I'm learning more and more about PHP-Nuke each week and php in general. It's a very well organised system and the little bugs are getting less and less all the time. I was wondering whether it was possible to use something like a tracker for things like - most popular news articles, most popular search requests, most popular downloads etc, but instead use it to track what a user does and does not use in his/her account as well as giving them them option to turn things on or off *modules I mean* and use these to update the template shown for a new user.
So, what I mean is that as each person configures the interface to match his/her likes and dislikes, the website changes it's templates to match, depending on a weighting, such as how long they have been using the site, their level of access and type of access etc.
That would require an amazing amount of stats to be kept about each user, so much that it would cripple most sites from sheer hits to the database. Amazon does stuff like this, but they have a custom site going that is B-E-A-Utiful to behold (from a interface specialist's point of view)
I do like the concept of being able to turn off modules though... but you would have to show me how and why most people would use the feature!
I am working on a site with a potentially huge amount of data, so I want to cut the amount of individual files and pages back as much as possible. What I am looking at doing is using as many templates and style sheets as possible as well as using a level and permission setup to configure the appearance of the website for each user. In all of this, I want to only show as much information as the user needs to see - so you won't see all the things that you wouldn't have access to or permission to use. This way it cuts down the number of requests to the database because it only shows what is relevent to each user. By also giving them the option of disabling full menus of items or features that they don't use - I can store those items as pictures with links to re-enable them again - which is much easier on the database and the server. If I was to use a neural net approach - I could modify the templates and active modules on-the-fly without having to run polls or run a site with features only a few people used. This could be done using a lot of stats pages and weighting them and assigning their values to variables and putting that in a big formula to churn out what to do next... or it could be done at regular intervals with a few stats pages - with different weightings and larger "learning" weightings so that the site would adapt to the user requirements faster.
The site is going to use a lot of different types of interfacing, and I have done a number of questionnaires and research about it. There is only so much you can predict before you begin though, and I wanted the site to be able to "self-monitor" to the extent of modifying the interface templates so that I can focus on the tools and content without having to run lots of polls and ask annoying questions of people about how they would like the site improved. I would like them to be able to improve it themselves and therefore make the site better as a whole
I like it a lot! However, I was curious how you intend to address the issue of statistical anomolies in usage... For example, what if a user usually only viewed one area of the site and one day needs to view another area... how do you intend to address that statistic? Should that link be re-enabled for only a set period of time or should it be permanently turned on?
P.S. really like the concept of pictures versus links, but how does that cut down on database queries at all? I can't see how that doesn't just add code and queries to handle the pics...
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