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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Updates to the site
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5119 |
Hi guys. I'm almost at a stage where I can put some time back into developing and improving this web site. One thing I want to add is a code library that can be maintained by a few select forum members. The library can contain code snippets and downloadable files ( zip files, images, pdf's ), and will be indexed and searchable. Basically each "record" will have a couple of groups it can belong to, one group could be Micromite, Maximite, PicAxe, Audrino, Pie. Another group could be Hardware, Firmware, Software. Each record can belong to more than one group, eg Micromite/Software and Maximite/Software. Each record also has a date, author, title, description, keywords, thumbnail images and files, those last two optional. Records can be edited, but a archive keeps old versions. Users will be able to search by date, description, keywords, author, etc. The library code will be written in PHP with MySQL, its a language / database I'm migrating a lot of my code base to. Eventually the entire TBS web site will be PHP, but this is some years off. Therefore the library will live on a different web server for the short term, but this will be pretty invisible to the user. One thing I would like to ask for is online examples of library's that forum members have used in the past, so I can get a few idea's on formats, etc. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5119 |
Is there any need or interest in this? The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Chris Roper Senior Member  Joined: 19/05/2015 Location: South AfricaPosts: 280 |
I definitely think there is a need. I didn't reply to your first post because I do not have or know of any library's to show as an example, apart from GitHub that I hate using  and I don't know anything about coding in PHP so had no advice to offer. I think others may be in the same boat.
So lack of response is unlikely to equate to lack of interest. Cheers Chris And thanks for a great forum. http://caroper.blogspot.com/ |
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| Bizzie Senior Member Joined: 06/07/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 192 |
I think this is a brilliant expansion of the site! I for one as a beginner to "Mites" find it quite hard to track down the info I need. Please continue with the development. Rob Rob White |
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TassyJim Guru  Joined: 07/08/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 6283 |
I agree that it would be very useful. I am not a web programmer so not much help there. On site I use and seems to work well is this one for Liberty Basic: http://lbpe.wikispaces.com/ Jim VK7JH MMedit |
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twofingers Guru Joined: 02/06/2014 Location: GermanyPosts: 1593 |
I think this applies for most users here. Regards MIchael causality ≠ correlation ≠ coincidence |
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| Bizzie Senior Member Joined: 06/07/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 192 |
I had a look at the site TassyJim suggested and think that style would be ideal. Rob White |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5119 |
Thanks, the silence had me worried. Dont worry about the PHP, its just the language I would use to develop the library and would be transparent to the users. I wont need any help with that. Will check out the Liberty Basic site. Main thing is its searchable, and indexed. Biggest problem with forums is the good stuff gets lost and is hard to find after a few months / years. Give me a couple of weeks and I'll put the basics together, then we can refine it from there. I've developed document registers in the past so will build of that. TheBackShed.com lives on a IIS web server, with no support for PHP. So I'll develop the library on another domain I have hosted on a apache server that runs PHP and MySQL, then link it to TheBackShed. The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
One that i made before for a client (can not share because it is theirs!) was just a thin layer on top of the normal underlying OS file structure. A user code browse through it like they could on their own computer. When a directory contained an index.html then that file would be shown instead. All content is static and that will help with search engines indexing it. An 'uploader' could upload files to an upload directory and then move that file to its right place. I specifically did it that way so i could use the native OS security. A 'uploader' had create rights in the upload directory, nowhere else. If he was also a 'organizer' (meaning someone with rights to move files around) then he could copy/move that file to any other directory. Notice that he has no delete rights. 'Deleting' was done by moving it to a 'garbage bin' folder. And only someone with delete rights could delete something from only tat directory. This alone saved many files that were mistakenly moved/deleted etc. More 'roles' can be made and given the rights that exactly fits their role. It is very lightweight, does not rely on any libraries and because the index.html is 'freeform' it can look exactly like you want no limits. Of course this requires some discipline, but a few good templates can help with that. You could even write a small 'generator' to create that html file when new content is uploaded. Nice thing about it is once you made it you can drop it anywhere in a site you like. The point i want to make is that a 'library' consists mostly of files. A database is not the easiest to use for that function as lots of maintaining code has to be written. Using the file structure you get 95% of what you need for 'free'. Backups are also easy, just a simple copy. As is mirroring. This can be mirrored to any website independent of what OS and webserver they run and does not need php, .net, ruby etc... Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| paceman Guru Joined: 07/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1329 |
Hi Glenn, I agree that a forum 'Library' would be a major enhancement - and with Michael's comments above. Unfortunately I don't have experience with any web-based system you can base it on either. Hugh's library has been a very good resource and the updated .pdf summary he's maintained has been very helpful. The programs are mostly Maximite based though so something equivalent is needed for downloadable Micromite programs, snippets, CFunctions, photos and diagrams and to me 'thebackshed' forum is the place it should be. The ability to search the library is obviously a major bonus and probably indispensible as it gets bigger - a Google-type content search would be great but I can see that would be difficult to implement and wouldn't capture images etc. I think 'Key-Words' are really important and the 'groups' you mention can really be treated as keywords. Each record should I think also have a link to the TBS Topic/page where it's discussed. From my experience (long past) of doing R&D lab literature searches it's important to be quite specific with keywords too and a list of obvious ones (contributed by forum members?) in groups in a User Guide is a big help - a sort-of Thesaurus. These could include e.g. device (ESP8266,ILI9341...), GPS, RTC, WiFi, Temperature, keyboard etc. A 'spelling' list like this makes it much less likely that relevant info is missed and wildcard characters can be very handy (e.g. MCP17?? where the ?? might be 00, 02 or 03). Contributors could check the list first and add to it if a keyword they want to use is not there. I'm not sure how you would get a cross-reference of multiple files in the library which are part of the same 'subject'; i.e. there might be five relevant files, a .bas, a .pdf, a .sch and two .jpg's. A folder would do it but then would you search for files or folders? I think what you've outlined is well on the right track. Greg |
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CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1427 |
I was feeling the same way. I'm working on an expansion to CircuitGizmos to post projects and collect as much MM and uM information as I can find. The development site is here: CG development I'll be adding uM stuff as well as other things daily. I thought originally of adding a forum, but there was no way that I would want to pull people away from here. I'm hoping that the new CG site becomes a place where things discussed here can find a permanent home. I used my large "Beginning Maximite" document as the base for the site. Please eyeball the site. Keep in mind that is is growing (300 pages right now) and will keep growing. I'll have comments open on all sections of the site, so that anyone that wants to add information can make suggestions (or ask questions). This includes all MMbasic commands, so for the page that is IR (for example) you can mention in comments that the IR pin for the 100-pin '470 is pin X. Then I can update the data there to contain that info. If you have a useful bit of code to add to the listing, that can be added, too. I hope to have our wonderful MM community keep strengthening the site and then more and more people will become part of this MM community. More than just comments, full projects can be done. I'll be adding people as project creators. Project creators get CG products at my cost. The new site will be hosted on a wide and deep site. No limits to files/pictures and whatnot. I'll be going live very soon. Edited to add: I'll be happy to maintain micromite code snippets in an on-line version of the Hugh-library effort. I'm willing to put in the time and resources for this. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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| akashh Senior Member Joined: 19/01/2014 Location: IndiaPosts: 115 |
Hi Glenn, You could check out phocadownload, they have file libraries written in PHP for Joomla, but it may give you some ideas. In fact, Joomla does also have some forum modules that could be used, it may be worth a look. I'm quite comfortable with PHP so if you have any questions you can ask me. Thanks, Akash |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2944 |
Glenn, I've just noticed an increase in my inbox size to 50 messages 
Is this part of your 'overhaul' by any chance? A massive thanks for this; and also for the upcoming Library enhancement. Brilliant stuff  |
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