Big Crazy Web Framework

From IthrynWiki

I've (Brian) got some better ideas for this, but I don't really have time to put them down right now. In particular, something like a combination between Yahoo Groups and TikiWiki.

Basically, I'd like the following to be available for any Ithryn user:

• Wiki space
• Personal Blog
• Area to manage mailing lists (integration with Mailman)
• Area to manage projects

In addition, I'd like to start having a stronger divide between users on Ithryn/BRSP. In particular, I'd like full users and guest users. All current users would be full users. Guest users would be able to:

• Post comments on Blogs
• Edit Wikis
• Join mailing lists
• Participate in groups

Some full users would be able to create new groups from a web interface. Another group (maybe all full users?) would be able to add new guest users. Or perhaps guest users would be able to add themselves, or at least submit themselves to be added.

I'll attempt to update this later; it's really the direction I see Ithryn taking. Feel free to post any comments.

Comments

So let's consider some candidate frameworks. We don't really want a full-fledged web framework per se (I don't think). We want some kind of content management system. There are literally hundreds of these, and they have an enormous array of features. To see them in all their glory, check out the CMS Matrix. Of all that entire bestiary of choices, I would say we should consider one of:

• Plone which is Zope-based, very heavily used, and which some of us have experience with.
• Drupal which is rapidly gaining mindshare and which seems to at least some of the features you mention in a faily easy format.
• Joomla! I (Jon) tried Drupal and found it to be like building a car from a pile of nuts, bolts and aluminum. Joomla is more like buying a decent car and adding bolt-ons like rims, a stereo and tinted windows. Basically Drupal is really powerful for web developers but I believe it takes way too much time to master. Joomla makes it much easier to add on modules and just have them work. I'm not sure how easily we can may a "MySpace" (for lack of a better word with all the basic components preconfigured. I haven't checked out the underlying security of Joomla but I know the admins are pretty responsive to pulling third party plugins from their website when vulnerabilities are reported.
• Stick with what we have for mail and Wiki (Mailman and MediaWiki) and just add some blogging tool that we like. WordPress seems to be pretty decent in my experience, and can handle multiple users. We should at least consider what such a non-integrated combo is missing, so we have some basis for comparison.