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[PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news

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[PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news
This thread will contain news about the development state of the Advanced Link Expirator (ALE) plugin. This plugin will have to do the task to expire several links from database, based on different criterias.

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Webmaster33


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Last edited by:

webmaster33: Sep 2, 2002, 1:31 AM
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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
What does your plugin do?

Ivan
-----
Iyengar Yoga Resources / GT Plugins
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Re: [yogi] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Just a moment. Still editing the post. Will submit soon.

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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) (Expire links) short info:

Related threads: Link Expiration, Expirator, Expirator Expiration Mod, Webmaster33's under development or planned plugins, etc.

Description: Adds a new feature to be able to expire links in Links SQL.

Features planned: several Expiration types (day, start-end date, etc.), Expiration checking in several ways (event based, cron based), expire links selected categories, set some links to "never expire", e-mail notification X days before link expiration, e-mail notification when link expired, task after link expiration (delete, put on-hold, etc.), Re-activate expired link option, etc...
You can check detailed list of planned features in next post.

Development status: development just started

Licence: commercial


Suggestions, comments, questions are welcome.
Please read the Related threads before asking, suggesting, or commenting! These threads contains a lot of useful info, what I do not want to repost here.

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Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
The following Feature list contains those features, I plan to implement into the later versions of my Advanced Link Expirator (ALE) plugin.

"Thinking about this plugin on a funny way, we can say, the ALE (an English beer type) is expiring away from your mind, until tomorrow" Wink. Paul in England may like this joke Smile


Summary of Requested & Planned features of the Advanced Link Expirator (ALE) plugin:
1) Expiration types:
. . . a. Number of days (expire after X days)
. . . . . . I) expiration start date (Exp_date_start) field is filled (when to start expiration)
. . . . . . II) expiration days (Exp_days) field is filled (after X days to expire)
. . . b. Expire by Date (expire on date 2002.03.30)
. . . . . . I) expiration start date (Exp_date_start) field is left blank
. . . . . . II) expiration end date (Exp_date_end) field is filled (when to expire the link)
. . . c. Valid within date interval, then expire (2002.02.01-2002.03.01):
. . . . . . I) expiration start date (Exp_date_start) field is filled (when to start expiration)
. . . . . . II) expiration end date (Exp_date_end) field is filled (when to expire the link)
. . . d. After displaying X times
. . . . . . I) expiration after X display times (Exp_disp_num) field is filled
. . . e. After having X hits (clicks) on link with jump.cgi
. . . . . . I) expiration after X hits (Exp_hit_num) field is filled
2) Expiration checking could be activated several ways (advantages are +, disadvantages are -):
. . . a) Form submit event based expiration checking
. . . . . . + works for Dynamic & Static mode
. . . . . . + faster page display, especially in Static mode (only by comparing to option b.)
. . . . . . + does not take much server resources in full Dynamic mode, when adding, modifying, deleting links
. . . . . . - used form submit events: link Add, Modify, Delete
. . . . . . - may be very slow link adding, modifying, deleting
. . . . . . - takes very much server resources in full Static mode, when adding, modifying, deleting links (for many minutes, depending on rebuild time of changed pages)
. . . . . . - may be very inaccurate for sites with low traffic, because there will be many lately expired links
. . . b) Page display event based expiration checking
. . . . . . + accurate link expiration
. . . . . . - works only in Dynamic mode
. . . . . . - page display is slower (comparing to the case, when no expiration is done)
. . . . . . - takes a bit more server resources, when displaying a page
. . . c) Crontab based expiration checking
. . . . . . + very scalable solution
. . . . . . + works for Dynamic & Static mode
. . . . . . + is as much accurate as often the expiration checking is often done (the more often is more accurate)
. . . . . . + expiration checking interval could be set by the user
. . . . . . + does not take much server resources in full Dynamic mode
. . . . . . - takes much server resources in full Static mode, for each check (each check can even last for minutes, depending on last rebuild time of changed pages, and on amount of pages to rebuild)
. . . . . . - each expiration checking process should have enough time to finish page rebuild job. If 2 expiration checking process job overlaps themself the server may become unstable
3) feature to select categories, where to expire links
4) feature to set some links to "never expire" (if no expiration start date and no expiration end date is set for the link, then it will not expire)
5) e-mail notification X days before the link will be expired (might be improved later to be a periodic Reminder feature)
6) e-mail notification when the link expired
7) On link expiration:
. . . a) delete the link
. . . b) just put "on Hold", and do not display it. The link can be Re-activated by the user anytime.
. . . c) move to Expired DB table and delete from there after X days (look at 8.a point). The link can be Re-activated by the user within this second expire time.
8) Re-activate option: the user can be Re-activate those links, which was inactivated in 7.b or 7.c.
. . . a) keep for X days (in other words, Re-activation is possible within X days)


Please note:
- it is very likely, that the first v1.0 version will contain only a few features of those listed above
- the remaining features will be implemented in later versions.
- altought I got the suggested features into the list, it does not mean, that the feature can be developed into the plugin. All these development problems will appear only when I start the real development.
- the development was just started, the release date is unknown at this time, and it is not scheduled (while I'm developing the LSQL plugins in my free time, I have to do my studies...).

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Are you sure you aren't taking on too much here?....I have a bad feeling you are....what about this other gigantic plugin you are making?.....do you really have time to make this one too?.....I mean you've already said the other won't be ready for months, so aren't these threads a bit premature?

Last edited by:

Paul: Sep 2, 2002, 2:38 AM
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Re: [Paul] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Yes, I understand your feeling.

Just for your info, I already almost finished the base of those 2 plugins I was already working on (XLD and XAMD plugins). All the features are already working, options are working too, and are available through the plugin registry (currently), and can be changed. Those plugins are very configurable, altought I will still have a lot work on it.
I still have to do: code cleaning, admin interface to change the options, installer.pm.

Yes, ALE will be a big job, I know. But as I wrote, only the basic functions will be implemented in v1.0.
I was hesitating, if I should publish or not, that I started to work on it. I did not want to publish the news, because I'm really at the beginning of the development.

Howvever, I got several email requests from people, who are asking if the expirator development was started or not. Therefore I decided, to publish that the development was started, into a new thread, and I also collected those features and expiration related thread links. This way all who are interested, can find all other discussions about expiration subject.

I hope it was not a bad decision, that I started this news thread about my plugin development. The people who will read, will decide this. Originally, it was intended to be a rarely freshed news thread about my plugin development, and not a discussion about it.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Howz the Expirator coming along?

Just checkin in..... Smile

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Re: [DogTags] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
The development of the projects has been stopped for a few weeks, because of my studies. I will also need to so some serious data backups and hardware upgrade, which may defer the developments.
Probably next week or after, I will be able to continue the developments.

As you may saw, I separated a subdomain for Links related stuff. It has not any contents yet, but I will fill it as there will be some material to put out there.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Okay, thanks Smile

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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Regarding the ALE project - what's the status, is the project still alive? Please say yes, I am really looking forward to this plugin Smile

Rgds
Erikko
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Re: [Erikko] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Yes, the project is still alive. Smile

But temporarily I had to pause the development multiple times because of 3 reasons:
1) I have to do my studies in the meanwhile, so the development is done only in my free time.

2) I had to write a Links 2.0 Nonenglish converter plugin to be able to convert the Nonenglish category data for usage in LinksSQL.

3) Having strange perl process lockups when using Links SQL, when I turn debugging to level 1 or 2. I have to find the origin of this strange error, before I can continue the ALE plugin development. It is very difficult to develop if the debugging option is not possible to use...
I just try to find out, if this is my bug or something else... Just setting up clean installs to find out the problem...

So the plugin development is still under work, just having some problems what will be hopefully solved soon.

Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Just checking up on you, webmaster33 Smile

BTW, what do you think you'll be charging for this?

Cheers!

Go Eagles!!

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Last edited by:

DogTags: Jan 19, 2003, 8:47 AM
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Re: [DogTags] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
At the moment working actively on Advanced Link Expirator (ALE) plugin.
I like it.Cool It will be full with user changeable options.

Quote:
BTW, what do you think you'll be charging for this?
Well, yeah, the price. I was thinking a lot on the price.
As you may know, originally I planned a relatively cheap price between fifty and one hundred dollars. This would be a fair price, and would make the plugin potentially reachable to hundreds of users.
However, I want quality support for all users, so I decided to sell less on higher price with quality support, than to sell a lot on cheap price with poor support.

So likely it is a bad news, that it will not be a cheap plugin.Frown But will make possible quality support.
The price was decided already, however it will be only published, when the plugin is finished and works as I imagined and expected.

When the plugin comes close to finish, I will make the beta version available to 2-3 buyers, who will get discount from the price in exchange for the beta testing, and get the final release, too.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Keep us posted Smile

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Re: [webmaster33] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Is this plugin still being developed? What's the status?

Thanks Smile

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Re: [DogTags] [PLUGIN] Advanced Link Expirator plugin (ALE) development news In reply to
Now I have some custom jobs I have to finish, also doing my homepage developments, then learning for September exams.

The truth is that my latest homepage developments can do more income, than I could reach by selling my developed plugins. Therefore public plugin releases has lower priority than my homepage developments.

Now about the plugin:
The Advanced Link Expirator plugin development is not forgotten, just paused until I will have some free time again. I would be also glad to finish the ALE plugin, and install onto my site, but there are more important things to do now.

Best regards,
Webmaster33


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