This page is obsolete as of 9/9/04.  It has been replaced by suggestions.html.  There may still be a link from there to here.

The ambition of this web page is to describe and discuss upcoming and proposed changes in the interface and software underlying the OpenWeb.

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The current version is OpenWeb 1.0 alpha.  As an alpha, this version is not stable.

As much as possible has been postponed until after the beta.  In particular, the extensions mechanism will not support the creation of new pages until after the beta.  And we will not make major changes in how publishing errors are reported.

Changes needed before going beta

Discuss and make salient somewhere the issue of the lost update, or simultaneous writes and the refusal to accept publishings. Advice about what to do when it happens.  rich for rich

Revise the FAQ.  rich for rich

Also rich for rich:
- edit the email message which is in changenotify.py
- on howtoauthor add instructions for email notification/substantive change notification
- explain initial author checkbox
- revise open web page idea
- revise terms of use
- write rlai definition/explanation explainRLAI.html
- page that lists all the infrastructure files /openpage/

The following is everything from the previous project page that had not been completed as of 8/21/04, and that is still seen as needed for the beta

Make sure how to author incorporates all the requirements.  rich for rich

Anna, have you completed or obsoleted: 1) Only check modified time on html files,
    Yes - so you always save over image files
2) Do not allow html files through mod_dav (8080),
    Yes
and 3) Local program for publishing html documents (i think this is done, but we need to document how to obtain and use it. make publishscript.html).  rich for anna
    Beta documentation up.

The after-extension-submitted situation could be improved.  Is there any way we can make the refresh automatic?  Failing that, can we get a smaller window with, in place of the current "Content-type:text/html Your comment has been added. Please reload your page" the message "Thank you for your extension.  Close this window and reload the target page to see it." rich for priyanka

We also have:
POST-BETA

Due Date	Date Completed	Instigator	Project Part	Description	Notes
		Anna	Publishing	Convert perl script to python
		Anna	Publishing	Allow expired updates if continuing your own updates
		Rich	Comments	Merge comments added since local update time
		Rich	Archiving	Do it
		Rich	Authoring	Create functionality for private and partially private pages
		Priyanka	Misc	Have directions on the main page, links to other sections
		Rich	Publishing	Automatic header - special commands for automatic logo, etc

- I (anna) deleted some rows that I instigated that are outdated or done, for various reasons.

Extensions

For the beta we do only a single extendform.html, not specializing to creating new pages or initial author stuff.

Revise the extend form text so that more of the explanation is pushed off to another file, an exampleofextensions.html file, to keep the on-form text short.  Strip off any newlines at the end of the extension text.  Can we change the ">" that one can mouse over into something nameable.  How about a small blue square?    rich for priyanka

If publishing doesn't work (rich for anna)

Please make the error message a little friendlier.  e.g., ",The last logged publish command from your IP address was not accepted because your copy of /styleguide.html appears older than the public copy on the server. The most likely reasons for this is that you published the file successfully and then continued to edit from the same "stale" editor window, or someone else has made changes so they should not be overwritten and lost."
    - changed
rich for anna


It is still too easy to mess up or mix into the bottom material! Foolproof this.  Can't we just move the write-time stamp to the very end of the page, after the </body> or even after the </html>.  Use some other mark to identify the start of the bottom material.  Then, if things get messed up, the user can just delete the whole of the bottom material in composer and he will be right again.  In fact, deleting it all could be the normal, simple, clear, and safe way of editing near the end of the page.  rich for anna

Notifications

Do we have a way yet to automatically remove people from a file's email notification list when they ask to be?  rich for priyanka
-not yet, but I could add another text field and remove the address in the list that matches with the one that they entered.

Proposals for changes beyond the beta

The extension page has gotten long an will need scrollbars to be used on smaller screens.  rich for priyanka
-done

After an extension, leave page open until extension is sucessfully added to the page.  If it is, then close it and, if possible, automatically refresh the page and show the bottom, where the extension has appeared.  If publishing fails, the extendform window should be left up so that the user can cut and paste his extension somewhere so that he doesn't lose his work.  rich for priyanka

Add .html extension when creating new pages (important) or browsing to existing pages (not so important).  rich for anna
-done

Allow an author to make repeated publishings from the same editor window (as long as their are no intervening writes of course).  rich for anna

Implement mousable time-and-name-stamps, like those in extensions, but useable when one is editing with Mozilla.  rich for anna
    - need more details

Integrate rlai.net with rlai.cs.ualberta.ca.  rich for anna

Make a separate extendform.html for extending pages and for creating new pages.  Implement the initial author stuff (so that the author appears in the standard way on the page).  For a new page, can we start the extension text---actually appearing in the form to be changed or deleted--- with "The <b>ambition</b> of this web page is to...
<hr>" (without the quotes of course)?  rich for priyanka

-do want to paste what is in the textarea for the extension form after the "The <b>ambition</b> of this web page is to "
statement?

Can we change this so that the error message depends on the what is returned from the query? 
    - yes
If so, we should rename this "Publishing problem?" and basically return the text from from the item of ifpublishingdoesntwork.html that corresponds to what was returned on this query.  If success was returned we give the entire last section.
    - will split up pages later

BUG: Image publishing being buggy was due to the version of mozilla I was using. -anna