codejanitor

Portal Application: A simple information portal that allows you to create pages using BBCode and organize them into blocks. Features include:

• Can create an unlimited number of blocks. Blocks consist of text that can be
  marked up with BBCode.
• Blocks can link to one another.
• The main portal page can be configured to show up to 9 blocks.

• Installation
• Portal Documentation
• CHANGES

We are pleased to announce the release of version 2.0 of the FastFrame Application Framework and its applications. There are some exciting new features and applications including:

• Added the ability for the user to send a help email.
• Major overhaul of the UI. FastFrame got a whole new look!
• Implemented a “hooks” feature which allows FastFrame apps to be
  customized through functions. Examples of login and permissions hooks are
  included.
• Fixed several potential XSS holes.
• Auth now handles the user not having cookies enabled more intelligently.
• 4 new authentication backends: IP mapping for internal networks, guest
  login, ldap, and external website.
• Two new applications have been released: Mayday!, a full-featured trouble ticket/issue tracking application and Portal, a simple information portal.
• Several Checkout bugs were fixed. Conflict checking is far faster and item availability is now shown when selecting an item for a reservation or loan.
• A system status message can now be put on the login screen so that all users will see the message before logging in.

Of course there’s much more, and you can read about it in each application’s CHANGES file, but the best way to check it out is to head over to the download section.

Click on one of the links below for screenshots of miscellaneous FastFrame applications.

• Version 1.0 - The initial look.
• Version 2.0 - This version featured a major UI rewrite.
• Version 3.0 - Similar in many ways to version 2.0, but you’ll notice some subtle differences.

Documentation is still in the works, but this is what we have so far:

• The main INSTALL file for getting FastFrame up and running. Note that there are INSTALL files in each applicaton’s docs/ directory that explain the details of setting up a specific app.
• An FAQ for checkout has been written. It focuses on how to use checkout in shopper mode.
• Basic Documentation for using checkout.
• A Video explaining the basics of Mayday! is available. Note that it is Brooks centric, but should still be useful.
• API Documentation is available for developers who are beginning to plumb the internals of FastFrame.

We’ll be releasing a new version of FastFrame shortly, so in the spirit of new releases we’ve launched a new website. No more e107 which was just too bulky for our needs. Instead we’ve chosen to use wordpress which I’ve long been wanting to test out. So far, very satisfied with it. Easy to style, easy to hack, simple to use, and lots of nice power user features (like giving me the exact mod_rewrite rules I need; now that’s cool!).

I designed the look from the ground up using an image taken by chux who had posted it over at stock.xchng. The design itself came from a hodgepodge of ideas I gleaned from browsing around css zen garden. I readily admit to not being a stellar designer (it seems like such a bag of mysteries compared to coding), but I hope this site is better than some of my first ones. Ideas about how to make it better are, of course, welcome.

Many thanks to all the developers and users of FastFrame, Mayday etc. for their contributions of code, coffee and kind words.

Because these are open source projects, it means anybody can make a valuable contribution, thus making it better for all the users. If you can code then check out the bug list to see if you can fix any of them. End-user and developer documentation is sorely lacking, so if you can write you can help! (update: take a look at the new documentaion!)
Just testing and reporting bugs is a valuable contribution.

Also, most of the developers have wish lists

Having problems with getting FastFrame set up? In dire need of a new feature in Mayday! or Checkout? Need a completely custom application written using the FastFrame application framework but don’t have a clue where to begin?

If you are interested in hiring one of the core developers as a FastFrame consultant then email codejanitor@rustyparts.com with a description of what you need done. Please note that this is for those wishing to inquire about paid support only. All others should direct their questions to the mailing lists.

So who is behind all the code at codejanitor.com?
Jason Rust
Greg Gilbert
Greg Lawler
John Rodkey
Anne Anderson

Why are we coding FastFrame and its apps?
Necessity for the most part. Nearly all the applications developed thus far are used on a daily basis here at Brooks. We did search quite a bit to make sure there were no suitable Open Source alternatives out there, but we found that IT software tailored to an IT department at a school is not all that prevalent, and what software we did find was usually in beta stage or designed back in NS4 days.

Why is FastFrame and its apps Open Source?
With a small coding crew, we have been able to produce an array of quality applications because we have been able to build upon the extensive trove of Open Source libraries available on the net.
Many thanks to the PEAR, PHP, Apache, Horde and other teams committed to Open Source development.

History
Mayday was first written in Perl by Anne Anderson at Westmont College where Greg Lawler was working at the time (Both Greg Gilbert and Jason Rust worked for Greg Lawler as students while studying at Westmont). Greg, Greg and Jason are now all co-workers at Brooks Institute of Photography.)

When Greg Lawler moved to Brooks in late 2000, he ported the concept and wrote the first PHP version of Mayday (version 1.0). Greg L. lured Greg G. from his post-Westmont job and version 2.0 was created in conjunction with the first checkout release. A year or so later, Jason also moved to Brooks and v3.0 (a total re-write) of Mayday, Checkout and FastFrame was created.

John Rodkey and Westmont still generously donate the bandwidth and colocation needed to host codejanitor.com.

And for fun?
Well, there’s always badgerbadgerbadger.

Mayday! is a web-based trouble-ticket system. It allows for any department to manage help requests in an efficient and trackable manner. It is designed for use by multiple departments in a single organization. Features include:

• Highly configurable. All statuses, locations, categories, resolutions, and priorities can be edited through a web interface.
• Designed with large sites in mind. Using categories and locations different departments can use the same installation of Mayday! for their needs.
• Simple enough for the novice user. Mayday! has been designed with non-IT users in mind. Submitting a ticket is a simple one step process and the basic user sees only those fields their permissions allow them to see.
• Powerful enough for the advanced user. Mayday! is designed to be highly configurable and feature-rich for those that use it all day.
• Maydays! are bolded when a new comment has been added, allowing the user to easily see which Maydays! have been updated.
• Seeing which Maydays! are unassigned, assigned to other users, and assigned to you is clearly shown using icons.
• The extended description of a Mayday! is avaiable by hovering over the table row. This reduces the needed number of mouse clicks and page reloads for the advanced user.
• Filters can be built so you see only those Maydays! you want to see.
• The Mayday! summary page can be configured to show up to six blocks of Maydays! These blocks can either show the results of a custom filter or all the Maydays! in a category.
• All fields in a Mayday! can be easily searched allowing for fast retrieval of old Maydays!.
• A powerful Mayday! email script is included that can capture emails to a certain address and figure out whether to create a new Mayday! or update an existing one.
• Rules can be created to automatically email users, adjust priority, change location, change priority, and change category by matching any number of Mayday! criteria.
• Categories can have highly granular permissions, thus allowing users to only see and edit only those Maydays! they submitted, while others can close and view all Maydays!.
• A Mayday’s priority is displayed as an intuitive gradient and can be increased or decreased from the summary page.

• Installation
• Mayday! Documentation
• CHANGES

Alumni Website Application: Alumni Website is a web-site for managing news, spotlights and alumni information. It functions as a regular website for those users who are not logged in, but adds the ability to update one’s information once logged in. With special permissions a user can also manage the spotlights and news. Features include:

• Alumni can log in and update their information.
• News postings can be managed by an administrator.
• Spotlights (articles featuring an alumni’s work) can be managed. This includes uploading any pictures associated with the article.
• Both News and Spotlights support a set of BBCode to make it easy for end-users to format the text.
• Email addresses can be spam-protected by turning on an option to display them as images.

• Installation
• CHANGES