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Personal Details:

Name: Robin Chang

Email/Gtalk: amorphous123@gmail.com

AIM: AlphaAmorphous

 

Project Proposal:

Synopsosis: Front-end, inline with the design, editting.

Proposal:

The main Wordpress plugin I have seen that deals with the same basic concept that I have is found at http://www.johntp.com/2006/09/01/wordpress-plugin-edit-n-place/. I would like to move away from a console design as they show there and make it more free for changing.

On further discussion, I have seen the plugin written by Scribu and is in the alpha stage, but is only compatible with PHP 5 and can be found at http://scribu.net/wordpress/front-end-editor/fee-0-5.html. It lacks the free-range of editing all elements such as placement and resizing, however.

Wordpress users should be able to create new posts in-line with their design so they can make fixes immediately instead of writing all their content and then waiting to see the result. This will enable them to fix it as it goes along instead of coming back to tweak certain things. The hassle of logging into the admin console and changing it just to figure out that a small fix hasn’t solved the problem is too much of a nuisance!

 

Google’s personal homepages (iGoogle) after one has signed in, with the ability to drag and drop boxes, is a good idea that I have. I want to make it so people can drag and drop image boxes, content boxes, and titles and save it without ever going into the admin console page. With this project idea, I will remove the hassle, one that especially happens when different browsers have issues in positioning/padding. By correctly changing the CSS and moving it via the CSS styling of position, and given the x and y locations in relativity as a normal object, it will be moved properly. This is the particular feature that will be the most dominant one.

 

Another dynamic part of this will be the feature that will allow users to resize content boxes and image files as the user sees fit. This will, as all the dynamic part such as moving the location, will use Javascript to find the increase or decrease in size. This will, once again, send a message to the server with information from the user, and edit the post accordingly one they have chosen save it.

 

To maintain safety since users don’t always want what they do, the saves will occur once the user has chosen to save it. This will be implemented by having a top-layer div that shows up once they have made a change that has the options of “Save”, “Undo”, “Revert to Original”. The “save” option will change the post design to what it looks like now. The “Undo” will change put all the objects back in place. The “Revert to Original” will remove all additional tags created.

 

If a title is too large for a single line, I want to change the font-size or words on the spot. If a body paragraph just happens to have one line for a short-word, I want to adjust that. If an image just doesn’t look appealing because its size or placement, let me fix it! If something is in the wrong place, let me move it. If something is too large or too small, let me resize it! With this proposal acceptance, these features will be added to Wordpress.

 

This should be incorporated as part of the core as it will enable a wider range of users to easily put information online. The factor of logging into an admin console and navigating to certain areas to reach a post will be removed. People will have easier access to putting up materials in a fashion they desire. It will be more intuitive than the current posting design interface (which is already so easy to use!).

 

Possible Issues:

An important issue and possible difficulty is to get this to properly function in all well-known browsers. This includes Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Internet Explorer. An additional area that will be troublesome will be the actual time it will take for the server to obtain data from the user and how server-intensive this may become if a person constantly edits and saves it.

 

Requirements (user-side):

A requirement to run this will be both a server that has Apache and MySQL Databases (for the Wordpress) and a browser that has JavaScript (for the AJAX to properly work).

 

Programming/Scripting: PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript.

 

Schedule of Deliverables:

The first thing that will be done, and that I do not consider a milestone, is to ensure of logging in capabilities working outside of the admin console.

The first milestone will be reached in 2 week and will be simply integrating text and tag edits into the blog post. This step will also include allowing users to create a new post inline. The bulk of the documentation will be done in this period, including the laying out of all the functions.

The second milsetone, which will be reached in 3 weeks after have full capabilities to move the content and title around and resize. Image resizing will also be done here. A normally invisible border will appear around the content that is being handled.

By the midterm portion, the hack will work and could be distributed as an alpha-stage product. It can still be much improved on, however. It will be able to have the front-end edit-in-place feature.

The third milestone will enable capabilities to create new objects that will move outside of the content zone if required. At this stage, a backend saving will be included incase they make an error and want to “undo” to the last saved. A “revert to original” will also be added, where all the additional changes will be removed. This will take 1 week.

The fourth milestone will be adding a smart helper that will act as a guide in case one does not know how to use it. This will tell them that they can drag a box and save the location if they are hovering over an item for a certain period of time. It will also tell them that they can resize the content if their mouse is hovered near a corner. This will require 2 weeks.

The last milestone will be when it works completely and has an easy-to-use GUI. This is undetermined and is expected to take from 1-3 weeks as there are many areas for error. At this stage, I expect to get much help from the Wordpress community through their testing of this project. In this stage, I will also create a tutorial and constantly improve on it as required.

 

Open Source Development Experience: N/A

 

Work/Internship Experience:

www.msjconnect.com

I was project manager for this school website that linked teachers with students. I programmed most of the back-end in PHP and MySQL and all of the front-end using AJAX. The site was developed from the ground-up, using no previous framework. You can log-in using student account with username “robin” and pasword “test”. You can log into a teacher account with username “test” and password “test”.

www.msjinteract.com

I manage my school’s Interact website. I created the theme using green, our school color. (Wordpress)

www.msjclubs.net

I designed this website to act as a portal during the summer for our many campus’s student clubs. We have more than 50 clubs. (Joomla!)

www.costanoan.net

I run and maintain our school yearbook’s website. (Movable Type)

www.hostindiaca.com/

I created this restaurant’s website using Macromedia Flash, with the images and sounds already given.

 

Academic Experience:

In addition to going to junior high school and high school, I have been attending community college taking courses in Computer Science for the last 5 years. I have gotten an A in all the classes. I am currently enrolled in Adv Prg with Data Structures.

Courses (Community College):

Adv Prg with Data Structures

C++ Programming

Intro to Programming Using C++

Introduction to Internet

Data Communications

Computer Applications

Intro Computers and Info Tech

Intro to SQL PL/SQL Progrmng

Intro to Java Programming

 

I have self-studied PHP and JavaScript and have moved on to using AJAX to allow a greater ease of access and better feel to pages.

I am entering UC Davis this fall as a freshmen enrolled under the Computer Science major. I am very excited to totally change my academic focus to a field that I enjoy surrounded by people with interest in the same area.

 

Why WordPress:

After using Wordpress, Movable-Type, GeekBlog, Bblog, and Joomla!, I’ve discovered that the interface and functionality I like best is seen in Wordpress. Wordpress has been easy to install and run, and changing the layout has been the easiest to do. After further looking into Wordpress, I have discovered that it has the best documentation by far, and I would like to make use of it and contribute to it something of my own.

I enjoy using Wordpress and want to encourage other users to move to it by adding features that will make it easier for everyone for any purpose. Wordpress is a strong blogging software that can be easily ported to any type of purpose, whether it is for personal blogging, creating a fan-group, or developing an online newspaper. Wordpress is easy to install, easy to use, easy to update, and easy to maintain. Wordpress is simply just the best choice out there because of it’s ease of use, due to its wide fan-base and dedicated members that continue to improve on its design both on the core and with plugins.

 

Why me:

I enjoy using Wordpress. I have the experience and time to undergo this project. I would love an opportunity such as this to work. I want to do this so I can edit my blog more easily. I like coding and enjoy building things. I want to contribute something of worth and value. I understand the weight of this project. I have nothing else to do this summer. I have the capability to code this in the given amount of time. I will be in California so there won’t be a huge time discrepancy. Most of all, I desire to help the world, and by creating this, it will reach so many individuals and groups and allow them to communiciate their cause more easily.