Joomla! Discussion Forums

My final - and 8th task

http://code.google.com/p/google-highly- ... tail?id=95


Task claimed: 20th of January
Task due: 4th of February

I'll first finish/improve this article from the doc-camp: http://docs.joomla.org/Using_the_core_parameter_types
(yeah..busy with the doc-camp as well )
Then I'll make a new article, with parts from the Using the Core parameter types article, and some other parts.

Should I use the Joomla!1.5 test package from Google Code?

Marieke

Good for you!

The nightly downloadwill be best.

I hope you are having fun as you do good things for this community; I know we are having fun watching you do your thing!

Amy

Thanks! I'll use that one then.

And of course I'm having fun! Otherwise I wouldn't do this, don't you think?

And as we discussed when you go to Google HQ you're going to bring us back photos.. AREN"T YOU!!

I still think Amy should go too. She's been our guardian hasn't she?

Amy has to go for sure!

I'll be honest, here. The *prize* aspect of this program is my least favorite piece and it has been weighing heavy on me lately.

In a community, we share our gifts and benefit from the gifts of others. I was really honored to be asked to participate in the GHOP. There is a simple reason I have been in this forum area the most. It is because I am not as involved in many other aspects of Joomla! as others are on our team. For me, it is an honor to be called to serve. The team is tight behind the scenes. Everyone is involved - we talk and strategize frequently. We all have different roles.

This past week, all of us have been focusing on testing Joomla! v 1.5 so that one day soon, we can set it free to do good things in the world. That's why we have been so silent.

When you think about Joomla! v 1.5 being released, it's easy to think that this victory belongs only to the three main lead developers, Louis, Johan and Andrew, but they could not have done this alone. There was an enormous team of developers who have tested and laid code and created patches. But, even they could not have done it alone! There is an army of people who have assisted in the forums, there are documentation writers, translators, event planners, the President of OSM, mcsmom, herself, User's Groups, Joomla! Day events, etc., etc. There is simply no way you could say one person is to be congratulated on that release. It took everyone's combined efforts, each giving where they could, what they could, without expectation, to make it happen.

We all get Joomla!, free as in liberty and free of charge. No one even has to contribute to "earn" their own copy. But, what you get when you give a little bit of yourself you can't put a price on, the learning, the friendships, the self awareness, the joy at being even a small part of something so noble. Let alone all of the late nights and too much work for absolutely no pay at all!

The same is true with our GHOP group. There have been so many huge contributors - big results that will positively impact this community - code written - tutorials - documentation - translations - videos - web sites.  How would you ever measure what was more important, let alone who?  It's impossible. It's silly, even. What good would one person or one thing do us? We need this collective effort and many gifts to make good things happen!

I do not know who will go from the contestant side or from the GHOP judges side. What I do know, is this. Whomever goes will have an enormous responsibility because they will have to embody our GHOP community that we have each helped to start here and they will have to represent each proud community member and keep that positive and fun spirit moving forward. That will be the biggest task of all.

It's never about one person, it's always about what is good for the project and what we can collectively produce and share with everyone else.

Hi,

GHOP was, and still is, very special to me and many other contestants.
It's accessible for every one, and caused that the contestants were/are creating things of what they perhaps didn't thought they could ever realize at all. For example: at the beginning of GHOP I didn't even knew what a unit test plan was, how to create documents and also I didn't knew anything about coding, PHP. Now I know it, I'm still improving my skills. Because of the enormous Joomla! community, the feedback, the complete API, the help documents, the forum.. I was able to complete my tasks. I really love it to get all positive comments on what I'm doing. I learn from all feedback I get. GHOP caused I know Joomla! (especially 1.5) very well now. I'm able to answer lots of questions about Joomla! 1.5, and help out other (Dutch) community members.

I remember starting with GHOP. I thought it was all about coding, nothing for me. I took a closer look at it, and found out it was also about translating, documenting, testing, and many other things. Asked for permission from my parents, they thought I was a bit crazy ("why should you do work for others..?"), but I just decided to translate the Installation Manual, and thought that would just be it. I absolutely loved it, doing this kind of community work. When there was another translation task available, I claimed it, as soon as possible. I learned a lot of translating the important blogs about 1.5. I really loved the comments, and wanted to continue with GHOP. There were no translation tasks left, and the creating of Unit Test Plans seemed to me as very useful, with the upcoming 1.5 release. Created 2 of them, and then started testing 2 others. I still loved the community, and wanted to continue with GHOP. I claimed the module for Digg List Stories.. my first module! It was difficult to start, but after some troubles I got the 'feeling' for it and so I was able to end it 'easily'. Because there's more than GHOP, I started to work on making documentation for the doc-camp. I really enjoyed - and still do - all the chats at the IRC, and so others helped me, and I tried to help others as well.

Yeah, my parents still think I'm crazy. They think it's strange I'm not doing the work for the money at all. "So.. what do you get for it??".. A very good feeling would be the only correct answer. And a GHOP t-shirt.
I like it so much to come in contact with the wonderful Joomla! community in this way. Didn't knew before it would be this great to contribute to the Joomla! community. I will continue with contributing to Joomla!, of course.

I think it would be very, very, very difficult to say who is the 'winner'. You guys have to deal with the most difficult task within GHOP: to choose one of the students as a winner. How could you?.. GHOP is such an enormous project, and lots of students were so great dealing with their tasks, sharing it, trying to learn from the feedback.

I'd like to thank the whole GHOP team, the developers, the testers, the translators, the document writers, actually, I'd like to thank the whole Joomla! community, without them, or better, without us, Joomla! didn't exist!

Thank you, Marieke. That was wonderful.

Hey Marieke, as you probably already know, I was the one who started the wiki page for the core parameters in the Doc Camp.

Although you probably already have everything under control, if you need any help, go ahead and ask me. My knowledge isn't too extensive with core parameters, but I know a little bit, and will be happy to help if I can.

Good luck!
-Shantanu

Just started (yeah.. I was a bit busy with the Stable release ), by making an xml-file containing all core parameters. I can't documentate anything when I don't understand by myself
This is the xml file:

Only got 2 problems with it..

1. The SQL type doesn't work; it shows an empty drop-down list. I got this error:

Warning: current() [function.current]: Passed variable is not an array or object in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\Joomla\libraries\joomla\html\html\select.php on line 68

(testing on localhost)
I think the input should be different, but can't find anywhere what it should be.

2. The Language type doesn't work as well. It shows an empty drop-down list as well. I got these errors:
JFolder::folder: Path is not a folder \language

Warning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant JPATH_ in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\Joomla\libraries\joomla\html\parameter\element\languages.php on line 52

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\Joomla\libraries\joomla\language\language.php on line 704

Think I made a mistake somewhere.. but yeah.. where?..

I'll start documenting the other 17 parameters, and hopefully some one knows what I'm doing wrong with the 2 parameters which fail.

Thanks,
Marieke

The language - parameter works right now, with this code:
[php]
[/php]

Still struggling with the sql - parameter..

Marieke

-----

Can some one have a look at my draft1 version?
Is this what you expect?

I'll continue adding the other 18 parameters to the file

I think it looks great.  The only thing I saw was a formatting issue with one of the frames, but this is just a difference of OS fonts.  I still haven't written any extensions ( ), but when I finally decide to this looks like it is going to be an invaluable resource.

Keep up the good work! 

Thanks!
I'm halfway now, so draft2 is added.
Parameters to go are: Language, List, Menu, Menu item, Password, Radio, Section, Spacer, SQL, Text, Text area and Time zones.

Again this question: Does some one know how the parameter SQL works?

Marieke

The SQL parameter gives a developer the ability to create their own dynamically generated select list. One would build a param tag in the xml file very similar to any of the others but with an additional attribute 'query' with a full SQL query as it's value.

Marieke -

This is looking great! I am, personally, looking forward to having this document ready. Can you imagine it on a Quick Reference Card?

Good stuff!
Amy

Hi,

Draft 3 can be downloaded here: http://mariekevandertuin.nl/draft3_coreparameters.pdf
(it's too big to add as an attachment)
All descriptions, screenshots and XML implentations are added.
Tomorrow I'll finish it by adding the last 9 PHP implementations.

And then I forgot something... because I still can't get the SQL parameter working right.
Thanks for your reply though, kdevine.
This doesn't work:

And this neither:


Can some one please help me out with that?
Do you know how it works exactly, kvdevine?

And one thing: Amy, you've been very productive today!!! (and Elin as well of course)

Marieke

Quite nice Marieke!
Images ilustrating type of parameter are great. What to say? That's really cool documentation

If we would be out of the GHOP, I can write code, and you write manuals. You are into this.

I don't know, Tomasz, Marieke might be too busy continuing to write her own extensions. 

OK, let's say a developer wants to build a parameter for letting the user choose from a list of countries...



The first value in the SELECT statement is the option value and the second value is the option label. The name attribute of the param has to match the column name of the second value of the SELECT statement.

Thanks for your reply.
I tried the following to create a list with all content items from your Joomla! site:

The result:
No error displayed
And the list.. yeah, it was an empty list, like if there were no labels set.
What did I do wrong?

Marieke

Learning along with you, Marieke.

When I read Kevin's comment:



I wonder - should the name be title?


See if that works.
Amy

Thanks Kdevine and Amy!
It works!
(let's go and describe it )

Marieke

I think I'm ready by now!
http://mariekevandertuin.nl/draft4_coreparameters.pdf

Can some one have a look at it before uploading to Google?

Thanks,
Marieke

Well done Marieke. 

I think this is looking very good.  Glad you figured out the SQL parameter.  I had no idea what that one did!

One minor point.... I don't think that grouping of parameters works for templates.  No idea why really.  It's just another one of those installer quirks that needs fixing at some point.  You might want to include a note about that.

Excellent work.  We already have a place reserved for this in the official documentation. 

Regards,
Chris.

I agree - this is excellent work, again.

When you have had a chance to add Chris's comment about templates, please upload your work to Google and we will mark your task, as complete.

Marieke - thank you so very much for all you have done for us and for the help you have provided others. You are an amazing person.

Amy

There were a couple grammar mistakes in there.  If you want me to edit it, just post an odt.

Otherwise, it looks great!!! 

I corrected some minor mistakes, I added Chris' comment (thanks!), and uploaded it to Google

Thanks GHOP!

Marieke

Hi... just so you know, the file that does the SQL parameter type is called sql.php, it needs renaming to SQL.php for the SQL parameter type to work, on my server upper and lower case filenames to match whats calledin the php code, are essential.

The file is in /libraries / joomla / html / parameter /elements /

Took me ages to track the filename problem error down..all the rest of the types are lower case names, just SQL is upper case..

Would someone notify whoever looks after this sort of thing?

Nice pdf that got produced.. thats how I learned about the parameter types..

Would you please create an issue for that at the issue tracker
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/joomla ... cker_id=32

(you must register at joomlacode.org to create an issue.)