To the CGI-List, Peter
Sunday 9/16/01 7:14 PM
From Tommy Butler
RE: [CGI] CGIzilla project?


>> "Imagine a searchable directory online using MySQL, PostgreSQL, or
>> Oracle with the Perl DBI!!!  Just for starters I imagine this could

>I think some method of just accepting email would be the way to
>go. The less you require from the user, the better. Try to get the
>computer to do it all :), seriously.

Oh, now I'm beginning to see that I've not communicated my idea in full.
You see, I wouldn't want to force everyone to learn a new markup language
just to use the mailing list.  I forsee this as all being web-based, or that
everyone just fill out a form from an html page stored locally on thier pc.  The
form content would be directed to a perl / python app on the web, or even on the
user's machine if they want to make/use a local copy of the CGIquestion
submission engine.

It is at this point in the program architecture that the question is saved as
an xml message.

>I'd store it in a rdbms. XML is great if you want to communicate
>with others, but otherwise give me Perl and a rdbms any day.

Ah yes, and you see -- this *is* to communicate with others, and using XML to
store the messages for TRANSPORT ONLY from the client to the main application
provides us with a verrrrrry easily parsed and pre-organized message format that
we can then stick into a database as individual records in a good ole' SQL
table, or as native XML, or BOTH.

>If I understand your intention correctly, I'd do all you plan plus have
>a module that uses a config file that a user can use on a per
>application basis.

No I'm afraid not.  And it's not your fault that you misunderstood me,
because as I'd mentioned before I failed to explain the whole process.  You
see, all the user would need is a question, and a computer to fill out a form
with.  The form would contain the fields and textareas corresponding to the
various parts of the message that I've kind of touched on in previous
emails.  The user would just send in the question, it would be preprocessed in
a centralized location and then forwarded on to the listmaster or sub-listmaster
to who's group the question pertains for approval.  Then the message would
be redistributed to the subscribers of the list and/or sub-list(s) of the
intended audience for that question based on its determined category/categories
-- and in the format each subscriber wants (since we're using XML we can do
that, both server and client-side with technologies like PerlSAX and XSLT).

Responses to the question would be handled in essentially the same manner.  And
same as always, Jann's website would host the searchable CGI-list archives.

>In any case, I'd suggest starting with the visuals first. :) ... Create
>all the screen shots that will interface with the system.  From that I
>think you can begin to build your application architecture.  That's
>what I'd do.

You know, this might be the only way, short of building the whole thing myself
and distributing the source, to explain what I'm envisioning here :o)

>I think it's a big in capital B project.

Oh yes.  The scale of this project would be fairly large, and could easily
demand the cooperation of 5-15+ persons to debut in a period of two to three
months, depending on the consensus of those volunteering as to just what amount
of work we'd initially want to put into this project.

>[snip] but doing it via a web interface to a rdbms would be best imho.

Oh I couldn't justify pouring so much effort into a system based on RDBMS
when there are so many more robust, more efficient, and far more scalable
database solutions available for free these days, especially when I'm fairly
sure that Jann is already using MySQL to handle a number of things for the
management list for some months now.  RDBMS can get pretty costly with disk
space in some instances; it is mainly specific to a *nix platform; is much
slower than MySQL Postgre, or Oracle; and it offers no native automated backup
functionality of which I'm aware.

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