Fair Tax Nation and Ning

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joshua on April 24, 2009 at 3:50pm

I've done some research on this subject. From what I've read, ning does not allow access to it's database, or "backend" as developers like to call it. However, it does allow the sql data to be "exported" but I'm not sure what format it is saved in, yet. That is something that we need to find out.

What all this means is, it's going to be hard for us to develop applications to extend the platform, unless they already exist as plugins. There are some out there, but I haven't been able to find any that would really help accomplish our goals.

My philosophy, as a previous owner of several web sites and communities, is that the owners/operators should have as much control over it's software and data as possible. In case the platform developer goes under, introduces bugs, won't upgrade, ect. I have expertise in running vBulletin, and phpBB communities. All are great for forums, but lack some of the other features that ning has. However, vBulletin has a lot of plugins that could add some of these features. I also prefer the threaded view of forum posts. This makes following conversation a lot easier. If anyone has any suggestions to other platforms, please don't hesitate to ask.

Permalink Reply by Joshua on April 24, 2009 at 4:09pm

I have been doing some more researching. It's been about 2 years since I've used vB, and just took a fresh look. They have really developed into more of a social networking platform. Out of the box, they have groups, friends, photo albums, etc. The only thing I haven't seen is chat. But I know there are plugins available for that. So all we need to know is can is support inport. Well since I already have an account there, I will ask.

So, our goal should be to evaluate the software. Go to http://www.vbulletin.com, and familiarize yourself with their product. It can be cusomized extensively, and is easy to use.

Permalink Reply by Joshua on April 24, 2009 at 5:28pm

The vB staff may be able to write an import script. We need a site admin to download the member csv file from the control panel. Or you could give me admin access, so i can do that, and also install applications if we find some suitable for our needs. I'm a tech guy.

Permalink Reply by Sean Fagan on May 13, 2009 at 7:34pm

Joshua,

Check with Jim on this - but there might be a security issue since the CSV file will contain private information (email and street addresses for example).

Permalink Reply by Sean Fagan on May 13, 2009 at 7:36pm

I saw a developer app on the plugin list - not sure if this will get us where we want to go. I've not had time to look into it yet due to my computer failure.

Permalink Reply by Steve Craig on May 2, 2009 at 5:37am

Sean,
Have you thought about Joomla? It's a PHP/mySQL-driven CMS with hundreds of modules, plugins, and added capabilities that would provide all the functionality FTN could use; in fact there are hundreds of groups just like FTN who are using it.
Check it out at http://www.joomla.org/

Setting it up should be a snap; most web hosts have it available in their package for simple installation. I use it for all my sites now.

Permalink Reply by Joshua on May 3, 2009 at 11:26am

I am actually using joomla for the new Hucks Army design, as well as one other site I'm helping with. I like it a lot, it does well for traditional sites. It's not really suited for a social network, as it doesn't have threaded based discussions. At least not the ones I have seen. But I would be open to using it if we could find the right plugins. Please feel free to contact me if you have any ideas on how we would set it up to meet our needs.

Thanks

Permalink Reply by Sean Fagan on May 13, 2009 at 7:42pm

Steve,

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps you can provide an example site that we can take a look at and see how it works. I took a quick look at the above site but didn't see anything about using it as a social networking application.

Sorry about the delayed response, had a major computer failure.

Thanks

Permalink Reply by Sean Fagan on August 1, 2009 at 11:23am

This update is rather late but I thought I would post it anyway for those of you who might be wondering whatever happened to this subject.

In a conference call between Jim, Marilyn and myself on May 29th it was decided that FairTax Nation would remain a Ning site for the time being. This decision was made based on two main areas of research - one, the cost and two, technical issues. SocialGo was the leading contender to switch to, but the costs were quite high and no way could be found to move all of the information from Ning to SocialGo.

I'll leave this discussion open for anyone who wants to comment or offer other possibilities.