Poll

why can't you remove polls????

This is just here because it has to be
0 (0%)
This too
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 0

Author Topic: BlockParty - upcoming website for managing and participating in Blockland clans  (Read 8929 times)

BlockParty
Even though I said I'll probably stick with this, if you do think of a nice name, feel free to mention it.


What is it?
It's not really much, right now. But it will be a website that should make it easier for people who own Blockland clans, or are in them, to manage these clans, participate in them, and apply for them.

Wanna help me out?
The best way for you to help is by giving input. If you'd like to do anything from just voting in the polls here to suggesting features you want to see, please do. This is for the community, so the community being part of its development is really important to me.

If you wanna contact me privately, use steam or telegram:
Steam: Foxscotch
Telegram: @foxscotch
Private messages on the forum are also an option, though I'd prefer one of the others.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2016, 01:40:22 PM by Foxscotch »


I would absolutely love for this to exist.

ok so, I'm not gonna use PHP
I don't really have the patience for it, honestly! I kinda hate using it, even though it's very convenient at times. and I definitely don't wanna spend months (years???) working on and maintaining a site written by me in PHP
so I'm gonna use Python instead. even though I don't like the way it looks, it performs better than both Ruby and PHP, and doesn't have all the issues PHP does
the downside to this is that I don't already know Python. the good news about that is it shouldn't take longer than a week to learn it

(I was thinking about using Node.js for it, but I soon discovered that it was really generalized, and I couldn't find any kind of good web framework for it, so I chose Python instead)

anyway, it's time to hopefully get some input!
here's the non-functional mockup I talked about in the previous thread




if it looks familiar or generic, that's because I made heavy use of a pre-made bootstrap template
the input I'm looking for is about that. do you want me to just keep using this, or make something more original of my own?? I'm still using bootstrap either way, but I could end up with something that might look better if I actually put some time into it

I guess while I'm here anyway I'll post an update for this too. it's taking a little longer than I expected to learn Python, but I've almost got it! it's mostly because I have a bad internet connection, which Codecademy doesn't seem to handle well, but it's still the most convenient way to learn it. I'm pretty sure I'll actually get finished with what they cover today! then I need to learn to use Django, which is the web framework I decided to use, but most of that's gonna be learned while actually working on the site so it shouldn't really add much of a delay

I also decided that I'm just gonna use the templates. despite there not being many votes in the poll, that option is still in the lead, and it's also the easiest route for me which is nice
I'm leaving the poll there, but that's only because I don't have any other question to ask yet. unless the second option suddenly becomes absurdly popular for some reason, I'm going to stick with the templates
« Last Edit: February 04, 2015, 01:18:42 PM by Foxscotch »

How's it going right now?

Also, bump.

How's it going right now?
Also, bump.
thanks for bumping it! I almost had to post three times in a row
I've updated the OP a LOT. hopefully the new title and layout will make it seem more appealing

as for your question, I did finish learning Python, and I've already gotten started figuring out Django. it's very different from the way PHP is used, and that's the only server-side language I'd used before, so there's a bit of a learning curve, but it'll be worth it. I spent the past weekend at my dad's house, and he doesn't have an internet connection yet (he just moved), so I didn't get anything done the past few days :P
hopefully I'll have something more functional to talk about in a couple of days, and I'll be able to begin posting more regular updates! that should be nice

so I'm gonna use Python instead. even though I don't like the way it looks, it performs better than both Ruby and PHP

If performance is the priority and you're set on scripting languages then Lua is the only option

(I was thinking about using Node.js for it, but I soon discovered that it was really generalized, and I couldn't find any kind of good web framework for it, so I chose Python instead)

express.js?

snip
is there a website yet? or do you REALLY need a domain?

If performance is the priority and you're set on scripting languages then Lua is the only option
performance isn't the priority, it was just the reason for choosing Python over Ruby
if performance was my only concern, I never would've switched from PHP
express.js?
okay, "I couldn't find any web framework that I liked for it" may be more accurate
is there a website yet? or do you REALLY need a domain?
well, there's no website you can visit yet. I mean, I think I hosted the mockups on my domain before, with my old host, but I've since switched to using my friend's VPS for it and I haven't moved those yet. I probably won't at all. not that it matters, because they weren't functional
I don't really need a domain though, I said that I already have my own. I also said in parentheses that I only wanted a domain name for it, which I was hoping would imply that I was kidding about needing one. I even gave an example of what the subdomain I'll use for it will look like
there's just nothing to look at currently
« Last Edit: February 17, 2015, 09:33:47 AM by Foxscotch »

I spent another weekend at my dad's, and he still doesn't have internet, but this time I had the forethought to download the Python and Django documentation before leaving my house, so I just put that on my laptop and took it with me
I finished the Django "polls" app tutorial, which helped a lot, with stuff like models and what's different from PHP
and I even got started on THIS actual thing, too
but I did run into a bit of a problem with the models (models are like, a tool that Django has to make databases a lot easier to use and maintain. plus, you don't have to deal with SQL)

this is what they look like right now:

class Clan(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    members = models.ManyToManyField(User)
    blf_topic = models.URLField(max_length=200)

class Announcement(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=200)
    content = models.CharField(max_length=2500)
    date = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
    author = models.ManyToManyField(User)


I removed some stuff from the code, like imports, because they aren't really important for this
that probably doesn't mean anything to most of you, but it represents the database tables and columns and all that. here's a possibly-clearer version of what that's for:

Clan:
Name:Name of the clan
Members:A set of users for the people who are in the clan
BLF Topic:    Link to the forum topic for the clan
Announcement:
Title:Title of the announcement
Content:    Content of the announcement
Date:Date and time for when the announcement was made
Author:User who wrote the announcement

obviously a lot of database stuff is missing. I'm just doing it one part at a time, making sure it works, then going on to the next. maybe I should make everything all at once and then start testing? (edit: yeah I'll do that)
anyway, the problem I mentioned is with the author field. it's almost exactly the same as the members field in the clan model, which works fine, but in the announcement it gives me errors for some reason. it honestly shouldn't even be a ManyToManyField, but I had more luck with that one than ForeignKey, which I couldn't even get to work when I tried to make an "owner" field for the clan model
I'll figure something out, hopefully
« Last Edit: February 17, 2015, 10:46:09 AM by Foxscotch »

Sweet, the website looks modern. I like it

once again I need some answers!
there are going to be announcements for clans, but the way I've listed the feature in the OP is mostly outdated now

so the question here is, how do you want announcements to work?
right now, the way that I personally like the most is an announcement feature that has a setting for "type," rather than "urgency" like I was considering previously
in this case, there would be four different settings: normal, important, public, and public/important. the normal and important types would only be seen by clan members, while public and public/important would be seen by anyone who went to the clan page. additionally, both "important" types, when you made the announcement, would send an email to members of the clan, assuming they had a setting enabled that will determine whether or not they'll receive automated emails
the purpose for having non-public announcements isn't necessarily for secrecy, it's just there because otherwise the public clan profile might get cluttered by things that are kind of irrelevant to the non-members looking at it, like scheduled clan meetings or something, while things like finished projects would belong in the public profile, because that is probably the sort of thing that is important to them
it does, however, have the side effect of allowing secret things, like surprise projects or whatever

but wynd fox suggested the solution to the clutter problem be a filter instead of them simply not being shown at all, and a non-member could choose to see all announcements if they changed the filter. the reason for that being, if people were given the option to have both private and public things, people would only use the private one for things that are actually supposed to be secrets, while still posting meetings and stuff as public announcements, therefore defeating the initial purpose of having public and private announcements in the first place

aaand there may be a third option, that is a compromise between the two. I'm not sure how exactly it would work, but maybe there would be normal ones, public ones, and secret ones? I don't really know if that would solve the problems, but maybe

so which one sounds the best? I'll make a poll for it

also, by the way, I got the ManyToMany and ForeignKey fields working! so on a technical level everything's going pretty well, right now
« Last Edit: February 18, 2015, 08:09:05 AM by Foxscotch »

apparently everyone (four people. but I mean, only four people voted, so...) wants the first option in the poll, so I guess that's what I'll use
anyway, I haven't been super busy the past few days because I've been at my dad's a lot, but I did make something that does the same thing that this does, but using python and django instead of php
it's proven a little difficult to get django working on my friend's VPS (everything I can find about it is for servers that will only be hosting one site, but there are three on this. apache is being a bother, and there are other issues like python having trouble finding the django module), but whenever we solve our problems you'll be able to use it. it doesn't do anything special right now, though, it just gives you your ID if you put in your username and it matches your IP and username in the master server. it's not that interesting

if you want to see the source code for some reason, it's here (readme.md might be useful even if you don't care about the source code)
https://github.com/foxscotch/test-bl-auth
if you're familiar with django, testauth is the project name, and test_bl_auth is the app's name. if you're not, that probably doesn't mean much to you anyway