‘Most awesomest wiki enhancement’:A Newsletter MediaWiki extension.A proposal for GSoC 2015.
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T94204
Personal Details
Name: Arunav Konwar
Email: arunavkonwar@gmail.com
IRC or IM networks/handle(s): gforce (freenode)
Web Page / Blog / Microblog / Portfolio: arunavbits.appspot.com/arunavkonwar.blogspot.com
Resume (optional): arunavbits.appspot.com
Location: Goa, India
Typical working hours: around 3-4 hours everyday(11pm-3am IST Local time)
Project Proposal
I propose to develop an extension to handle subscriptions to newsletters that would enable users to conveniently manage their their subscriptions from one place.
Schedule of Deliverables
Before the coding period begins, I intend to further work on my PHP and Javascript skills, and further familiarise myself with the codebase and other parts of the project. I intend to do this by working on more bugs. Another thing I intend to do is research more about the various methods that already exist.
The following is a tentative to-‐do list that I think will be suitable for the project timeframe. Of course, one must keep in mind that things can come up during the project that may cause delays (or early completions).
Development of the UI
The UI must be intuitive. The aim is to have a way for the user
to jump into the extension directly.
The UI at this stage will not be populated with any data, just
the outline/design with the required UI elements.
This is estimated to take a couple of day’s time at max, though the UI may need to be continually tweaked during the project.
Create the procedure for the easy subscription.
a.As a logged-in user, will make click a button work,and as anonymous user, log in or create an account.
This will take around another couple of days at max.
Work on the email notification system
a.An email notification is received when a new issue is published.
b.Also create an easy method to unsubscribe. As a logged-in user, click a button. Accessing a URL from the email notifications should unsubscribe you as well, after confirmation.
c.Create a process defining the conditions in which a newsletter is featured, demoted, closed.
d.Once a newsletter is created, maintaining the content (homepage, subpages) could be done in a plain wiki way for creating pages, watching, editing, reverting, protecting if needed.
e.This would require me around 2-3 weeks of work to achieve this.
Finalising
In the last week or so, all code will be reviewed to ensure
compatibility in function, code formatting, building, and all other aspects.
I have no other commitments during GSoC that I currently know of, and will be able to concentrate fully on the project.
Open Source Development Experience
I’ve never been associated with any open source development before. This is my first time.
Work/Internship Experience
I've never been professionally employed or taken any internships.
Academic Experience
I'm studying Biology,and Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (EIE) at BITS Pilani -‐ KK Birla Goa Campus. BITS Pilani is a highly acclaimed institute in India (acceptance rate less than 1.2%). I opted for Computer Science as my first choice, but unfortunately my score in the entrance exam was a few marks short and I did not qualify. My second choice was Electronics because I'd done electronics in high school -‐ it interests me and it has ties with CS.
Why Me
I think user experience is a fundamental part of any personal computer software and love working on things to improve it. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T76199 immediately caught my eye as something that was almost obvious to have. I myself have instinctively have wanted to have to feature.
I learn fast and adapt easily to new situations (languages, styles of programming, and so on). I started programming a few years ago with HTML,PHP and JavaScript, quickly moving on to Java. Over time I've done bits of other languages as well, depending on what the project required.
Most of all, I think it's very important to contribute to projects that you actually use yourself, because that gives you all the more motivation and inspiration to work on them.
Why Wikimedia
I've always respected Wikimedia for its openness. I think it's a great organisation with lots of brilliant people, bringing out excellent software that I personally use and enjoy contributing to.