19962013
Bi-weekly Update, Weeks 20-21
CFS
Deployment team completed a review of the updated business requirements which now includes- API-based Transaction Search Capability
- Drill-Down Views of Transaction History.
- Invoicing assistance pages
- Mail messaging, with customized message templates.
Blogware
Blogware Prototype v2.0 was released on 05/23/03 - as per the original schedule, making up the two days lost on the PV1 schedule. This release included several new features per above and fixed a substantial number of bugs. The bulk of the effort was spent largely on photoblog support and associated functionality. We added support for other media types, but this release only exposes support for photographs. In supporting photoblogs and the different types which might be needed (album on one page, slide, others we have not thought of yet) we changed the way articles are displayed (or not) in superior categories after posting. This can now be set by the publisher on a granular basis. In addition to new category/posting management we are supporting various types of upload and image manipulation. When uploading an image you can specify the resize dimension of the original photo and the thumb (if desired) dimension. One can also upload a zip file of images and set a default resize (based on the longest edge) for all of the images. There are options to rotate the image, etc. This can always be added to from a functionality standpoint but we covered what appeared to be the most common requirements. We have also set the stage for many default settings which are chosen for the user and which can be over-ridden at post time. This allows for those using external XML-RPC clients to post in their desired manner, even while their client may not support that feature directly.Grand River
On-hold. No resources currently allocated. Paul Sisson completed the SIP/XMPP interoperability testing and was re-reassigned to Name Server Monitor for the period of May 19 & 20th.Name Server Monitor
Paul Sisson was assigned to PdM via IR to assist with the Name Server Monitor migration project. This project is taking substantially longer than was initially planned for due to several delays along the way related to system provisioning, system set-up & environment, changing requirements and others. Previous ETC was May 20th which was subsequently revised to May 22nd and eventually May 23rd. None of these dates were met and there is no current ETC. Greg Frank is attempting to determine when the project will be completed based on current state. I have proposed that if we are not in a strong position to complete the project mid-week, that the resources be re-assigned pending a re-prioritization of the business requirements.eMail Archiving - new
Pending. No resources allocated. General description: real-time email archiving via webservice/existing SMTP architecture. There have been preliminary conversations regarding architecture, utility and business model. May be rolled into or subsume Skybox functionality.Skybox - new
Pending. No resources allocated. General Description: real-time "in the cloud" backup services via web services API. There have been preliminary conversations regarding utility and business model. May or may not be pursued pending further discussion.Platform Issues - new
We're faced with a bit of a dilemma that we're trying to sort out. We need to get out prototypes into the platform in a low-impact manner so that we can start churning revenue (or at least try). Problem is that the current platform does not easily facilitate this. The proposed platform deals with this conceptually, but there are no deployment specifics that we can rely on at this point. We are looking at this problem on a number of levels and will communicate a formal plan once we have gathered all the necessary information. Vlad is leading the technical aspects of the analysis and Ross is handling the rest. Anyone willing to discuss potential options or assist with this evaluation should contact me directly.Staff Assignments
- Darryl Green - CFS
- Brad Hilton - Blogware development, on loan from VPOP
- Vlad Jebelev - CFS development
- Joe McDonald - On loan to VPOP until Brad has completed his development
- Tom McDonald - Half-time. Blogware development management, NSM development management
- Paul Sisson - NSM.
- Ross Rader - Blogware, Platform integration
See this post as it first appeared on Blogware.