Wishes for Community Server 3.0

Logik! was the one who started with a wish list for Community Server 3.0.I don’t know if others have picked this up, but I have some wishes for myself. Let’s see:

  1. Skinnable root pages I’m not sure if the new theme engine will support this, but I sure hope so. Currently I have two sites running on top of a single CS install. When I adjust anything in the .aspx page(s) of one site, the other automatically changes as well. I’d like to have the ability to create a different look & feel for both sites.
  2. **Better support for installing & configuring addons
    **I absolutely love the current support. The fact that you can add addons without altering the code is fabulous! But it can still be a hasle to install them properly. I’m not really sure how ‘better support’ for addons can be achieved. One idea I’ve been having however, is…
  3. Config file merging Almost every addon requires some text to be merged with some config file. Be it configuration or some navigation-bar features. What really would be cool is if we had a tool to do this. And not just merging of modules, but also enabling and/or uninstalling of the added configuration parts. Additional (comment)tags probably have to be added so the tool would know where to begin and end uninstalltion of a certain mod, but it probably could be done. Publishers of addons would just have to provide one or more files with content to be merged.

A quicker solution however could be when Telligent releases some templates that publishers of addons could use to create a nice installation & uninstallation guide that conforms to Telligent guidelines.

  1. **CardSpaces integration
    **Since I’ve heard that this will be included in Community Server, I can’t wait for it to be here! I hope CardSpaces (formerly InfoCard) will be supported by a lot of websites, because I really hate to have many usernames & passwords. Also the fact that one account can be shared over multiple communities (on the same CS installation) is a great addition I’m looking forward to.
  2. Caching Perhaps the ability to flush the cache for a single weblog (or something simular) would be nice. I was using Windows Live Writer recently and accidentally published the post. I went to this site immediatly and deleted it. But after a few minutes it was still showing up in the RSS Feed. Perhaps clearing the cache after an action (insert, update & delete) on the posts would be nice.
  3. **Rating articles only with comments
    **Currently I always give my own articles 5 stars, because everything I write is just that good. 🙂 But perhaps it’s a good idea to force people to write a comment, to be able to rate an article. That way you’ll know how many people have voted, and why they voted. When people fill in a comment, they can also instantly rate your article. That way you might get more ratings. It should be optional though, so people can also rate articles without adding comments. Not per weblog, but per site, so rating on individual posts/weblogs is still fair.

That’s about what I can think of. I already can’t wait for Community Server 3.0.