Serchilo goes Open Source!

I happily announce that I am reworking the Serchilo code – and this is now happening as Open Source! The code of the new site is on Github, demo is running on serchilo.org.

To make it easier for you to comment and contribute, I activated the Serchilo mailing list. Feel free to add youself there.

The code is still based on Drupal 7. It is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License, which basically means that anyone who changes and runs it on their server, must make the changes Open Source as well.

What will be new

• Mobile-first.
  Using Bootstrap framework, the site should work well on mobile devices.
• Commands are now Shortcuts.
  Just a name change, fitting into the slogan “Search with Shortcuts”.
• Back to wiki-editing (mostly).
  After the relaunch last year, users could only edit their own user shortcuts (commands) freely. Edits to site shortcuts could only be proposed.
  It turned out to me that this style seems too bureaucratic for me. I myself wouldn’t like to “propose” a change and then wait for an admin to accept it or not.
  So the plan now is to allow adding and editing shortcuts freely without moderation, as long as they don’t change existing behaviour. This applies to new shortcuts with a new keyword in “o” namespace. However, editing an existing shortcut’s URL, keyword, or namespace will still need an admin to approve it.
  (An open question is still what to do with new shortcut in Non-“o” namespaces, for instance adding a shortcut with the keyword “g” to the “de” namespace would overwrite the Google shortcut from “o”… As you see, it seems to be a complex probelm, I’ll be opening a thread on that issue here soon to discuss it in more depth.)

What you can do

• Play around on the demo site.
  It might still look and behave a bit clumsy. But it should have the main functionality. If important things are missing, please open an issue or write it here.
  Feel also free to use the test account (name: test, pass: test) and add data. But be aware that it can be wiped at any time, during a reinstall for instance.
• Open issues on Github
  Having bugs and ideas as issues is much easier to keep track and work on them.
• Work on issues on Github
  There are also issues which only need some CSS frontend skills, like this one.
  Others might need a copy install on your machine, so you can:
• Install a local copy on your machine.
  If you run into problems, feel free to ask me. I’m also willing to help over instant messaging.
• Complain in general.
  Does everything go in the wrong direction? Tell us, I might get convinced and change plans.
• Praise in general.
  It’s more fun to work then.

So long, I’d be happy to hear from you,
Georg