User:JaimeLyn/Weekly Reports

These are weekly reports on the Historical_OpenStreetMap FOSS OPW project for User:JaimeLyn

My OPW-related blog posts can be viewed on Blogger.

Community Bonding Period

 * 1) Most of this has been done through the mailing list.

Lessons learned since 21 April

 * 1) Started from scratch in using IRC. Picked up the basics here and here
 * 2) There is an overwhelming amount of information about both the OHM project and MediaWiki in general on the web, which makes Googling for links problematic at best (and hair-tearing at second best). I've learned to use this page as a key to some of the more frequently needed resources.

Communication Plan

 * 1) Our team uses the Historical Mailing list, Google Hangouts and IRC #ohm
 * 2) I will complete weekly progress reports here with frequent check-ins to my mentor via Hangouts and/or IRC.

Deliverables
The MVP: Integrate the time slider created by ConorMc (need user page to properly cite) into the Rails_Port webpage codebase.

The second half of the internship will be spent integrating the slider into the map renderer.

Week 1: May 19 to May 25

 * 1) Researched history of OHM project in archives and GitHub issues here and here.
 * 2) First OHM planning meeting on Google Hangouts, synopsis by Robert H. Warren posted on User/JaimeLyn/Weekly_Reports/May 22 OHM Hangout Synopsis
 * 3) Added to Github OHM organziation and (scarily) given push access.
 * 4) Assigned and began work on microtask of investigating methods for client-side rendering

Week 2: May 26 to June 1

 * 1) Went spelunking through the OHM Rails Port to find where to place the slider (and was later introduced to (and made a small link fix within) the official OHM UI wiki page
 * 2) Attended #OPW IRC chat for OPW Interns on May 27th, 3PM UTC.
 * 3) We had a round of intros and some general questions
 * 4) Sumana Harihareswara is now the official "so where do we go after this is over" post-internship planning mentor
 * 5) Sumana also posted a link to a very helpful article on when to ask for help First You Must Try, Then You Must Ask
 * 6) During this week's Google Hangout meeting with mentor, reviewed task from last week and discussed next steps
 * 7) find a place for the TimeSlider on the OHM site
 * 8) start finding a way to make input from the TimeSlider feed into the website and request the tiles needed (this one's a higher level task and will break out into other pieces)
 * 9) I posted mockups of two different ideas for TimeSlider placement:


 * 1) within the header of the site
 * 2) attached to the search box on the site

Week 3: June 2 to June 9 --DRAFT/WIP

 * 1) Snagged TimeSlider code from themusictree.net website
 * 2) Continuing work on getting the slider integrated into the website and I'm learning:
 * 3) Building consensus can be hard - there are a lot of differing opinions over what the TimeSlider should look like and how it should function.
 * 4) While I know Rails, finding one's way around a new code base can be tricky, to say the least. I'm using the Rails UI Wiki page and this little guide to Erubis to try to lead the way.
 * 5) I've been very surprised at how much of the logic of the site is in JavaScript. The other Rails projects I've dug into have been mostly Rails with a little JavaScript for buttons and hover effects. This project is a JavaScript project wrapped in a Rails app. I'm still getting a handle of its complexity.
 * 6) I'm still working on getting the slider working but I've got the text fields showing, at least. They needed a lot of tweaking to fix and flex to the space of the site. My branch is posted on GitHub