WordPress.org

1. Nomadamo
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Dear all,

   I am relatively new to wordpress, but re-familiarizing myself rapidly with web design. (I build a website about 10 years ago..)

   Anyway I was wondering whether anyone is familiar with open source / community based web development. I am building a social network, based on buddypress, and the basic idea is that members of the social network can (if they want) contribute to the site-development. What I would like to do therefore is to allow members to access and edit the wordpress admin panel of a site that is an identical copy of the main website.

   Basically in this way anyone can edit a certain aspects that needs improvement. Once a stable version is produced it can be presented to the entire community and the main administrators (me) after which it can be tested and possibly voted on for incorportion into the actual site. I have seen certain plugins that allow profile customization so I am thinking this could be a good start.

   Looking forward to the wordpress community ideas and reactions!

   Adam

2. Ashfame
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   No offence! But it sounds more like you want free developers. Why would someone be interested in pleasing you by working for you? Every one works for a motive.

3. Nomadamo
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Hi Ashfame,

   thanks for your reply, regardless of the underlying motives, I am only asking if its technically feasible and if more people see a future in this kind of web development. If its can be done in wordpress, it would be a great feature, for community build websites all over the world. So yes I am looking for free developers in my own community, that is called open-source / voluntary work.

   In fact the website is for non-profit purposes (ecological farming). There is no budget and i am doing this in my free time. I hope you understand my motives now :)

   Cheerio,

   Adam

4. Ashfame
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Hi,

   Motive is to learn, to improve, spirit of open source. If one is keen in development, one would rather be involved in WordPress development for example and not building a free website for an NGO (If one feels like doing it, there are plenty of nearby sockets to plug). It might work if you propose such an initiative in a group, and not looking for volunteers. In fact, I will be surprised if you succeed in your motive this way. You might want to rephrase your pitch. Still good luck!

5. Bill Erickson
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Technically it is possible. You should look into versioning systems like svn. This will allow developers to pull the most recent copy to their server or local environment, make changes, and submit patches back to you for approval.

   This is how WordPress itself is built and most of the plugins.

   More info here: http://ottopress.com/2011/creating-a-wordpress-site-using-svn/
   (that article is mostly about using SVN to pull in the most recent updates of WordPress istelf, but it provides some good information on using SVN. Instead of using SVN for WordPress trunk you'll want to use it for your WordPress theme).

6. Ashfame
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   @billerickson You totally missed his point. He wants volunteers for developing his BuddyPress based NGO project.
   P.S. - Practically, not technically ;)

7. Bill Erickson
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   It still sounds like he is asking how he can let HIS community members contribute to the site development, not asking for free work here. He just wants to know if it's technically feasible to have a community (more than one developer) work on a WordPress project.

   It is feasible and doable with svn or git.

8. Ashfame
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Reading it again, I get the point. My bad! Apologies to both of you.

9. Nomadamo
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   No Worries Ashfame, and thanks Billerickson for your feedback!

   I had come across SVN somewhere before. It might definitely be a good idea to check it out. I am also looking into ELGG, which seems to provide support for SVN. Some kind of automatic versioning would indeed be necessary for it to be succesful.

   For testing purposes I was thinking it might be an easy workaround to grant specific users access to an online duplicate version of the entire website (but then with without the user data, so just the core structure). One or more people can work on a specific feature thats needs improvement. When finished the news can be spread to the main website for people to have a look and vote on the enhanced functionality, stability and or visibility. If a good majority is in favor of the changes, the administrator can implement the change to the real site. (ideally an update could be done automatically as well if thre is enough community consensus)

   The main trouble as far as I see it has to to with the user data. How hard is it is to create a duplicate version of the website without any of the user data and posts. (This is necessary to prevent people from editing the content and violating privacy issues). I am not sure how wordpress manages and stores such user data. and whether it can be easily transferred from one wordpress setup to another.

   Does anyone have relevant experiences or suggestions?

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.