WordPress.org

1. davidchait
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   I'm working towards a first beta release of CG-PowerPack that's compatible with WP1.5, thus I'm numbering it 1.5 to match... ;)

   In addition to features from the 1.0 branch, there are now some admin panels for select plugins, and a few new plugins like CG-AntiSpam (what I've been using under 1.0 that applies some rules and the referrer blacklist to comments) and CG-Pagename (you can do <--nextpage:SomePageName-->, and get text table of contents links/list for multipage posts...).

   I have locally proven out the compatability of a good amount of the PowerPack code with 1.5 (CG-Amazon, CG-Inline, Amazon+Inline, CG-Referrer, CG-Feedread, CG-AntiSpam, CG-Pagename, ...), though by no means exhaustive, and only on a local XP box with Apache+PHP5.

   I know there's a few of you waiting eagerly for some of these, and I'm happy to make a prerelease available (I should probably call it an 'alpha', given how unpolished/unfinished much of it will be...).

   Lemme know here or cgcode at chait.net.

   -d

2. TechGnome
   Moderator
   Posted 4 years ago #

   When I get the guts to upgrade to 1.5, I'll be happy to smack it around some.

   Tg

3. debwire
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   I've upgraded to WP 1.5 and used to use several of your CG apps on a former blog. I'd be willing to install some of your apps within the CG pack and give them a spin. I didn't see a download link on your site, though.

4. davidchait
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   It's not ready yet -- hoping tomorrow. Trying to move stuff into admin screens is taking its time... ;)

   -d

5. davidchait
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   Hoping tonight to have a (closed) alpha available. If I get enough testers to prove it's working decently, will move to an open alpha over the weekend, and it'll stay in alpha for a few weeks.

   Note that I'm calling it 'alpha' not because of stability -- it's the same stable 1.0 codebase, updated for PHP5 and WP1.5 compatability -- but with some new features, new work on admin pages (in progress) for each plugin, it'll take some time before it's completely 'polished'.

   -d

6. guboogi
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   I'd be willing to test it out, too. Let me know where to download it.

7. debwire
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   David -- whenever you're ready, feel free to let me know where to download it by sending me a message through my feedback form at:

   http://www.debwire.com/photoblog/?page_id=8

   I'd rather post the link instead of my email address. Look forward to taking the powerpack for a spin.

8. davidchait
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   Thanks deb - will do. I've been running into issues with CG-Amazon, which since it's a 'major part' of the PowerPack I want to look into it. Might be I need to take a day and recode the system for the new v4 amazon service (really just changes to the back end query management, so should be pretty easy, just want to buffer some time for testing edge conditions!).

   -d

9. guboogi
   Member
   Posted 4 years ago #

   How would you want me to send you my contact info so that you can notify me where to download the beta? Or will you just post the link here?

10. Yngwin
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    I'd be interested in testing it, especially CG-Amazon.

11. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    I'll >definitely< post a link here. ;)

    FYI, I was up VERY late last night, rewriting the core query system for the new Amazon Web Services 4.0 (well, not so new any more..), as I was having extremely long queries (timing out) with my old code, wanted to eliminate any possible negative issues from the new release of stuff.

    At first, it might be a teensy bit slower (and bigger cachefiles), but in the long run it delivers MUCH more amazon data that can be output. I'll also eventually be working on some of the remote-cart stuff, and I'm still pushing for them to deliver a working click-from-wishlist thing (I may have wishlist URLs go to the wishlist, rather than the clicked item, for that reason...). I can now see the asked-for/ordered counts in the wishlists, and other details, but they are more 'painful' to extract quickly. ;)

    Anyway, further update a little later in the day. Thanks for the interest, and patience -- this stuff just takes time! ;)

    -d

12. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    Quick update.

    CG-Feedread seems to be working fine.
    CG-Inline has had basic testing, seems okay.
    CG-Pagename seems okay.
    CG-Referrer is working, though new admin screens not all there yet.
    CG-Amazon is the beast -- moving to V4 of amazon web services has been a bigger chunk of work, as they significantly changed their field names and XML layout.

    but, I have single item asin lookups and multiple item asin lookups working fine, and after a day I now have Wishlist lookups working again decently. Next is keyword and similarity searches, should be pretty fast. Admin screen is as functional as it ever was, now with many more catalog areas to search, plus the new 'blended' search over the major areas. CGAIndex.php is back up to base functionality, even looks decent with default WP1.5 template -- but needs similarity/accessory output working again.

    The big benefit of moving to AWS4 is that I can now grab even more detailed information (for people who want to use CGAIndex as a mini storefront), I can build custom-cart code decently well, I can hook into seller info for those of you selling products on Amazon, etc., etc. Just opens up lots of possibilities. I hope it opens up some potential revenues as well, as CG-PP is becoming a costly hobby... ;)

    Back later,
    -d

13. vkaryl
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    David, I've been using an "old" version of Feedread with 1.5 for a couple of weeks. It works fine. I'm not sure I should "upgrade".... y'know, if it ain't broke don't fix it? [version #1.0fc2 - and perhaps this is a "version" of your 1.5?]

14. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    FC2 was the last 'public' release. I had some private FC3 releases to help some folks, but otherwise have kept my mods local for a while and let FC2 be the '1.0' version.

    The 1.5 branch has some specific WP1.5 integration enhancements, likely has a bunch of PHP5-compatability fixes (might not need them at the moment, but then your ISP upgrades, and WHAMMO!), the new multi-feed-single-query stuff (which I don't think was in FC2), and at some point some reblogger-esque features.

    If I get to the reblogger stuff, there'll obviously be admin interfaces created rather than just PHP control... ;)

    -d

15. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    Okay, I need to do some testing tomorrow, but things are looking good. I've got Asin, Keyword, Wishlist, Similar, and Accessory lookups all working, and updated cgaindex.php and cga-admin.php to be generally functional -- cgaindex.php will need customization until I can put in time to really base it off the template structure the way it should be.

    Check back here tomorrow afternoon/evening. Thanks all!

    -d

16. johndilbeck
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    David,

    I'm new to WP, having just installed 1.5 a few days ago.

    I'm particularly interested in your Feedread plugin, but the Amazon plugin sounds great, too.

    I'd like to test your 1.5 version.

    All the best,

    JD

17. nita
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    I just updated to 1.5, and the PowerPack is my last step. I'd love to play Guinea Pig.

18. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    click for CG-PowerPack 1.5a1 Download

    THIS IS ALPHA SOFTWARE. As CHAITGEAR is still running heavily-modded 1.0, I'm not even running this code live myself, so the usual caveats apply (no warranty, as-is, etc., etc.).

    However, it is a direct descendent of the 1.0 PowerPack code, so should be generally safe to run with. ;)

    The new features are too numerous, but just to quickly cover a few:
    - the major plugins all now auto-integrate -- no more adding code to index.php, et al, in order to 'start up' things.
    - tested locally and working include: CG-Amazon, CG-Inline, CG-WhatTunes, CG-AntiSpam, CG-Pagename, CG-Referrer, CG-Feedread, CG-Samecat. CG-Related is NOT really functioning properly at the moment in terms of setting up related articles, but if you have it running already on your site, output should still work just fine.
    - CG-Amazon, CG-AntiSpam, CG-Referrer, CG-WhatTunes all have some level of Admin interface through top-level menus. NOT ALL FUNCTIONALITY IS EXPOSED, especially options/settings that are controlled within the PHP files at the moment.
    - CG-AntiSpam is new in this form, but much of the code is currently in use on CHAITGEAR protecting me from comment spam. And, it leverages the same blacklist as CG-Referrer, so catches a lot of the same jerks. But has a few neat tricks I look for, and at the moment defaults to not nuking, just marking as spam and saving in the DB. Oh, and it gives you an admin screen to see the junk...

    What else. This is taking a LOT of time, as you all can imagine. And I've got to get back to paying work. :) I'll be juggling this over the next week, as the next step, rather than further enhancements, is to get CHAITGEAR migrated to 1.5 -- JOY. If that gets done, I'll be in a better position to really support this stuff moving forward. ;)

    -d

19. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    And, of course, open to any suggestions for feature improvements... ;) It's all a work in progres...

    -d

20. guboogi
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    Just tried installing the script (so far all I use is WhatTunes) and I'm having problems displaying the artist/album of tracks that aren't found on Amazon. It seems to create a link to Amazon anyway and that link goes nowhere and then it doesn't even output the artist/album info.

    I've altered some of the code for style purposes, but I don't think that's it because I also tried default files and settings. Have you noticed any problems with this?

    Also, for the ones that are found on Amazon (and therefore display correctly) where can I edit it so that the text link goes like this:

    Artist
    Album

    ... instead of Album - Artist (with the dash and on the same line). Thanks again!

21. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    Can you post an entry here that failed to match an album? That'll help. I've never had problems, but I listen to VERY mainstream stuff (either top-40 type people, or grammy-level artists...), so the albums are around.

    I'm working on making the output more configurable for all of CG-Amazon/CG-WhatTunes output. Looking at a templating system where you can do something like:
    {linkstart}{Artist}<br&gr;{Album}<br&gr;{Image}{linkend}

    Would that seem to be helpful? Or, alternate, an admin screen with each field listed, and you can enter a number next to each. 0 mean don't show, 1-n means order to show. Something like that might work for CG-Amazon as well.

    Heck, that system might work well for my 'EZLayout' thing I've been wanting to do, where plugins register 'output modules', and you can then use a screen to pick what shows up in what order on the sidebar. (Like some of the big CMS systems might do, but in a very, very simple, basic interface...).

    -d

22. guboogi
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    Well, I'm not exactly sure how it grabs the song info (filename, ID3 tag?) but I have the Garden State Soundtrack (I have the album named "Garden State (OST)" in the ID3 tag, and Amazon never picked it up (even though I know they sell it). In the previous version, with my style changes, it would simply display as:

    <b>Don't Panic</b>

    Coldplay
    Garden State (OST)

    That was fine, I didn't mind it at all. But now it just displays as:

    <b>Don't Panic</b>

    - (this links to my site but the alt says "See at AMAZON")

    Here, I'll leave it on a song that doesn't match and you can see for yourself. My site is http://www.guboogi.com/

    Thanks again.

23. Jinsan
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    I'm sure david is pretty busy working on the powerpack, so has anyone thought abour writing some detailed document on this with david's blessing? It sounds like quite an exetensive plugin, and so something more than the typical readme may be required.

24. nita
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    I'm running Wordpress 1.5. Formerly, I was using 1.2 with the Powerpack. This means that I already had Powerpack tables in my database.

    To install the new CG Powerpack, I deactivated the CG-Amazon plugin. Then I removed old CG-Powerpack files from the wp-content/plugins directory.

    I popped the new Powerpack in the directory, and I began following the instructions. By the way, for upgraders, you might want to note that they need to edit their wp-admin/menu.php file to take out any additions they may have made themselves for previous versions.

    I activated my new CG-Amazon plugin.

    My website displays stuff on the sidebar as it should. Clicking the CGA menu item gets me an item list.

    I can add things to the list, but I can't seem to remove them.

    Clicking the remove/X link for an item takes me to a blank page with
    [code]admin.php?action=remove&item_asin=0805211322&onclick=%22return%20confirm([/code]
    in the business end of the address bar.

    Also, when I click the Next Page link to see more items on the list, I get a web page saying only "Cannot load 2."

25. nita
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    Also, clicking the Next Page link gets me a page that says only "Cannot load 2."

26. nita
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    Editing an item also gets me a blank screen.

27. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    guboogi:

    The file tracktunes.txt has the info. If you want to email yours to cgcode (chait.net), I'll take a look. You're right, it should just show the no-amazon-info version. However, with the extensive changes to the Amazon code, possible I borked that code-path. ;)

    Nita:

    Ooops. Thanks -- I haven't done extensive testing of cga-admin, and it is now hooked in a much different manner. Lemme go look, and I'll get that fixed and post a (better) working cga-admin.php. ;)

    -d

28. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    UPDATED VERSION:
    CG-PowerPack 1.5a2

    Revised CGA admin screen, now uses forms/buttons rather than URI redirects to execute commands. Did some basic testing, seems to all generally be working.

    Lemme know as you find more issues! Thanks all!
    -d

29. davidchait
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    (oh, also removed files from the two cache folders that shouldn't have been there -- those folders should be empty for redistribution... ;) )

30. nita
    Member
    Posted 4 years ago #

    So far, so good. Thanks!

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