Requirements and needs - OSL Monitor

See the original ideas page here: http://wiki.osuosl.org/display/LNX/Google+Summer+of+Code+2006+Ideas

Requirements

This application will be tricky. The idea is to provide a visually appealing representation of all kinds of information that can run non-interactively, ideally on a dedicated display. It becomes a "slideshow" of sorts. The data displayed should update automatically at designated intervals independent to the data displayed (some feeds will update every 30 minutes, some graphics every 5 minutes, etc).

Types of data that should end up being displayed:

rss feeds
- keep in mind that needs for each rss feed will be different. Some feeds will only have one line of display wanted, others will want more details.. Some people will want to display 3 entries for a feed, while others may want to display 10..
Graphics
- Many programs are already out there displaying data visually in graphics that update on an interval (like traffic graphs, threat levels, webcam images, etc)
System status from tools like Nagios, Cacti, OpenNMS
snmp data (in many cases this data is already well managed by the tools above)
Outstanding issues in the queue of a ticket tracker (like RT) or bug system (like Bugzilla and Jira). This should be modular enough to handle other helpdesk-like applications as well. This application could be displayed on the wall of a call center or help center to show the current status and wait in a queue.

Other data that might be possible but not a requirement in the end result and should be a last-priority:

Built-in ToDo list
Video streams (webcams, television - CNN, etc)
Event-based sounds

The end result should be modular enough so that other people can write their own data modules

Implementation

Currently, I have an app that fills a screen with a single laszlo app. In that app are a few extended widgets and a lot of timers. With Laszlo we can easily scroll between small and larger windows, data inside windows, etc. There are many problems with this model, the first of which is that the app itself is set to a fixed resolution, making portability difficult.

However, this may not be the best way to do it. A better way might be to create a modular page (in php maybe?) that is configurable, and make the visual "modules" themselves in laszlo. The question is then what happens when a user wants to display more than what can fit on the screen. For example, our current app displays smaller windows, and at an interval they vacate the screen for a very large window that displays a map. How would this be accomplished with a modular php page? How would modules themselves rotate in and out?