[wp-hackers] GSoC 2011

[Thomas Van Eyck]

Hi,

I am interested in participating in GSoC. I know I am rather late, in 8 days we 
have to file the proposal but I would still like to try. I've been looking at 
the WP ideas page and I like two ideas. 

One is working around Media. Me personally I see myself working more on the 
backend then on the frontend, although I guess this is open for discussion :-) 
I've been looking at the architecture of WP, reading what I could find, and I 
think media can still be improved. The other one is the moving of WP to another 
server/domain. I know right now its possible to export the blog, but like the 
idea mentions it can still be simplified a lot. 

As far as the media idea goes, I don't think the WP core needs more gallery 
features and stuff like that, at least not now. I think a stronger backend is 
needed, providing a very strong foundation to build some management 
functionality on. This is all that should be added to the core. The current 
frontend features such as galleries could be kept for now. Any other features 
could then be implemented using plugins. 

To clarify this a little bit. I see one central storage point in the WP core for 
all media. This would for instance mean a basic table in the DB, with a record 
for each media item. The files would still be stored on disk, although sub 
folders should best be supported to keep things manageable. Using a table like 
that, would mean that files can be moved around without breaking things higher 
up. Some form of taxonomization should be supported, be it using categories, 
tags, posts, etc. This would than allow, together with some extra meta data, to 
provide more enhanced searching, filtering and sorting in the Admin area. 

I am aware that this sounds like a heavy proposal, but in fact the goal would be 
to keep things light and fast, assuming that more advanced functionality is 
built on top using plugins. If anything the design should be future proof, so 
future extensions don't break so much the existing code. 

The time would thus be spend on getting to know the core better, classifying 
current and future requirements for the new core, designing a solution that 
fits, and then implementing it. 
The implementation will require a several weeks, depending on how much of the 
user interface is changed to make use of the new core right away. The start, the 
getting to know the core better as well as the classifying requirements would 
happen in parallel. The same amount of time or more would be needed, spending at 
least 3 weeks here. The design would then happen in between. So about 40% phase 
one, 25% phase two, and 35% phase three. 

I haven't given the other idea about moving/changing domain name of the blog 
that much thought. I can see how it can be made better from a users point of 
view, but am not quite sure yet how this should be realized technically. In case 
my other proposal doesn't fit at all in the roadmap set out for WP, I will look 
some more into this idea. 

Thank you for your time. Looking forward to receiving some feedback on this 
idea. 

Regards,

Thomas Van Eyck