Don't know really where to post it...

How can I submit a link in the povray.org link list ? How can I report
broken links ?

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Mr Seb wrote:
> Don't know really where to post it...
> 
> How can I submit a link in the povray.org link list ? How can I report
> broken links ?

at the moment, neither really ... the links DB isn't really being maintained
at the moment (and nor has it for some time).

if I could get together a number of volunteers willing to audit it then I'd
set up a front-end that would allow them to do so, once I had time.

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On Tue, 02 May 2006 01:11:48 +1000, Chris Cason wrote:

> if I could get together a number of volunteers willing to audit it then
> I'd set up a front-end that would allow them to do so, once I had time.

It'd be fairly easy to set up ht://check to do the audit work - I'd
probably have some time this week to set it up and run a report on the
links and make it available if that would be useful.

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> It'd be fairly easy to set up ht://check to do the audit work - I'd
> probably have some time this week to set it up and run a report on the
> links and make it available if that would be useful.

An automatic audit does not get you anywhere. In fact, we do that already, 
and always have. It is trivial to automate.

The *work* is fixing the links, meaning to track down the new location. Not 
to mention add new resources that have since appeared. This absolutely 
requires a human.

	Thorsten

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On Mon, 01 May 2006 13:20:34 -0500, Thorsten Froehlich wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> It'd be fairly easy to set up ht://check to do the audit work - I'd
>> probably have some time this week to set it up and run a report on the
>> links and make it available if that would be useful.
> 
> An automatic audit does not get you anywhere. In fact, we do that already,
> and always have. It is trivial to automate.
> 
> The *work* is fixing the links, meaning to track down the new location.
> Not to mention add new resources that have since appeared. This absolutely
> requires a human.

Well, sure - Chris had indicated audit was a needed part, so that's what I
was suggesting.  You're right that it's trivial to automate - that's why
when I saw Chris' message, I was somewhat surprised that it wasn't already
audited.

Jim

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"Chris Cason" <del### [at] deletethistoopovrayorg> wrote in 
message news:445624bb@news.povray.org...
> Mr Seb wrote:
>> Don't know really where to post it...
>>
>> How can I submit a link in the povray.org link list ? How can I report
>> broken links ?
>
> at the moment, neither really ... the links DB isn't really being 
> maintained
> at the moment (and nor has it for some time).
>
> if I could get together a number of volunteers willing to audit it then 
> I'd
> set up a front-end that would allow them to do so, once I had time.

Hi Guys,

Would it be practical to dump the list to a flat file that could be updated 
and subsequently loaded back into the database (e.g. XML or CSV or something 
akin).

Then, if Jim is able to run the links from that list through a tool and flag 
the ones that need tracking down, we could divide up the work and collate 
the results into a format that would not immediately require a front-end (I 
know you guys are very busy right now). New links could be gathered through 
the newsgroup and added in before sending you a consolidated file, all as a 
single one-time operation.

If there's a unique ID from the database that we can keep associated with 
the individual records, then I would think it should also be possible to 
preserve associated and generated information such as the 'popularity' data 
(depending of course on the format of the database).

If this is practical we'd obviously need to thrash out some details, but 
it's just a thought of a way we could do it without absorbing too much of 
your time.

Best Regards,
Chris B.

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Chris B wrote:
> Then, if Jim is able to run the links from that list through a tool and flag 
> the ones that need tracking down,

As said, we can already provide this information. Format-wise, if a text 
file is preferred, I would go for tab-separated table or one line per field. 
List of fields could be provided (likely four: link, title, description and 
category-id for link records, slightly different format for categories of 
course).

> If there's a unique ID from the database that we can keep associated with 
> the individual records, 

Of course there is :-)  In fact, try to follow any one of the links and you 
can see it.

	Thorsten

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"Thorsten Froehlich" <tho### [at] trfde> wrote in message 
news:44574f7f$1@news.povray.org...
> Chris B wrote:
>> Then, if Jim is able to run the links from that list through a tool and 
>> flag the ones that need tracking down,
>
> As said, we can already provide this information. Format-wise, if a text 
> file is preferred, I would go for tab-separated table or one line per 
> field. List of fields could be provided (likely four: link, title, 
> description and category-id for link records, slightly different format 
> for categories of course).
>
>> If there's a unique ID from the database that we can keep associated with 
>> the individual records,
>
> Of course there is :-)  In fact, try to follow any one of the links and 
> you can see it.
>
> Thorsten

OK. That sounds like it'll work. So long as we've got a format that we know 
will load back into the database without too much effort.
Of the two formats I'd prefer tab-separated as I hate counting lines :-).

I would suggest using email for exchanging bits of the file because we 
obviously want to avoid ending up with divergent copies flying around.

Thorsten, I'll email you my private email address (the one I use for 
postings tends to predominantly just get junk mail). If you could send me a 
file I'll look at how to split it amongst anyone wanting to help. Sounds 
like the file will need 6 fields, the ones you mentioned plus the unique ID 
and a flag indicating which ones are known to be dead links. Is there a need 
to look at updating the categories, or will you just send a copy of the 
current ones for reference purposes?

Jim, are you in?
Anyone else like to help?

Once we've got started we'll set a closing date and invite people to give us 
new links through this newsgroup.
After that we'll send back the new file for loading into the database.

Regards,
Chris B.

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> Well, sure - Chris had indicated audit was a needed part, so that's what I
> was suggesting.  You're right that it's trivial to automate - that's why
> when I saw Chris' message, I was somewhat surprised that it wasn't already

My phrasing was perhaps too fuzzy; by 'audit' I meant that the entire DB
needs to be checked for relevency; not only broken links to be fixed, but
also for links to working sites to be checked to ensure the link description
is still relevant and correct with respect to the target site's content.
(Some of those links are in excess of seven years old).

-- Chris

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I should point out that we already have a DB-driven PHP-based interface for
editing the links ... the only issue with it is that it's not designed for
multiple people to use at once (e.g. it won't cleanly handle the situation
where two people happen to edit the same link at more or less the same time -
the newest content will nuke the other one). We also need to add user
authentication for it. As it stands it's really an internal tool for our own use.

Basically if we can solve those (it's really just a time issue) I could open
it for editing to authenticated users. (Actually the problem with dual edits
could be solved by a division of labor amongst the editors, so it's really
just authentication).

-- Chris

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