is no point in getting hung about functionality that no one is using yet (modularity), at the expense of functionality that everyone wants to use                 (html5 delivery). 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Ron Mitchell
>> Sent: 09 April 2013 18:15
>> To: 'For Xerte technical developers'
>> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: Modules and htaccess
>> 
>> For me the basic principal must be whatever we want to be defaults for any new solution mustn't break existing links or require people to duplicate or re-write any code to maintain that compatibility. The vast majority will not have the time, skills or inclination to do that. So...
>> 
>> /play.php?template_id=123 and /play_123 including the embed code links should continue to play existing LO's via Flash likewise
>> /play_html5.php?template_id=123 and /play_html5_123 should continue to work even if that's no longer the default for new html 5, 6 or 7 LO's.
>> 
>> I can see the point about not referring to html5 and keeping it more future proofed and again I can't see a problem with changes like this or the new defaults being Play.php?template_id=560&method=HTML as long as existing links aren't broken. But what would be the Apache/htaccess version of that? 
>> 
>> Over time JISC Techdis and other organisations and individuals have shared many links to LO's they have made public with the community, with their learners, with colleagues and this includes sharing of the play_html5 links. Rightly or wrongly that's what we've had since the 1.8 release so obviously we shouldn't break those links if we can possibly avoid it.
>> 
>> HTH
>> Ron
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-dev-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Smith, John
>> Sent: 09 April 2013 17:25
>> To: xerte-dev at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
>> Subject: [Xerte-dev] Re: Modules and htaccess
>> 
>> Howdy
>> 
>> I personally think you need to run everything through the same page, with parameters. Its the only way you can prevent worsening the situation 12 months down the line where we have many deployed play urls which have to be maintained... Plan to deprecate play_html5 and then people can rewrite that page to your main play.php page with method=html or even duplicate the main play.php file as play_html5 if they must.
>> 
>> Begs the question - should we drop references to html5 and just call it html - what happens if they release html6 in a few years?
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> John Smith
>> Learning Technologist
>> School of Health and Life Sciences
>> 
>> Sent from Samsung Galaxy SII
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> "Pat @ Pgogy" <xerte at pgogywebstuff.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Could we use the following URL structure?
>> 
>> Can the play URL be
>> 
>> Play.php?template_id=560
>> And
>> Play.php?template_id=560&method=HTML
>> 
>> And not playhtml.php?
>> 
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