Following straight on from the week 2 summary (I’ve been rubbish at blogging recently - never done it much before!)

Here’s whats happening so far. Last week I got my degree result (woo I passed!), so I was in no fit state to work for a couple of days after that. Couple that with my housemate moving out with modem, blogging became a bit of an issue!

However, I’ve now moved back into the lounge (ironically where I spent the beginning of the year before he moved in with the modem!) and am back online.

The plugin is coming on quite nicely - from following some brilliantly written examples (like this one) we now have an eclipse plugin giving a menu along the top, with some mostly function-less options. A documentation submenu opens up your browser to an assortment of links to various parts of the OpenMRS docs.

While I wanted to have the file structure being created by now, it’s been slightly delayed - instead of diving straight in and creating a structure, I’m going through the OpenMRS modules and looking at almost all the different possible file structures - what is essential, what’s likely to be used, and what’s very specialised. With this stuff carefully mapped out, it should be possible to have the wizard present you with “quick start” option and/or an “advanced” option depending on what you want to do.

More details coming soon…

A very delayed post summarising week 2 of GSoC…

The first thing was to do a bit of research. From the beginning of this project I already had some fairly solid ideas in my head of what I wanted it to do. However, there were also a lot of grey areas. There’s a lot of features that I’d like to put in and others in the community want to see as well that may well not be do-able (either they just can’t be done, or can’t be done by me!).

So, a swift email to the developers mailing list cemented some ideas. Perhaps the two most fundamental parts that need to be done would be customizing the sublicpse plugin for version control, and also the module creation wizard. Even if it only got as far as creating the file and directory structure, it would be a good start. From there, it can get more detailed by generating template files for different types of modules, with lots of snippets of example code, and then up-to-date links to the more complete documentation.

With a long mail going round recently discussing a complete revamp of the documentation for OpenMRS, one thing is for sure; this project is going to have to be adapted on the fly as other things change as well!

My housemate popped his head round the door earlier and said “you know you’re the first result on google when you search for your name?” … and it’s true!

Completely pointless, but still made me smile at the time.

The result from a web search is my blog feed on the OpenMRS site found here, and the UK page is an old profile page my Taekwon-Do instructor created a few years ago when I got my 3rd Dan. Extremely flattering stuff incidentally.

On a comparably pointless note, I’ve spent a few hours today customizing my new Ubuntu Hardy Heron boot on this machine. And credit where credit’s due, it runs like a dream. Takes a short while you familiarize yourself with where things are and how bits of it work but on the whole it’s cake. The nicest part? Everything worked straight away - wireless drivers distributed with the CD… why oh why do you not think to do the same Microsoft. I’ve spent literally hours upon hours over the past years searching for wireless drivers that 90% of the time don’t work or are on a site you have to pay to get access to (curtosy of the manufacturers not keeping their damn sites up to date!) - but no Ubuntu… had them already. 2 full updates later (kernel updates included) and everything runs perfectly.

Heaven

Aah the joys of database errors. Welcome to version 2 of the blog, freshly set up after the previous one’s database decided to collapse like a flan in a cupboard.

The first week of Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is over, and progress so far has been pretty good. In terms of stuff to show off and explain, unfortunately there’s very little. Nearly all my time so far has gone into reading documentation for both OpenMRS and (Easy)Eclipse, familiarizing myself with their layouts and code.

A key section being focused on at the moment is the Eclipse plugin writing stuff - so far all seems pretty good and well written. Have got countless scraps of paper dotted around the desk/floor/walls with notes and sketches and ideas. If all goes according to plan, in the next few days the bulk of the reading will be covered and some of the initial steps of coding can begin. First task? Starting the Eclipse plugin, getting a nice OpenMRS menu and some options, time permitting, have it create the directory structure for a generic OpenMRS module.

I’ve also got a wiki page set up on the OpenMRS site here where, when it’s finished, you’ll find a more detailed plan for the project including realistic goals, hopeful goals, a timeline, and current progress.

Excellent.

What a week it’s been.

To start it off, I received confirmation from Google that I’d been accepted by the OpenMRS Organisation to participate in Google Summer of Code.

So, after graduating (hopefully) in July, I don’t have to run about trying to find a job - as I already have one!

The details of the project I’ll be working on can be found here and here.

And to top the week off, have finally completed my dissertation and got it handed in. Only thing left to do with it now is the demonstration to my tutor and another memeber of staff next week.

Couple more exams and it’s all over…!