New to Serendipity - A Couple Questions

[wwday3]

As the title states, I'm new to Serendipity. (Well, actually, that's a white lie. I loaded the product into a sub-directory back when I was learning to dislike Wordpress after I learned to dislike Blogger. Over time I decided S9Y beat the pants off of both of those products).

Unfortunately, I tried to move/copy S9Y from the sub-directory to the root directory (where I had WP), and I screwed everything up. It reached a point where it seemed easier to just reload. So I reinstalled S9Y, this time to the root, and I noticed some differences (I used GoDaddy's installer).

First, where did the option for using the WYSIWYG editor go? I've looked in the documentation, and it still lists it under Config-> Appearance and options. But, I can't find it in this newest version. (By the way, "which" WYSIWYG editor is the default?)

I also noticed the new (I assume it's new) Adsense plugin. Thinking it might mimic the easy-to-use Blogger widget, I tried it out. To my surprise it included an important item missing from Blogger's widget (channels), but there is no ability to change link/text colors. Are plans in the works to add more funtionality to the plug-in?

Finally, and maybe this should be in the "suggestions" area, but it would be nice to have "suites" of plug-ins that could be loaded all at once (a good example would be all of the Google-oriented plug-ins, or all of the HTML nugget plug-ins). Don't get me wrong, SPARTACUS is light-years ahead of how WP does it (download-unzip-upload), and I think it's great. But there are so many plug-ins available, it would be nice to load a set of related plug-ins all at once.

This is getting a bit lengthy, so I'll stop. But before I go, I'd just like to say good job to the developers. As a developer in a completely different area, I'm very impressed.

Wally

[kleinerChemiker]

I also noticed the new (I assume it's new) Adsense plugin. Thinking it might mimic the easy-to-use Blogger widget, I tried it out. To my surprise it included an important item missing from Blogger's widget (channels), but there is no ability to change link/text colors. Are plans in the works to add more funtionality to the plug-in?

im sorry, but i dont understand you. this plugin doesnt add any links or text, so there is no need to change the text/link color.

i dont know the easy-to-use Blogger widget, so i cannot compare them.


MIK

[Don Chambers]

Wally - someone will probably come along and address your concerns with the plugins, but I have one suggestion for you - dump the GoDaddy install, and simply FTP the package directly to your domain's root and connect to one of your available MySQL databases godaddy provides. Been there, done that!

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

First off, I must chime in to what Don says: If possible, dump the Godaddy install and use your own, up to date install. It offers a lot more of flexibility to the future, and you can easier maintain that install.

First, where did the option for using the WYSIWYG editor go? I've looked in the documentation, and it still lists it under Config-> Appearance and options. But, I can't find it in this newest version. (By the way, "which" WYSIWYG editor is the default?)

In newer versions, you can find the setting in the "Personal Settings" configuration!

By default, s9y uses the htmlarea editor, because it's most hooked into the system. Others like fckeditor are available, but do not integrate the media database as tightly.

I also noticed the new (I assume it's new) Adsense plugin. Thinking it might mimic the easy-to-use Blogger widget, I tried it out. To my surprise it included an important item missing from Blogger's widget (channels), but there is no ability to change link/text colors. Are plans in the works to add more funtionality to the plug-in?

Sadly Google FORBIDS to create plugins that emit customized Adsense configurations. They only allow to copy and paste the output you get from google.

So even if we could, we are not allowed to make our plugin do that.

Finally, and maybe this should be in the "suggestions" area, but it would be nice to have "suites" of plug-ins that could be loaded all at once (a good example would be all of the Google-oriented plug-ins, or all of the HTML nugget plug-ins). Don't get me wrong, SPARTACUS is light-years ahead of how WP does it (download-unzip-upload), and I think it's great. But there are so many plug-ins available, it would be nice to load a set of related plug-ins all at once.

That's true, having a packaging group for that might be nice. But in reality, most people do not use all subsets of a plugin. For google this makes sense, but most other plugins can't really be grouped together so that they make sense.

This is getting a bit lengthy, so I'll stop. But before I go, I'd just like to say good job to the developers. As a developer in a completely different area, I'm very impressed.

Many thanks for that, it means a lot to me.

Have fun,
Garvin

[wwday3]

Sadly Google FORBIDS to create plugins that emit customized Adsense configurations. They only allow to copy and paste the output you get from google. Sad

So even if we could, we are not allowed to make our plugin do that.

I'm not sure if you are interpreting the Google edicts correctly. My understanding (although I'm NOT and expert) is that as long as "they" (Google) can view the source on a webpage and see the "approved" code, it's all good. Wordpress has a similar plug-in that allows you to adjust border, background, link, text, and URL colors - the same values you can adjust when on Google Adsense page.

In newer versions, you can find the setting in the "Personal Settings" configuration!

Thanks. Perhaps the documentation needs to be adjusted?

[mgroeninger]

Hi wwday3!

A developer (yazheirx) ran into the Google policy problem a while ago. You can see the thread here: http://board.s9y.org/viewtopic.php?t=1437

The short of it is:

Google's AdSense Program Policy ( https://www.google.com/adsense/support/ ... swer=48182 ) states:

Any AdSense code must be pasted directly into webpages without modification. AdSense participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the code or change the behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads.

I, personally, see that as strictly forbidding any plugin that dynamically generates or modifies AdSense output. While I agree that the intent may not be to prevent such a plugin, I think the result of the language is that any such plugin introduces liability to both the developer and any users.

I believe Garvin interprets the policy the same way I do.

yazheirx actually emailed Google for clarification and declined to develop the plugin based on their response (which seems to be missing, unfortunately).

[wwday3]

Hi Matthew

I, personally, see that as strictly forbidding any plugin that dynamically generates or modifies AdSense output. While I agree that the intent may not be to prevent such a plugin, I think the result of the language is that any such plugin introduces liability to both the developer and any users.

Then why have an Adsense plug-in - even the simple one that's available now - at all? The plug-in I downloaded via Spartacus allowed selection of the ad "type", selection of a channel, and of course the affiliate ID. How is that different from also allowing background and text color changes? It obviously "generates" the JS when the page loads.

I'm missing the logic here. If the Adsense plug-in is available, it should be available with all the bells and whistles. If it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, then shouldn't be available.

Blogger's Adsense plug-in lacks the ability to add channels, so you have to use their HTML widget. The Serendipity plug-in lacks the ability to tailor the look and feel, so you end up using the HTML nugget. I guess it all evens out in the end

[garvinhicking]

Hi!

Then why have an Adsense plug-in - even the simple one that's available now - at all? The plug-in I downloaded via Spartacus allowed selection of the ad "type", selection of a channel, and of course the affiliate ID. How is that different from also allowing background and text color changes? It obviously "generates" the JS when the page loads.

The plugin is there so that people know it's possible and that they can easily dump their code in there. Many people are afraid of the HTML nugget plugin, that's why we have some dedicated plugins for this.

For each javascdipt variable by Google we have an input field. Change HOW the input field is entered is delivered to the user. Since the Layout/format is controlled within a single variable, that would mean it would need to be stitched together with application logic, which is forbidden as to google terms.

Just because WP is doing that doesn't give us the chance to take the same risk. s9y is a free project and we have no funding or investors like WP has which would maybe have better means to fight against google. We want to keep the level of possible suing to a minimum.

I'm missing the logic here. If the Adsense plug-in is available, it should be available with all the bells and whistles. If it doesn't have all the bells and whistles, then shouldn't be available.

You are free to discard the plugin. Many people enjoy to have a simple input form for the fields.

Please feel free to talk to google to give us a go on implementing the functionality.

Best regards,
Garvin

[wwday3]

Hi!
The plugin is there so that people know it's possible and that they can easily dump their code in there. Many people are afraid of the HTML nugget plugin, that's why we have some dedicated plugins for this.

Fair enough. Sometimes I forget about users who are not comfortable with HTML and cutting/pasting and so on. Your points are well made. I'll quit arguing now

I do have some rather more technical questions, but I'll ask them in a seperate post.

Please feel free to talk to google to give us a go on implementing the functionality.

Best regards,
Garvin

Ha! Talk to Google. Funny. I'll address this with them if they ever get back with me with answers to other questions I've asked them (let's see, would that be the proverbial "cold day in hell"?)