Re: [Wikitech-l] Developing MediaWiki extension for WebGL-enabled interactive 3D models

On 21/04/12 17:07, emw wrote:

Hi all,

I'm in the process of developing a media handling extension for MediaWiki that will allow users with WebGL-enabled browsers to manipulate 3D models of large biological molecules, like proteins and DNA. I'm new to MediaWiki development, and I've got some questions about how I should go forward with development of this extension if I want to ultimately get it into official Wikimedia MediaWiki deployments.

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Given that, my initial plan for handling browsers without WebGL enabled is to fall back to a static image of the corresponding protein/DNA structure.

Seems the appropiate thing to do.

Would requiring Python, GIMP and PyMOL to be installed on the server be workable for a WMF MediaWiki deployment?

Not ideal, but is probably workable. Still much better than relying (and potentially DDOSing) on a third party. If you could drop GIMP requirement, that'd be even better (why is it needed?).

1. Once I get the prototype more fully developed, what would be the

best next step to presenting it and getting it code reviewed? Should I set up a demo on a random domain/third-party VPN, or maybe something like http://deployment.wikimedia.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Main_Page? Or maybe the former would come before the latter?

I'd go directly on labs.

2. PDB (.pdb) is a niche file type that has a non-standard MIME type of

"chemical/x-pdb". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Data_Bank_%28file_format%29 for more.

We could detect the format. Don't worry about that.

3. If at all possible, I'd like to have the molecular models be

interactive by default, Does having model interactivity by default for WebGL-enabled users

sound feasible?

Maybe, maybe not. Needs testing. I'd wait after having the prototype for deciding that default.

Thanks for your contributions!