Sharp as a Marble - Ansible 2.0

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Ansible 2.0

Ansible , Geekdom

So, my blogging platform, Ansible, has been rock solid for the past few years. I’ve learned a LOT since I built it, and it’s getting about that time to completely redo it from scratch. I wasn’t into LINQ or the Entity Framework when I first built it, so I missed out on a lot of ways to really tighten up the code and make it a bit more modular.

If I’m going to rewrite it, it’s going to have to be from scratch. The biggest PITA I had in the code is getting the API’s working so that I could use Windows Live Writer to compose my posts. Part of me wouldn’t mind finding something in Silverlight as the editor, but there’s not a lot available in the open source side that I can see (and I’m not wanting to spend a few grand on a product suite that I need 1 single control from).

I guess I could just try to use clipboard inheritance with the MetablogAPI and do everything else from scratch.

Some of my ideas are

Widget support – The Dead Goblin Count is still done manually. I’d like to be able to use something like Unity to create modules that I could just drop into a folder and have new controls that don’t require writing code into the core.
Multi-user support – Right now there can only be one user, and that’s the administrator (me). It’d be nice to be able to have other users so that Ansible could be used in a multi-user system.
Installer – The underlying code is rock solid. If someone else wanted to use it, however, it would be practically impossible as there’s no way to set it up outside of a completely manual process.
LINQ / Entity Framework – much easier to deal with and extend
Also in the Multi-User system, I would like to allow people to register accounts. This would allow for securing of a handle as well as permitting me to implement the next idea
Awards and achievements – I think it would be fun to give people awards for things like “Best use of the word ‘blepharectomy’ in a comment” or “Amazing run on sentence award!” etc. Just for fun.
With user accounts, you could also manage your subscriptions to comments better. I could also limit the emails I send out better.
Silverlight administration – This is my blog, it’s a Microsoft based system already, might as well utilize something a bit more robust than trying to manhandle all the Javascript necessary to do the work I’m doing right now.

Those are the primary additions I had in mind, and most of it isn’t a lot of work (well, maybe the Module system, but hey this is what I do for a living). I just want to avoid the MetablogAPI stuff but that might not be feasible in the time frame I have.

Any requests?

posted @ 10/26/2011 9:44:21 AM

Comments

Freiheit says:

on 10/26/2011 9:46:38 AM

Individual RSS feeds for threads instead of email notices to subscription updates.

Also don't change your CAPTCHA. I'm a robot and that would really cut down on my posts. :D

Freiheit says:

on 10/26/2011 10:39:01 AM

I should also add I too am a software engineer. If you ever want a code review or technical opinion, email me!

Standard Mischief says:

on 10/26/2011 4:13:40 PM

I always though trackback support with a whitelist - which could also be a blogroll - would be a neat feature to re-introduce. Damn spammers really ruined a good thing there, many people have turned their support off.

John Hardin says:

on 10/27/2011 12:45:45 AM

Silverlight administration is fine, but please don't make reading or commenting on the blog require the use of any MSFT-only software.

Thanks!

ENDO-Mike says:

on 10/27/2011 1:43:39 AM

I have to ask...why reinvent the wheel instead of saving time by using one of the various other CMS options out there?

Robb Allen says:

on 10/27/2011 8:36:50 AM

@John, I would never make any plug-in required for reading the blog, Microsoft / Flash / RealOne etc. I even try to ensure the blog breaks gracefully for older browsers (you can view this blog sans CSS if you'd like. Ugly, but still readable).

Plug ins cannot be searched via Bing or Google. They are excellent tools for data entry / LOB applications and things like video, but they should never replace the plain old HTML that can be read practically by any browser known to man.

ENDO-Mike, I do it for the same reason some gunnies handload, or people who like to cook make their own bread, or brewers who make their own beer - I actually enjoy the process and, as a developer, it's something to be able to tell perspective clients / employers that I wrote my own blog engine from the ground up. Practically everything you see on this blog is home grown. I do all my own graphics, programming, administration, etc.

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