VUMA! Portal initiative launched

Over the last few months Think Open Software has been implementing, modifying and developing a portal for Neil Butcher and Associates. The portal is for use by students and staff of the FOTIM group of universities in South Africa. The portal site is called VUMA!, which is a Zulu word. Finding an accurate translation without any cultural context is always challenging. Professor Chris Van Der Walt, who spoke at the portal launch event at Wits University on 22nd November 2007, noted that a colleague of his had pointed out that VUMA! means to say "YES!". Webster's on-line translates vuma as "agree, approve". This along with Professor Van Der Walt's input should provide the non-Zulu person with a semi-contextual understanding of the word.


"Spearheaded by FOTIM, the VUMA Portal is a vibrant on-line space where students, prospective students, parents, teachers and university staff can join collaborative university communities in sharing information, ideas and resources. The VUMA! Portal launched in October 2007 and is constantly under construction. New services will be introduced monthly, so feel free to visit any time. Your contributions will help the VUMA! Portal grow into a vibrant on-line community." -- www.vuma.ac.za

Think Open Software is responsible for implementing the Vuma portal using Drupal 5. In conjunction and collaboration with Neil Butcher and Associates and Radical Technologies, Think Open customized Drupal to integrate with Media Wiki, using "folksonomy tagging" to suggest relevant Drupal content for tagged Media Wiki entries. Think Open also developed a Resource Lab which is designed to allow students and staff to share resources and links.

It is hoped that these tools will foster a greater collaborative effort amongst teachers and students alike.

At the VUMA! launch event, Neil Butcher spoke to the use of technology to effect social change. Think Open truly hopes that FOTIM and its members drive the use of the portal, and that Neil Butcher and Associates are successful in bringing large parts of Africa and the developing world into collaboration with each other. Think Open will continue to technically support the initiative , and stand behind the attempt to harness the power of the collaborative tools which open source software can provide, and to ultimately effect a social change from within the developing world, rather than from without.

Bryan Gruneberg
CTO
Think Open Software

Thinkopen Software coding standards (ver 0.1) released

Think Open has released its coding standards that all developers and consultants will be required to adhere to.

Thinkopen Software coding standards

version 0.1

Class organization

All classes are to be organized according to the following template.

class myClass
{
//public static functions

//public constructors

//publicly defined interface

// non-public methods and fields

}


Class documentation


We are using phpDocumetor, all developers are to be familiar with the basic documentation tags.

At the file level we use the Zend Framework's template with slight modifications

/**
 * Short description for file
 *
 * Long description for file (if any)...
 *
 * LICENSE: Some license information
 *
 * @copyright  2007 Thinkopen Software
 * @version    m.n.o
 * @since      File available since Release 1.2.0
*/

At the class level we use the Zend Framework's template with slight modifications

/**
 * Short description for class
 *
 * Long description for class (if any)...
 *
 * @copyright  2007 Thinkopen Software
 * @version    m.n.o
 * @since      Class available since Release 1.2.0
 * @deprecated Class deprecated in Release 2.0.0
 */

More importantly, every single public function must minimally document it's arguments and return types. This is vitally important for enforcing type safety in our php code, as well as making exposing the classes as, for example, SOAP objects way easier.
Wherever possible use type hinting.
The following tags HAVE to be implemented on any class marked as public or protected.

@param --

1. if the type is not a basic type, use class name
2. if the class being accepted is not in the project, provide a @see and/or and @example for class
   

@return --

1. if the type is not a basic type, use class name
2. if the class being accepted is not in the project, provide a @see and/or and @example for class
   

http://pear.php.net/package/PhpDocumentor/docs/1.4.0/phpDocumentor/tutorial_tags.pkg.html


Naming conventions

Since we are running PHP (weakly typed), it's recommended that we use a modified Camel Casing with a bit of Hungarian notation thrown in.
That is, variable look like the following,
$xNameOfVariable
Where x is a letter(/s) representing the type of the variable.
i - integer
f - foating point or double (if applicable)
s - string
o - representing an instance of some class.

we also use an 'axNameOfArray' to represent an array of the type indicated by x.

Examples :
$iMyNumber - integer
$aiMyNumbers - array of integers
$oSomeObject - instance of some class
$aoSomeObjects - array of objects

Coding standard generally

All code is to conform to the standards set in the Zend Framework's coding standard as the default, except where the Thinkopen internal standard differs above

http://framework.zend.com/manual/en/coding-standard.html