Support » Requests and Feedback » Hack now or wait until 1.2?

  • I’ve been making some extensive hacks to WordPress 1.02–too many to package for non-programmers. My plan is to wait until 1.2, see what’s there, make my changes and then provide replacements for whatever files are hacked. At that point if the WordPress teams wants to incorporate the changes into the next release of the product, cool. If not, cool.
    Question though is when do we think 1.2 will be released? Should I document what I’ve done somewhere for now? Or because I’m making changes to basic WP functions, should I hold off? Some of these are split off hacks, such as new functions. Most, though, don’t fit either a hacks or a plugin arch.
    I’m just not sure of the procedure to follow, and am not interested in spending a lot of time doing something that will not be value added in the long run.
    Changes I’ve made:
    I’ve added a ‘moderated’ enum to the comment_status field in the database, tweaked edit to add this as option, and incorporated this into comment management. This gives per post moderation.
    Once that was done, I turned all posts over 30 days old into moderated posts. I then added a throttle to prevent comments in excess of a certain number from being posted in an hour–to prevent crapfloods.
    I used the WP blacklist, but I had a friend get blacklisted right off the start, so have commented it out for now until I can see why he ended up blacklisted.
    I also did the post preview hack, which I documented elsewhere. Again, had to make hacks to existing functions to get this to work.
    I’ve also created functions to test if a comment is a comment, or a trackback. I’m really pleased to see type of comment split out in 1.2. That was a really good decision.
    I’m also creating some new editing pages for bulk comment and post management, as well as providing psuedo-multi blog management. But if 1.2 is going to be out releatively soon, it makes no sense to make these hacks to the older version.
    I couldn’t find any timelines for projected 1.2 release, or even a listing of features planned for 1.2. I looked at the wiki and searched the forums, but couldn’t find anything more than “that’s planned for 1.2” annotated to specific requests and bug fixes.
    update
    I saw in March that the plan is to release 1.2 real soon, and I’ve seen reference to the “to-do” list, but I can’t find this anywhere.
    Can someone point me to where this to-do list is?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)
  • I am running 1.2a and I don’t have any more (actually less) problems than I had with the last stable release so I think at this point in time, “real soon” actually means real soon. IF I were you, I would dl the alpha (just to look at the code, installing it is up to you) and start porting what you have. I have been tweaking all the “old” hacks to work with 1.2alpha and it will be nice when plug-ins beyond “Hello Dolly” become available 😉 – Actually they are starting to roll in.

    Thread Starter shelleyp

    (@shelleyp)

    Thanks Beel
    I downloaded it already for another weblog.
    I’m assuming the database is stable, so will probably do the bulk editing pages now (unless these are on the to-do list). Something like these can be just dropped into the existing app, even by non-programmers, so should be a win-win.
    I’d like to also incorporate my moderated comments hack, but I’m not sure how stable that code is, and don’t want to have to hack and rehack.
    I don’t think most of my hacks will fit into the plug-in architecture, if I read it correctly.
    If I had a feel for what is going to be changing and not, I could move ahead more comfortably. But I don’t know what’s still being modified for 1.2 (other than bug fixes), and what is considered ‘gold’.
    Do you know where the to-do list is?

    Thread Starter shelleyp

    (@shelleyp)

    No, I prefer the ability to be able to specify moderated on a per post basis, so I think I will continue using this implementation, and add it to my version of 1.2.
    As for crapflood — rule of thumb is don’t overengineer. You don’t have to be clever with a soution; a ‘clever’ solution means you’re applying a lot of processing for ‘good comments’. I check to make sure only a certain number of comments are added per hour and it prevents a flood, and that’s all I care about. Once I have bulk comment and post management, and per post comment moderation, I’ll have all I need. It may not fit an ‘official’ WP track — but that’s the benefit of open source, isn’t it?
    And your comment_type function didn’t work as I needed it, but no biggie. That one did fit a hack easily.
    As for the split, I must have looked at the database wrong because you aren’t annotating the type of comment in it — I thought I saw that you were. I’m assuming this means you’re using embedded intelligence in your data field for the comment. I will probably change this — as a former DBA, I have a real reaction against this, though I imagine it works well for the WordPress.
    (Hmm, may be making a lot of significant changes, which probably won’t get folded back into WP. I wonder if I’ll end up forking?)
    If you’re tweaking the admin interface, than I will wait on my edits. That’s one of the areas I was interested in changing.
    I’m happy with my 1.02 installation now–I’ll just wait for 1.2 stable, make my edits and then provide packages and/or instructions. I won’t post anything for the 1.02 changes since this is an obsolete implementation.

    Thread Starter shelleyp

    (@shelleyp)

    PS
    The existing comment_type function echos the comment type, and I needed one that would return it as a string that I could then test and respond accordingly. That’s the only reason for the one hack.
    Now, anyway I can convince you all to create a new database field for comment type, rather than embedding it into the string? I’ll help you make whatever code changes are necessary to make this move.
    A new enum would be good, with values of ‘trackback’, ‘pingback’, and comment.
    Or was there some reason you went this route originally?

    Making comment type into an enum is planned for the future, just right now development time is focused on other things. It’ll probably be in the version after 1.2 unless someone submits a unified patch that implements it.

    Thread Starter shelleyp

    (@shelleyp)

    I’ll post to my site my own version of 1.2 with the changes I want to incorporate and I’ll send you all copies. Feel free to accept or reject any of it.
    Of course, without the changes being part of CVS and without coordinated effort, you can’t just replace the files because other people are also making changes to the same files, which means manual merging.
    But hey! It’s code and that’s what counts.

    When will the 1.2 version be out?

    I wish people would stop asking when 1.2 is due. For the devs to commit to a date would mean they would have to release it then, otherwise they would look unprofessional and there would be a lot of bitching here about it. More than likely, the software would not be ready at that point, which would also make them look unprofessional and provoke a lot of bitching. Look what happened with 1.0 – people demanded a New Year release so they rushed it out with a bunch of bugs that a couple weeks more development time could have taken care of. Patience is a virtue.

    Shelley, in terms of getting code into the core, it’s much easier to review and incorporate changes if they’re sent as a unified diff. I don’t think we have a tutorial for generating a diff yet, but I’ll suggest that on the documentation mailing list.

    Here’s what I do. wordpress.vanilla/ is an unaltered wordpress checkout. wordpress/ has my changes.
    > diff -urN --exclude-from=wpexcludes wordpress.vanilla/ wordpress/
    That creates a unified diff across the entire tree. wpexcludes lists files to exclude from the diff. Here is its contents.
    CVS
    *.save
    *~
    *.old
    *.bak
    *.diff
    .#*

    Thread Starter shelleyp

    (@shelleyp)

    I know how to generate a diff, thanks. That wasn’t the point.
    Not a problem — I’ll write whatever and people can use whatever. End of story.
    WillM, you are not winning fans for WordPress.

    Why is everyone attacking everyone? We are here to work together, the very definition of a community. Shelleyp, There is no reason for you to feel your intelligence was insulted. Rboren was simply responding to allusion’s post.

    Anonymous:When will the 1.2 version be out?

    WillM:I wish people would stop asking when 1.2 is due.

    This is the first time I’ve seen someone ask when it was due, or maybe it was the first time I noticed because you said something about it. Regardless, it is a legitimate question considering the original poster was asking if he should wait for 1.2 to be released before he starts making hacks/plugins. Time is the question here.
    I run WordPress 1.2 alphia build 4 (nightly 20040419 I think). I had a few problems when I installed it but they were quickly fixed. I’ve been neglecting my site as of late because I’ve been playing Final Fantasy 3 though. IMO, I think you should document now, because if you code now and don’t document, when 1.2 official release finally arrives (not that I’m anxious for it), you may have a hard time implementing them into plugins. All hacks I have on my website (about 6 PHP hacks, about 5 JavaScript hacks) were completely compatible with the current 1.2 version I use.

    @mark: yes, and Matt chose not to answer that orginal question. Anon went on to ask it again even though it was already clear that it was not going to get the answer he wanted. I thought that explaining why there wasn’t going to be an answer would be better than leaving it hanging. If it had been a legitimate query rather than someone trying to cause trouble by asking awkward questions, I highly doubt it would have been posted anonymously.

    Yeah, subtlety tends to get lost on this board 😉 If Mark really wants to work together as a community perhaps he should refrain from posting offtopic swipes at other people.

    Thread Starter shelleyp

    (@shelleyp)

    WillM, you caught my earlier message before deleting. I thought it was irritated, which is why I deleted it — something about being chastized does that to me. However, I need to add in the bits that your comment is a reply to.
    I asked in it who Mark was and why he felt compelled to jump in when I was talking to Matt and WillM. I also mentioned that how to use CVS wasn’t the point of what I was trying to say, but I think I was being too subtle.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)
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