Running Weblogs with Slash

Modifying the Code Itself

Occasionally, even the most die-hard Perl hackers themselves want to roll up their sleeves and get to work. Perhaps an administrator will find a feature that’s just not quite right, or come up with an excellent idea to make Slash much better for her users. Someone else may think of something that can’t be done in a plugin.

Whatever the case, it’s possible to change the underlying Slash modules themselves. Some parts are scary and some are simple. For a moderately experienced Perl programmer, a little intuition and a little knowledge of Slash architecture and behavior will open the doors to all sorts of possibilities. (Of course, administrators who don’t know much Perl aren’t entirely out of luck. Posting a request on Slashcode can attract the attention of a capable coder.)

Be aware that modifying the core code may leave you stranded when it comes time to update to a newer version of Slash. Anything that can be done as a plugin should be. If it’s truly necessary to change the code itself, check with the Slash development team to see if there are plans to do such a thing already. If they can guide you in creating a patch that will be accepted in the next revision, your life will be much easier.

An Example: Applying Content Filters Based on User Karma

The best way to illustrate modifying Slash is with an example. Shortly after Slash 2.2 went into beta testing, the new content filters (see Section 6.3.1 in Chapter 6) tripped up several experienced users. ...