[sword-devel] Remote Module Repository Wiki

[Jonathan Morgan]

On Sat, Nov 6, 2010 at 12:02 AM, Peter von Kaehne <refdoc at gmx.net> wrote:

> I think Troy, the concern is correct.
>
> For the publisher with some decent IT muscle and budget a proper repo must
> be better, but for the small town church with a website and a couple of
> modules to share - zip and http is a must.
>
> Having a multiplicity of methods of getting modules into the system would
> certainly be easier.
>
> My preference:
>
> 1) keep current methods - it is best for huge numbers of modules and it is
> probably also best for anyone with enough money to have a fixed ip and a
> server, able to run anonymous ftp
>
> 2) add methods for local installation of zips. Look at MK Bible - pull a
> zip over the programme and it gets installed. This is - emphatically - not
> how I would want to install a large selection of modules or how I would want
> to publish the same, but it is probably the best usability i have seen for a
> frontend using only 2-3 modules (which is what MKBible is laid out for) and
> a small time publisher or someone who has target audience of little computer
> literacy
>

It's capable of far more than just dealing with small numbers of books when
you have two tools:
1. DownThemAll!: Download multiple zips at one go.
2. Multi-selection in Explorer / file window: I tried this in MK, and it
didn't seem to work correctly, but I probably don't have the latest
version.  It definitely works in BPBible, and allows you to install multiple
books in one go.

(though I'm not convinced that a large percentage has these tools at their
disposable or is aware of them).

While drag and drop installation has a certain coolness factor, I feel
having a menu option (like the "File > Install Books" BPBible has, also
including multiple book installation) is more discoverable and thus perhaps
more useful to the starting off user.  Also, people coming from the
background of e-Sword or similar tools are probably used to seeing a large
collection of books on a web page to download, and when they see a similar
list at Crosswire they do the same: download books and look for a way to
install them, while some people just like downloading a thing to make sure
they have it and could it share it with others if they wanted to (though
with "the cloud" this is probably less common than it used to be).

Jon
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