Archived:Summer of Code 2009 Project Ideas

Welcome!

Welcome to the Joomla! Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2009 project ideas page. As we move forward with the 2009 version of the Joomla! GSoC, we will use this page to develop possible project ideas. Please note that anyone who is interested can participate in this process. You do not have to be a GSoC student or mentor to suggest possible project ideas. Thanks!

Ideas

Advanced Poll/Survey Suite

The core polls extension has been removed from Joomla! 1.6. Develop a fully featured poll/survey suite that will allow relatively simple user polls and the collection of complex anonymized survey data authenticated against either the Joomla users database or an external database.

Full Frontend Editing

Right now we only have frontend editing for articles, there are a few improvements I can propose

• Article editing is done in a modal popup
• Edit module content and params from frontend (Editing done via a modal popup?)
• Article Title - edit in place
• Create some kind of a library function which allows easy frontend editing for any value (This will need some thought)

Template Manager Improvements/Advanced Template Manager

Extend the template manager so that it providers an better environment for template creation and modification. Improvements might include:

• expanded tool bar, including copy for a complete template
• access to the media manager
• access to all template files (not just css and index.php)
• override manager
• integration of an editor with code highlighting (such as codepress)
• support for template parameter groups
• remove hard-wired references to template name from the core templates (so the new copy function will work as expected)
• "export" button on the toolbar which will create a zip package file containing the template (also fixes any errors in the templateDetails.xml file as it goes).

Work Flow Extension

Create a 1.6 Extension to flexibly manage workflow for com_content. Ideally it should be extensible to other components, but com_content should be used as the proof of concept. Work flow should manage the publication process, including assignment of editors or publishers to specific content items, notifications of relevant actions to specific individuals or groups, change of status to block author editing of published work.

As much as possible administrators should be able to construct their own work flows.

Page Versioning Extension

Create a 1.6 content versioning extension with the goal that this work could be integrated into the core Joomla CMS for future releases. The Page Versioning Extension will allow the ability for frontend and backend content users to be able to save and re-publish/revert previously saved versions of content items that they have access to.

Further user permissions could be introduced in order to restrict access to this overall feature.

Features could include a visual and html code difference between the current and previously saved versions, as well as general searching data such as dates and time of previous saved entries of that content.

Taxonomy Extension

Create a 1.6 Taxonomy extension with the goal that this work could be integrated into the core Joomla CMS for future releases. The Taxonomy Extension will allow the ability to organise content for classification, improving on the current Section and Categories classification.

Taxonomy is a vital feature of modern CMS solutions, evolving from the previous "pigeonholeing" of a content item. Full organisational structures and multi tagging of content could be included, including powerful search functions of content under those classifications.

Taxonomy is a missing feature in Joomla!, which another open-source competitor product currently offers. We have seen a number of opportunities when Joomla! misses out on being the chosen option for a CMS due to the lacking of this feature.

Keywords Management Extension

Keywords in articles are an important part of many Joomla! sites. They are used for page rankings but also can be used with Related Articles modules and component extensions. In this capacity, they provide a way to relate articles that is much more flexible and free-form than the built-in Section / Category / Article hierarchy.

Currently in Joomla!, keywords are entered when editing each individual article. This has several disadvantages, including:

• You cannot see already existing keywords when entering in keywords for an article.
• You cannot see existing articles that are already associated with a keyword.
• It is difficult to be consistent when using keywords. For example, should it be capitalized, singular or plural ("Dog" or "Dogs"), and so on.

To deal with these issues, a back-end Keyword Management extension is proposed. This extension would allow the following capabilities:

• A management screen showing a list of all keywords currently in use. This would provide the ability to drill into any keyword and see all articles that use this keyword.
• A keyword picker screen. This would allow an author to pick keywords for an article from a list of existing keywords. This would make it easier to ensure consistency in spelling, capitalization, and usage between keywords. This screen would also allow the author to add a new keyword to the list.