[wp-hackers] GSOC 2013: Post by email

[Eric Mann]

I'm replying here rather than on your site so others can join in the
conversation.  I have a few questions and a few observations:

*Are you recommending this as a plugin or a patch to WordPress core?*  Your
proposal mentions "the first version of the plugin" but also attempts to
address "problems with the current implementation."  The current
implementation *is* core.  So will your plugin modify core's implementation
or add a new one as a replacement?

*"They can’t be managed intuitively, you have to read their documentation
in order to get things done."*  What is "they" in this context (you're
referring to problems with the current implementation) but I'm unsure of
what you are saying can't be managed.  Options? Emails? Posts created by
email?

*"You have to perform some additional actions beside sending an email in
order to have it posted on your blog which isn’t user friendly at
all."*Aside from configuring the email address in the first place,
what
additional actions are you talking about?  In your proposed implementation,
writers would *still* have to configure the plugin and their mail account
to get things to work.

*Technical Stuff - using Markdown/HTML/RTF for formatting* - I think the
use of HTML for formatting the message would be a great first step.  Most
writers will be using a WYSIWYG email client (like Gmail) in the first
place and can easily control their formatting that way.  While I, too,
prefer Markdown, I think that might be a bit too advanced for the scope of
a summer project.  Perhaps specify categories in some sort of pseudo
shortcode format at the bottom of the post (which can be parsed and
stripped out by the plugin)?

For example:
[category]Miscellaneous[/category]
[tags]WordPress, GSoC, proposal[/tags]

*Main Settings - All posts displayed in a table with ordering* - The
current implementation of Post by Email creates new posts that are regular
WordPress posts and which are visible on the All Posts page.  Your proposal
makes it sound like emailed posts will be available in a wholly different
UI.  Are you suggesting emailed posts would be distinct and separate from
posts created inside the WordPress dashboard?  If so, why?  What happens to
these posts if the email plugin is disabled?

*Technical Stuff - updating posts* - It sounds almost like you're proposing
some sort of live update for the WordPress front-end after a post is
published by email.  While this would be a cool feature, I think it's
outside the scope of your overall project.  Live updates are a very
different beast; don't overcomplicate things.
*
*
*Technical Stuff - using flush()* - I think you misunderstand what flush()
does.  Once I request a page from a server running PHP, the page is
returned to me and the connection is closed. Another user calling flush()
on the server side will have absolutely no effect on what I see on the
page.  All it does is clear PHP's output buffer.
http://php.net/manual/en/function.flush.php

All of the above are just my thoughts while reading through your proposal.
 Feel free to respond here and keep the discussion going.  When you feel
you're ready to apply, be sure to use the Application Template (
http://codex.wordpress.org/GSoC_2013_Application_Template) so we have all
the information we need.

~Eric Mann


On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 9:54 AM, Luca Evgheni <juk.eluca at gmail.com> wrote:

> hi,
>
> here is my brief description on post by email project
> http://jukgsoc13.wordpress.com/
>
> Can I get a feedback from someone interested in mentoring this project?
> I would appreciate it a lot. Thank you in advance.
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