By javanaut on

Hello all,

I have developed a moblog module that lets your users post pictures, audio and video from their phones. One of the problems I'm faced with is that every wireless phone carrier delivers the item (picture/audio/video) in a different format. I've developed a plugin system to handle the processing of messages from different carriers. The main thing these plugins do is to separate the actual package from the formatting/advertizing. In some instances, only a link to some website where the image is stored is sent, with no actual attachment. In such instances, the plugin will pull the image from the external website. The wireless carriers don't tend to publish this sort of message format anywhere, so I have a favor to ask of you...

Could I get anyone who is interested in helping me with the development of this module to send image, audio and/or video to my test server mail account here: testpost@moblog.nullcraft.org ? All I really need is one example of each from every major carrier (and every major model of phone, if the data differs). My primary concern is images at this point. Video conversion is a scary can of worms that I'm deferring until later. I think audio would be somewhat trivial, but until I have a broad array of examples to look at, I won't know for sure.

I would certainly appreciate feedback. The code is only in CVS and an official project has not yet been created. It's at best beta quality code at the moment. The Readme is here. My testing/development site is here: http://moblog.nullcraft.org/

Thanks in advance!

Comments

pamphile’s picture

pamphile commented

This is a great module. I'll post a picture ASAP.

Marcel
http://01foto.com - picture hosting service

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

I've uploaded my current working version of the moblog, mime_registry and attached_node modules to my sandbox. Currently supported wireless carriers are:

  • Any carrier that sends images as actual attachments If they send additional attachments (such as advertisements), they can be optionally blacklisted from future processing.
  • Any carrier that uses the LightSurf platform for handling their messaging. Sprint PCS uses this, as well as others. This feature is still in testing.

The module is not ready for prime time per-se, but anyone who wishes to tinker is certainly welcome to.

moshe weitzman’s picture

moshe weitzman commented

sounds great, javanaut. looking forward to this new stuff in Contrib.

note that I gave you the go ahead to commit patches to mailhandler. I said this in an old issue.

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

Thanks!

I saw the mailhandler issue, but I don't have time to commit this today. I've merged multiple patches into my working copy (not all of which are complete), so if you have time to commit this, then go ahead. Otherwise, it might be later this week.

suff1107’s picture

suff1107 commented

A few developers that I'm working with are considering trying to help finish this up. Has anyone else started working on it again?

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

As far as I know, nobody has taken over this module. It's now 2 versions old, so all of the image handling and form generation will need to be revisited. I would be very happy if this module's life was continued by somebody.

suff1107’s picture

suff1107 commented

My team is working on drafting a document on what all has to be done. We are going to set up a test server and see where the roadblocks are. Of course, your insight would be of great help to us.

thanks and Happy New Year!!

Karen

Ian Ward’s picture

Ian Ward commented

Hello, I'm just inquiring about the status of this. Do you have a document drafted on a 4.7+ roadmap for moblog module?

Thanks,
Ian

gkrishna’s picture

gkrishna commented

i had a good success (with good suggestions / recommendatons/updates from the author) in settng up moblog module for my devel. ste. Especially the author is more approachable and upon testing the module we could able to determne and solve some important issues with repsect to mime attachments.

More the test cases the moblog wll support (objective of this module) more number of carriers which is only possble (as quoted by author) by sendng emails from all major mobile carriers.

"Moblogging is full of fun"

--**--
krishna

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

Krishna, I want to thank you for the help you have provided testing and debugging this project. It is people like you that make open source development both fun and effective. No community software developer can work effectively in a bubble.

jasonwhat’s picture

jasonwhat commented

I see this looking unmaintained in cvs. Does this work with 4.5? Will it be moved to regular modules section or is this a dead module? I hope not because it is a pretty incredible feature.

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

The CVS version works with drupal 4.5, but I have a large todo list for it before I'm ready to take on regular support issues for it. Unfortunately for moblog.module, I've been spending my free time remodeling my home instead of coding on it. Just looking over at my grease board, I have the following bullet points to tackle:

  • Report Errors via Email (mailhandler)
  • Virtual Email Passphrase Authentication (mailhandler)
  • Assign Specific Mailhandlers to Specific Mailboxes (mailhandler)
  • Add "Reply" threading support for non-compliant mail clients
  • Mime_registry: Add "do not process" option for media types
  • Mailalias: rework auth mechanism

All of these pieces must be coordinated before (in my opinion) moblog will be ready for public consumption. There are many other issues that I'm sure will arise as this list is worked on, too. Though the CVS version accomplishes the basic task of posting multimedia content via email, the user interface needs much work. Handling random crap thrown into posts by wireless carriers is another challenge that could use a better solution. The current method of dealing with this is too much for the average user.

I can't really say when exactly I'll consider this "ready", but my goal is to have it registered as a project by the time drupal 4.6 comes around. If you (or anyone else) are interested in contributing to it, I could create a new project for it sooner than that so that feature requests and issues could be tracked, patches submitted, etc..

cubano’s picture

cubano commented

Big THANKS to javanaut who sorted out my initial problems with the moblog module; up and running with drupal 4.5.2.

Ian Ward’s picture

Ian Ward commented

Hi, I'm playing w/ the moblog module right now on 4.5.2. I have mailhandler working fine on its own. When I install mime_registry and moblog, I can see that mailhandler continues to retrieve the mail fine, but then:
nothing seems to happen to text/plain
i've setup content-type text/plain to go to blog
and when i send an image and then go hit retrieve I get this error from mime_registry:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: db_escape_string() in /home/sandbox12/modules/mime_registry/mime_registry.module on line 233

Any hints on what might be some of the tricks to getting this working? I am just sending the image via email for now.

moblog is set to use default.inc
sending emails via gmail account
i've setup a taxonomy

Thanks for any advice!

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

You'll have to rename "db_escape_string" to "check_query" to work on drupal 4.5. That was part of a global name change Dries did in preparation for drupal 4.6, but this module isn't really ready for 4.6 yet.

I'm surprised it doesn't show the same error when you try to submit a text/plain entry. I should probably change this back to "check_query" until it's really ready for 4.6.

Otherwise, it looks like you're heading in the right direction.

Ian Ward’s picture

Ian Ward commented

Thanks Javanaut that made emailing photos work. However, I am still not able to successfully send an email to the site with just content type text/plain. Mailhandler acknowledges it received the mail when i hit retrieve however nothing seems to happen. I have a content-type of text/plain setup in mime_registry, left the extension part blank, and assigned it to a node-type of story. One related question - would the commands I have setup in mailhandler apply themselves to text/plain emails or are they overridden when using the mime_registry and moblog?

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

glad you got that working, you might want to confirm that the plain text isn't actually wrapped in HTML (text/html). There may be issues with the wrapper node type. I never really got that to work the way I wanted it to. Good luck.

zirafa’s picture

zirafa commented

just chiming in to say this is a cool module. hope it is being maintained along with node relativity! ;)

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

I've been on a few non-drupal projects the past 2 months or so (since 4.6 came out), but these have not been abandoned. I'm currently using drupal for an e-commerce project, so I'll be around for the next few weeks at least ;)

Both of those modules are in need of some help right now. I have versions of each in production on drupal 4.5 installations. I'll be upgrading both to 4.6 at some point..just a matter of finding time to do it.

Thanks for chiming in.

runesk’s picture

runesk commented

I am at the moment deploying multiple sites, and will take a look at the moblog module as a part of what services the sites are going to provide.

As there is loads of other stuff to install at the sites, this will not start until a couple of weeks.

By that time, I hope to have a closer look at the 4-6 API and other usefull stuff that might help moblog development.

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

Many thanks for your offer. I will help any way I can.

bluecobalt’s picture

bluecobalt commented

hey javanaut,

any word on moblog for 4.6? my nonprofit is working on converting an online community to drupal, and would really like to offer this capability to our members.

If you need any help testing, i would be glad to help.

peace,
blue

Blue Cobalt
Theurgy Foundation
http://www.theurgyfoundation.org

Blue Cobalt
http://livingparadise.org
Conscious living for a better world.

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

Thanks for your interest. It's looking like I might get some time in a few weeks to finally move up to 4.6. However, depending on what changes have happened by then, I might be upgrading it to Drupal 4.7. It definitely won't be anytime real soon, but should happen this year ;)

leoburd’s picture

leoburd commented

Hello javanaut,

How's moblog? It looks like an extremely interesting module and I'd love to use it in my website... Are you planning any new release any time soon?

Hope all is well,

.L.

javanaut’s picture

javanaut commented

I'm hoping to have some free time soon. I suppose it's good that I'm busy, but for now, the moblog module is fairly low priority for me. It would seem that drupal 4.7 will be here soon enough to at least say for sure that any major updates will be targeted at a 4.7 drupal dist. If you have time and motivation, I encourage you to take a stab at updating the image/file handling code in mime_registry and updating all of the forms to the new form API format. That's the gist of what needs to be done to work with the current Drupal version.

leoburd’s picture

leoburd commented

I may be able to give you a hand, but I'm new to Drupal and there are a couple of other features from my site that I'll have to address first. Good luck with your things!

.L.