[Linux-aus] Linux Australia Website

[Andrew Donnellan]

On 11/18/06, Michael Davies <michael at msdavies.net> wrote:
> Integration is more about what the user experiences than what
> language/tool the backend is written in/uses.  Think like an end-user,
> not a programmer.

Yes, however integration also includes the admin side of things and so on.

Also the end-user integration is easier when the backend is integrated.

>
> > Also seriously how difficult is it to rewrite/adapt/port MemberDB to
> > whatever we end up using?
>
> Michael's first axiom: Any program more complex than "Hello World" has
> at least one bug.

Unfortunately true...

>
> No matter how "simple" there will be teething problems, and if you do
> this with a membership database responsible for elections on a public
> web server, you want to minimise them (remember the privacy laws in
> this country?)

That's why you test it somewhere other than your main server first...

The last time I used MemberDB was for the elections which was ages
ago. My guess is that most people (other than ctte members) probably
use it about once a year or less. There is a fair amount of time to
test it.

>
> Member_db spat out the SQL password at one point due to a bug (sorry
> Stewart for bringing that up :-)  Anything we can do to make this
> migration simpler should be adopted.

That *is* a nasty bug; of course that shouldn't cause much of a
problem for LA if the database is configured only to allow from
localhost :)

>
> Keeping it a separate application,

Less maintainable, more difficult to integrate.

> embedding it's output inside what
> Joomla/Drupal/Plone/Typo3 produces,

Sometimes that can take more code than rewriting the app...

> or writing it from scratch - let's

If we use a non-PHP based system this would definitely be my choice.
If a PHP based system is used it can be integrated as some sort of
module.

> just get away from the NIH[0] attitude and the "XYZ language/tool
> sucks, trust me" mentality and do a proper analysis of the options so
> that we can choose the right tool, technology, and approach that makes
> sense, and not jump in feet first to solve the wrong problem.

Well yeah, there's no point discussing this until we have any idea
what we will use and why we will use it. We still haven't got an idea
whether we should use Drupal, Joomla, Plone and Zope, a custom written
one, or whatever.

As I've been looking around Plone is looking more and more attractive
from an admin POV. It appears capable of practically anything except
perhaps the store and memberdb.

-- 
Andrew Donnellan
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