User talk:Luke Westwalker

gen:User talk:Luke Westwalker

Developing the location DB
Luke, since you have started to discuss the features of the location DB in very detail, maybe you would like to help in development. Now, the basic framework is elaborated enough so that some parts of the development, especialy additional modules, could be done in parallel. How about your skills in PHP and databases? If you are interested, I would be very glad to work in a small team rather than doing everything by my own. -- Hansm 10:28, 28 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Hans, thank you very much for your proposal, especially that I expect to have a bit more free time during summer. I can understand a bit PHP and relational DBs and would like to learn more, but currently I won't be more useful than for recreation of previously created patterns or preparing some structure similiar to something else. I am not able to write by myself code with queries. If that is enough for start, please count me in, let's say I am available from tommorrow (from any moment you read that...). LukeWestwalker ⇔ 11:12, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I still hesitate to publish my locDB code before I have checked it for security holes. But I could send you a tar archive with the code and the DB table definitions. The DB part relies on array fields. As far as I know, this is not supported by MySQL, so you would need to have PostgreSQL installed in order to build up your testing environment. The first step (and unfortunately maybe the hardest one) for you would be to reproduce a running installation of the locDB wiki.
 * If done so, you could try to understand the interface between locDB modules and all the rest. For developing a new module, you basicaly have to declare a new PHP class that extends the module base class. There is a set of methods you have to overwrite and fill with some appropriate contence.
 * Choose some new module as your first challange. Try to get a clear idea of what kind of data the module should deal with and how this could be displayed on a web page. I think it would be a good idea to start with the outSection method that does the display. For this, you won't need DB querries.
 * When you like your web form (and me, too), we could think about the appropriate DB table layout. Once you know how the tables have to look like, try to write the save method for your module. If you succeed with this, the other methods that display the revision differences or show merging conflicts won't be harder that this.
 * Do you think we could do it this way? Oh, and by the way, I actualy would preferre to discuss this on tech:, but you have forwarded your talk page to here. Anyway, we also could discuss on the LocDB's talk page.
 * -- Hansm 11:58, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, I will try to instalł the www and Postgres server, which I think will take me a few days. Then I will try to follow first parts of your suggestions above. It would be installing MediaWiki and importing dbase you would send me, which I hope results in a running MediaWiki. It would be a first time I would do it, so if I succeed, l'll get into details. I am not sure how much it would take me to get to this point, so may be you could consider a simpler way to assist you? For example logging to some webhosted wiki and database? LukeWestwalker ⇔ 16:09, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Hm ;-) Yes, I already had expected that you would ask for an easier way. But this is not so easy. Sure, I could give you a login on our server, but ... I do not have a secure sandbox there. That's the point. Just a matter of general server admin paranoia. Let me see, maybe I could find a way to give you a restricted login, but no promisses. -- Hansm 16:41, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Hm, so I conclude (as can't judge myself) from what you wrote above, it is technically possible to make it remotely on a web accesible server. And security restrictions are caused by server access, not by making development code web accessible. So may be we should reverse ownership of infrastructure for sandbox for me. Would you be able to prepare workspace for me if I provided you access to a cPanel adminned webhosting account with PHP5/4 and PostgreSQL? I realize it would be extra work for you, so please don't consider it like I wanted to transfer all work on your side. I just wanted to speed up the process profiting from our current resources and it is clear to me your knowledge is much broader and you could faster complete operations that would take me much longer. LukeWestwalker ⇔  17:12, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm trying to reactivate a developing sandbox I have experimented with in our early days on this server. So far, everything looks quite promissing. I already have been able to login as root, but I wanted to clean up a bit before I start to set up the wiki and the DB.


 * To be honest, I don't know what cPanel means. Is it a web interface for administration? If so, I would prefere to have shell access. Oh yes, something else. I fear we also will need a memcached in the developing environment. Do you have a memcached?


 * I will try to get the environment running on our server. If we are lucky, still today. If not, on Tuesday. Maybe somebody else wanted to join, so it's probably the better choice to have everything on WV.


 * -- Hansm 17:45, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPanel, and PhpMyAdmin are enough to setup a database for MediaWiki. I could even setup a db according to your requirements. But if you still consider environment running on your server, do as you think would be best. In the meantime could you write a bit more on the purpose of memcached? Is it MediaWiki requirement? I managed to run MW 1.12 on a server without it, but think it would be no problem to find a server providing it after all. Let me know then when anything more precise comes up as result of your preparation efforts described above. I'll keep my fingers crossed. LukeWestwalker ⇔ 18:58, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * We need to do some tricky things with the DB, not a standard setup as done via the web installation interface. Insead, parts of what is described in Migration to PostgreSQL will be neccessary. Probably, this will be possible via cPanel, too, but I prefer to see directly what's going wrong. I'm about to set up the DB, right now. The memcached is a simple stand alone cache for web applications. It's the standard way for medium sized and large wiki installations to do caching, although not neccessarily required. But... my code relies on it. -- Hansm 19:28, 29 June 2008 (UTC)


 * No problem then with memcached, that should be available. Shell access should be available alike. If those turn out to be neccessary, let me know what the situtation is like after you have finished all you are planning now. I hope all goes well. LukeWestwalker ⇔ 19:52, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

I'm done! (and it was pretty messy) A new developing environment is waiting for you. Is your email address in your personal settings still up to date? I don't want to send the access data to the wrong address. -- Hansm 16:17, 1 July 2008 (UTC)