[MTOS-dev] MT as asset aggregator

[Bud Gibson]

[postscript:  First off, I'd like to thank Byrne Reese and Mark Carey for
suffering through blog comments and private email conversations as I have
attempted to figure out MT's asset management system.  They both helped me
understand that I was just fundamentally not seeing some things.]

I just got done reading Byrne's post to the MT.org blog about MT's asset
management capabilities and his two plug-ins, podcasting and media manager.
I think asset management is a nice move forward for the platform and applaud
Byrne's work on the two plugins.  Once you read the code, you can definitely
figure out how to roll your own.

However, I think MT(OS) is still missing the boat in a big way for asset
management.  Here are a few observations as to why along with solutions:

1.  The podcasting and media manager plugins actually overlap.  Both insert
assets into the asset management system.  Once an asset is in the asset
management system, it can be associated with any entry.  The podcast plugin
seems to be a special case of the media manager.  The podcast plugin is an
attempt to fit the specific use case of people producing mp3 audio podcasts
who just want an easy way to insert that information into their entry.

Solution:  Probably focus development on the media manager plugin since it
provides the more general case.  However, the podcast plugin provides a good
example of code that associates media with entries.

2.  Anyone I know who is producing sites with significant media content has
organized the process so that media production is totally separate from
writing and publication.  They're different skill sets.  However, the whole
MT approach is built around melding the three.  Assets are inserted directly
into entries, something that bewilders people who are just trying to write
and complicates later syndication and publication in unpleasant ways.

Solution:  Quit trying to insert media directly into entry text.  Instead,
associate the media with an entry and leave it to templates to place the
media in the appropriate spot proximate to the entry that it is associated
with.

3.  Media manager is built on the idea of accessing external media sites
using site specific APIs.  One would write a separate extension in media
manager for youtube vs. flickr vs. photobucket vs. blip.tv.  However, at a
very base level, these four external asset management sites actually share
one uniform RESTful API.  That is to request a specific RSS feed and then be
returned media RSS.  Viewed at this level, the APIs are shared and brain
dead simple.

Solution:  Create an asset manager extension that reads media RSS from a URL
supplied by the user, and you've covered the four biggest ones.  Ben Trott's
refeed might provide part of the basis for this functionality.

In sum, I think MT would take a giant step forward if we created an asset
aggregation plugin.  The plugin would do the following:

1.  Periodically poll RSS media feed URLs provided by the blog
administrator.

2.  Pull the assets designated in those feeds into a list of available
external assets (this list need have no memory beyond what is pulled from
the RSS file)

3.  Make it possible for blog administrators to associate external assets
with entries (without forcing them to insert code into the entry text).
This would cause an asset to be created within MT's internal asset
management system and associate that asset with the entry.

A plugin that just addressed point 3 would be a big win, and I think it's
possible to create one relatively easily from Byrne's podcast plugin.

So, happy new year,
Bud

-- 
Bud Gibson
cell:  734-657-4800
web:  http://michiganinnovators.org
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