FODB

[MidKnight]

I want to try and start a Free Object Database, An idea that has been discussed many times but never successfully implemented. For those who don't know, an FODB is basically a site where GPL'd and PD 3d models, WIPs, concept sketches, etc will be posted.

This would be a great addition to the spring community (IE: all those unfinished/untextured models could be stuck up there and catagorized for future completion ), and has been something I've been wanting to do for a while now.


To do this, though, I will need:

- Hosting;

I could, concievably, start the project on a free webhost, but that comes with its problems >_> (Principally: I'd have to move the mysql tables later ) therefore, I am asking for hosting

I now have hosting thanks to springlobby.info

- People who actually know what they're doing; I have a reasonable knowledge of HTML, a little knowledge of php, nonexistent CSS skills, and enough aspx to screw around with planetwars . some people with actual knowledge would be VERY HELPFUL.

- A template; this isnt as urgently needed, but somebody who could make a decent template for Drupal would be very appreciated. I myself could do most of the required images, but, as I said, I have almost no skill at PHP



so........


comments?

[aegis]

af or forb would probably host you

[Licho]

I can host you too

[AF]

There si no reason why this couldn't be done on darkstars file host already.

Provide a folder structure in a zip file to be extracted into the root folder of the download site. From there on the folders can be filled, I would suggest using the spring sub-directory though so all folders took the form /spring/content/etc..

Once you are done, making the changes to my filesite would be trivial, a simple extract and upload in an ftp client should suffice, giving a working time of 5-10 seconds on a slowday.

[MidKnight]

I now have hosting, thanks to koshi and the SpringLobby team!

Thanks, everyone else who offered.

we've settled on Drupal as the CMS, and I'm beginning work on the site.

Expect a fully working version within the next 2 weeks (probably faster )

remember: points 2 ad 3 are still open!

[Argh]

Great, glad somebody's going to actually do this. Don't forget the meshes from NanoBlobs and all of KDR's stuff, as well as Smoth's, Lathan's and whoever else was on that list of free stuff we posted awhile back. It's all varying quality, of course, but it's a surprisingly-large collection, and most of the units are already animated, which is a nice plus- don't forget the BOS/COB files.

[AF]

2-3 weeks?! But I could have it in 20-30 seconds!!!! Shame I don't have ftp access at work =(

[koshi]

you sure must have some sort of magic ftp access at home if you can create databases, site designs and whatnot with it in 30 seconds

[Tribulexrenamed]

AF if you are so eager to hand out web-hosting ill take a chunk, and i wont charge you anything.

[Tobi]

Make sure to add a field for License to each model, that will make it super easy to look for models with a license compatible with your mod's license.

Also maybe a choice for what parts are done of the model, e.g. model itself, uv map, texture, script.

[MidKnight]

Great, glad somebody's going to actually do this. Don't forget the meshes from NanoBlobs and all of KDR's stuff, as well as Smoth's, Lathan's and whoever else was on that list of free stuff we posted awhile back. It's all varying quality, of course, but it's a surprisingly-large collection, and most of the units are already animated, which is a nice plus- don't forget the BOS/COB files.

I was going to try and get you to upload nanoblobs once the site is done, but now you've preemptive-strike'd me, so I'm stuck doing it

2-3 weeks?! But I could have it in 20-30 seconds!!!! Shame I don't have ftp access at work =(

MAEK SITE JAVASCRIPT AND PHP FOR ME NOW PL0X
I'd be grateful for help

Make sure to add a field for License to each model, that will make it super easy to look for models with a license compatible with your mod's license.

Also maybe a choice for what parts are done of the model, e.g. model itself, uv map, texture, script.

way ahead of you (in concept, at least; code isn't even started ) I'm thinking of a format similar to the opendesktop ring of sites, with some, err, novel additions. I do have a concept, but its on paper, and my scanner's nonfunctional so I guess we'll have to do with text for now .




Some ideas:
- Basic Layout The information that may be attached to a file is:
----- Name of model
----- Author
----- Uploader (Seperate from author for obvious reasons. If possible, a system may be created to hand off ownership to the actual author if they have an account.)
----- Affiliation (IE: my HLT is affiliated with CA and TA, the SpireRook is affiliated with Nanoblobs, the GM sniper is affiliated with gundam RTS)
----- License (I'm thinking GPL, public domain, and "other." CC woul incite some crazy inferno of doom only jK knows why, though )
----- Status (Concept, WIP, complete, maybe "Spring-ready", and possibly others. If somebody could write code for an option that takes it from chagelog, that'd be nice too)
----- Changelog (appears in box to left of other stuff
----- Formats (see below)
----- Filetree download (again, see below)

- Categories and Tags Models may be given both catagories and tags. Categories are pre-defined ad may only be created by mods/admins. A model may be in multiple categories. Tags behave like tags on any other site . Categories may be "aliased," IE the category "blend" would be aliased to "blender." Every user is given a category on sign-up, and that category is auto-appended to each of his creations, along with categories/tags for format (format idea mentioned later) Tags and categories cannot share the same name. Drupal's "taxonomy" module will handle this task

- Search engine In addition to the basic drupal search, there will be an FODB search, which would would work on categories + tags. specifics haven't been drafted yet, but I'd like support for a "and" and maybe an "or" operator, so that one may type "nanoblob argh" and get the combined content of the "nanoblobs" and "Argh" categories, or type "nanoblob + argh" and get only models that are in both categories, or type "nanoblob / argh" and get models that are in only one of the categories, but not both I have a subconious feeling I'm reinventing the wheel here >_>.

- Format Drupal has support for MIME types, and I'm planning on milking that feature to the last drop! I want to be able to let users upload zip files, and have the site unarchive them, and display "format" tags: little images (or just text; I do't want to make 200 little images ) which say stuff like ".Blend" ".Wings" ".3ds" ".tga" ".zip" etc. so one may, at a glance, see what formats the model and related files are available in. Also...

- Filetree Download while single files would have a big shiney "DOWLOAD" button, multiple files and zip archives could have a "file tree" of sorts, which would look something like:
MODEL.zip
model1.3ds
model1.opk
model1.tga
with download links for each file.



And that's it! Please keep in mind that I have the coding capacity of a doorknob, so don't expect to see any of these things actually donelol, I'm such a cynic :/ Unless, of course, you volunteer to help me do it!

[AF]

DS file site already has the necessary structures and a full wiki integrated for each file. I would simply make the necessary folders, add the wiki improvements in my other thread I and lurker posted, and add a button to make subfolders, minimal work at best.

[AF]

As you can see I made a few modifications and added a base folder structure, and changed the wiki to not need any login and added a create page button to make it much easier, suggestions?

[MidKnight]

As you can see I made a few modifications and added a base folder structure, and changed the wiki to not need any login and added a create page button to make it much easier, suggestions?

the search button doesn't seem to work

Also, there are reasons for my using of drupal (appearance, ease of maintainance, extensibility) and the fact that I've already entered some content for drupal, and configured page stuctures, etc.

speaking of content, here's a teaser!

[AF]

• Appearance and aesthetics is not a justification. Even then the style is all css and can easily be swapped out.
• Maintenance Drupal is much larger and more widespread, whereas my codebase is much smaller and simpler, and has already been in use for months and months already during which its been refined. My codebase si self contained too relying on no databases or configuration files and will simply 'run' if dropped on a new server.
• Mine is here right now and all the encessary changes have been made. Please fill with content

Feel free to continue though,having all eggs in one basket again wont help us.

edit:: search works 0_o

[AF]

I've nabbed a tonne of resources outve the resource threads here but a lot of the posts refer to unknown files and fileunvierse which dont work anymore =(

e.g.

http://www.darkstars.co.uk/downloads/vi ... eactor.zip

[MidKnight]

maybe we could find a way to link our sites?

when mine is complete it will have support for stuff like multipaned views, changelogs, insane category/search crud, etc. but all that is pretty much simple and you could probably implement it in a day (whereas i take a week ), but i still want to keep working on mine, i want to see how it turns out

imo the best solution is finding a way to share content throughout sites, so a file posted in one will automatically be passed to the other, and if one site fails nothing will be lost

[AF]

files on my site, are files in a folder directory. Further data is stored via a wiki namespace. Each file could have its own mini wiki as a result. Nice and uber simple, which in the end is whats best.