HCMS Open Source Project

Currently, I am writing up the administration application for HCMS. However, it is taking some time, as I am putting in extra effort to write up a Style Guide, of which contains chapters about Programming Comments and Naming Standards. I am patiently doing it now, such that in this initial stage, I will be in the 'good habit' of producing an application that anyone can understand and comprehend, with a view for better contribution and maintainability.

To better appreciate why, read Scott Spendolini's blog "Reset Game", with a focus on the last half of his blog post:

http://spendolini.blogspot.com/2005/10/game-reset.html

I thought I would define some Programming Standards for this project that would cover:

• Programming
• Commenting
• Documentation

What I need to determine is whether I should put it online or publish a PDF file of it instead.

The features that I would like to offer in Version 0.1.1 are in the table below:

(Suggestion to view: Decrease the text size in your browser.)

Ref#	Description	Optional	Details
DB1	Database Tables Person Article Article Elements/Contents Content Index to type Content Short Text (varchar2 4000) Content Long Text (CLOB) Category Content (Generic Hierachical List, initially for navigation purposes)
APP1	Application Modules Administration (App ID 111) Content Editing (App ID 121) Content View (Show contents, 'viewer') (App ID 201, ...)
INF1	Infrastructure Minimal Requirements are that the application should work with Oracle XE. (I anticipate that most users of HCMS will come from Oracle XE installations.)

This is what I think minimally should be the scope of 0.1. The main idea of this minimal scope is to establish maintainability within the application. This will also allow a simple foundation on which to develop standards for coding, documentation, version control and upgrading.

The features that I would like to offer in Version 0.1 are in the table below:

(Suggestion to view: Decrease the text size in your browser.)

Ref#	Description	Optional	Details
DB1	Database Tables Person Organization Project Article Article Elements/Contents Content Index to type Content Short Text (varchar2 4000) Content Long Text (CLOB) Team Team Member Administation Category Content Category
APP1	Application Modules Administration Content Editing Content View (Show contents, 'viewer')
INF1	Infrastructure Minimal Requirements are that the application should work with Oracle XE. (I anticipate that most users of HCMS will come from Oracle XE installations.)

I am wanting to decide the scope of what version 0.1 should be, such that I can work out what to include and exclude from the Application that I already have.

What is HCMS?

HCMS is short name of a Open Source Project for a HTML DB Content Management System Framework (hereafter referred to as 'HCMS').

Background

Over the past few months, there had been a desire on our part at Collaboration Nexus to have a Content Management System for HTML DB with a strong influence from the Wiki Encyclopaedia format.

Some web postings (forums, Blogs) are:

http://www.orablogs.com/sergio/archives/001555.html

On the HTML DB forums, it has been previously made a suggestion many months ago:

http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=914878

Also, it had been suggested to do a Wiki style application previously:

http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=1101686

Problem Description

The problem is that not standard framework exists for Content Management in HTML DB. Some specifics are that:

• No 'Portal' style Framework exists for the Content Management.
• No standard data structure exists where it could be possible to standardize things like:
• Contact Profile Details
• Address Format
• Organizational details.
• No 'Wiki' style application for the collaborative management of applications.

The creation of 'Open Source' type project for a HTML DB Content Management System Framework (hereafter referred to as 'HCMS').

It would have some of the features of Wiki, using the FCKeditor HTML Text Editor, with optionally some degree of moderation. The framework could have modules, with a common authentication and profile, for things like:

• General
• Blogs
• Forums
• Announcements/Events
• RSS
• FAQ
• Articles
• Tutorials
• Source Code Walk through
• Contact Management
• User Profiles
• File/Document Management Upload/Downloads
• Source Code
• Photo Album
• Electronic Documents (PDF, Office)
• Project Management
• Scheduling
• Meeting Minutes
• Action Items
• Issue Tracking
• Requirements Management

The application/s could be showcased in a HTML DB Fans/enthusiasts website, for Wiki style contributions by all, like. Hopefully, this HTML DB CMS Application as being able to become a more advanced, complex, sophisticated example of what HTML DB can do, beyond the simple examples in the Studio at the moment.

A useful example of similar products are:

• Microsoft has DotNetNuke (www.dotnetnuke.com) for ASP.NET
• Open Source equivalents like:
• typo3 (www.typo3.org)
• Plone (www.plone.org)

However, these 'portal' frameworks tend to fail fundamentally, at least administratively, for this reason: lack of internal integration amongst modules.