Discussion: integrating or merging Mapknitter into plots2/PublicLab.org

[SidharthBansal]

Can we merge Mapknitter to the pl.org/maps?
Similar workflow with mapmiller can be obtained.
Thanks

[SidharthBansal]

@jywarren

[jywarren]

I'm interested but would like to brainstorm out how that would work!

[jywarren]

One idea would be to make it embeddable? Or allow people to start a map from PL.org but still have a separate app?

[SidharthBansal]

I am in favour of embedded like the chatroom is embedded on chat.publiclab.org
We can create a subdomain.
In case we want entire integration then this will result in creating all things in plots2. Benefit is plots2 is highly maintained over mapknitter. Also, we don't need to do Rails Upgrade, Bootstrap upgrade separate UI projects here.
But it will be really long as we have to copy and paste each MVC pattern with tests.

[jywarren]

Let's continue thinking about this a bit, and discussing, without committing to a course of action yet. This will really only be possible after we make the export system external, as in #298, i think.

[jywarren]

I'd like to also consider that if we separate the Exporter code, there is relatively much less code remaining in MapKnitter. I'm already starting to clean up and remove unused code. We could simplify and reduce the size of the MK codebase so that the rest of the upgrades are not too bad -- mostly handling image uploading. Then the idea of merging vs. integrating could be simpler.

[SidharthBansal]

Agreed.
Can you please tell what Exporter code does in brief. I am new to MK.
Thanks

[jywarren]

Roughly it will turn the exporting task (a huge resource use) into an external cloud service. 😄

[SidharthBansal]

Got it thanks On Sun, Jan 27, 2019, 8:17 PM Jeffrey Warren <notifications@github.com wrote:

…

Roughly it will turn the exporting task (a huge resource use) into an external cloud service. 😄 On Jan 27, 2019 11:36 AM, "Sidharth Bansal" ***@***.***> wrote: Agreed. Can you please tell what Exporter code does in brief. I am new to MK. Thanks — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#302 (comment) >, or mute the thread < https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AABfJ8IZ2KpNPIfrmWFOzkn9a1W2TH4eks5vHbkxgaJpZM4aTgah > . — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#302 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AUACQxhLH_fm9GBVucGN-9iDDVB-mx1oks5vHbvogaJpZM4aTgah> .

[jywarren]

Also just to list out pros and cons to consider:

Pros

• Better integration or merge would mean MK users would be better connected with and supported by the PL community
• Less redundant systems like spam mgmt, bios, email notification?

Cons or issues to consider

• Makes plots2 less a general purpose CMS and collaboration platform if it must include a lot of MK code (though not if we make some more generic type of integration?)
• Makes MK less a simple single-purpose system

This all leads me to think that making MK more modular and from reusable pieces with some kind of standardized integration with PL might be better than just merging it in completely, but it bears more discussion and thought. Thanks!!!

[sagarpreet-chadha]

I guess if we can integrate MK to plots2 using minimal lines of code , that would be ideal , so that we have modular and first-timer friendly code in both repos .

[jywarren]

Some notes on this that relate to other parts of the system:

• see if we can read roles from plots2 user records, ideally through a User.role call that somehow grabs the data from plots2
• see if we can send email notifications using plots2 ? Or use commenting/notification system from there, to simplify MapKnitter? What are the pros/cons?

@SidharthBansal what do you think of these ideas?

[SidharthBansal]

We need to think of the data we will need at mapknitter from the plots. One thing we want to import to plots2 is the mapknitter maps to /maps. What do you say?

…

On Sat, Feb 9, 2019, 3:18 AM Jeffrey Warren ***@***.*** wrote: Some notes on this that relate to other parts of the system: - see if we can read roles from plots2 user records, ideally through a User.role call that somehow grabs the data from plots2 - see if we can send email notifications using plots2 ? Or use commenting/notification system from there, to simplify MapKnitter? What are the pros/cons? @SidharthBansal <https://github.com/SidharthBansal> what do you think of these ideas? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#302 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AUACQ_k286rgjLiXFjMOdj95SKWN-h_Yks5vLfCUgaJpZM4aTgah> .

[SidharthBansal]

• see if we can read roles from plots2 user records, ideally through a User.role call that somehow grabs the data from plots2

We can discuss this in #301