I spent much of yesterday sitting down and figuring out what I need to do and how to get it done.

I came up with a few milestones for Veekun Beta:

Beta 2: Moves
Move pages
Pokémon flavor pages
Move effects updated
Miscellaneous other move data
Lookup autocomplete
Lookup by other language name et al.
Random lookup
Menubar

Beta 3: Pokédex pages
User login
User profiles
Type pages
Item pages
Ability pages
Location pages
Locations for move tutors
Special Pokémon encounters
Shadow moves

Beta 4: Search
User permissions
Pokémon search + list
Move search + list
Handful of Pokémon-related articles, at least covering what I have now
reST for move and ability effects

Release
Stat calculator
Breeding chain calculator
Changes in moves, etc. between games
Beta replaces Veekun Prime


Also, regarding users: I think I'm going to avoid the whole password mess and just use OpenID for accounts. I might also use Gravatar for avatars. If you have objections, you'd better raise them now.


We'll see how this goes.

The bug tracker for all this, by the way, is http://bugs.veekun.com/.
Trac has problems with duplication and unhelpful titles/descriptions mixed in with things I actually intend to do, and I'm trying to cut that off quick here. I made a separate project for publicly-filed bugs, and I'll sort them out and move them to the right project as they come in. I don't think anyone should need to figure out which codebase the problem is actually in, anyway.
Here's the form for complaining about the beta. You don't need to worry about anything below 'Description'.

Wait by OpenID do you mean to say that it'll be like 4chan's system? So some of us might want to learn tripcodes so that we don't get mistaken for people who might want to troll and ruin our good names.

Um, no. OpenID is like StackOverflow.

Okay, that's much better, it saves a lot of people some trouble.

Sorry Eevee, but I don't get it

It's a system where you use an account for another site to log in. You don't have to make an account; you just log in and get one automatically if it's not already there. All you do is enter a URL for something you own.

Really, try it. LiveJournal, AOL, Google, Flickr, and various other places all let you use your accounts as OpenIDs.

The advantage for me is that your password is never stored on my server. Even if my entire database were leaked somehow, nobody would be able to get into your account here; at worst, they'd find out your AIM handle or something.

The advantage for everyone else is one less password to worry about and a much simpler registration process. In fact, some OpenID providers will ask to pass along your username, email, etc. so you don't have to enter the same stuff again.


Edit: Oh, and Gravatar is a service originally for blogs that associated your email address with an avatar. Then, on any site that uses Gravatar, you get the same avatar automatically. You also get a unique random avatar even if you haven't set one. Advantage for everyone is that I don't have to muck about with avatar code, and of course you can change your avatar in multiple places all at once.

Obviously these things would be far cooler if everywhere used them; part of the problem with OpenID is that all the big sites are willing to act as providers but not willing to actually allow OpenID logins themselves. Still, we'll never get anywhere if even the people who like the idea don't use it. Also, I am fucking sick of registration forms.

You can also log into the new bug tracker with OpenID.

OpenID is the best technology ever invented, personally. If it was used more often, it'd make everything so much easier for everyone.

I vote for openID. Not that this is a democracy or anything.

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Automerged:
Also, Eevee what's your planned timeline? Are you just trying to get everything done ASAP?

I don't have a timeline; I just do what I can when I can. I'd like to have most of Beta 3 done by HG/SS, so the beta dex can be used for it, but I have no idea whether that will actually happen.

yes, great idea to put OpenID and gravatar... :)

I don't mind (and actually support) OpenID but I'd like to know if I'd be able to retain my current user name here in the new version even if it's linked to my OpenID.

Eevee,

I noticed in your pokemon table that you are using the id attribute as both the database id and the national id. In the latter case, you have to perform a translation for pokemon with alternate forms. Wouldn’t it be easier to simply use the id attribute as a database id and change base_forme_pokemon_id to national_id?

The positives would be that you no longer have an attribute which is NULL for 90% percent of the rows in the table and it would be easier to add new rows in the future without more translation needed. Doing the translation seems to be excessive when really you already have an attribute which could hold the national_id for all pokemon. You can still check if a pokemon is original form by checking forme_name.

Anyway, just something I noticed. I’m betting HG/SS will have more alternate pokemon forms.

ShinyMew, I like your new Pirating Avatar.

ShinyMew:
Actually, I'm considering allowing for duplicate usernames, as it makes a few registration details easier and fits with OpenID's hippie openness better. I have a couple ideas for keeping people from pretending to be other people.


Pagoda:
forme_name isn't blank in the new database. The basic Wormadam is 'grass', the basic Deoxys is 'normal', the basic Giratina is 'another', etc. If I did what you suggest, then I'd have to compare national_id to id to tell if a Pokémon was an alternate form, and I'd be right back where I started.

The new schema has a whole pokemon_dex_numbers table, which includes National numbers, and I think that's a bit more sound. I'm not using it everywhere I should, but it's there. 8)

Besides, I don't see a problem with having a column that's mostly NULL if it conveys something important. A lot of the problems with the old schema and code arose because I was trying to be unnecessarily concise.

I see, that makes sense now. I didn't notice that use of forme_name. I'm not using SQL Alchemy, so I needed some way to translate the id to the national id. I'll just join on the pokemon_dex_numbers table.

I guess one down side is that when gen 5 comes out, the pokemon table will be invalid until it is updated (i.e. rotom holds id 505 which will be some new pokemon), but yeah, you'd just need to start using pokemon_dex_numbers instead. It'll be 2012 before that happens anyway.

I'll likely just shove the alternate forms down to the end of the new list, like the game would be doing anyway. I'd like to keep the real Pokémon together.

Of course, at that point I might just bump the alternate forms far forward so I never have to do it again; somewhere like 10,001 would be a good starting id.

I think he means he wants to appear as ShinyMew even if that's not what his OpenID says.
Also what are these ideas? ^o.o^

That is exactly what I mean, considering what my 4 OpenID's are.
I also wonder what these ideas are.

An idea for the pokemon pages: show moves which can be learned by a previous evolution and thus inherited by the current evolution. The best example I can think of is Breloom. Looking at Breloom's page you can't tell that it can learn Spore, and Spore is a damn good move for Breloom.