FinScribe

Fins and FinScribe update

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 18:40:01 -0400

I've been working on Fins and FinScribe quite a bit lately, and some interesting things have been brewing.

First, in the eye-candy department, I started working with Dojo 0.3.1, which has some better widgets than previous releases. It adds some quirks, especially with the DHTML effects, but hopefully we'll be able to work through them. I also added a new widget called RTEditor, which extends the Rich text editor widget to be tabbed: one tab is allows you to edit text in Rich Text format, and the other tab lets you edit the raw text. As you change from tab to tab, the version from the other tab is brought along with you, so you don't lose content. It's pretty neat, and lets users who are more comfortable with HTML tweak their content.

Second, on the Fins side of things, I've added some developer admin tools. We're hooking into the pike -x command, and so far, a new application creation tool is available, as well as a replacement for fin_serve, which should make it easier to run your Fins apps.

Most significant, though, is automatic configuration of Model objects by examination of the database schema. This means that if you write your database to follow the rules that Fins expects, you don't have to write Model code. It's all done for you… just create a (more or less empty) class for each datatype, and Fins will handle the rest… it's pretty cool. It's also completely optional. If you've got legacy databases to work with, Fins can also use those, but you'll have to resort to increasingly manual tactics.

New FinScribe release: 0.6

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:25:11 -0400

I'm pleased to announce the release of a new version of the FinScribe wiki/blog application. Version 0.6 includes a fair number of new features, most importantly the ability to modify and apply ACLs to documents. The application (especially the administration interface) include some very nifty AJAX widgets made possible by using the Dojo widget framework.

FinScribe is built on the MVC framework I've been writing, called Fins, and is written in Pike with support for mysql, sqlite and (hopefully) postgresql. Originally intended as a demonstration application for that framework, FinScribe has taken on a life of its own.

FinScribe's first theme!

Wed, 5 Apr 2006 20:23:48 -0400

I took some time today to create the first "real" theme for FinScribe. Ok, I didn't create from scratch, but rather decided to take a good looking theme from WordPress, called Prozac, and convert it so that it worked with FinScribe. Along the way, I made some tweaks to the theme and made some changes to the internal templates in order to make it easier for theme builders. The exact origins of Prozac seem to be spread across a few people, so I'll refer you to the site I got the source for additional information: http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2006/03/03/wp-themes-prozac/

I think the result is the best of both the original theme, and of the capabilities of FinScribe: a good looking design with all of the nice CMS functionality and AJAX enhancements that come with FinScribe. All in all, not a bad showing.

So, without further ado, I give you Prozac for FinScribe:

You can get the theme http://hww3.riverweb.com/dist/FinScribe/themes/. To use it, simply untar the file into the themes directory (you'll need a copy of FinScribe from CVS for this to work). Then set the site.theme property to "prozac". Currently you have to make this setting change by hand using fin_serve's hilfe mode, or by editing the database directly. I hope to make an official release of FinScribe that supports themes out in the next day or two, as well as a better preference modification mechanism.