Scott Young's Radio Weblog

Jake just posted a new feature on the Manila Beta root updates server - Arbitrary Member Names. This feature is important because it does not require an email address to log-in. This became crucially important for K-12 schools where kids either did not have email addresses or their parents would not allow them to give them out. (Quite understandable.)

Once we get a little feedback on this feature to make sure we got it right, I think we'll have the best blogging system for education. The moderation features we are also going to add will ensure that. Look for more information to appear on the Manila academic site shortly. The new feature consists of three parts:

• A new server-level preference for whether member names are required to be email addresses. The preference can be overridden on a per-site basis using the Admin site.

• A series of changes in Manila make adjustments to Manila's email behaviors, based on whether or not an email address can be determined for a member. This includes email notification for new/changed content, bulletins, and DG reply notifications.

• A new verb, manilaSuite.members.getMemberEmail, is provided for getting a member's email address, since the name of a member table is no longer guaranteed to be a valid email address itself. Manila calls this verb whenever it needs to send email to a member.

Go ahead and give it try on the Manila Beta site.