pcplantdb

[Richard Morris <webmaster@pfaf.org>]

The independent media centre's (IMC's) are a network of sites
publishing alternative content (often of a leftfield
nature).

http://www.indymedia.org/or/
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/
http://seattle.indymedia.org/
etc.

I think they are an interesting model to follow.
An important part for me is that they are a network
of cooperating sites. They use XML to share their
headlines around the network and also include them
in sites like slashdot.

I think networks of sites are an important part
of the permaculture information web. For one we will
be a network of at least two site, the pfaf site
and permaculture.info. I am very keen on
        sharing my links
        sharing event details
so someone can publish an event on the pfaf site
and it can appear on the piw site.

Building a network between the different permaculture
site I feel is very important and in some ways
makes the host question disappear.

The IMC's use a content management system called mir
which has some nice features.

About Mir

mh, 13.12.2002 08:30

Mir is an Open-Source content management system (CMS), designed to run 
an indymedia(type) website. Besides powering several indymedia sites, a 
number of progessive organizations use Mir customized for their own 
needs. Mir aims to provide sophisticated functionality, for example, 
complete multi-lingual content production, editing, administration, and 
presentation, while retaining the ability to be run on less than top of 
the line hardware through extensive static caching.

http://mir.indymedia.org/en/2002/12/223.shtml

Mir features

mh, 24.12.2002 03:02

List of features included in Mir as of 24.12.2002

* Static publishing: Mir produces static HTML files for easy mirroring 
and so
that the site can be viewed without creating a high load on servers. No 
fancy
caching mechanisms are necessary. The presentation and production are
completely independent from each other.

Very cool, if we want to distribute the info
to less wlethy parts of the world, put static stuff
on a cd-rom.

* Very configurable (see the config.properties file)

Yes, yes, yes. Keep config options separate from the code.

Also a v good idea to keep as much text as posible
out of the code, and in a file.
If we want to produce a spanish version this makes it easy,
also makes it easy to change messages at a later date.

* Written in Java using standard servlet API and popular tools like 
those from
the Apache Jakarta project ( http://jakarta.apache.org)
* Uses the Freemarker template engine to allow easy modification of
site design without programming knowledge.

* Structured Object oriented 4 layer design. Servlet modules, 
Entity/Database
(the persistance layer), Media handlers (an abstraction layer for
manipulating different media formats) and the Producer layer (for creating
the static html pages). see doc/CODESTRUCTURE for more details.

Very nice structure to code.

* The persistance layer uses the poolman package for caching Database
connections.
* Entity object caching is integrated into the persistance layer.

* Meta-data/Database schema and classification based on the Dublic Core
standard. Media folders, topics, features.

A good almost defacto meta-data scheme.

* supports displaying the dynamic part of the site in multiple languages 
using
the Java Locale/language bundle standard (.properties files). Bundles exist
for spanish, english, dutch, quechua, turkish, german and aymara. The
upcoming 1.1 version (in CVS) supports producing the static site in several
languages.

Cool, to be international we want to forsee other language version.
End the tyrany of the english language now!

* Media abstraction layer to cleanly and easily handle/add different Media
formats like mp3, realmedia, video, etc.. uses mime-types to map to the
correct handler

Neet.

* Supports categorization into topics and media folders (eg. different 
folders
for different events), features, breaking news, newswire, etc..

Ok course.

* Production of xml RDF syndication. e.g for the indymedia global newswire.

Definatly want to do this.

* Powerful and rich admin/editor interface with features like the ability to
change the event date of an article, multiple ways to search.. help and much
more.
* Ability to edit some static site files such as CSS, html include files
through a basic web based text editor.

* Filtering of uploaded articles to remove unwanted HTML tags.

neet.

* Can output articles into PDF (upcoming 1.1 version has better text 
wrapping
support).

PDF ugh.

* Search via HTdig index of static files. (upcoming 1.1 CVS version uses
integrated Jakarta Lucene for indexing the static files.)

* Automatic thumbnail generation using Java Advanced Imaging (JAI). (1.1 
will
probably use Jmagick)

Kind of nice.

In the upcoming 1.1 release
===========================

* completely rewrite of the producer layer. Runs in it's own thread.
Configurable via an XML file to dynamically choose the structure the site
should take, what should be archived...
* Introduction of the Localization infracstructure to allow easy low-level
customization of Mir.

--
Plants for a Future: 7000 useful plants
Web:   http://www.pfaf.org/ same as http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
Post:  1 Lerryn View, Lerryn, Lostwithiel, Cornwall, PL22 0QJ
Tel:     01208 872 963 / 0845 458 4719  
Email: webmaster@pfaf.org
PFAF electronic mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pfaf