Tea party ticker? A way to unify diverse efforts

[jcims]

All this hand wringing and mud slinging over which site gets what traffic is counterproductive... I agree there should be one official 'number' of pledges, and one site to collect them, but honestly I don't see TeaParty07.com having much utility beyond that. This campaign is only going to increase in momentum on December 17th, and what use is the site going to be then? How many folks are still actively visiting ThisNovember5th.com? (If you haven't, you should, it's had a nice facelift. And for Trevor and others, please don't misconstrue this as slighting the effort, it looks awesome now and the effort put in so far is very apparent)

To that end, i think there would be benefit in emulating the campaign's flash donation ticker. Something that can be embedded in any site, that has that Wheel of Fortune 'waiting for the final number' thing going on, and that polish that gives the whole thing credibility. Folks that click on it go to TeaParty07.com and can sign up if they like.

Developing the back-end to something like this is pretty simple...the biggest issue simply being the bandwidth used. The front end is the biggest question mark for me, as i have no Flash skills or anything of the like (heck, it could probably be done in Javascript as well).

What do people think about this? Are there any flash developers on board, and if so is this something that would be relatively straightforward to do? If not, what about throwing together a chipin to raise a few hundred bucks to sponsor its development?

[JordanL]

All this hand wringing and mud slinging over which site gets what traffic is counterproductive... I agree there should be one official 'number' of pledges, and one site to collect them, but honestly I don't see TeaParty07.com having much utility beyond that. This campaign is only going to increase in momentum on December 17th, and what use is the site going to be then? How many folks are still actively visiting ThisNovember5th.com? (If you haven't, you should, it's had a nice facelift. And for Trevor and others, please don't misconstrue this as slighting the effort, it looks awesome now and the effort put in so far is very apparent)

To that end, i think there would be benefit in emulating the campaign's flash donation ticker. Something that can be embedded in any site, that has that Wheel of Fortune 'waiting for the final number' thing going on, and that polish that gives the whole thing credibility. Folks that click on it go to TeaParty07.com and can sign up if they like.

Developing the back-end to something like this is pretty simple...the biggest issue simply being the bandwidth used. The front end is the biggest question mark for me, as i have no Flash skills or anything of the like (heck, it could probably be done in Javascript as well).

What do people think about this? Are there any flash developers on board, and if so is this something that would be relatively straightforward to do? If not, what about throwing together a chipin to raise a few hundred bucks to sponsor its development?

Well, on the bandwidth front I have 5.5 Terrabytes to donate. :)

[jcims]

Well, on the bandwidth front I have 5.5 Terrabytes to donate. :)

I'm not sure that will cut it, lol.

The protocol used by the official campaign sticker is pretty simple, and it would be fairly easy to add basic flow control and load balancing as well. Since we're currently just talking about communicating a single string/number, you could even use DNS.

[Drknows]

All this hand wringing and mud slinging over which site gets what traffic is counterproductive... I agree there should be one official 'number' of pledges, and one site to collect them, but honestly I don't see TeaParty07.com having much utility beyond that. This campaign is only going to increase in momentum on December 17th, and what use is the site going to be then? How many folks are still actively visiting ThisNovember5th.com? (If you haven't, you should, it's had a nice facelift. And for Trevor and others, please don't misconstrue this as slighting the effort, it looks awesome now and the effort put in so far is very apparent)

To that end, i think there would be benefit in emulating the campaign's flash donation ticker. Something that can be embedded in any site, that has that Wheel of Fortune 'waiting for the final number' thing going on, and that polish that gives the whole thing credibility. Folks that click on it go to TeaParty07.com and can sign up if they like.

Developing the back-end to something like this is pretty simple...the biggest issue simply being the bandwidth used. The front end is the biggest question mark for me, as i have no Flash skills or anything of the like (heck, it could probably be done in Javascript as well).

What do people think about this? Are there any flash developers on board, and if so is this something that would be relatively straightforward to do? If not, what about throwing together a chipin to raise a few hundred bucks to sponsor its development?


I know my way around flash.

It depends how you do it, Pulling the data would use up more bandwidth.

The proper way would be using some type of cron job or Poor Man's Cron to update a file. that way the data is only pulled from the database every 10 mins or so. Then export to XML file.

Something like this.......

form--> php ---> database ---> update script ---> XML --> Flash


....

[Ozwest]

Sounds like a good idea if the tech's can pull it off. The more exposure, the better.

[jcims]

I know my way around flash.
....

Pulling data definitely has costs associated with it, but the 'live count' nature really is a winner IMHO. That's why i'm thinking we might want to engineer the protocol just a smidge to provide for some load balancing in the event that a single server gets hammered. Maybe 'stats.teaparty07.com' could minimally DNS round robin a few trusted servers. Each of them pull stats every minute and, as you mentioned, dump it to a file.

Since we're probably just talking about a single number, it might be just as easy to spit that number out as the entire HTTP response body (or even a cookie), whatever is simplest to manage in Flash. XML is good, but just adds bytes and complexity for something that should be fairly simple. I wonder if the campaign would be willing to share any stats on the utilization of their webservice.

[Indy Vidual]

jcims: Great idea for a ticker, and this should help everyone be able to work together.



...The proper way would be using some type of cron job or Poor Man's Cron to update a file. that way the data is only pulled from the database every 10 mins or so. Then export to XML file.

Something like this.......

form--> php ---> database ---> update script ---> XML --> Flash


....


Sounds like a good idea if the tech's can pull it off. The more exposure, the better.

Setting the cron job is really easy for a Webmaster to learn, but the php/XML/Flash programming I've never done before.

Question:
For some new sites will this cause less server load...

Flash form--> Flash 'Action Scripting' ---> database ---> update script ---> XML --> Flash

...since the PHP is replaced?
Will this still work on Linux, as opposed to Windows hosting?

[jcims]

This has some promise...

http://www.maani.us/gauge

No Flash coding required. I used the graph utility from the same author to track the 3Q giving as September wrapped up (http://ohcalvary.org/rp.php) It's pretty easy to use...i just don't know if we can wedge an image in there.


(Edit: A custom Flash app would be better, no pinwheel startup or anything, but this could at least test the concept)

[Indy Vidual]

This has some promise...

http://www.maani.us/gauge

No Flash coding required. I used the graph utility from the same author to track the 3Q giving as September wrapped up (http://ohcalvary.org/rp.php) It's pretty easy to use...i just don't know if we can wedge an image in there.

Installation:

Download XML/SWF Gauge and place the gauge.swf flash file anywhere in your web directory.

This part looks easy. :)
I don't have time to experiment now regarding images, but will check later.

[jcims]

If it's anything like the graphing utility, it is very easy. The only thing you have to get your head around is that there are three resources. 1) The flash file itself, 2) the .php or .html page that actually loads the flash file with the right parameters and 3) the .php or whatever that outputs the XML formated data for the gauge to present.

In taking a brief look at the Reference info, you can insert your own image, and you can insert text. I don't think it will do the spinning text like the campaign site, but it will show the gauge rolling up and you could wedge the text in there. (Again, this is probably only good as a prototype).

It also includes an update interval setting, so the refresh is built in.

Trevor, do you have a URL where we can just grab the current number of pledges (wrapped in as little html as possible). I can scrape that and mock it up quickly.

[Drknows]

Pulling data definitely has costs associated with it, but the 'live count' nature really is a winner IMHO. .

yeah true


jcims: Great idea for a ticker, and this should help everyone be able to work together.






Setting the cron job is really easy for a Webmaster to learn, but the php/XML/Flash programming I've never done before.

Question:
For some new sites will this cause less server load...

Flash form--> Flash 'Action Scripting' ---> database ---> update script ---> XML --> Flash

...since the PHP is replaced?
Will this still work on Linux, as opposed to Windows hosting?



only four ways to Import External Data into flash.

Text Files, ASP/PHP Files , and XML Files. another way is flashvars but that is static since its encoded within the web page.

You still need to use server side scripting to pass the data, Flash just displays the data it doesnt do any server side stuff. Yeah you could send data with flash but you still need to send it to a server side script like php.

Flash is just like javascript/ajax just another fancy way to display data.

[FluxCapacitor]

I really like the idea of a live ticker showing pledges for TeaParty07. We also need a way for people to pick a pledge amount so we can have an estimated donation total which also ticks up in real time.

[MozoVote]

These are great ideas. The MSM checks the blogs and sites just like anyone else. It did not take long for alternative sites like http://ml-implode.com for example to become "go to" sites for current news. The site authors get interviews and the page gets more links.

The more interactive and updating the tea party phenominon is, the more attention and credibility it will have.

[jcims]

OK, this is incredibly lame, but it is a start. Just scraping the text off of teaparty07.com (not recommended of course), robbing mfoley1's logo and using the XML/SWF Gauge code i found here: http://www.maani.us/gauge i was able to do this in about 30 mins. It's really lethargic, and sometimes breaks b/c of timeouts reading the data (generic dial shows up instead), but like i said, it's just a start

http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tp.php

Edit: and http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tpsmall.php

Source: http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tp.php.txt and http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tpdata.php.txt

Another edit: My hosting provider has horrible outbound access for some reason, so i just pull a fresh copy of the ticker value down every minute and store it locally (pledges.txt in the script)

This will get you that info:

curl -m 10 'http://www.teaparty07.com/' 2>/dev/null | awk -F'[><]' '/pledges/{print $7}' | tr -d ,`

[mfoley1]

OK, this is incredibly lame, but it is a start. Just scraping the text off of teaparty07.com (not recommended of course), robbing mfoley1's logo and using the XML/SWF Gauge code i found here: http://www.maani.us/gauge i was able to do this in about 30 mins. It's really lethargic, and sometimes breaks b/c of timeouts reading the data (generic dial shows up instead), but like i said, it's just a start

http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tp.php

hahah rob all you want. :p lemme know if you need a certain file for this.

[Wayne Hammond]

OK, this is incredibly lame, but it is a start.
http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tp.php

Edit: and http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tpsmall.php

Source: http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tp.php.txt and http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tpdata.php.txt


HEY, that is PRETTY COOL. I like the smaller one better - seems to load faster. As a suggestion, on the side of the thermometer, instead of putting 20, 40, 60, etc., could you put 20k, 40k, 60k (with the "k" to represent thousands)?

Excellent work.

[jcims]

Yeah, i would suggest scrapping this entirely and starting over with some good ideas, I just wanted to see what's possible with some basic tools. I'm sure you could do some cool zoomy/spinny text stuff, have the sliding thermometer scale that the campaign does (glass is always 3/4ths full) and whatnot.

Feel free to grab the source and play with it. You just need to download the graph.swf, dump it all in the same directory, and start playing with it.

[hillertexas]

To tide you over until Trevor makes an "official" Tea Party 07 coutdown ticker...you can make your own here:
http://www.pyzam.com/toys/view/customcountdown

[hillertexas]

//

[Paulitician]

A ticker is a brilliant idea! It keeps it in our minds and builds tons of anticipation. More people will want to participate.

[jcims]

I posted a proposal for this over at Guru.com and have at least one Flash designer that has responded already. She works for $40/hr and would be willing to work on a fixed budget. Is this worth getting 15-20 people to toss $10 into the ring to get something nice going? If it was six months ago i would just pay for it and get it over with, but at the moment that's not an option.

Does anyone have an idea what would work? A few concepts that have come to mind:

- gradually filling tea bag indicating percentage of goal, same color tones as this one http://www.ohcalvary.org/rp/tp.php, maybe have tea leaves drop in as it updates with new numbers every minute or so

- have boxes of tea 'floating' around in water, with the number prominently displayed, optionally make the boxes interactive so you can bump them in the water or whatever.

- some kind of tea kettle with a thermometer type gauge

Or we could just ask the designer to stick with the basic color scheme and do whatever she wants. Always seems to work on American Chopper...lol.


Of course the other option is to see what our talented graphics guys can come up with for a mockup, and i can try to make it work with the flash graph i used for that ugly thing i linked above