WYSIWYG text editor for News and Projects users

A couple of follow-ups:

1. Text Editing
I found a WYSIWYG text editor that we might be able to use for the users posting material to the site as News and Projects.

It has several functions - it does not have the ability to download pictures. I would love to have this 'richeditorframe' function that this Google Blog uses! That would be perfect - but I don't see that it's available. Maybe it is with some more digging - even if it uses Google's site and another API somehow for access similar to the Google Maps work Alec is trying.

The HTML that it generates is a bit cumbersome, but it looks basic and straightforward.
I am checking that the code is legitimate - and doesn't have some buried redirects.

Here is the site [with a demo and the code with tutorial] that hosts the free editor:
http://koivi.com/WYSIWYG-Editor/

There also may be other links from the PHP site and related forum:
http://www.php.net/
A commercial version called "editize" gets some good reviews, but their half price for non-profits is $75 for a domain site's use.

2. Charting Data Online:
Also, here is a site that has some links to investigate java applets that create graphs for web viewing:
http://www.appletcollection.com/java/graph.html
Some of the links from this site are free software and some 'for purchase'. There are often deals available for non-profits, but take some digging and/or writing to the companies to see what their policy is.

Richard.

Meeting with The Energy Fellowship/Earth Support

Thanks for attending the lunch time meeting with Earth Support and Energy Fellowship. There were lots of great ideas that came out of it. Here is an outline of those ideas for the website and PLEASE add those that I may have forgotten:

1. The forum is a great idea but needs tweaking to make sure it works. Max H. went to sign up but it did not work for new additions. [rjd - I think Zhanar was thinking about looking into this? ] We couldn't demonstrate it fully at the presentation.

2. Barry suggested having a data section with graphs that are generated by that data. This idea had lots of enthusiasm and some data suggestions were:

• ongoing oil [B20 and regular oil] / electricity / propane usage by the school including the entire carbon footprint - ZachB
• water usage by the school
• recycling data
• cars in the parking lot
• please write with others I may have missed here [?]

To be effective the data and graphs need to be dynamic. We need to find/write scripts to do this.

Richard suggested an electric eye road near the entry to get automated data input for cars on the school road - [ now there's a whole project: make a solar powered data taking device for storing and sending that data, but there are lots of opportunities for automatic data entry, too including temperature and power usage for some areas or devices]

Jen wondered how we would get information on the site and Zhanar started to demonstrate how news, projects, and links data can be added by many individuals that have login privileges to do so. The last 5 articles that show on top, but others can be stored and available for showing. Articles and links can both be in the Forum and as part of the News and Projects sections of the site.

The overall question of the day was to see if there is enthusiasm to make the development of this website worth pursuing. I want the class to work towards something that has meaning and appreciation. The fact that there were a dozen people showing up with short notice for a lunch meeting shows that we are on a good project and should continue.

In attendance were: Robert, Jen, Todd[[?], Dave, Barry, Zhanar, Alec, ZachB, Richard, Jon P., Nate H., Max H., and .. [I think I missed a couple - help here please??]

EnergyFellowship.org Email Addresses and Mail System

The email system password is changed - see a private email to you.

 

The following have admin privileges to set up emails, add aliases, and manage accounts. It may be a good hook for users to have an energyfellowship.org email address to use.

 

The link to the email is:

http://mail.energyfellowship.org

 

perhaps a link to that can be on the site as well. We could offer users:

"Do you want to have an energyfellowship.org email address?"

and use the following to set up an alias.

IMHO, I think it should not as automated as the Forum, but on case by case - but maybe I'm too conservative here.

 

    info required:

        Real Name

        Current email to forward all mail

        Affiliation - what school, what organization, etc.

        Brief use agreement - simple..  Agree Disagree statement

 

Richard.

Some Site Ideas and Fixes

1. Add return link to http://www.santbani.org/ from the Energy Fellowship site
2. Show that the Energy Fellowship is part of/connected with the Sant Bani School
3. Admin setup pages
   perhaps a "view" button to see the results of additions while the user is still logged in.
   ability to add simple text editing to news and projects
   ability to add pictures to news and projects (limiting graphic size)
   
4. Forum:
   redo graphic at heading of Forum so that text is not pixelated
   have Forum open in a new page so that the user still has the original energyfellowship.org open
   link back to energyfellowship.org from Forum
   link to http://www.santbani.org/ from Forum
5. Add RSS feed so that users can sign up for any News and Project changes/additions

Richard

Others?

invitation to Energy Fellowship Group to view and comment on site.

Here is the text from Zhanar with some changes - of an invitation to the Energy Fellowship Group to see the website and give some more ideas - hopefully to write and include articles.
Is it strong enough about joining the forum?
Richard.
*********************************


[how about inserting graphic letterhead.. from the site]



November 1, 2007


Dear Colleagues,

We really appreciate your common interest in Energy Fellowship and offer you a great opportunity to exchange your thoughts and ideas with each other and people interested in sustainable life using the electronic network.

We invite you to visit your website http://www.energyfellowship.org/and share your projects or new ideas. You can also sign up for the Energy Fellowship forum and take part in discussions on different topics. You may also invite anyone interested in the Energy Fellowship to join our community.

Let’s meet on Wednesday, November 7 at lunch in the Reading Room at Sant Bani School where we will show you the website development so far. It will be a great chance to make your suggestions about the project and start to share ideas for the site.

We would be tremendously appreciative of any help or reply.
Cordially,


Sant Bani School Computer class
Zhanar Seitmagzimova Sant Bani ’08, zhanars@santbani.org
Alec Peters Sant Bani ’09, alecp@santbani.org
Nate Houran Sant Bani ’09, nateh@santbani.org
Richard Danahy Sant Bani Staff, richard@santbani.org

Forum

The forum is installed and working so Nate and Richard can register and then I will make you administrators.  If we want we can use it to discuss the website development further.

Strategy for Zhanar and Energy Fellowship

Hey,

I am suggesting to Zhanar that she take a template from the PHP Bulletin Board site and start from scratch to create the Forum on the Energy Fellowship website. She may get started and after some familiarity then consult with Alec on debugging it.

We have the ability to create sub-domains, so the forum should perhaps reside in
http://forum.energyfellowship.org
which will give it a separate file system area.

One strategy is to have a separate database for the Forum, its users and content. The users of the site's main content section would be a more limited number, but it would be good to have the Forum be open as I think we were intending.

Hopefully Alec will also get some great inspiration from the Bioneers Conference - and maybe think about a target date to meet with a larger group to get excitement about content. articles, and links.

Post your thoughts, please.

Richard.

Alec has the Energy Fellowship Database working!

News
Database Working - October 18, 2007, 9:01 amThe database is working fully now. The projects menu just displays the five most recent projects entered into the projects table that I made.
Test - October 15, 2007, 8:59 amTest of the database.

http://www.energyfellowship.org

styles

hi
what do you think about these styles for the forum:
http://www.stsoftware.biz/phpbb3/index.php?style=etech_green


http://demo.phpbb3styles.net/styles.php?style_id=82&lang=en


http://demo.phpbb3styles.net/styles.php?style_id=148


http://demo.phpbb3styles.net/styles.php?style_id=197

Energy Fellowship Site

We own it and it is starting to run:
http://www.energyfellowship.org

Hopefully you checked your emails to note that HOSTEK has made PHP5 available for the site. Evidently they have PHP4 by default and add the better PHP5 when asked.

There is some info on the HOSTEK FAQ page regarding PHP as well as MYSQL database setup:
http://hostek.com/faq/kb

The MYSQL editor that Alec was using looks pretty darn good as well.

Also, here is a site on the PHP5 language for some background:
info: http://www.php.net/
tutorial: http://www.php.net/tut.php
manual: http://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php [an easy read - ouch!!]

If you find any texts on it that you wish the school to purchase, please let me know.

Richard.

what do you think about this?

http://www.reinspire.net/blog/2006/03/25/ie_transparent_pngs/

Showing png files in IE6

Here is the workaround that I found on the net...
Norway is a nice country, so I'm sure this is legitimate.

http://bjorkoy.com/past/2007/4/8/the_easiest_way_to_png/

which references the author of the workaround.

http://www.twinhelix.com/css/iepngfix/

This is all pretty exciting if it works.

Forum

The test forum is at http://www.gscdirectory.org/phpBB3/ and you can login with:

User: [removed -rjd]
Password: [removed-rjd]

Test is an administrative account so if you click on the ACP link at the bottom of the page, you can go to the Administration page and see how we can configure the forum.

about the topic itself

Nate, Alec and Richard,

I've found some stuff about alternative energy systems as I think it is the main idea of the energy fellowship. Here are some links to websites on this topic:

http://www.aesc-inc.com/
http://www.suntrekenergy.com/
http://www.climatesolutions.org/

We can really put a lot of stuff on our website if we do some research work. I guess it's not going to be easy, but it's a really worth thing to do.

Zhanar

Thoughts on setting up a site

Zhanar, Alec, Nate,

 

Some notes from today.

We reviewed Zhanar's very thoughtful questions regarding an Energy Fellowship [ EF ] site.
One outstanding idea is to have a Farmer's Market be a subset of the EF site and may validate the work.

Two students who were in the room participate in local Farmers Markets to sell their goods. One has an online profile.   
We discussed some computer language issues and did a very rough map of ideas.

 

Some ideas [not in order of importance] are:

 

Using Maps - Google. Maps specifically for some of the functions; directions, locations of farms and Farmer's Market [ FM ]sites; EF individuals that sign in; locations of energy product items, etc.

 

A PhP forum is worth setting up regardless, and Alec has the know-how to do this. Hopefully he will teach us this. He advocates PHP and HTML for website language.

 

Rating system and comment system on Farmers' sites

 

Sales of items may be a real draw. Google Checkout accounts is a clean interface that would work for $ sales.

 

We need to get more information from the EF to understand the use and vision of a site.  Richard will go Wednesday to the lunch meeting and others are welcome if they have the time to go, too, to hear ideas and get a sense of it.

 

Having one site that is more interactive may help unite goals of the different groups at school that are trying to promote awareness of Climate Change, energy efficiency, and other matters that relate to the social aspects of saving energy.

 

Here is some background on information about Farmers Markets presence on the web.

 

A further search for domain names showed the following:

The domain farmersmarketne.org is available.   thinking ne is for New England

The domain farmersmarketnh.org is available.    nh for New Hampshire

The domain marketnh.org is available

The domain farmersnh.org is available

The domain farmersne.org is available.

farmersharvest.org is available

 

Sites and information that is relevant:

http://lanetavern.org/sfm.htm   Local Sanbornton Farmers Market

http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/States/State06.pdf/New%20Hampshire.pdf  US Dept. of Agriculture list of NH Farmers Markets

State of NH Farmers Market Representative
Gail McWilliam
New Hampshire Department of Agriculture
P.O. Box 2042
Concord, NH 03302
(603) 271-3788

Here are some sites that have web presence in NH on their markets:
www.mainstreet.wilton.nh.us
http://www.wilmotfarmers.com
http://www.wakefieldmarketplace.homestead.com
http://www.sanbornton.org/ORGS/sfm
http://www.seacoastgrowers.org
http://www.organic-growers.com
http://www.littletonmainstreet.org
http://www.northernnhfarmersmarket.com
http://www.seacoastgrowers.org
http://www.hennikerfarmersmarket.us
http://www.seacoastgrowers.org
http://www.geocities.com/claremontmarket

http://www.nhfairs.com/   Listing of State Fairs and State Fair websites

Richard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FW: Energy Fellowship website

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Danahy [mailto:richard@santbani.org]
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 11:05 AM
To: *Richard Danahy; Alec Peters; Nate Houran; Zhanar Seitmagzimova
Subject: Energy Fellowship website

Zhanar, Nate, Alec,

 

Here is an idea which is emerging that I think will be appreciated and we can hopefully all get behind.

The three programmers of this course will work as a team to create the Website for EnergyFellowship.org

 

I have reserved the domain name, and now have to activate the site for our use. The cost for a year is $59.70 for non-profits, and the school can cover that cost - both from tech dept. funds as a resource for the class. 

 

Start to visualize what would be possible for this site. I see the front and back end support for the following: 

 

A graphical presentation that matches the goals of the Energy Fellowship

A moderated online forum for members to contribute and discuss ideas by topic.

Links and material relating to the Energy Fellowship

 

The database of information behind the structure of the website.

We should strive to use the JAVA language that we are studying for some of the presentation material, as well as use PHP and Flash for some of the content.

 

If successful, the ongoing project and code should be well documented so the 'torch' may be passed to other students and/or members to monitor and use.

 

Please review the three different possible backend systems to see which will be best to sign up for. It can be switched later, but often problematic to do so. In other words, if we start off with a LINUX environment, there would be many code changes to support the material in Windows.

 

Here is the link to the company we are using and info about the Silver Plan for $59.70 that we would use. This link lists the languages that are supported and some other bandwidth info. I THINK they will let us use a LINUX site for the same price, but not 100% if that has changed.

 

http://npwebhosting.com/non-profit-web-hosting.asp

http://hostek.com/web-hosting-plans-linux.asp

 

Here is a current link to the Energy Fellowship page... it presents some things but nowhere near the possibilities....

http://www.santbani.k12.nh.us/biodiesel/index.htm

 

 

Richard.

RE: Energy Fellowship website

-----Original Message-----
From: Zhanar Seitmagzimova [mailto:zhanars@santbani.org]
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 8:45 PM
To: richard@santbani.org
Subject: re: Energy Fellowship website

Hi Richard!

I like the idea of creating a site for Energy Fellowship as well as the site for farmers to distribute their goods. But my question is "what's the purpose of the project?" I mean like real purpose? something global? or just a website for energy fellowship's fun? Is there any kind of thing that could keep the project actual? There're many websites that just contain information about something and it's useful only in terms of information, but nothing else. I'd like our website to be something more than a source of information about Energy Fellowship and forum for people interested in it. Could it be something that would really keep people visiting the website? Just like the idea about farmers? The farmers need to distribute their products and people need to buy them - that's a good idea. But talking about Energy Fellowship - I wonder if there is something like that in that idea?

Maybe I didn't get everything, because I'm not really familiar with Energy Fellowship and stuff like that. I think we could discuss it more thoroughly in our class on monday. I'd like to figure out some details if it's possible.

What about the platforms it's a pretty tough question. I looked through some statistics and look what I've found on the linux website:

(Percent of projects)



However this graph is pretty different on the microsoft website... :)
Do you think it's possible to figure it out in such a way that it could do with both environments?

And the last question. What do you think we could start from? I think we should make some kind of plan of the project. And by the way how much time is it supposed to take? What time limits do we have? Like one semester?

And one more question. (sorry that wasn't the last one :)) How is our website supposed to differ from the www.wiserearth.org or other websites like this. Isn't our project supposed to be new?

We could discuss all these things together on monday and maybe Nate and Alec will have some fresh ideas...

Thanks,
Zhanar



***************************
Zhanar Seitmagzimova, Class of 2008
Sant Bani School
Sanbornton, NH 03269

Fall 2007 Computer Class

This class contains Alec, Zhanar, and Nate as the three students. All three are welcome to contribute to the content of this Blog with ideas, photos and screenshots, and to comment on the class and specific work.

~ off we go.. Richard.