I've been thinking...
Some people write mods to do all kinds of cool stuff, trying to integrate wowroster into their beloved fora/portals/whatever. I think they do a great and sometimes hard job. I want to make their life easier. I would like to write a PHP interface between WoWroster and pretty much everything else.
Just in case you don't know, what is an interface? An interface is the 'connection' between two systems. You could compare it with a dictionary. I speak English and you speak French. We need a dictionary to understand each other. An interface would be the dictionary.

Basically this means writing php code that can be used in phpBB, IPB, Joomla,... and that extracts all kind of info from the WoWroster database. I just can't write and test this on my own because it would be too much, so I am looking for some help.

Who do I need?
- experienced PHP programmer (must know how to work OO)
- mod writers (to tell me what's important to make it good and easy to use)

How many do I need? the more the better.


Greetings
Thomas

Since 1.7.0, we have been working at multiple changes to make integration easier. More changes in this direction will come in 1.8.

Oh well... guess that saves me the work

PleegWat wrote:Since 1.7.0, we have been working at multiple changes to make integration easier. More changes in this direction will come in 1.8.

When is 1.8 due?

What I've found when making a complete integration of WoWRoster is that I have to write all the logic myself, and not only the code to display it the way the CMS API "wants" me to.

I hope that the planned changes are separating the logic parts of WoWRoster from the display parts. That will make it alot easier to make complete integrations.

Full logic/display separation is unlikely in the 1x line. It just needs too much changing. 1.8 does feature a single access file and a makelink function.

Will R2 address this issue?

And is there any chance that we can get a preview of what we can expect from R2?

R2 is still a little bit away I think.. I might be wrong..

I tried to sneak a peak but Zanix chased me out of R2's bedroom with a shotgun in 1 hand and a hedgehog in the other.. True Story..

39 posts to go...

R2 is only a collection of libraries at the moment. There's no presentable pages, and database tables yet. Plus development of it is kinda standing still at the moment.
We'll resume work on R2 when roster 1.8 goes beta. Probably.

Oki, I'll continue on my work on a complete integration with Joomla while I wait then

BTW: Are you going to change how addons work, so WOWRoster is the one responsible for displaying menus and stuff?

I see some modules that have code like this:

Code: Select all

if( $roster_conf['index_update_inst'] )
{
   print '            <a href="#update"><font size="4">'.$wordings[$roster_conf['roster_lang']]['update_link'].'</font></a><br /><br />';
}


if ( $roster_conf['index_motd'] == 1 )
{
   if( $roster_conf['motd_display_mode'] )
   {
      print '<img src="motd.php?motd='.urlencode($guildMOTD).'" alt="Guild Message of the Day" /><br /><br />';
   }
   else
   {
      echo '<span class="GMOTD">Guild MOTD: '.$guildMOTD.'</span><br /><br />';
   }
}

include_once (ROSTER_LIB.'menu.php');


(This was from AltMonitor btw).

Don't you think that part should have been handeled by the framework around the addon?

That feature would also have eased the integration work also. Then we just had to make a WOWRoster emulator and the addons would have worked like a charm.

Well, in theory that is

Normally, the menu is added by the framework. In AM, I use that to closer resemble the normal memberslist, and because I think having the GMOTD above the menu looks better.

Oki, the post wasn't ment as flaming.
It was just to make your brains spin a bit for R2
How about if wowroster had some kind of API where the addons told the framework if menu and GMOTD was to be shown and then the framework would show it if that's what the admin had configured it to show.

That would have been more smooth for addon makers and people that does porting, since all we have to do is implement that api

Well, it's only configurable from the addons. GMOTD is not auto-added. header/menu/footer are auto-added unless the addon says otherwise.

In AM, the addon tells the framework not to add the menu. The addon adds the menu itself.

Your best bet is looking at some of the addons and the addon.php

BoaConstrictor wrote:

PleegWat wrote:Since 1.7.0, we have been working at multiple changes to make integration easier. More changes in this direction will come in 1.8.

When is 1.8 due?

What I've found when making a complete integration of WoWRoster is that I have to write all the logic myself, and not only the code to display it the way the CMS API "wants" me to.

I hope that the planned changes are separating the logic parts of WoWRoster from the display parts. That will make it alot easier to make complete integrations.

Thought I'd Pipe up here some.

While I agree the roster should separate the look from the backend (whether from Database storage or flat files, it doesn't matter, it would make integration / customization much easier), after beating my head against a wall for the last two months I had one of my more advanced coders look at the code and ask me, "why not just buffer the output of WoWRoster into a variable, and then play with that variable?"

Which got me to thinking, and of course sped up my integration a lot.

ie:

Code: Select all

//***THIS IS IN THE ROSTER HEAD_TEMPLATE FILE
ob_start(); //starts the output buffer to hold the output until you call for it.
//******run the wow roster*********
//***THIS IS IN THE ROSTER FOOTER_TEMPLATE FILE
$HTML = ob_get_clean(); //finishes the full roster output, and then ends, cleans, and packs the output into the variable $HTML
// which you can then play with elsewhere until you call for it.


This way you simply pack your site around the $HTML, and bam, partially integrated.

Hope this eases someones pains abit.

Have anymore developments been made in easier integration? I would really like to get Roster integrated with my Joomla install.

Twizted wrote:Have anymore developments been made in easier integration? I would really like to get Roster integrated with my Joomla install.

Don't know about Joomla, but if I ever get time spare I'll be looking into how to integrate with the vBulletin forum software.