---
title: "AmphetaDesk and Outlines: Together again"
date: 2002-08-05T17:31:52-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2002/08/05/ooobbf/
author: Les Orchard
---

# AmphetaDesk and Outlines: Together again

<p><a href="http://www.decafbad.com/mt-images/amphy-outline-skin.jpg"><img src="http://www.decafbad.com/mt-images/amphy-outline-skin-sm.jpg" align="right"></a>Okay, after several comments, emails, IMs, and other encouragement, I stopped adding features and cleaned up a few things in <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/news_archives/000223.phtml#000223">my new <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/AmphetaDesk">AmphetaDesk</a> template</a> and have uploaded a tarball of it:<ul><li><a href="http://www.decafbad.com/gems/AmphetaOutlines-20020806-2.tar.gz">AmphetaOutlines-20020806-2.tar.gz</a></li></ul>Again, some highlights:<ul><li>Leaner template code on the server side, leaner HTML on the browser side.</li><li>Ampheta remembers things about items now, such as # of clicks, age, and # of times seen.</li><li>Ampheta can act on this memory, sorting and hiding items.</li><li>Old, stale things tend to go away.</li><li>Often used &amp; visited things tend to come first.</li></ul>To install this thing:<ol><li>Rename/backup the directory <code>default</code> in the <code>templates</code> directory of your <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/AmphetaDesk">AmphetaDesk</a> installation.</li><li>Replace that directory with the contents of the above-linked tarball.</li><li>Create a directory named <code>channels_meta</code> in the <code>data</code> directory of your <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/AmphetaDesk">AmphetaDesk</a> installation.</li><li>Start <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/AmphetaDesk">AmphetaDesk</a>, and let simmer for a few days to see things start working</li></ol>The thing's still a bit rough around the corners.  To change thresholds and other settings, you'll need to edit <code>default/index.html</code> directly for now.  I plan to add some fields to the settings page to manage these settings, eventually.  Also, you really want to have the <code>Digest::MD5</code> perl module installed, but I have included <code>Digest::Perl::MD5</code> in the template.  This means that things will work, but could be much faster.  As for the outlines, give thanks to Marc Barrot for his <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0104487/outlines/activeRenderer.html">activeRenderer</a> package from which I borrowed nearly all of my outline code.  (The only <span style='background : #FFFFCE;'><a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/edit/Main/JavaScript?topicparent=Main.FilterData"><b>?</b></a><font color="#0000FF">JavaScript</font></span> that's mine is the expand/collapse all logic.)</p>
<p>Okay, I'm off to lunch.  Let me know how you like it!</p>
<p><b>Update:</b> It appears that some people are having problems with their <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/AmphetaDesk">AmphetaDesk</a> failing to find the custom modules I include with the template.  If you have trouble running the template, try copying the contents of <code>templates/default/lib</code> into the <code>lib/</code> directory of your <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/AmphetaDesk">AmphetaDesk</a> install.</p>
<p><b>Update 2:</b> I think I've fixed the showstoppers, as I will write <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/news_archives/000228.phtml#000228">here in the future</a>.  So, I've taken the liberty of going back in time and replacing the tarball here with the fixed one in case anyone has linked to this story.  Enjoy!</p>
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shortname=ooobbf

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221083576">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.furrygoat.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=53617e52a0ccf29f19c750e312df0f31&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.furrygoat.com">Steve</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221083576" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-08-06T02:42:27">2002-08-06T02:42:27</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Still no go. Been trying to install, get an error: (deleted some text)Can't locate lib.pm in @INC 

Is lib.pm included someplace? I couldnt seem to find it in the distro.</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221083577">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.disobey.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=7c86a3bdffadc965eb444f588c24a3f3&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.disobey.com">Morbus Iff</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221083577" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-08-06T11:41:54">2002-08-06T11:41:54</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Steve,

Open up your templates/default/index.html file - you should see something in there about "use lib". Simply add a "#" character in front of that line, save the file, and then refresh the page in AmphetaDesk, and that should get you a little further.</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221083579">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.furrygoat.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=53617e52a0ccf29f19c750e312df0f31&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.furrygoat.com">Steve</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221083579" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-08-06T12:54:10">2002-08-06T12:54:10</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Ok, that did it. Comments:

So far, looks pretty good. What's the official definition of: (S:1 C:0 A:0.00)?</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221083580">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.furrygoat.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=53617e52a0ccf29f19c750e312df0f31&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.furrygoat.com">Steve</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221083580" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-08-06T12:54:19">2002-08-06T12:54:19</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Ok, that did it. 

So far, looks pretty good. What's the official definition of: (S:1 C:0 A:0.00)?</div>
            
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        <li class="comment" id="comment-221083581">
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                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=2ac2cffd36ada8c734b90e02a1e5c1ac&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com">l.m.orchard</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221083581" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-08-06T13:52:11">2002-08-06T13:52:11</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">I thought I should put a legend somewhere for that, but of course I forgot.  :)  Here's the missing legend:

S: # of times seen

C: # of times clicked

A: Hours since first seen</div>
            
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        </div>