John Miedema

OpenBook 2.1: Post-Build Feature List

29 July 2009 No Comment

This entry is part 15 of 16 in the series Building OpenBook 2.0

Many thanks to the 15 beta-testers who put OpenBook through its paces. Particular thanks to Anand, Christian, Dave, Elizabeth, Jay, Mattijs, Milo, Tom, and Victoria. Corrections were made for activation problems and XHTML compliance. Enhancements include increased control over template elements, and a new image option for the OpenURL link. The plugin has been tested up WordPress 2.9 (!) and has future compatibility with upcoming PHP changes. Other suggestions have been earmarked for future releases.

OpenBook 2.1 is nearly ready for general release. Here is a post-build feature list, evaluating the implementation of the planned features.

Main features:

Feature	Implemented?	Comment
Main features
WordPress administrative panels for setting all options	Yes
Styling moved to a separate stylesheet so people with CSS skills can modify the look	Yes	Styling can be managed through templates or the WordPress stylesheet
Select and order the display elements	Yes	User has complete control through templates
Use in widgets	Yes	Turned out to be a trivial change
OpenURL resolver to point to a library’s records	Yes
An indicator if the book is available to read on-line at Open Library	Yes	A ‘Read Online’ link if applicable
Additional COinS data	Yes	Also used with OpenURL
Configure proxy settings for users behind firewalls	Yes
Technical enhancements
More efficient display when posting several instances of OpenBook, perhaps through a single batch call or a callback method	No	Still thinking about the design for this. A high priority for the next release.
XHTML compliance	Not 100%	The default templates use inline styling which is an XHTML no-no. Users can remove it if they like.
Better detection of requirements during plugin activation, including cURL	Yes
Separate WordPress and PHP code to allow for easier reuse in other platforms	Yes
Include the GNU GPL license in the distribution	Yes
Features under consideration
Three display “modes”: standard, small, and in-line	Yes	Three templates can be used in many different ways
Select books by other numbers, e.g., LC	No	Didn’t seem like a priority
WordPress toolbar button for easy insert of OpenBook shortcode	No	Next time
Separate author from other contributors. Ability to provide links for each.	Yes	No links for contributors
Link to LibraryThing for social data	Yes	A well thought out set of links