[Zudane]

I wanted to find out if something could be made for this... I don't think it'd be anything major, but just a portal interface where we can put in quotes and authors, either as large textbox, or input boxes for each quote with matching author, though the textbox would probably be easier.

And then something to randomly choose a quote on each page load, which would be pretty easy to set-up.  I've got a javascript bit to do this, but adding quotes to it is a real hassle, so something easier would be nice.

[admin (no pm's please)]

It would be a very easy portal to write.

My only questions would be generality.

e.g. with the RECIPE database idea we don't do a RECIPE portal, we do a catalog portal allowing the PORTAL to be given the terms it needs to deal in. e.g. you can make it have "Cuisine", "Time" etc as its parameters.

A quote portal is almost the same as a CATALOG portal, but without any associated post. In fact we could do your random quote idea with the CATALOG portal right now! the only issue being that you'd need to have a forum topic for each quote. Whereas for what you are suggesting it would be better to not have associated posts.

This leaves 4 ways forward:

1) A straightforward quotes portal that makes no attempt to generalize the issue.
2) Make the CATALOG portal more flexible in that you would be able to make entries without associated forum topics.
3) A new portal similar to the CATALOG portal that does the job.
4) Run with what we have got and which works. e.g. you use the CATALOG portal and create a hidden forum where you write the quotes as topics.

Off these ways forward I am strongly inclined at first examination to reject option 2. It would just make a confusing mess out of both old and new tasks.

[Zudane]

1 sounds good, 2 sounds too complicated in the end, 3 doesn't sound too bad, and 4 doesn't work since catalogs aren't set for phpbb3 yet.

[admin (no pm's please)]

4 does work as well as any other option as the CATALOG portal is just waiting to go in to phpbb3.

[Zudane]

I just meant it's not in yet.  But it does make things a lot easier to add quotes.

But would the catalog portal be able to show the quotes randomly in a small space, or would it take up a lot of space?

[admin (no pm's please)]

A random display is a trivial thing. Already the CATALOGDISPLAY portal is seperate from the CATALOG portal itself and if the CATALOGDISPLAY portal did not handle small random displays it would be easy to write a new portal that would.

But as I say we do need to figure out if this is time for a clean portal dedicated to this and similar tasks or whether we would make more of the CATALOG portal? I am not at all clear there, it is not resolving to an easy conclusion, unlike the WIKI idea that is steaming ahead.

[Zudane]

I am thinking a new portal would be good, a large text box, one quote per line showing exactly how it's typed.

Then it could be used for quotes, facts, tips, anything people want displayed.

Could even throw in a refresh rate, like how often to show a new quote.  Like should it be every refresh, or keep the same quote up for 10 minutes, or something.

[admin (no pm's please)]

I think it would be whole lot of input boxes, e.g. for a quote system two boxes per quote one for the author, one for the quote.

Try and think beyond just quotes here, for example what about a contacts database? That is not one for random display but it is similar in other ways.

[Zudane]

Well, perhaps the input boxes could be done dynamically, with a dropdown box for a set amount, perhaps like 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000?

And could set options for displaying one randomly or all of them for just a list display?

What do you mean by contacts?

[admin (no pm's please)]

I have a feeling we are at cross purposes here. It is a bit of a shame you can't see the CATALOG portal as it might make in plainer.

[Zudane]

What I was looking for is something that can be simply used for a random quote to be shown on the page, for example, just under the header on the main page: http://harsh-reality.net/

Just text only, it's rather simple, but it's major pain to add in more.

[admin (no pm's please)]

I understand what you want, and I know it is rather simple. But the portal system has worked well by virtue of making the system as general as possible, and that poses questions here that I am as yet unsure about the answers on.