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<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=328135919-12052007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Although one could easily generate an octopus monster if
everyone throws in their favorite meetting features, this looks like a genuinely
interesting mashup and worthy of spending a little time spec writing to get it
right (whatever that means for at least some significant subset of people). As
one who participates in far too many meetings, I would like to be part of that
process. Perhaps starting a new drupal group would get us off to a good start.
</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=328135919-12052007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr align=left><SPAN class=328135919-12052007><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff size=2>Just to throw in a few more features, a lot of meetings
have preprepared documents for participants to read so there needs to an easy
way of including them. Some sort of an agenda template that can be tuned to your
organization would be good and then another template to construct the minutes
after the meeting. Both have to be pretty flexible judging by the various
meetings I go to where they only bear a passing resemblence. Audio, video or
even stenographers notes might be "full" record of the
meeting.</FONT></SPAN></DIV><BR>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left>
<HR tabIndex=-1>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> development-bounces@drupal.org
[mailto:development-bounces@drupal.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Victor
Kane<BR><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, May 12, 2007 3:32 PM<BR><B>To:</B>
development@drupal.org<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [development] Newbie announcement
+ starting a new meeting related module<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Apart from David's suggestions, you might want to consider splitting
the functionality up into different kinds of globs of
responsability.<BR><BR>Seems to me like you have meetings, tasks and a way to
view the minutes of a meeting together with the status of their embedded tasks,
as a report, and as an easy form of navigation. <BR><BR>For example, a meeting
can have tasks (issues, cases) referenced into it in some way.<BR><BR>Now, look
and see if there do not already exist content types/modules that can duplicate
PART of the total functionality, and then fashion a mashup with cck
(nodereference) and views. <BR><BR>Of course, you are behind the eight ball if
the module you want to re-use has no support for cck and/or views.<BR><BR>Then
consider using David's approach and fashion content types (meeting, with
usernode and/or user references, nodereferences; task; ...) and views (or embed
views into content type displays...). <BR><BR>Because part of the problem is not
only that of overlapping modules, but also modules which do not abide by any
architectural considerations in terms of fostering re-use, and separating
modules into convenient re-usable class-type entities. <BR><BR>Hope that
helps,<BR><BR>Victor Kane<BR><A
href="http://awebfactory.com.ar">awebfactory.com.ar</A><BR><BR>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 5/12/07, <B class=gmail_sendername>Bob</B>
<<A href="mailto:anarchybob@gmail.com"> anarchybob@gmail.com</A>>
wrote:</SPAN>
<BLOCKQUOTE class=gmail_quote
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">Hey
there, I'm new to this so go easy if I make any blatant faux pas! <BR><BR>A
bit about me: I've been doing php & mysql programming for quite a<BR>while
now, and make the odd hack application here and there. I think<BR>like a lot
of people I've come round to the idea helping with a big <BR>CMS is a much
better way to go! I've not contributed to a big project<BR>before
either. I got a copy of the Drupal Pro Development book, and<BR>it
all seems kinda straightforward so hopefully I'll be ok!<BR><BR>Anyway, I want
to create a new module. I've not seem anything<BR>similar, but let
me know if I'm duplicating existing functionality (I<BR>think there's some
crossover, but anyway). And also sorry if this is <BR>the wrong
place for this, I couldn't see a suitable list otherwise!<BR><BR>I want to
make a module for meetings that tracks individual agenda<BR>items and action
points. I'm involved in an activist community where <BR>a lot of
people do a lot of different meetings all the time, and<BR>there's rarely any
continuity. The module would work as follows.<BR><BR>1. Before a
meeting, people can add individual agenda items that allow<BR>comments and
discussion.<BR>2. Just before the meeting, the agenda can be printed off as a
time<BR>saving device.<BR>3. After the meeting, comments or minutes can be
recorded against<BR>specific items to allow better tracking (keywords, etc)
<BR>4. Also, and the main focus of this module, individual action
points<BR>can be added and assigned to users.<BR>5. In a way similar to case
tracker, people can then leave comments<BR>and mark tasks when they're done.
<BR>6. At the next meeting, it should be easy to keep a track of
what's<BR>actually been done, and see what's dragging on.<BR><BR>As you can
see it's kind of a circular process, but I hope you kind of<BR>get the idea!
<BR><BR>I have a few ideas how this will all work in my head, but if anyone
is<BR>interested or would like to help that would be great, as I think
it's<BR>quite an ambitious first project and a little mentoring would be
<BR>appreciated!<BR><BR>A few notes:<BR>- I was looking at making meeting node
types extensions of event<BR>types, to keep all that functionality.<BR>- Two
basic new node types would be involved - Action Point and Meeting. <BR>- I was
thinking of using taxonomy to track things like meeting groups.<BR>- For
action point entry, I was visualising posting them as a plain<BR>text list,
which then gets parsed and each line added as a node.<BR><BR>As I've already
stressed, any and all input welcomed, even if it's a<BR>case of 'don't bother
because of X reason'.<BR><BR>Thanks a
lot!<BR><BR><BR>David<BR>xx<BR><BR>--<BR>phone: 0774 3917404<BR>skype:
daresbalat <BR>msn: <A
href="mailto:bobulatorm@hotmail.com">bobulatorm@hotmail.com</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>