[buro9]

OK, one step further... I've sketched out the indexer and shall be trying to apply it early next week (massive party in Taunton this weekend means that I will be too drunk to be let near code of any sort.. generally means I look when I'm sober and spend hours unpicking each line I added!).

The basis of this goes like this:

The directory and file names will follow this naming convention

k_id

Where k = key, it can be one of these:

f = forum
p = post
t= thread
y = year
m = month
d = date, e.g. 31, as in day of month

id = primary key or data.

if k = f, then id = forumid, e.g. f_2 is forum 2
if k = y, then id = year, e.g. y_2002 is year 2002

You get the idea.

This way the indexer can be relatively dumb, but knows that anything before the underscore is the key to the data after the underscore.



The next step is the recursive index proc.

One function will simply index a single directory, based upon the above rules. Templates will be provided for the display end of the index.

Another function will wrap the 'index this directory' function... and that will simply call that function for each subfolder, this in turn is called from the 'index this directory' function, resulting in a recursive indexing.

I don't suppose I explained that well, but I've done it before in TCL and ASP, so I know how it works



Once the indexer is in place, hopefully before the end of next week, I shall ask you all to try it out and see if there are any improvements that could be made at this point. Once we're happy we'll launch version 1.



I have in mind that there will be three versions.

Version 1: Splurge and Index
Version 2: More file management, deletion of pre-indexed items.
Version 3: Possibility for more than one archive, additional templates for views (these allow you to archive for support on other platforms).

A very last feature that I'll leave someone else to consider is the possibility that the Cache Cannon could be fired in single instances when a post is made on the board... thus never requiring firing manually. But without Oracle and Triggers, I'm not sure how clean adding this feature may be... could possibly be a very nasty hack, whereas at the moment it's quite elegant and standalone.

Cheers

David K