The BMLT In Depth

The Basic Meeting List Toolbox: In Depth

Click Here to Go to the Intro PageThe Basic Meeting List Toolbox is a complete, super-powerful NA meeting list system “in a box.” It is free, professional-grade and insanely easy to install. It uses Google Maps, clean printing, easy localization and customization, high security, very efficient and clean code, the ability to have multiple administrators and Service Bodies involved, and a very easy-to-edit centralized database system that allows Service Bodies like Regions to provide a meeting list that can be used by Areas. It has a huge laundry list of features. A more in-depth discussion of its pertinent features is available in our technical documentation.

The BMLT is the result of years of work by a professional software developer. This is top-quality, highly-tested, well-designed, stable, robust and usable software, free for your use. It has been produced by an industrial-grade software engineering effort, with the relevant best practices applied. Because of the length of time it has been in existence, it has become remarkably high-quality and stable.

With the BMLT, you can track a dozen meetings, run by a few Groups, or thousands of meetings, run by many ASCs, RSCs, or even Zonal Forums. Every meeting listed in the BMLT can be located on a map, in a very natural fashion. Meetings are assigned to a Service Body (such as a Group or an ASC), and only people assigned by that Service Body can make changes to the meetings.

The BMLT can handle dozens of Service Bodies, and dozens of users; each one responsible for only certain meetings, so it is quite possible for many different Regions, Areas or Zonal Forums to share a single root server, while allowing full, independent access and control by only certain, authorized personnel, and it does so in a straightforward, simple manner.

To those that care about such things, all code generated by the BMLT including administration pages, should validate XHTML 1.0 Strict and WAI AAA Accessible. Failure of any page to validate is considered a bug.

The most important message that you should get is that the BMLT is very, very easy to set up and use. It is a system that you can “own” yourself, and you don’t have to deal with any kind of “central authority.” However, this is the kind of system that will benefit from having a shared root server and database. If you are an Area or Region, and would like to use the BMLT, consider teaming up with other Areas or Regions to implement a shared root server. It is very easy to set up a satellite server, and almost as easy to set up a root server. There are detailed guides for both users and administrators of the system, and we will be happy to answer any questions that may arise. Additionally, we have a BMLT Discussion Forum.

 

Get the BMLT
The links below will download the current stable versions of each of the components of the BMLT.
NOTE: All plugins and satellites require PHP 5 or greater. The Root Server requires PHP 5.1 or greater, and PDO.
Component Current Stable Version
nacompass BMLT Root Server
This is the “root” server. It is installed as a standalone Web site, and is not usually used to find meetings; only to administer them. You can see a detailed release history here. Installation instructions can be found in the Root Server Installation Documentation.		 1.10.1
satellite BMLT Standalone Satellite Server
This is the way you integrate the BMLT directly into your site code, without needing a Content Management System (CMS). Instructions for integrating the satellite server with your code are to be found in the Standalone Satellite Installation Documentation.		 1.5.5
wordpress BMLT WordPress Plugin
This will take you to the WordPress Plugin Page. The plugin can be auto-installed. Instructions for installing and using this are available in the WordPress Satellite Installation Documentation.		 2.1.27
joomla BMLT Joomla! Plugins and Component
The link will take you to the Joomla Extension Page for the BMLT. Download the zip file, but do not unzip it. It needs to be installed as a zip file.
Also, your previous settings will reset to default, so you need to remember your current settings.
The install will add two plugins and a component. Instructions on using this are given in the Joomla! Satellite Installation Documentation. This module supports Joomla 1.5 through 1.7.		 2.2.3
drupal BMLT Drupal Plugin
This is a brand new release that supports both Drupal 6 and Drupal 7.		 2.2.1
Fast Mobile BMLT Fast Mobile Satellite
This is a new satellite that is designed to serve mobile-device-friendly content. Instructions are given in the Fast Mobile Satellite Installation Documentation.		 1.0.7
Satellite Driver BMLT Satellite “Driver” Class
This is a special PHP class that authors of BMLT satellites can use to facilitate communication with a root server. It takes all the guesswork out of communicating with the server, and provides a very high-performance connection, as it uses the REST interface. Details are given in the Satellite Driver Class documentation.		 1.0.4
Satellite Base BMLT Satellite CMS Base Class
This is a common base class, to be used by PHP developers that want to implement their own CMS modules. More documentation will follow.		 1.2.1
documents BMLT Documentation Directory
NOTE: This is a large file (8MB).
documents BMLT Tools Projects
These are various projects that provide ancillary services for implementing and managing the BMLT.
This is the documentation for the BMLT Translator Project.

 

How To Get News About The BMLT

 

Read About the BMLT

 

See the BMLT

On this page is an example of a BMLT “satellite server” Implementation (Scroll down a bit). Notice how it is completely integrated with the page. The WordPress plugin is extremely flexible.

The BMLT window on that page is what is called a “satellite.” It connects to a “Root server,” which is where the data is kept. The root server may be maintained by a Region, for example, and Areas could run sites like this one (a WordPress site), or use their own code. The Area would put a VERY simple bit of code into their site, and it would connect to the root server. That is exactly what is happening in the example above.

The example on the satellite page connects to a server that contains about 1,000 NA meetings, from two different Regions: Greater New York and Eastern New York. The demonstration starts off in Brooklyn, New York, but you will also be able to find meetings in Upstate New York or Long Island.

Each “satellite” can set up their own map center and initial zoom (the example above centers on Brooklyn, NY, but could just as easily center on Houston, TX). They can also customize the appearance of the the BMLT in their site (takes a bit of doing, but isn’t that difficult. The BMLT uses low-specificity CSS).

 

Use the BMLT

The BMLT is constantly being developed and improved, but we provide “stable” versions on a regular basis. These are sometimes referred to as “tags,” and the version that is undergoing development is called the “trunk” version. The “trunk” usually has the most up-to-date and advanced code, and is probably stable, but it is still undergoing testing. The “tag” versions have undergone tests, and are not going to be changed. The latest tag is called the “stable” release, and is the main link in each of the examples below.

We have detailed, step-by-step instructions on implementing the BMLT in your server.

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