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GSoC2009

Updates were posted here: http://gsoc2009wp.wordpress.com/

Howdy Students! Please see our GSoC 2008 Application Template

Ideas

If you have your own idea for a project, include it in your application.

Know you want to propose a project around WordPress, but aren't sure what you want to do? Below are a few ideas we think would work well as GSoC projects. Also see the popular ideas submitted by members of the WordPress community. If you share one of their passions, why not make that idea your own? Also, check out the ideas from last year.

BuddyPress

Mentors: Andy Peatling, Jake Spurlock

BuddyPress is a set of plugins for WordPress MU (regular WordPress version coming soon) that turns a WordPress blog into a social network. Since BuddyPress is still so new, there are infinite project possibilities, and we're interested in any proposals that involve extending BuddyPress.

Media

Mentors: Andrew Ozz, Mark Jaquith, Noel Jackson

In the coming months, the WordPress media handling functions will be redesigned, with new features added and significant recoding of existing features. There will be many components to the media overhaul, any of which could make a great Summer of Code project. We'll be looking to add things like slideshows, better gallery functions, creating more user settings for media files and templates, maybe a Gears uploader, and dozens of other features that could be packaged up for SoC projects.

Blog Import/Export

Mentors: Alex Shiels, Beau Lebens, Nick Momrik, Thorsten Ott

Importing and exporting blog content is an important function within WordPress. Create a WordPress import/export process that doesn’t need a file, but connects directly to the blog for the content transfer instead.

User Roles

Mentor: Mark Jaquith

The WordPress roles/capabilities system could use an upgrade. The current system is a little clunky, and is missing key functionality such as the ability to limit an author to a specific category, setting permissions for viewing/altering/moderating content (currently very basic), and on the back end it is hard to query for "users who have capability X" etc.

Template Versioning

Mentors: Thorsten Ott, Beau Lebens

WordPress saves post revisions, but changes to theme files are not recorded, though the presentation layer is sometimes just as important. Build a versioning system for template files within the theme editor.

MPTT

Mentor: Ryan Boren

MPTT (Modified Pre-order Tree Transversal) for pages and categories would make displaying hierarchical data much faster and would allow WordPress to scale better for blogs with lots of pages or categories.

Search

Mentors: Mike Adams, Joseph Scott, Demitrious Kelly

The current search included with WordPress is fairly basic (both the blog element and the admin element). Build an advanced search to allow searching by multiple metadata selections (ex: posts in category A with tags B and C; posts with author A and "text string;" plugins with keywords A and B, version compatibility C.)

Video

Mentors: Thorsten Ott, Hailin Wu

Enhance the WordPress Video Solution Framework. Possibly add features such as related videos in player, screenshot capture on preview, eventually advertisement overlays, etc.

Theme Frameworks

Mentor: Nick Momrik, Thorsten Ott

It's been said that 2009 will be the year of the theme. Possible projects in this area could include things like creating a new theme framework for inclusion as a default theme, or putting together a set of plugins with a theme framework to make use-specific packages like BuddyPress is for social networking... projects could do the same for event planning, CMS, education/online learning, media-based sites (using WordPress.tv as test case), etc.

Community/Event Organizing Framework

Mentors: Andy Peatling, Sam Bauers, Jane Wells

Create a suite of plugins for event planning, tie it into WordPress MU/BuddyPress/bbPress, and create a community organizing platform for open source release. Using WordCamp.org as the test case, the resulting site would include functionality for registration, calendaring, additional roles/permissions, extended profiles, directories (vendors, participants, etc), discussion and messaging, coordination around things like carpooling and planning meetings, event media, etc.

WordPress MU

Mentor: Beau Lebens, Mark Jaquith, TBA

Lots of things could be done around the multi-user version of WordPress. Some ideas include improving functionality for domain mapping, adding a management system for multi-site MU installs, global tags pages, making MU work with "www" domains, and tracking spammers and junk blogs (especially in signups).

Other

  • Utilize Google earth, maps, etc to demonstrate blogger's geographic information. (Hailin Wu, Thorsten Ott, Beau Lebens)
  • Create system for users to specify post templates by category, author, content or other criteria.
  • Extend taxonomy functions (categories, tags) to elements other than posts, such as Pages, media files, authors, etc.
  • Development of different publishing models using WordPress technologies as the core (e.g. Prologue/P2) (Beau Lebens)
  • Development of a new Installer script, Upload a single .php file to server which kicks off a full blown WordPress install, etc.
  • Development of plugin for syncronization of WordPress blog and bbPress forum. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-bbpress-syncronization/
  • Add other ideas here

Mentors

Alex Shiels, tellyworth
Unit testing, automated regression testing and any related ideas. Developer of WordPress unit tests.
Andrew Ozz
Core WordPress developer, expertise in JavaScript, jQuery, media functions, TinyMCE, familiar with all aspects of WordPress code base.
Andy Peatling
Expertise in BuddyPress, WordPress and Wordpress MU plugin and theme development. Generally available to mentor on any project, but focused on BuddyPress development.
Andy Skelton, skeltoac
Generally available for mentoring on any idea. Experience with all aspects of the WordPress code base. Expertise in WordPress editor, TinyMCE, import/export, JavaScript.
Beau Lebens
Generally available for mentoring on any idea. Import/export +1.
Hailin Wu
Expertise in advanced algorithms, WordPress open source video player framework.
Jane Wells
UI/UX design, available to mentor on UI aspects of any project to ensure user interface fits into current and future WordPress UI.
Jake Spurlock
Skills in WordPressMU, BuddyPress, theme integration and social marketing. Whiz-bang video production and design skills, too.
Joseph Scott
XML-RPC features, automated testing and documentation.
Lloyd Budd
Interested in ideas that incorporate basic measuring of WordPress participation. Testing and Quality Assurance expertise.
Michael Adams, mdawaffe
Expertise in bbPress and JavaScript.
Nick Momrik, mtdewvirus
Expertise in plugins, themes, with a good knowledge of most of WordPress code base, having been a user since version 0.72.
Nikolay Bachiyski
Any ideas in the i18n/l10n fields, available to mentor on any project. Backup Hailin with advanced algorithms.
Noel Jackson, noel
Expertise in CSS, WordPress theme development, JavaScript, and PHP development.
Ryan Boren
Lead WordPress developer, expertise in all aspects of the WordPress code base.
Sam Bauers
bbPress expertise.
Thorsten Ott, tott
Expertise in WordPress and WordPress MU plugin and theme development. Good knowledge in linux based video processing and use of WordPress beyond blogging. Generally available to mentor on any project.
Dion Hulse, DD32
A SoC Student of the previous 2 years, In depth knowledge of a lot of the WordPress codebase (particularly of the Update/Upgrade/Installer functionalities). Available for mentor on any project, Automation & thinking out of the box, or in a new way would grab my interest.

Additional members from the WordPress open source community may be added based on project needs.

Co- or Backup Mentors

Demitrious Kelly
Generally makes systems and code dance to the same tune.
Mark Jaquith
Core developer, knowledgeable about all aspects of WordPress code base. Particularly keen on media projects.
Peter Westwood, westi
Experienced with all aspects of the WordPress code base.

Mentor's Mentor

Matt Mullenweg, photomatt
Guiding the mentors from everything from student application selection through to evaluating that the project is meeting the milestone objects and, finally, evaluating that it was completed successfully.

See Also

GSoC2007, GSoC2008, GSoC2009, GSoC2010, GSoC2011, GSoC2012