[wp-forums] Getting closer

[TechGnome]

Another one of my infamously long postings...

I intentionally didn't reply to this in case others did. I also wanted 
to delay the knee jerk reaction to this and give it some thought.

I notice that there hasn't been much comment on this. Which means one of 
two things. 1) silence is agreement, or 2) no one wants to be the first 
to say they don't like the idea. So I'll be the first.

As an interesting idea as this is.... (and I'm going to be brutally 
honest) I don't like it. At all. It adds a layer of bureaucracy to the 
process that doesn't need to be there. I can also see too many problems 
with it. I got queasy thinking about it.
1) No redundancy. If the mail server goes down, we're all SOL. Yes, I 
know databases can go down too... but databases can also be copied & 
backed up.
2) The installer has to wait for an assignment. The installer won't be 
able to to go "Hey, I've some some spare time, let me go see if there's 
any requests."
3) Life gets in the way. What happens when all of the gate keepers go on 
vacation at the same time, or become unavailable?
4) Life gets in the way. When I go on vacation, I go on vacation. That 
means I may or may not get any notifications that  I've been assigned to 
an install. Since I don't pick up my mail, the gatekeepers have no idea 
that I've left. And the user is left there wondering WTF happened to 
their request. Granted planned vacations are one thing, but emergencies 
do happen.

What happened to Kaf and his suggestion for tracking?
Jesse - can you research your idea a little more and see if what Aaron 
has is something that will work for us.

Now, with all that said.... Podz - is your :D reaction an OK for putting 
something together?

Oh screw it.... I'm just going to do it. I'll put together something 
that resembles what I envisioned for the tracker. I'll post on Monday 
what I've got and ask for feedback.

What you can expect:
1. a page where the user can request an installation
2. a status page where the user can see how they fall in the queue, if 
their ticket has been assigned to someone, who that someone is, when the 
assignment was made.
3. an admin page that allows installers to see the queue and pick up 
requests and assign themselves to it. it will also allow the installer 
to mark the issue closed. tickets can also be kicked up to the super 
admin level.
4. a super admin page that allows the sa to kill requests, deny 
requests, reassign a ticket to a different installer.... add new 
installers to the system, remove installers from the system.
5. it's going to be ugly. No colors, no styles, just plane jane black 
and white. It's proof of concept (a working model, but still just a proof.)
6. a bell, maybe a whistle too.

I can code, in fact, it's what I do at my day job. It's just that PHP is 
not my primary language ( in fact it ranks about 4th or 5th in my 
toolkit - actually it may rank even lower than that) and I don't always 
feel comfortable with it. Plus I'm normally so swamped with things, I 
don't have the time to do PHP very often. Security is the only thing I 
truly have a problem with.

I didn't previously volunteer because I hoped someone with stronger 
skills would step up. There had also been some ideas tossed around. Why 
reinvent the wheel if it's already been done? Unfortunately none of the 
ideas panned out.

So. Am I wasting my time? Am I the only one uncomfortable with the mail 
solution? Are there any ideas? Should I even bother with the concept pages?

The only other thing I can think of is that the committee take the 
discussion offline and let them figure out how the system should (or 
shouldn't work) as they will most likely be the ones doing the overall 
management/administration for the process.

Or am I totally out of line/touch/synch with reality? Do I need my head 
examined? Or.....?

-tg
ps - it's possible that I may have gone off the deep end. Please do not 
take anything I may (or may not) say personally, but rather just what 
they are - my ramblings as I think out loud.


Podz wrote:
> TechGnome wrote:
>> WARNING: lengthy posting. My mind tends to wander sometimes.... I 
>> really need to get a leash for it.
>>
>> Not too shabby.... a couple of comments.
>> 1) Who will this go to? Is there going to be a wp-install mailing 
>> group that this gets sent to? Or will the data go into a database? Or 
>> has that part even been thought out? Or am I ahead of things?
>
> I was thinking of IMAP email with access to that being maybe 3 people? 
> They ensure there is no overlap and approach the installer.
> If I had even the remotest clue about databases I'd probably do it 
> that way :)
>
>> 2) I'd change the "CC myself" to something along the lines of "Send 
>> myself a copy" It's clearer about what that option does.
>>
> Agreed.
>
>> It looks like I might have some free time this weekend, since no one 
>> else has volunteered to set up the registration/contact/help me 
>> page(s).... 
>
> :D
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