Theledge.net

Some cool plugins have been added to Serendipity...

Jackson Miller has added two new plugins...

He added a DHTML Category Menu plugin and a word of the day (serendipity_plugin_wotd) plugin...

Both can be download from Mr. Miller's site, and the DHTML Category Menu has been added to CVS...

Alas, on my simple hardware they slow the page down... (Well, word of the day, not so bad... But the category menu does a pretty good job on it..)

(not that you would notice, considering how slow the server it is... Poor little Pentium Pro 233)

(Maybe soon I will buy a new computer... But probably not... (baby on the way and all))

(And anyways, I give most of my old hardware to Brad, so that I have someone to play games with... Currently he needs a new computer so that we can play Age of Mythology..)

Um, yeah...

Anyways, check out those plugins... They are pretty nice..
(though the DHTML categories menu plugin is stubborn... you need a pear package installed, then you need a javascript that isn't provided, then you need some images... and neither version works with PHP 4
Pretty harsh... But I think that will change...
If you have troubles, drop my a line and I can see about helping you out...)

Oh, Garvin has added an external LDAP authentication plugin to CVS which will be damn nifty when it's finished... I'm not running LDAP right now (dumped it a while back to squeeze more speed out of the machine).. but if that does well, it might be worth going back to...

Oh wait, I'm trying to get out of computers... damn skill set...

So, I added a usergallery for serendipity to the additional_plugins CVS...
It allows people to display the media library in the blog...

You can see a test at http://beta.theledge.net/index.php?serendipity[subpage]=gallery

I'm not sure how far to go with it, since it relies on the internal serendipity function to display the media... I'd have to modify the displayimagelist function in serendipity to get more output...

I added a bunch of error checking to the weather plugin.. I don't really like PEAR right now because it doesn't offer an easy way to check package installs...
It looks like PEAR_INFO might do it... but it is brand new, so most hosts won’t have it...

I'm still conflicted over whether or not to integrate PEAR:soap into the amazonchooser plugin, and until I decide on that I'm not going to futz with the amazon plugin, either..

I haven't done anything on the link list idea... But it's still bubbling around...
Some of the plugin_api hooks might be useful to add links to the list when a post is submitted... But it still isn't wonderfully happy...
I want some way to add them that isn't part of the main configuation page...
*sigh*

Maybe look at the loginbox plugin!!! If you are authenticated it gives you a way to add links at the bottom??? Maybe that's possible...

Anyway, I've tried to play with the staticpage plugin and haven't had much joy...
But, a sidebar plugin that finds all those plugins (and the gallery) and allows the use to configure them might be nice...

Serendipity supports JustBlogIt out of the box in 0.8... adding similiar support for IE would take a plugin, which is doable, but a little frustrating... I'm not sure it's worth it...

The readinglist plugin idea suffers much the same problems as the linklist.. without a good way to manage the reading list, it's too cumbersome...
I could look at seeing if you can hijack the admin interface the same way the usergallery hijacks the entries listing... that might work well...

And the amazon wishlist is on hold until I figure out PEAR:soap...

Anywho that's where those are...

So, I would have forgotten everything over x-mas....

Still Possible plugins:
Local blogroll system... an external blogroll thing exists (I think) and there may even be a local one floating around... needs an easy method to post links to... for IE, can use a java script to an external_plugin thing... Need to look into Firefox... Also would need to deal with authentication/authorization... Might just be easier to use the trackback functionality to add links after entry submit.
Could combine the blogroll system with a blog_this system, which allows a single click way of adding entries to the blog...
A blog_this thing will be hard, because it needs to respect the authentication stuff...

A local blog roll is easy, except it lacks a good, natural way to add content to it...

Integrate amazonchooser into the current amazon plugin... might be easy: add check to amazon plugin to see if chooser is installed... if yes, provide a search button...
Amazonchooser needs to be able to just return asins, too (asinonly=1 or something...)
Possible thanks to Garvin adding a content field to config stuff... I need to clean the amazon plugin up though, since it tends to barf on my machine... Should try to find original author...

The really big question is whether I should convert both plugins over to use pear's soap stuff... It is in beta, and relies on at least one other beta product... *sigh*

Rework the current media system as a plugin (need to talk to someone about that). This would make the system more extensible, like adding some gallery features, non-image document storage, and perhaps even php wrapped access to files.
This sounds like it is being done, and it actually seems pretty good... maybe I should just rework my gallery stuff to hook into the media database...

Readinglist (Medialist)... something that allows you to add media to a list (like a blogroll) for currently listening/reading, etc stuff... perhaps allow it to roll entries from the list to the blog... such as currently reading -> finished reading, post review.
I really like this idea... I just need to put more thought into it....

Wishlist plugin to pull someones wishlist from amazon and display it, allowing you to explain why you want these items, not just post a cheesy link to amazon's site...
(This would be hard, because it would need to cache that info or it would kill the server.. atleast with my wishlist it would...)

Note, I need to get the import stuff working so that the beta site is synced with the live site.... to do that I need to get them running from the same table, with different prefixes...
all done...

Ok, so that I don't forget everything over the holiday season:

Possible plugins:
Local blogroll system... an external blogroll thing exists (I think) and there may even be a local one floating around... needs an easy method to post links to... for IE, can use a java script to an external_plugin thing... Need to look into Firefox... Also would need to deal with authentication/authorization... Might just be easier to use the trackback functionality to add links after entry submit.

Could combine the blogroll system with a blog_this system, which allows a single click way of adding entries to the blog...

Integrate amazonchooser into the current amazon plugin... might be easy: add check to amazon plugin to see if chooser is installed... if yes, provide a search button...
Amazonchooser needs to be able to just return asins, too (asinonly=1 or something...)

Rework the current media system as a plugin (need to talk to someone about that). This would make the system more extensible, like adding some gallery features, non-image document storage, and perhaps even php wrapped access to files.

Readinglist (Medialist)... something that allows you to add media to a list (like a blogroll) for currently listening/reading, etc stuff... perhaps allow it to roll entries from the list to the blog... such as currently reading -> finished reading, post review.

Wishlist plugin to pull someones wishlist from amazon and display it, allowing you to explain why you want these items, not just post a cheesy link to amazon's site...
(This would be hard, because it would need to cache that info or it would kill the server.. atleast with my wishlist it would...)

I don't know... these are kind of big ticket items... but I think the plugin system is flexible enough to do it with.... we'll see...

Note, I need to get the import stuff working so that the beta site is synced with the live site.... to do that I need to get them running from the same table, with different prefixes...

Ok, so with Garvin's help, I have written a plugin for Serendipity!

It is an Amazon Chooser, which adds a button to the plain text editor that allows you to search amazon for the special something you really want, then add it into your posts..

You can download a copy here, or you can pull a copy from the Serendipity CVS, under additional_plugins/serendipity_event_amazonchooser.

It works pretty well, I think...

If you have any problems, post a comment either here, or in Serendipity's forums.

Please note, though, that I am not a programmer... If you see something totally stupid and dumb, please let me know...