SimpleDesk

Community => SimpleDesk Team Blog => Topic started by: Trekkie101 on February 13, 2010, 06:35:26 PM

Title: The error log mod!
Post by: Trekkie101 on February 13, 2010, 06:35:26 PM
SimpleDesk started life as a collaborative modification for SMF, focussing on a quality help desk. Soon it became a bigger project with its own site, structure and development environment. A lot of custom work has gone into the creation of this site and the project as a whole.

As we are a free project, and we are making little changes to SMF to make our lives easier, we decided along the way we will package them up and offer them to the community as a whole. While the little modifications we release will be truly small, they may help administrators or developers further enhance their project.

Our first little modification that we're releasing is our Error Log counter mod. In a very efficient and optimised way, this log counter will display how many entries are in the SMF error log. As you can see in the screenshots, this provides a quick way to find out, without needing to manually visit the page and look, helping reduce development time.

Support and information on this modification will be limited to the SimpleDesk site and will not be available at SimpleMachines.org. Our modification profile however will always provide the latest download version.

Mod: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2441

Main view of the error log count:
(https://www.simpledesk.net/images/previews/mods/error_log_main.png)


And inside the admin panel:
(https://www.simpledesk.net/images/previews/mods/error_log_admin.png)
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: [FailSafe] on February 13, 2010, 07:13:39 PM
Oh wow! This is really amazing! The interface looks great, and very simple to use. Not to mention that it looks very very helpful. :)

Great job guys! :D
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: MultiformeIngegno on February 13, 2010, 09:24:04 PM
Quote from: Trekkie101 on February 13, 2010, 06:35:26 PM
Support and information on this modification will be limited to the SimpleDesk site and will not be available at SimpleMachines.org. Our modification profile however will always provide the latest download version.
In which license do you release it..? Maybe in future SMF devs can take ideas from you and apply 'em by default.... I think that improving SMF is a common target.. here and there... isn't it? ;)
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Trekkie101 on February 13, 2010, 09:32:02 PM
Generally assumed to be under the Simple Machines License, its a very small code change.

However you're right we should include our license in the next version.
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Gruffen on February 13, 2010, 09:39:12 PM
Any mod released on the SM mog site is automatically granted a license to reuse by the SMF dev team for SM itself in any case - if the dev team want to use it.
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Trekkie101 on February 13, 2010, 09:40:49 PM
Quote from: Arantor on February 13, 2010, 09:39:12 PM
Any mod released on the SM mog site is automatically granted a license to reuse by the SMF dev team for SM itself in any case - if the dev team want to use it.

Ah unless someone specify's their own.
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Gruffen on February 13, 2010, 09:42:53 PM
Nope, even if someone specifies their own, that clause is still there.

Quote from: The SM LicenseWhen a Modification to the Package is released, a non-exclusive royalty-free right is granted to Simple Machines LLC to distribute the Modification in future versions of the Package provided such versions remain available under the terms of this Agreement in addition to any other license(s) of the initial developer.

It is slightly dubious since that could be argued to cover paid mods too and have paid mods added to SM core.
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Trekkie101 on February 13, 2010, 09:44:58 PM
It was discussed a long time ago that, that wouldn't be enforced for modifications or themes.

In the newer exploratory versions of the license that doesn't exist, but then we're looking at more open licenses too for 2.0+1
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Gruffen on February 13, 2010, 09:50:39 PM
I can't seriously imagine that any mod would be at the standards necessarily for drop-in inclusion into SMF anyway (not even some of mine) and I'd expect them to be rewritten prior to inclusion so it's a non-issue anyway.

I am curious to hear the outcome of the license discussions.
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Francis on February 14, 2010, 01:04:33 AM
Quote from: Arantor on February 13, 2010, 09:50:39 PM
I can't seriously imagine that any mod would be at the standards necessarily for drop-in inclusion into SMF anyway (not even some of mine) and I'd expect them to be rewritten prior to inclusion so it's a non-issue anyway.

I am curious to hear the outcome of the license discussions.
Sad but even not SD would make it to a default feature. Maybe a featured modification but never a default feature. And I understand it totally since forums are first built for chatting, and if you want to have a help desk, either buy one or use the modification, no need to slow others' performance (with loading content) if they don't need it.

Caution here, I'm not saying SD will slow SMF down, just that making it default with a lot of checks would.

Francis
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Gruffen on February 14, 2010, 08:18:00 AM
No, we're quite clear that SD won't become a core feature and we'd never expect it to anyway. It's too far away from what a forum does.

What I can say is that Simple Machines Forum is being reorganised internally in the code - you'll see on the development site there that there is this beast called SMC, aka Simple Machines Core. A number of the functions in SMF are generic 'core' functions (like the DB layer) and there certainly were plans to ship additional products alongside the forum.

It was always considered that SD could migrate to the SM project and become Simple Machines Helpdesk, but as it stands right now there is not enough of the foundation there to be able to work with, meaning we have to build it as a modification, rather than a module if that makes sense.
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: MultiformeIngegno on February 14, 2010, 11:18:59 AM
Quote from: Arantor on February 13, 2010, 09:39:12 PM
Any mod released on the SM mog site is automatically granted a license to reuse by the SMF dev team for SM itself in any case - if the dev team want to use it.
Sorry, I didn't notice it was released on sm.org (or pheraps when I read the post it wasn't approved yet), so I thought you were going to keep it here.. ;)
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Gruffen on February 14, 2010, 11:31:32 AM
It was approved before we made the blog post. :)
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: MultiformeIngegno on February 14, 2010, 02:43:45 PM
Quote from: Arantor on February 14, 2010, 11:31:32 AM
It was approved before we made the blog post. :)
D'oh.. :-[ ;D
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: tyty1234 on February 15, 2010, 04:02:34 AM
Quote from: tyty1234 on February 15, 2010, 03:59:06 AM
I'd say, this is a pretty awesome mod.
Title: Re: The error log mod!
Post by: Acans on February 18, 2010, 05:54:41 PM
Works perfectly on my Curve and DSv4 :)

Nice work.