Under-the-Hood Website Upgrades

Data Retrieval and Storage

We spent a little time today upgrading portions of the N'burg website related to data storage. There have been a lot of small kludges related to local and remote data collection that was done in nonstandard and breakable ways. For instance, there were scripts in multiple locations that stored data in multiple of locations. These scripts did such tasks as check N'burg's treasury balance, grab and convert the land data from Sudane's website, and retrieve the US$-to-L$ exchange rate.

These scripts have all been rewritten and colocated. Additionally, their output is stored in a central library subdirectory so the data can be accessed and shared in a standard way as the website grows. Additionally, we repaired some of the scripts that had stopped functioning due to changes in the SL webserver.

Additionally, because of recent requests for email addresses and party affiliations, I thought I would create a repository of user information on the website as well. This would be stored and accessed in a similar manner as the above information.

User Accounts

To facilitate the collection and storage of citizen information on the website and to make sure that it's only accessible by citizens, we're finishing up code (started long ago) that allows users to log in to the website. Once finished I will create a web page where citizens can input personal data such as email, party affiliation, and whether or not they want their email or party affiliation shown to other citizens.

Wiki

Finally, the website has had a wiki installed for quite some time that delivers content for most of the static pages. Once logins are complete, there will be a mechanism to authorize access to the wiki (I don't want it open to the public) to allow others to edit it.

~Ulrika~

The code for the log in is almost in place. You might notice the login option on the upper right of the N'burg web site. It is possible to log in and out with any name and password right now and it will be reflected in the upper right corner as well. Authentication and authorization code should be going in shortly along with code that allows users to choose personalized settings.

~Ulrika~

Sweet. Can't wait to check it out.

I'm not sure how data is tied all together, but is there any chance your land holdings and amount due can appear on your citizen page. It would be easier than traversing the list looking for all instances of your name and adding all the number togethers.

Yes!

That's one of the main reason I'm doing it. That way folks can go to a single home page that shows their land holdings, bonds held, payments due, and due dates. One will also be able to check the balance of their N'burg bank account as well.

~Ulrika~

Roxor!

Great!

The code for authentication is in place!

For those who want to try out the fledgling system, you can now log in and out using the log-in page with your SL first and last name and the password "abc123" (without the quotes). After logging in, the website will take you to a mock up of a citizen's home page with simulated user information. (Naturally, the aesthetics will change for the better by the time the page goes live.)

Next up is the creation of the new-account page that will use an in-world object to link users to the website for authentication. The completion of this will most likely have to wait until I return from travel in a couple of weeks.

If you have ideas, let me know now so I can include them in the "/home" page. It can be feature requests, suggestions on how to organize the data, and so on. Whatever is on your mind.

~Ulrika~

When I try this, I get a blank page (MacOS 10.2.8, Firefox 1.5)

I get the same problem with firefox on a mac as well.

http://validator.w3.org/ is a great resource for checking whether your web page is standards-compliant.

Eep. I'll keep working on it.

I figured out the problem. Everything is working (the blank page is OK), it's just that my JavaScript redirect to the user home page only works in my browser. I can't figure out how to do a redirect that's invisible to the client. I might have to wait for help on this one.

~Ulrika~

You could do the redirect in the backend (pHP?) rather than via Javascript.

We're using Perl and the only redirect that I can find pops up a "202 OK" page on my browser before redirecting. I know it can be done, I just haven't figured it out yet. :/

I have a source of help. I just need to wait for my code monkey to find some time to help.

~Ulrika~

OK. I think I've got the log in and log out with redirection working correctly. I've tested it in Safari and Firefox in MacOS. If you have time, give it a try and let me know if it works. Log in with your SL first and last name and the password "abc123" (without the quotes).

~Ulrika~

Works well on Firefox for me under my Mac Now to get a Windows machine somewhere to try it out under that as well...