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    Source: site.blogs [edit]

    All WubHub Blogs

    site.tips: Use WubHub to Bookmark Sites

    01/06/06 09:48:00 AM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    Is your browser's Favorites menu becoming overloaded? Use WubHub as a better way to organize your shortcuts to URLs. Here's how to add a "WubHub Bookmark" button into your browser, so that when you're visiting a website you'd like to record in WubHub, it's only a click away!

    To add the following bookmarklet to your browser's Favorites menu, copy the following URL:

    When you click on the favorite, your current page will be sent to WubHub's bookmark() command.

    site.tips: Faster Command Entry

    01/06/06 05:12:00 AM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    Here are some tips to speed up your commandline entry:
    • Lose the quotes! Instead of a websearch distance("oakland", "san francisco"), you can also type distance(oakland, san francisco). You don't need the quotes unless you want to embed a "," in the argument, such as distance("oakland, ca", san francisco)
    • Lose the parens! Some people like the faster ":" syntax, which saves one typed character. Instead of g("adam cheyer"), you type the equivalent g: adam cheyer.
    • Short Aliases: If you type a long command requently, simply create a new function that is an alias to this longer function, perhaps with some default arguments. For example, alias "yahooLocal(searchTerm, location)" to be customized for you: yl(searchTerm) [set the default location to where you live].

    site.tips: Keep an Activity Log

    12/23/05 05:20:00 AM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    You can see what's happening in WubHub by executing or subscribing to the activityLogs function in WubHub (must be a member and logged in). Are you doing cool things that others should know about? Start your own activityLog! Type newBlog(activityLog) to initialize it, and then add an entry to it with the command addEntryToBlog(activityLog)

    site.blog: JavaScript as an alternate to WebL

    7/19/13 2:26 PM
    Posted by acheyer
    We have now integrated JavaScript (Rhino) as an alternative to WebL for your programming commands. Enjoy!

    site.blog: Code Mirror Editor

    7/19/13 2:20 PM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    Our old text-box editor has been massively upgraded to use the CodeMirror programmer's editor. This offers syntax highlighting, improved search, and a number of other professional features.

    site.blog: New Feature: Easier Blog Editing

    8/5/06 12:41 AM
    Posted by acheyer
    Two new commands "newBlog(blogName)" and "addEntryToBlog(blogname)" make it easier to create and edit blog content. These commands display forms to let you enter key information, using the form-->wubhub command functionality. addEntryToBlog does lots of the little things for you, like calculating the current date, the next entry id number, etc.

    Note: blog entries may now have an image. The image may be specified either as a URL to an image, or if you want to refine the size, an HTML string representing an <img> tag.

    site.blog: New Feature: Caching page results

    8/5/06 12:26 AM
    Posted by acheyer
    Most WubHub scripts return results quickly, but some commands that query many web sources (e.g. cultureBonk(sf))or combine many commands (e.g., runAllUnitTests) may take a while to run. To improve performance, we have implemented caching of command results. Here's how it works:
    • Commands with checkbox "Cache results" will persist their results for each unique input they receive. If executed again with arguments it has seen before, the saved result is returned immediately rather than running the command. This caching is GLOBAL across all users, so use with care.
    • If you fill out an "Expiration Date", cached results will expire.
    • You may request that the system automatically refresh values at a certain rate (e.g. 1D = every day, 1H = every hour, or combinations such as "3W 2H"). The refresh threads run as as the "anonymous" user, so this will only work for functions accessible when you are logged out (e.g. in module "global").
    • To clear the cache for a function, you can execute "clearCache(funcName)"
    Result caching should greatly improve the response times for more complex WubHub applications. Enjoy!!!

    site.blog: New Feature: WubHub Groups!

    8/4/06 8:50 PM
    Posted by acheyer
    Groups are modules where a number of people can get together to work on a project or application. When you create or join a group, you can edit all functions belonging to that group, and the group is added to your default execution path. You may belong to more than one group at a time.
    • To create a new group, use "createGroup"
    • To invite someone to a group you belong to, use "groupInvite(NameOfGroup,NumTokens)"
    • To signup for a group that someone has invited you to join, use "groupSignup(NameOfGroup)"
    • To see all groups registered in WubHub, use "groups"
    • To see all members belonging to a group, use "groupMembers(NameOfGroup)"
    Groups are just getting started, but one group ajaxGroup has already contributed some AJAX-based portal management functions to the WubHub community.

    Get involved! Start (or join) a Group!

    site.blog: Alternatives to WebL

    03/01/06 03:30:00 PM
    Posted by levy    		 
    Just in case anyone is wondering what new is happening with WubHub: It seems the biggest issue with it as it stands is the use of WebL. WebL has been a nice prototyping platform for this system, but no one wants to take the time to learn an obscure language. So I've been working with a new framework that doesn't require WebL. Unfortunately, this means rewriting a lot, as the entire system is in WebL, and finding replacements for tools that come for free in WebL. Do drop me a note if you have any ideas for scripting features you'd like to WubHub to provide.

    But don't let this stop you from writing new functions! Any new language support should be at least as powerful as WebL, and having more examples in WebL will help the process of evaluating what the new platform needs.

    site.blog: Bookmarks and Bookmarklets

    01/06/06 09:48:00 AM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    I've recently refactored how edit works, removing it from the WubHub kernel (now it's even tinier) and making it a full-fledged editable/viewable WubHub function. As a first demonstrator, I've added a command bookmark(title, url), which lets you create del.icio.us-style, tagged, sharable, url bookmarks, enhanced by WubHub's command-line (you can make up a quick commandname to access the bookmark, and you can even add WubHub arguments that insert themselves into the URL).

    For a fast way to add your current webpage as a WubHub bookmark, add the following bookmarklet to your browser's Favorites menu by copying the following URL:

    When you click on the favorite, your current page will be sent to WubHub's bookmark() command.

    site.blog: Command Syntaxes

    01/06/06 05:12:00 AM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    I spent some time rewriting the command line parser. Here are some new features:
    • Instead of a parenthesis syntax cmd(arg1, arg2), you can use a ':', as in cmd: arg1, arg2. Saves a character typed!
    • You can now pass functions to other functions. As an example, you can pass the results of chartDemo(demoNum), which returns a WebL object containing chart data, to the chart(data) function, using the call chart(chartDemo(3)). Functions with no arguments are distinguished from string arguments if they have "(" or a ":", as in lsRender: ls(). If you want to pass a string argument containing a ':' or paren, you must quote the string.
    • Write your own syntaxes: by editing the command cmdlineRewrite(cmdline), you have a hook to change whatever the user types into a valid WubHub command.

    site.blog: Group Thoughts

    12/24/05 04:12:00 PM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    I posted a proposal on how groups should work in WubHub. Comments or questions welcome! (Quick, before I start coding... ;-)

    site.blog: Activity Logs

    12/23/05 05:20:00 AM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    WubHub offers simple version control of all edits to WubHub content, and we will soon move to a real version control-backed data store. However, our current system doesn't ask a user to "commit" function changes and provide a log message during the commit, so it's hard to know what's changed, new, etc. I'd like to propose a convention that developers create a page in their home directory and call it something like 'activityLog'; here you can indicate new "check-ins" or changes that you'd like other developers to know about. If we mark our pages with an "activitylog" flag, we can easily write an aggregator command that grabs them all into one stream to subscribe to.

    Must be logged in for these to work:

    site.blog: WubHub Launch

    12/22/05 09:15:00 PM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    Today was the first public showing of WubHub, to a select group of SRI and external invitees. After an in-depth walkthrough of the current WubHub capabilities, some stayed around for another hour talking about ideas, future possibilities, and general improvements and use cases for WubHub. We're hoping that some sign up, contribute ideas, and perhaps a few get down and dirty and try to create some new commands. Our first goal is to get a sense of whether the system is usable, compelling, useful, and addicting. If not, is there something we could add to make it so? Feel free to contribute to the ideas page!

    ajaxGroup.groupBlog: Portlets Go Prime Time!

    7/29/06 2:41 PM
    Posted by acheyer
    The first major contribution from this group has been promoted to the "public" space for general use, with the following commands being added to site and siteutil directories:
    • site.newPortal(funcName): create a new Portal that will contain portlets
    • site.addCmdToPortlet(portlet): a form for adding any wubhub command to portletData
    • site.resetDefaultContent(portlet): overwrites portlet with contents from 'portlet'+"Default" function.

    • siteutil.addCmdToPortalCmd: adds new content to portletData
    • siteutil.portlet: Executes and renders all cmds in portletData
    • siteutil.portalRenderDragableFrames: Render function using AJAX portlets
    • siteutil.dragableFramesCSS: supporting style sheet
    • siteutil.dragableFramesJS: supporting Javascript
    We look forward to additional contributions from this group towards improving WubHub through AJAX/DHTML technologies!

    ajaxGroup.groupBlog: Cross browser!

    7/27/06 12:45 PM
    Posted by calo    		 
    I have recently made a few fixes that allows the ajax portlets to work on IE, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari (MAC) and Opera. I have also added a "readonly=true" flag to allow portlets that can't be repositioned.

    To do next:

    • Implement a SAVE command to allow the positions to be recorded
    • Implement a multi-column size window

    ajaxGroup.groupBlog: Welcome to the ajaxGroup Blog!!!

    7/21/06 4:17 AM
    Posted by acheyer
    This blog is for discussing all sorts of design issues and ideas relating to adding slick AJAX interfaces to WubHub.

    To contribute to this blog, use the command addEntryToBlog(ajaxGroup.groupBlog).

    I look forward to your contributions!

    -- Adam.

    global.quotes: "incredible potential"

    7/20/06 7:38 PM
    Posted by acheyer    		 
    Think of [WubHub] as a programming language for creating mashups, where you can develop your own applications based on existing components from around the web (for instance, querying Slashdot on Java topics, than ranking them based on the results? geographical location). The idea is there (though the site is still in alpha), and has some incredible potential.

    From: Draconis Software Blog -- http://www.dracoware.com/blog/2006/06/29/wubhub-and-programming-the-web/