Tuesday March 23, 2004

Authentication, Commenting, FOAF, and Trackback

Okay, that's a lot of feature to cram into one title. This is mostly just one of those "reminder posts": I thought I'd blogged about SharedID before, but couldn't find it in my archive. Anyhoo, while reading Burningbird's indictment of TypeKey I remembered SharedID (but couldn't remember the name). She's absolutely correct, and SharedID has the same problem.

I'm sure somebody has suggested this already, but what if we (weblog server software writers "we") all supported something akin to Trackback but using FOAF identifiers for Comment "authentication". Wait, there's more. By using a FOAF "key" the Comment server could post the comment back to the user's server where the comment could be logged (thus supplying the "where have I commented?" feature that so many people seem to want). Yep, FOAF is as open to spoofing and identity theft as many other suggested "identity solutions"; the suggestion here is less about authentication (though that component is there) than about a new kind of service.

Okay, I *know* something like this has been suggested before but I can't track it down. Dear readers, please provide links. Thanks.

Later: In browsing and reading wider I see there was a roll of chat on this topic last summer. Of course, no resolution was found (perhaps TypeKey is that resolution?).
( Mar 23 2004, 11:04:44 AM ) Technology Permalink [Link]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/authentication_commenting_foaf_and_trackback

I18N, Velocity, and Tools

Recently a user asked for help making his JRoller blog display some template text in Tamil (a language in southern India). My suggestion should work (though he says it isn't working) - but is really just a hack. Matt's suggestion would be a definate improvement, but isn't quite what I had in mind. And so I finally discovered MultiViewsTool from the Velocity Tools project. Doing it this way is probably more duplication than using a resource bundle (okay, it is duplicating the layout), I've just never been comfortable with how resource bundles work (in regards to rendering web interfaces).

I've been watching the Velocity Tools for a while, but didn't really see many solutions that I hadn't already implemented for myself (and some of mine are better, such as my Locale-ized time formatting). Now today I see several new (to me) tools that I *really* like! Such as the VelocityLayoutServlet which may provide just the solution I've been looking for to implement some improvements to Roller. In fact, I think several of the less publicized tools may be improvements over Roller's roll-your-own implementations. Soon I will look into migrating Roller to Velocity 1.4 and the Tools project.
( Mar 23 2004, 10:54:37 AM ) Technology Permalink Comments [2]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/i18n_velocity_and_tools

What exactly is an ETag?

I've been tasked (mainly by myself) with creating ETag support in Roller. It all seems plain enough, works similar to the LastModified headers, blah blah blah. But I can't find any description of what an ETag should look like. Yeah, I can mine other sites for ETags, but that doesn't *describe* it to me. The relevant HTTP spec is speechless on the format.

And on pages such as Roller generates, it is tricky to know when the Etag should change: the user could modify their published bookmarks, the referers list is continually updated, comment counts change.... Should I just generate a hash of the rendered page and stuff it into the Etag header? How do I know when an Etag header sent back to Roller is invalid? Surely you wouldn't want Roller to render the page again, hash it again, then compare the hash to the etag; what would be the point? Should I just regenerate the hash every half-hour, or whenever the user makes a new post (we currently invalidate the cache on certain events such as new posts, as just one example)?

Perhaps I'm entirely the wrong guy for this job, I've certainly got more questions than answers. Over the years I thought I'd built up a pretty good knowledge of web technology, but somehow Etag has me stymied.
( Mar 23 2004, 09:52:09 AM ) Technology Permalink Comments [3] [Link]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/what_exactly_is_an_etag

Are your kids fat?

Mine aren't, in fact they are rather scrawny. But that doesn't mean I support our schools eliminating physical education! What's next, recess?! Our kids need a chance to run around and get the energy out of their bodies, to unwind a little bit (are your kids stressed out, like one of mine?). And PE (or phy-ed if you're a Minnesotan) isn't just about dodgeball, it's also actually about physical-education: learning about your body and how to live healthy.

But schools have to cut something, as the state and federal governments continue to trim what they spend ("No Child Left Behind"? More like "No Child Gets Ahead"). School administrators face tough decisions, no doubt, but this is a bad one. Also, next year my oldest enters middle-school and will have to choose between Computer classes and Band. She loves music AND computers, but the school can't afford to offer both to all students.

Meanwhile I heard on the radio that some school district (St. Paul?) spent $80 million on "multicultural art". Pluralism is good, tolerance is good; but where are their priorities?!
( Mar 23 2004, 08:42:26 AM ) Personal Permalink Comments [1]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/are_your_kids_fat

Sunday March 14, 2004

Re: Finishing What I Started, Redux. In my quest to tie up the loose ends I've left lying about, I finally completed the Plugin user UI I've been debating (internally). Now the user can choose from a list of Plugins for each Entry. Furthermore, the user can decide which ones are selected by default. One last bit I want to add is some popups or slide-ins to tell the user what each Plugin does. I've got to find some proper Javascript and/or CSS to make this look nice, and write up what the user reads. Then I'll finally have this truly done.
( Mar 14 2004, 08:55:21 PM ) Roller Permalink [Link]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/re_finishing_what_i_started1

Friday March 12, 2004

Re: cross-user display problem

I figured out (and fixed) this particular problem, but it isn't quite the same as what has been reported in the past. Separately I've fixed the issue Merrick reported (which really is a 'usability bug' more than anything), which *may* have the side-benefit of fixing the previously reported problem.
( Mar 12 2004, 01:06:15 PM ) Roller Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/re_cross_user_display_problem

Thursday March 11, 2004

weird shit or "cross-user display".

It finally happened. For a long time now we've gotten the occasional complaint/bug/note that a user looked at another Roller blog, logged in, and ended up looking at the other blog's content in their own Weblog page. And it finally happened to me while entering a comment on Bruce's Denver JUG post. And I'm able to reproduce it by going to enter a Comment (while logged in) and clicking Preview rather than Post.

Investigation will proceed ASAP now that I can reproduce this behaviour!
( Mar 11 2004, 09:34:08 AM ) Roller Permalink Comments [2]
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/weird_shit

Wednesday March 10, 2004

Re: Finishing what I started. I just checked in the final pieces for Comment Spam Blacklisting. Next is the real challenge, a suitable UI for selecting PagePlugins.
( Mar 10 2004, 08:30:11 PM ) Roller Permalink
Trackback: http://www.brainopolis.com/roller/trackback/lance/Weblog/re_finishing_what_i_started