Archive:Chapters database

'''THIS STUFF ISN'T TRUE ANYMORE. OUR CHAPTER DATABASE IS MANAGED BY A GOOGLE SPREADSHEET NOW.'''

= How it Works = The chapters "database" uses Semantic MediaWiki and Semantic Forms. We have a page on how to Register a chapter.

How to play with it
the Semantic Forms page on mediawiki.org has just about everything you need to know. as a little primer, here's:

How to add a field to the chapters database
at least, this is how Parker did it. hopefully he did it correctly. the above two will may require adding the field in more than one place within each page if you do a good job creating the field, the form should render an input type that is relevant (ie: if you created a field with multiple, specified values, it should render a drop-box when you call the form to add data)
 * create the field at Special:CreateProperty
 * add the field to the template at Template:Chapter
 * add the field to the form at Form:Chapter

= Development Status =

Required features for "production" mode

 * [DONE] Easy (ish) to add and update data
 * Edit with form is fixed + renamed "edit" (c.f. "edit source")
 * Email freedom AT fc.o the results of new chapter submission
 * right now, the prototype fires before the RDF gets saved into the MW database...
 * possible solutions: have the MW post-save hook send an email to a special address/with special marking that the Python replies to


 * We trust it enough to base the main website's chapters page on it
 * This means access control so that only trusted people can edit a chapter's page or a chapter contact's user page.
 * And we know how to sanely have PHP slurp data from it
 * Status: We know how, and the Python export script is written, we just need to finish the integration (work in the fco-svn trunk of the WordPress theme)


 * All template parameters should have "properties"/semantics. For instance, a user's Jabber account does not appear in "Facts about User".

Required features for "fun to use" mode

 * Adding a new chapter results in the designated "contact" automatically generating a subscription request for the Chapters mailing list.
 * The system for creating new chapter wikis and blogs should be able to slurp data from the Chapters DB and fill in all appropriate information.
 * [DONE] The template for editing users needs better descriptions of what each field means.
 * The address for the school probably shouldn't be free-form, it should be separated into street, city, state, zip.
 * The User's page should list what chapter and school they belong to. The School's page should list any contacts it has and any chapter it has.

= Close curtain credits =

This has been a Web team production.