03-23-103 12:18:14 Agenda: 03-23-103 12:18:17 ------- 03-23-103 12:18:47 1. Design Document - Doug 03-23-103 12:19:15 Doug, can you give us an overview of your revised document? 03-23-103 12:19:56 4 or 5 different content "types" have been identified 03-23-103 12:20:20 Each content "type" requires a different input screen and output format 03-23-103 12:20:59 Content types include: HCL, software compatibility, publications, meeting logs, articles, etc. 03-23-103 12:21:29 Most content types can be in multiple formats - format here meaning MIME TYPe 03-23-103 12:22:00 MIME Type examples being: HTML, PS, PDF, plain text, GIF, etc. 03-23-103 12:22:20 Conceptually the site consists of "folders" and "content". The content is the stuff you read or store in the database 03-23-103 12:22:40 The folders organize the content into areas that can be browsed or strolled through 03-23-103 12:23:54 1) I suggest that we store some items as disk files rather than blobs in the database, for a couple of reasons 03-23-103 12:24:23 a) If we want to provide FTP access in addition to HTML access we need the thingy to be in a file that the FTP server can get to 03-23-103 12:25:07 b) if a user is going to download a large file or thing, he probably wants to do it using FTP protocol anyway so that the transfer can be restarted if it is interrupted 03-23-103 12:25:15 even if he is using a browser 03-23-103 12:25:29 I don't really know about FTP access... don't know if we need to give that 03-23-103 12:26:00 Reason b is valid even if we don't provide a generally available logon for anonymous users, 03-23-103 12:26:22 for instance file downloads would be Hobbes has this facility, and with many of the public servers this is the only option they provide. 03-23-103 12:30:13 Doug: I agree. For SOME content and for certain users, perhaps. 03-23-103 12:30:29 If you use Hobbes as an example. The text description of the file is in the database, along with the name and locator for the file 03-23-103 12:30:37 The file that is actually downloaded is on disk somewhere 03-23-103 12:31:06 (which may not be the actual way Hobbes works - but is an example of how we would work) 03-23-103 12:32:35 Now I forgot if there is anything else potentially controversial in the doc 03-23-103 12:32:44 It's been a week, after all 03-23-103 12:47:03 Doug: Any more comments about the DD? 03-23-103 12:47:56 Anyone else have any comments about Doug's revised Design Document? 03-23-103 12:49:25 Agenda Item A2a: Status T1 - Ken 03-23-103 12:49:33 Ken, any news to report? 03-23-103 12:49:56 BTW, the agenda for this meeting is at http://www.warpdoctor.org/agendas/warpdoc_2003-03-23.html 03-23-103 12:50:25 Not much new, we got our router, and Verizon came in and installed the fiber. But not yet the terminating equipment. 03-23-103 12:50:49 I expect they'll be in Monday or Tuesday to continue. 03-23-103 12:51:14 What does the "terminating equipment" consist of? 03-23-103 12:51:40 Fiber to copper stuff, and smartjack for T1 terminus. 03-23-103 12:52:23 (the actual fiber they brought in is DS3, room for expansion ;) ) 03-23-103 12:52:46 Seems that Bill and Gord both played hookey, so we'll get them next week. 03-23-103 12:53:15 Oh, and I picked up another copy of DB2 5.2 Enterprise. 03-23-103 12:56:20 Agenda Item A2c: Web site - Jeremy 03-23-103 12:56:43 Jeremy, it seems you fixed the IRCLOG problem! 03-23-103 12:57:14 well... I couldn't figure out the deal with Apache ... it was able to parse the rexx script... and now it's not 03-23-103 12:59:07 IRCLOG is a link down the left hand side of the Warpdoctor home page which was supposed to get the user to the various meeting logs. However there has been a problem which has been generating errors, when any of the year folders were clicked on. That now appears to be fixed. 03-23-103 12:59:13 so I just deleted the scripts, and the index.html files... letting Apache do the indexing 03-23-103 12:59:51 Agenda Item B: 03-23-103 12:59:56 ------------------ 03-23-103 13:00:32 1. Java Clients for Webbnet--eCSNET 03-23-103 13:00:45 I thought eCSNL would be here, but I guess not. 03-23-103 13:00:58 There are Java clients for WEBBnet available 03-23-103 13:01:28 I do plan on adding one to www.os2voice.org and www.warpdoctor.org 03-23-103 13:01:45 Agenda Item C: 03-23-103 13:01:52 --------- 03-23-103 13:02:08 Anyone have any other business? 03-23-103 13:02:34 Otherwise this is going to be a very short meeting. 03-23-103 13:18:34 Walter - if you send me the info I will put in the HCL input screen. 03-23-103 13:26:43 I don't konw what I am missing from Bill's HCL 03-23-103 13:31:12 I should mention that this is the input screen, not the output or display page. 03-23-103 13:31:38 That will be formatted somewhat differently, but follow the same general layout 03-23-103 13:43:10 We finally have a break in the Draft HCL Form. 03-23-103 13:43:50 Jeremy, emailed me a copy of the data he received from Bill, and said it was fine if someone else did it. 03-23-103 13:52:39 Doug, do you think you could convert a raw ascii form into a web page? 03-23-103 13:52:50 Yes 03-23-103 13:53:10 I can either email it to you, or post it her, to show you what it's like. 03-23-103 13:53:25 Either way. 03-23-103 13:53:49 OK, I'll email the data to you. 03-23-103 13:53:52 DO you want to talk about the form in the document? Or wait until I get Bill's stuff 03-23-103 13:57:46 I have a DB2 table called companies, that contains one row per manufacturer, or publisher 03-23-103 13:58:16 In that row is information about: URL of web site, address and contact name (if applicable), etc. 03-23-103 13:58:55 On the input form, the user picks the manufacture from a drop down list, populated from the table, or clicks the ADD NEW button to create a new manufacturer 03-23-103 13:59:27 That way if the web page url or other information associated with manufacturer changes we only need to change it in the COMPANIES table 03-23-103 14:00:09 At the bottom right of the example input screen on (approx) page 8 in the document is a list box for attaching driver(s) 03-23-103 14:00:36 This is because a single hardware item can have multiple drivers, and different versions of a single driver that need to be available for download 03-23-103 14:01:36 An example if Matrox Millenium video card. Drivers are made by Matrox, IBM GRADD, and SciTech. Plus the version of the Matrox driver used affects different types of software. 03-23-103 14:02:12 For example earier versions work with VAC++ 4.0, but later versions do not. Many version don't work at all with PmView 03-23-103 14:03:04 So in this box the content creator can: drag a disk file and drop into the box to create a driver link, press the Drivers button and get an upload screen or type a URL in 03-23-103 14:03:33 The driver list will store multiple driver entries. When the page is output each driver entry will appear as an HREF at the bottom of the screen 03-23-103 14:04:03 The OS box is where the operating system and version can be selected from a drop down list. 03-23-103 14:05:04 The CHIPSET entry field is for specifying the chipset that goes with the board, so that a user can search on chipset if he can't find a specific entry for the "brand" of card or device he has 03-23-103 14:05:49 The Remarks is where the content creator would enter stuff like: what versions of which driver work with which software, installation tips, etc. 03-23-103 14:06:35 The SEE ALSO list box on the lower left corner of the input screen is where the content creator can reference other pages or content items that might be of interest to someone viewing this page. 03-23-103 14:07:11 That would be done by either clicking on the See Also button and picking from a list, or dragging and dropping another content item (icon) into the list box 03-23-103 14:08:29 The HCL item might be the most complex item in the site 03-23-103 14:09:05 In a way that doesn't surprise me. 03-23-103 14:09:55 However, if maintained properly, it could be *one* of the most valuable. 03-23-103 14:10:25 Jonus Buys is working on a similar project. 03-23-103 14:10:43 The HREF for divers actually is a link back into the database to a row in the DATA table 03-23-103 14:11:04 That row contains a URL and a blob field, or file name if the driver is stored on disk. 03-23-103 14:11:45 And a URLFLAG field. If the URLFLAG field indicates that the URL is valid, the driver is served from the URL, which would not be on our site 03-23-103 14:11:50 He is quite agressive, and seems to have a lot of hardware catalogued, however his organization--last time I checked--is very basic. Little more than a simple ascii list. 03-23-103 14:12:31 If the URLFLAG field indicated that the URLis not vaild, the driver would be served from our site, either from the blob or the disk file. 03-23-103 14:12:45 It would be nice if we could all get together. :-) 03-23-103 14:14:56 His web page is http://www.jonasbuys.easynet.be/os2/os2chl.txt . 03-23-103 14:16:04 There are actually a lot of "compeating" web sites, among them IBM's device driver page 03-23-103 14:16:24 I suggest we adjourn at this point, and pick up the discussion next week. 03-23-103 14:17:19 ok move to adjourn 03-23-103 14:17:27 Doug--don't try to be too sophisticated with the form, at least not for the first phase. 03-23-103 14:17:54 All in favour of Doug's motion, type Aye. 03-23-103 14:17:56 The problem is - we have to design the database to handle all that we think we will want to do 03-23-103 14:18:05 Even if we don't implement it all at once 03-23-103 14:18:08 Yes, I know. 03-23-103 14:18:35 aye 03-23-103 14:18:55 Aye 03-23-103 14:19:11 aye 03-23-103 14:19:52 Opposed, if any, type Nay 03-23-103 14:20:07 Motion is carried. 03-23-103 14:20:15 Meeting is adjourned.