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European or African?<br><br>> Subject: RE: [Xerte] Developer documentation<br>> Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 13:55:58 +0100<br>> From: Patrick.Lockley@nottingham.ac.uk<br>> To: xerte@lists.nottingham.ac.uk<br>> <br>> Hello,<br>> <br>> First off<br>> <br>> There are two xertes. To filter some mud from the water.<br>> <br>> Desktop Xerte - A developer tool flash based application that can run on<br>> a windows PC to develop flash and xml to be deployed on a web server.<br>> This is the EXE Version. The exe version does not have a database. It is<br>> completely separate and does not care about the Xerte Online Toolkits<br>> version. Honestly, it never writes or anything. They can be used<br>> completely separately.<br>> <br>> (Just in case cross wires by exe, I don't mean eXe, but executable.)<br>> <br>> Xerte Online Toolkits - A web based version of the Xerte wizards feature<br>> available to people working directly on a web server. This is at present<br>> its usage. The site is however almost completely modularized and could<br>> support other versions of other templates if someone wants to. I think<br>> only the export functions aren't modularized. <br>> <br>> Bringing together a few emails into one<br>> <br>> 1) The reason we don't have a full GPL license is (at the moment)<br>> because I wanted to explicitly offer my personal thanks to the<br>> developers of the three other PHP scripts that help the site work. To<br>> many open source projects just bring together loads of other code and<br>> pass it off without proper attribution. On the first page of the<br>> installer it does thank these people. One of these pieces of code also<br>> lacks a license (he just wants you to send him a copy of what you do),<br>> so I am not sure legally if we can offer it as GPL anyways. We could<br>> possibly remove this code from the install and offer a guaranteed GPL<br>> version, but we'd lose some functions and have two installers to deal<br>> with.<br>> <br>> 2) There are no instructions for any one downloading from the SVN as to<br>> what the database script code is, where it is and how to apply this.<br>> <br>> Correct, but there is an installer and a set up folder containing a file<br>> called basic.sql which does the vast majority of the database creation<br>> (it could be run separately with some minor mods). There isn't a script<br>> to do this generically (if you ignore the fact that the installer does<br>> all of it) as some of the database settings are specific to each<br>> install.<br>> <br>> If you want to install toolkits, I would suggest downloading the<br>> installer from http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte rather than using the<br>> SVN. You can run a local version very easily if you're on a PC by<br>> choosing the XAMPP installer. If you're not using a localhost install,<br>> you can choose the full install option. There is someone at Loughborough<br>> who has done this already and I am guessing you know who so he may be<br>> able to demo?<br>> <br>> We have worked on the basis that to encourage the use of the project an<br>> installer makes more sense than forcing people to work out which bits of<br>> code to change here and there. So far we've had no really complaints<br>> about the installer, and most people appear to have installed it without<br>> any issues.<br>> <br>> 3) In addition have you any coding standards that are being followed. I<br>> ask only because I have noted that you are using the abbreviated php tag<br>> (<?) rather than the more commonly accepted tag (<?php).<br>> <br>> True, although in my defence and to counter any accusations of laziness,<br>> I didn't realise this was a problem until I pretty much finished the<br>> installer (I was working on the basis long tags are a bit obsolete). The<br>> project has gone through a variety of phases, and a lot of the initial<br>> work was done before it moved to become open source. So this is somewhat<br>> of a legacy admittedly, but it is only a matter of doing a find and<br>> replace on the files.<br>> <br>> As for standards......<br>> <br>> 4) I too am a fan of the phpdoc standard, built in a similar manor to<br>> the Javadoc. As for Xerte from examining the code the use of this is<br>> sporadic<br>> <br>> As for this, other than 1-2 pages where I know the commenting isn't<br>> ideal, I spent two whole weekends commenting up the code to phpdoc<br>> standard. I've even done the javascript to the same standard (even<br>> though it was futile as JS DOC uses some XML format instead). If they<br>> aren't at PHP doc standards, then I have no plans to change them as I<br>> will be shooting myself to get over how stupid I'll feel.<br>> <br>> I don't have any code standards or preferences, other than to keep to<br>> PHPdoc now I erm have done it, try to comment every If statement (give<br>> or take a few where its obvious). I've spent too much time myself bogged<br>> down in open source code that basically isn't as its written badly and<br>> without comments. I've tended to use very basic code and simple<br>> functional patterns so as to make the code as modifiable and<br>> customisable as possible.<br>> <br>> I would be surprised if someone said the Xerte Online Toolkits code was<br>> awkward. I've been pretty anally retentive in terms of file names,<br>> naming conventions and folder structures. The website_code folder<br>> contains all the website code, in side that are folders called php,<br>> scripts, styles.... Admittedly it's not a guide per say, but I would say<br>> its fairly obvious. As to finding out what calls what - I recommend<br>> fiddler. It is amazing.<br>> <br>> I've attached a presentation I gave on the code workings. I think it<br>> might cover some of the points you've raised.<br>> <br>> Is anyone still reading? Spot quiz time? What is the air speed velocity<br>> of a swallow?<br>> <br>> In terms of contributions from other users, so far it's mostly been bug<br>> fixes (we release a weekly list of fixed bugs and modifications - this<br>> week is free of them so far), but we have received 4 or 5 changes from<br>> organizations and colleges where the system is running.<br>> <br>> Every time I have fixed an individual bug, I have offered to that person<br>> scope for the creation of a Xerte Online Toolkits developer's list / sys<br>> admin list, or a desire for increased developer documentation. <br>> <br>> No one has ever replied.<br>> <br>> As a developer, I could go write the manuals, but in terms of sheer<br>> pragmatism, do people think the time spent on that would be commensurate<br>> with the resources returned?<br>> <br>> I would love to think people would be interested in doing so, but would<br>> prefer to establish some sort of steering group before continuing to<br>> create documentation. And also as the benevolent dictator (though I'd<br>> see it more as anarchist) I find it hard to work out what people want as<br>> often I fix things and hear nothing more. I wrote in a load of extra<br>> code to make moodle integration possible, and then when we did moodle<br>> integration we took it all out again. Nice.<br>> <br>> If you'd be interested (or anyone else still here) would be interested<br>> in this then I would be keen to work towards something.<br>> <br>> Apologies for the essay, and it's far too large for me to proof read. So<br>> I'll call this reply open source and people can correct my spelling at a<br>> later date.<br>> <br>> Thanks for the interest though. I am grateful for all feedback.<br>> <br>> Pat<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br><br /><hr />HotmailŪ has a new way to see what's up with your friends. <a href='http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/WhatsNew?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_WhatsNew1_052009' target='_new'>Check it out.</a></body>
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