Attention Dolphin Developers! ShrinkTheWeb Integration Contest

puravida posted 8th of November 2011 in Community Voice. 18 comments.

Contest Begins: 11/09/2011
Contest Deadline: 01/29/2012*
1st Place Prize: $1,000 USD**
2nd & 3rd Place Prizes: $250 USD each**

Contest Goal: We are looking for an experienced Dolphin developer (or a team of developers who will split the prize) to design and implement a tighter integration that is also more future-proof, since we have some changes coming at the end of January that may “break” the current module for free users. We will continue to support all free users with the “Preview Verification Page” but also need to add support for upgraded accounts.

Eligibility / Judging Criteria:
In order to be considered and prize awarded, ALL of the following criteria must be met.
1.    The code MUST meet with full approval from the Boonex developers. Here are their exact words: “If this module (or rather a modification to our Sites module) is to be included into Dolphin core package, it would have to comply with our code convention and must integrate with Dolphin correctly. Factors like speed and security would be very important.”
2.    The code must support the new ShrinkTheWeb FREE method, read more here:
http://www.shrinktheweb.com/content/how-do-i-install-or-integrate-stw-preview-verification-code.html
3.    The code must support both the embedded <img src> method and the Advanced API request method for “optional” caching of screenshots locally.***
http://www.shrinktheweb.com/uploads/STW_API_Documentation.pdf
4.    The code must support all ShrinkTheWeb PRO Features, read more here:
http://www.shrinktheweb.com/uploads/PRO_Feature_Documentation.pdf


Tie-Breaker: If there are multiple submissions that meet all the criteria and are approved by the Boonex dev team, then we will release all the updates and ask the Dolphin community to vote for their top 3 favorites, picking out a single 1st place winner that will be used.

Submissions: Please submit (via link to demo) using the ShrinkTheWeb support system. That way, we can easily track your progress and communicate.

Contest Resources: For proper integration, you will need to have a ShrinkTheWeb account. You will then have access to our support portal and are free to open tickets to ask questions, clarify, or get pointers/feedback. During the contest period, you will also be allowed to ask for a fully upgraded “DEV” account to test with (we will make it free when you are testing PVP and upgrade when you are testing PRO features).

Quick Background: Thanks to a few helpful Dolphin users, Caltrade and ScottDB, we learned about Boonex’s integration of our service back in April of this year. It was brought to our attention that a number of Dolphin 7.x users were having issues using our service because of the “Lock to Account” feature we added. Unfortunately, many of those users were not receiving our emails and had no idea about the simple way to add their server IP addresses to their account.

Once that was sorted, all was “OK” but still not great. Over the following months, we have seen a lot of Dolphin users who want to show screenshots but when they use the SITES module, it seems to only work well when the web page is already captured in our cache. Otherwise, it “queues” in our system and never gets updated in Dolphin, except through some manual process (like hitting F5). We have discussed improvements with the Boonex development team but they have been working diligently on several other urgent updates/upgrades so we decided to launch a contest to try to get the best integration possible, as quickly as possible.


*The contest may end early, if the goals are reached and the module is submitted before the deadline.  The prize(s) will be awarded once the Boonex dev team approves the code for integration OR after a vote has been taken (totalled 30 days after release), in the case of a tie-breaker scenario

**payable via Paypal, escrow.com, or business check. We will consider alternatives.

***Proper result checking of the XML response is required to ensure that error images are not cached locally, that limits are honored, and that error codes are properly logged so they are not retried. Please request the latest latest BETA sample code when you get to the point of integrating the "Advanced Method" API. It may be helpful, but you are free to rewrite the sample code, if you know a better way ;)

 
Recommended by
 
 
Comments
·Oldest
·Top
Please login to post a comment.
Andrew Boon
We'll be happy to work with the winning developers to achieve required code "quality" for the mod to be included into the default Dolphin package.
hmm , i thought it worked already within dolphin, i even just signed up with shrinktheweb but this didn't work. i hope this will be realized soon
paansystems
anyone working on this already?
paansystems
Where to send the module for approval?
Contest has ended. Is there an update you can share?
madcap
Yes please ... is there any update on the fix/issue?
puravida
Hello everyone... No more submissions, please. We are working with the developer's whose submissions appear to be close. However, there are some modifications that need to be made to each, and once a clear winner (or winners) is/are chosen; we will update this thread. Thank you all for your patience. :)
puravida
Quick update: The submission by misterpopper is coming along nicely and we are focusing on that integration as the current leader. Hopefully, we will have something for the Dolphin developers to test soon and then roll out to users.

Thank you to all who participated and/or provided helpful feedback!
puravida
Ok, so another quick update. We have narrowed the submissions down to just misterpopper's entry. He has come a long way, quickly, and we feel that his integration is really going to make Dolphin users happy! Stay Tuned!

We feel that we may be ready to submit the new SITES module to Boonex next week. Then, it's up to them how quickly it gets released, but we are excited to help make it easier for Dolphin lovers to use our service.

As a quick primer, the new SITES module does not have the problem see more with getting "new" screenshots that aren't already in our cache. Also, misterpopper has added functionality for every PRO feature we offer. So, this is a very complete and very powerful tool for showing all kinds of screenshots. Props to misterpopper for all of his efforts. :)
puravida
Updated "Sites" module submitted for review. If approved, this new version will be released with Dolphin 7.0.10
puravida
Great news! After many rounds of updates and tweaks to the Sites module, we have received the following confirmation from BoonEx: "Approximately, we will have Dolphin 7.0.10 Beta for public testing in the beginning of May. After it is thoroughly tested and all issues found by the community are fixed we will release 7.0.10 version with new Sites module."

We are excited to be part of improving the Dolphin software that we know many of you have come to know and love. We look forward to see more hearing your feedback once the 7.0.10 version is released in BETA and we will work with users to get any issues resolved and a final release out to everyone!
puravida
Hello all... It was just brought to our attention that if you want the new SITES module BEFORE the official release, you may get it here: http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/ticket/2790.

IF you run into any issues, please do post here and let us know. We have thoroughly tested through hundreds of hours, but those little "bugs" can still slip through sometimes! lol.
puravida
Just a quick note: There will be a fairly big change to the SITES module integration before it is released. Without going into a lot of detail, we have decided to simplify the entire process and no longer use the "Preview Verification Page". The change in the code is not that much, so we do not foresee any major delay to make this happen.
puravida
I wanted to mention that we did not get confirmation if our latest revision made into the BETA. There were some incompatibilities introduced by v7.1, but they were addressed by our team earlier in the week. It is flawless again, but v7.1 SITES may not be working well if the changes didn't make it in yet.
puravida
We also requested for BoonEx to add a way to easily clear the screenshot cache in the settings/cache area. They may or may not have time to do that, but I'm hopeful that they will. I have been informed that it is a simple change but it requires CORE changes, so it's best left up to the BoonEx team. :)
puravida
I just received word that the latest changes (Free support updated; v7.1. issues resolved) and can be found here:
http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/changeset/16787

We have tested thoroughly, but please let us know if you find any issues.

Alex replied back that our "Clear Screenshot Cache" idea is a good one, but that it should reside in the SITES module itself. So we are looking into that for a future update --hopefully before v7.1 is fully released. :)
puravida
FYI: BoonEx committed changes with slight alterations: http://www.boonex.com/trac/dolphin/changeset/16803

This update includes a note about needing to enter IP addresses into your STW "Allowed Referrers" list, and it also adds an easy way (link at bottom of settings page) to delete the "Screenshot Cache" (which is helpful and necessary is certain cases).
 
 
Below is the legacy version of the Boonex site, maintained for Dolphin.Pro 7.x support.
The new Dolphin solution is powered by UNA Community Management System.
PET:0.13611316680908