Elxis CMS Forum
Extensions => Components => Topic started by: datahell on February 04, 2014, 10:38:07
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I plan to develop a micro-blogging component for Elxis 4.x. The component will be able to accept short posts (something like Twitter) from various sources.
Micro-blog sources can be User, RSS feeds, Twitter, SMS messages and posts via a REST API for any other use. The posts from the various sources will be displayed combined in a single blog. Each message will have a short text (up to 255 characters), an optional image, an optional link, optional tags and Like/Dislike rating buttons.
User
From frontend section you do a post. You can provide access to other users too, or even guests! A maximum of 255 characters, an image (url or upload) and a URL link will be supported.
RSS feeds
Provide RSS feeds urls. The component will grap new posts and import them in your microblog.
Twitter
Provide Twitter accounts to automatically grap new posts from them.
SMS messages
Send SMS messages from your mobile phone to be displayed in your microblog (will require a commercial third party integration).
REST API
Send a POST request to the component to publish a new message. Source can be anything, even a mobile app.
What do you thing of this? Any other idea for integration with other sources? Any comments?
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Good news! One year before, i was talking with Stavros, for such a component. It seems this is the appropriate timing! :)
I look back at an old email of mine, and here are some ideas and comments:
- Besides the optional image and url link, it would be great if it can support video posts (youtube url or video id).
- Use of a "Read More" / "Expand" function. Only text to be seen, at first glance. Show all other content (images/videos) with the use of this function.
- Replies/Comments on posts (?).
John, will someone be able to use this component, more than once, on a site? Imagine a site, with unities, supported by different microblogs.
Lastly...
Twitter
Provide Twitter accounts to automatically grap new posts from them
How about if it can grab tweets, depending on a user's particular #tags. Maybe someone doesn't want all his tweets posted on the microblog.
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First of all I picked a name for the new component, it will be called Mikro (μikro).
Also I decided to remove the SMS posting option as it needs additional hardware and software. We will check the possibility of developing an Android/IOS/Windows mobile application instead for posting over wifi/GPRS/3G connections from mobile phones and tablets. I asked Stavros help here.
Yes, Youtube videos will also be supported, I forgotten to mention it in my first post. As for the "read more/expand" it is not needed as the idea is of a microblog having tiny messages, not large texts (larger than Twitter though). Images and videos will be hidden and only be displayed when clicked. Each message will have a permanent URL for SEO purposes. It will also support tags for grouping but not multiple micro-blogs (like eBlog for Elxis 2009.x). The idea is a blog presenting content from mixed sources as a unified list. Component μikro will also support content update in real time (live update) like on Twitter ;)
Your idea of filtering tweets based on a given tag is good and I will check it.
I started the development today. It will take me about 10-15 days to complete it.
Sources currently added:
- Up to 3 RSS/ATOM feeds
- Up to 3 Twitter accounts
- User posting (configurable access from External users to Administrators)
- REST API (accept posts from anywhere - here can also be connected the mobile app)
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Images and videos will be hidden and only be displayed when clicked.
Nice! This covers better the "expand" function. ;)
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Datahell Factory works and produces nonstop :)
I wish you strength!
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I attach a very early preview showing posts on component Mikro.
Although it is a micro-blogging application, Mikro accepts many things like image upload, image grab from remote source, front-end authoring, lightbox, user rating, hash tags, multiple messages sources, responsive design, mobile friendly view/post, and many more that will fully report when I finish it.
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looks great datahell - congrats. Cannot wait until it becomes available. Can Mikro send (not only receive) content to Twitter and/or Facebook as well?
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No, it could be added for Twitter (I don't work with facebook) but I dont think it is needed. A twitter button is better and simpler to be added.
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The development of component Mikro continues.
I post a screenshot of 2 posts as they are listed in Mikro frontpage.
Everything is AJAX powered, voting, deleting a message, post new message, fetch more messages. Mikro has also perfect rendering on mobile phone and tables. Everything you see on the screenshot is fully functional now.
Note: You must login to see attached images.
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I added long text support on Mikro blog component. Micro now became Mega blog ;D
Also each post has its own permanent URL.
I am going to add an other cool feature: Option to upload multiple images and create image galleries (per post).
This is semi-complete, I will have it ready tomorrow.
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datahell,
Can you include the following feature in your development of Elxis 4.x
1. Currently we can only add 'featured image' of the post by manually uploading it to the server. Can we have an option to 'browse' previously uploaded images and have it as the featured image of the post?
2. For image attachment, can we set a default target 'folder' for the specific post?
e.g. If the user clicks on 'image' from the wysiwyg window, it directs him to ...media/[post id]/month/year/[image files...] folder, where we can upload multiple files through drag and drop?
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This post is for component Mikro which is under development. Mikro accepts posting from front-end section only and it is a third party extension, not built-in into Elxis CMS.
I believe in your post you reffer to content as managed from the administration section. Using the same image in multiple articles creates problem when you want to delete an article sharing the same image with others.
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Such an extension will improve the reputation of the CMS! This is exactly how wordpress became famous. In this period of time we have uploaded some really interesting extensions to EDC. Thank to all of the developers.
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I added 2 more cool features on component Mikro.
1. Statistics - Full report in administration area (most liked, most hated, top pages with hits counter, etc).
2. Categories - Group articles into categories (hash tags are also supported for grouping similar articles).
I attach a screenshot from Mikro statistics page (not full page).
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Component Mikro will be released it in the next 4-5 days.
I attach here the English language file for the component. If anyone can translate it to other than Greek and English language I would be grateful.
The translation wont take you more than 30-45 minutes. Just open it with a text editor such as ps-pad, translate it in your language, save it as utf-8 without BOM and when ready mail it to datahell {at} /elxis/ {dot} "org"
Thanks in advance.
Note: You have to login to download attached files.
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Component Mikro just released!
Mikro is a smart and modern micro blog system. I strongly recommend you to download it and test it, I am sure you will love it.
Documentation for Mikro will also become available.
Download Mikro from EDC (https://www.elxis.net/edc/content/78.html)
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Awesome, thank you very much datahell. I have installed the component and while testing I found following bugs (I assume these are bugs):
- Title changed in settings, title but shows always "Micro blog" in front page.
- Image Position set to message left side but always shows below message.
Some questions:
- Is it possible to change directory /mikro to /blog?
- Is it possible to use mod_latestarticles with micro blog?
Thank you again for this great component - I am excited.
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No, there are no bugs. If you have APC enabled parameters are cached. Delete apc cache.
Elxis cache documentation (https://www.elxis.net/docs/using-elxis/administration/cache.html)
You can re-route any component to anything you want! So routing "mikro" to "blog" is possible.
Elxis router documentation (https://www.elxis.net/docs/using-elxis/advanced-users/default-route-frontpage.html)
Recommendation: For maximum portability always use Elxis URIs for internal linking. Especially if you set have custom routing rules.
Bad link (standard link) :
http://www.example.com/blog/rss
Good link (Elxis URI) :
mikro:rss
Elxis will change automatically "mikro" to "blog" or whatever else you set on-the-fly and without having you to change your links. Also these links are multilingual and follow HTTP/HTTPS protocol changes.
I will develop some modules for Mikro during the next days. Follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/IsOpenSource) to stay in touch!
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As i can see, i cannot edit something i have written. Or how can i use paragraphs? Do i miss something?
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Mikro began as a pure micro blogging system and ended up with much more features from what I have initialled scheduled.
Micro blogs, in general, display a list of messages like on Twitter. Twitter doesn't have edit too. The improvements I made turned Mikro into an almost full-featured blog but it is still a micro blog.
You can use some html tags including paragraphs. To create a paragraph in HTML write this:
<p>Any text you want</p>
<p>An other paragraph here with more text</p>
The paragraph tag "p" in Mikro is allowed only in Long Text (second text area), not in short message (first text area).
I strongly recommend you to use only these HTML tags: <p> and <strong>, nothing else. Also add hashtags like #this
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Thank you datahell. As you can see i don't have twitter experience at all :-[
I test it as you said and i saw the use of mikroblog. It is not an article editor.
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datahell thanks for your quick reply and explaining the routing function. Now I know what the routing is meant for and it works very well. It's also very helpful that one can see the routing in the component's listing.
I don't use cache in my testing environment.
Image position I have changed after inserting post, that's probably the reason why the position didn't change for that post. Inserting a new post the image position is according to new parameters. But shouldn't old/all posts change image position as well if the parameter for image position changes?
Title is still Micro blog and not the title I inserted in Edit component Mikro, Title. Funny the Description shows correct.
I am very much looking forward to the modules for Mikro. I am sure they will greatly enhance Mikro Blog.
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Regarding the title you are right, there was a small bug in Mikro which I fixed.
Open this file:
components/com_mikro/controllers/base.php
Go to line 149
and change this:
if (trim($this->params['title']) != '') { $this->params['title'] = 'Micro blog'; }
into this:
if (trim($this->params['title']) == '') { $this->params['title'] = 'Micro blog'; }
As for the image position I tested it and it works fine. Just refresh the page and image position will change based on the new settings.
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great, thank you very much for the fix. All works fine now.
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Hi datahell,
I have seen that you made component sitemap and module tags cloud compatible with mikro - thank you. Which other components/modules are you planning to update for mikro? If possible I would be especially interested in:
mod_latestarticles and
mod_pressnews
What do you think?
Thank you,
Markus
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I will create a module listing latest mikro articles or update an existing one for standard articles to support mikro. Please wait a few days.
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Your wish came true!
Now module Latest Articles (https://www.elxis.net/edc/content/8.html) can also display articles from component Mikro (https://www.elxis.net/edc/content/78.html).
Also an other cool option was added: Display article's large image scaled (responsive design) instead of the thumbnail.
Download module Latest Articles v1.1 (https://www.elxis.net/edc/content/8.html) from EDC
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Wow, that's awesome - your are the best! This makes mikro much more integratable into elxis.
Just one problem: The urls are like micro/1.html, /2.html. Is it possible to use the title for the url? That would be much more meaningful. I would like to move old posts to the new micro component and this would be much easier (search engines) if the title was used to build urls (same as articles).
Thanks again for your hard work - very appreciated.
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No.
1. The titles in mikro articles are optional, you can not base on that.
2. It requires complex interface (seotitle validation etc) in Mikro posting form which is beyond the scope of a micro blogging application. The form must remain as simple as possible.
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okay, that's a pitty. If this is the case I cannot use mikro for the purpose (blog) I thought - perhaps only for tweets. I will just continue using articles to create/write blog posts as I was doing already anyway. Would have been nice though to have everything included/coordinated (posts, tweets etc.) in one solution.
Thank you for your hard work!
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Are you kidding me? You can't use Mikro because of the URLs format? This is rediculous!
In Micro what is important is the category page, not the article.
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Sorry to have upset you with my comment, but this is my pure personal opinion. I would love to hear other opinions on this as well.
BTW, I still think micro is a great component and my comments are only meant to further improve/develop it.
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When a new extension is being developed and addressed to public, developer must examine all the future requirements and the general needs of CMSs users. I think that it's not a big deal the URL format as search machines crowl the entire page, its structure and so much more complex tasks.
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How can mikro content be included in Elxis Search engine results ?
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A search engine needs to be developed for Mikro. I will try to built it for you these days.
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Great!
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Search engine for Mikro is under development. Stay tuned!
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The search engine for component Mikro is ready and you can download it from EDC.
The engine allows you to search for Mikro articles from within Elxis standard search form.
Download Mikro search engine (https://www.elxis.net/edc/search-indexes/89.html)
All extensions that are Mikro enabled (https://www.elxis.net/edc/tags.html?tag=mikro)
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Search engine and Tags cloud! Super 8)
in the next following days i will relaunch connection.gr with the use of Mikro. This component is GREAT! It's very easy to post content through mobile devices ;D
Thank you Yianni
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Request: Newsletter (option) to send also microblog posts.
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OK, Newsletter v1.2 is under development! :)
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Working on a local installation with Microblog component to find out how it works, i have noticed in RSS feeds the following:
I have set an rss url (from an elxis 2009.x site) and all articles are displayed well. When the URL of an article from the external source site is longer than 144 characters (including all /) even the component displays the article fine, clicking on the link More, at the external window which opens to show the article from the source site it cuts the URL to this limit, with result to get a 404 error from this (external source site).
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The limit in Mikro external (source) links length is 160 characters. And this is a limit of the database column, not Mikro's. 160 characters is this (including spaces):
test://www. kati-trexei-sta-gyftika.com/ mia-katigoria-periexomenon/ kai-alli-mia-edo/ vale-kai-alli-katigoria/ arnaki-aspro-kai-paxy-tis-manas-toy-kamari.html
Is this not enough? If you have larger links than that consider shorten them because they are too long.
You can off course change the size of the column:
Table: elx_mikro_msgs
Columns: source_link and link (VARCHAR)
Default size: 160, you can increase it up to 255 characters.
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You asked for it and you got it! Module Newsletter (https://www.elxis.net/edc/communication/61.html) can now (version 1.2) send newsletters for Mikro (https://www.elxis.net/edc/content/78.html) articles too.
Upgrade instructions
Install Newsletter version 1.2 without un-installing the previous version and Elxis with automatically update your installation to v1.2.
New parameters
2 new parameters were added to control the display of top prompt text and bottom prompt box.
Mikro enabled extensions
Elxis extensions that currently have support for component Mikro. (https://www.elxis.net/edc/tags.html?tag=mikro)
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Thanks datahell, that was too quick!! Also the two new parameters are warmly welcome.
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Request: Facebook like plugin to support Mikro's articles? :)