C-LARA

The last couple of days, ChatGPT-4 and I have been concentrating on adding basic social network functionality to C-LARA. I should say that nearly all of the work has been done by Chat. The features we’re adding are simple and standard, they are implemented using mainstream Django design patterns, and on this kind of territory the AI is very strong. It can do things far more quickly and effectively than I can, and I just make suggestions and add minor adjustments.

Here is what we now have in place on the UniSA server:

• Private/public distinction. On your user profile, you now have the option of making your personal data private.
• Showing other user profiles. In places where this makes sense, e.g. comment threads on posted content, plain user names have been replaced with links to user profiles. Clicking on a link for a non-private user profile takes you to a page which shows their profile data.
• Friending. If you visit someone’s user profile, e.g. by clicking from a comment, you will also see a control that lets you send them a friend request.
• Friends page. There is a new view that shows friend status: your current friends, and any outstanding friend requests you may have received or sent.
• Email alerts. If you send a friend request, the recipient receives an email alert with a link to their friend page. Similarly, if you post a rating or a comment, email alerts are sent to the user who posted the comment and anyone else on the comment thread.
• Update feed. There is another new view called “Update feed”, which shows what you and your friends have done recently. At the moment, it shows pieces of content that have been posted, comments, ratings and friending events. Items are shown with links that take you to the users and pieces of content in question.

All of this is new and will require some adjustment, and I’m sure there are plenty of other things we’ll want to add. The code is simple, and with the AI’s capable help it should be easy to improve and extend the initial functionality.

If people would like to experiment a bit and post feedback, I’m thinking we could discuss at this week’s Thursday Zoom and put together a list of items to do next.