[ckan-dev] Commenting alternatives to Disqus?

Ross Jones ross at servercode.co.uk
Wed Apr 23 10:34:22 UTC 2014


The more time I spend thinking about it, the more I think the extension route is probably the best one.  I get nervous about the number of extensions that users end up having to install (for things I think should be core extensions, shipped by default with CKAN) but in this case it is a serious enough chunk of functionality that it would make sense.

Searching had totally slipped my mind wrt comments although I had added a new idea to the ideas+roadmap repo at https://github.com/ckan/ideas-and-roadmap/issues/46 with a related feature (making more things searchable).  

As I mentioned previously, I’d made a start on ckanext-comments, but it isn’t production ready and still has a lot of rough edges, but I think the underlying concept (the comment thread is found based on a URL) is correct, and I’d suggest it might make a reasonable starting once it’s had a v.thorough review.

Which other large CKAN instances is it worth approaching (other than data.gov.uk) to see if there is interest?

Ross


On 22 Apr 2014, at 21:00, David Megginson <david.megginson at megginson.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Ross — that's a well thought-out list.  
> 
> A lot of it hinges on your first question: "Standalone isso type service, or standard CKAN extension?"  In other words, are comments first-class entities in CKAN itself?
> 
> My preference is for the extension — as much fun as it is to build separate, standalone things, integrating comments right into CKAN brings some significant benefits:
> Comments can easily be search-indexed externally (e.g. Google) or internally (e.g. Solr).
> Comments can appear in the activity stream or email/RSS notification feed associated with a dataset, user, etc.
> Comments can be combined with ratings (which already have API support).
> Comments can easily use CKAN auth/auth.
> One less @#$%#@ app to install and manage.
> Thoughts?
> 
> 
> Cheers, David
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Apr 22, 2014 at 6:58 AM, Ross Jones <ross at servercode.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> I’ve asked a few people about funding, and it looks like there is the possibility of at least part-funding this work.  By part-funding I mean >  50%, probably more depending on solution. As David pointed out, it seems realistic that others would find this of benefit enough to contribute to the development costs.  I’d imagine that engagement would be a rather import KPI for some portals, and it seems rather inelegant to rely on the current solution of expecting users to have yet another login at another 3rd party service.
> 
> In order to obtain the funding, it’ll be necessary though to map out what CKAN commenting would consist of.  Answering questions like:
> 
> 1. Standalone isso type service, or standard CKAN extension?
> 2. Is there a moderation queue with mollom/akismet integration for spam?
> 3. How is CKAN auth/auth integrated? How will solutions that use mixed auth be able to use comments? (for instance if auth is done through Drupal or WordPress).
> 4. Can existing comments be migrated from disqus to new solution?
> 5. Will it just be for datasets, or related-items, resources, and others?
> 6. Should it be threaded?
> 7. How easy will it be to install? Will I need my own theme to integrate the comments? Will it work like ckanext-disqus? 
> 8. Will it work with ckanext-issues for feedback?
> 
> If anyone is interested in undertaking the work, please do speak up and hopefully we can make some progress.  
> 
> Answers to any of these questions also welcome :)
> 
> Ross
> 
> 
> On 17 Apr 2014, at 18:22, David Megginson <david.megginson at megginson.com> wrote:
> 
>> Thank you all for the replies, and thank you especially, Ross, for autocratically giving it high priority. :-)
>> 
>> Since this is very widely applicable, perhaps we could pass the hat around 10 or 20 big users to find the activity.
>> 
>> 
>> D
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Apr 17, 2014 at 9:37 AM, Ross Jones <ross at servercode.co.uk> wrote:
>> Thanks Ralf,
>> 
>> I’ve arbitrarily and without discussion marked it as high priority :) Relying on Disqus or Drupal (in particular) is far from ideal.  I’d love there to be some consensus and a plan to move forward with it.  Currently I have no idea how the work might be funded, but as it affects all of the existing CKAN instances with hacky comment integration I’d have thought *someone* would be willing to fund (or even do the work on) a more elegant solution.
>> 
>> Any takers? ;)
>> 
>> Ross
>> 
>> 
>> On 17 Apr 2014, at 14:31, Ralf <user66 at arcor.de> wrote:
>> 
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > since I am also very interested in such an extension, I just have created an issue in the "ideas and roadmap" area (hope that this is the right place):
>> >
>> > https://github.com/ckan/ideas-and-roadmap/issues/44
>> >
>> > Cheers
>> > Ralf
>> >
>> > Quoting Adrià Mercader <adria.mercader at okfn.org>:
>> >
>> >> The python commenting library I mentioned was http://posativ.org/isso/
>> >>
>> >> I think it would be really straight forward to integrate with CKAN on
>> >> a extension, keeping the comments on your server.
>> >> I'm not sure how or if it would be possible to integrate with CKAN users though.
>> >>
>> >> Adrià
>> >>
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