Hey Magnus, thanks! WDQ is now added to the directory. The cronjob should run every hour.
Having a list of tools as an array is something i've been thinking about as well, will probably add that. 'Grouping' tools can be done by simply adding a category. Or do you mean something else? -- Hay On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 5:56 PM, Magnus Manske <magnusman...@googlemail.com> wrote: > Also: Can the directory detect arrays? For example, in the "wikidata-todo" > tool, I have many smaller tools. I could make a file for each, but that > seems overkill. > > Directory tool could do "object=>single tool", "array=>multiple tools in one > file". > > Cheers, > Magnus > > > On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 4:53 PM, Magnus Manske <magnusman...@googlemail.com> > wrote: >> >> Thanks Husky, >> >> I've added WDQ to try it. At what interval does it refresh? >> >> It might be helpful if I could structure (group) tools on the wiki page. >> Does the directory ignore not-well-formatted lines (e.g. headings)? >> >> Cheers, >> Magnus >> >> >> >> On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 4:15 PM, Hay (Husky) <hus...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> Hey everyone, >>> for those who attended Wikimania, i hope you all had a wonderful time! >>> >>> One of the things that i've talked about at Mania with a few people is >>> the current way of 'tool discovery', or rather, the lack thereof. >>> We've seen really cool things done by the community, but i have a >>> feeling many of the tools go by unnoticed, simply because nobody knows >>> that they exist. Maybe they've been send around here or posted on IRC, >>> but after the initial interest many of them are forgotten and lead a >>> lonely life on our virtual servers. >>> >>> I think this is especially problematic for non-community members for >>> whom the tools might be very useful. For example, as a Wikipedian in >>> Residence and GLAM advocate i have sent numerous mails with links to >>> the various GLAM tools made by Magnus, stats.grok.se, etcetera. >>> >>> But, you might say, we run all these knowledge sites called wikis >>> right? And there are some pages there that list tools, don't they? >>> You're right, the community has put some efforts in a few pages (1). >>> However, IMHO, a wiki doesn't lend itself to easy tool discovery: >>> >>> * The format on how to describe a tool is unclear, thereby leading to >>> both very long and very short descriptions. >>> * It's not possible to easily search for tools in a certain category >>> (e.g. 'GLAM' or 'editcount'). >>> * The categorization of tools leads to much clicking around, >>> distracting and confusing users. >>> * There's no way to sort results, for example by the number of people >>> using the tool. >>> >>> The biggest problem of all is the disconnection between the actual >>> code of the tool itself (hosted in a Git repo), and the description >>> advertising it. People update their tool to do something different (or >>> deprecate it), but they forget the documentation on the wiki, don't >>> remove it when the tool doesn't work anymore, etcetera. >>> >>> I believe we can, and should do better. >>> >>> THE PROPOSAL >>> >>> My proposal is to use the same mechanisms that already exist for >>> package managers such as NPM (2) or 'app stores', such as the Chrome >>> store (3). Basically this involes adding a small JSON file to your >>> project, including a few key properties such as 'title' and >>> 'description'. These files get indexed, and an easy to use frontend to >>> search to all the tools is provided to end users. You could imagine a >>> 'toolinfo.json' file to look something like this: >>> >>> { >>> "name" : "WikiDataQuery", >>> "description" : "An API for Wikidata items and properties.", >>> "url" : "http://wdq.wmflabs.org/", >>> "keywords" : "wikidata, api, query", >>> "author" : "Magnus Manske" >>> } >>> >>> If you have a web-hosted tool, simply stick it in the root of your >>> tools directory so that it's reachable by the crawler. Whenever your >>> tool data changes, just update the file and the directory will >>> automatically update the directory site. >>> >>> The link to your toolinfo.json could be added to a Wiki page so that >>> it's easy to remove your tool from the directory or change the URL to >>> the JSON file. >>> >>> I'm a firm believer in putting code where your mouth is, so i've >>> hacked up a working tool directory here: >>> >>> http://tools.wmflabs.org/hay/directory >>> >>> Try searching for stuff, clicking on the labels. To add your own tool, >>> scroll the page down for instructions. >>> >>> Current this only lists my tools, but i hope that this directory will >>> soon grow with everything the Wikimedia community has to offer. >>> >>> I'm interested in your opinion in this proposal and, if you like it, >>> add a toolinfo.json to your project! >>> >>> Kind regards, >>> -- Hay / [[User:Husky]] >>> >>> 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tools >>> 2: https://www.npmjs.org/ >>> 3: https://developer.chrome.com/apps/manifest >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Labs-l mailing list >>> lab...@lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/labs-l >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Toolserver-l mailing list (Toolserver-l@lists.wikimedia.org) > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/toolserver-l > Posting guidelines for this list: > https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Mailing_list_etiquette _______________________________________________ Toolserver-l mailing list (Toolserver-l@lists.wikimedia.org) https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/toolserver-l Posting guidelines for this list: https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Mailing_list_etiquette