On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 6:15 PM, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi devs, > > We have 2 topics to decide: > > * Topic 1: Right now we have 2 help applications. We need to decide if we > merge them or not. > * Topic 2: Decide if we keep the Help Center app in contrib or if we move > it in platform. > * Topic 3: Decide if we fold the Sandbox into the Help Center > * Topic 4: Decide how we handle data created/modified by users when we > upgrade or for newcomers. > > > Re topic 1, my preference goes to having a single help application and > fold what’s currently in the platform help app into the Help center. > There’s no reason that knowing how to edit a page would be more or less > core than knowing the syntax markup or the Tips Panel. > I would keep the syntax help in a separate module that is a dependency of the Help Center, in case some flavor wants only this and not the full Help Center. > > Re topic 3, I don’t think that the sandbox app is really that useful as a > standalone app and I would be for merging it into the Help application. > The Sandbox is already a dependency of the Help Center. We could merge but we could also keep it in a separate module. > Re topic 4, there are 2 issues I can think of: > - when new users come in, if the pages that are supposed to be modified > (sandbox + the 2 bundled AWM apps) have been heavily modified, then > newcomers won’t see the default content and could just be seeing defaced > content. > I think Thomas has worked on a feature to "reset to factory" any XAR extension. That could help to restore the default content, either before the upgrade or from time to time. > - if the pages have been modified by the user + by the help app then on > XWiki upgrade there’ll be conflicts. > > One idea for topic4 is to have the Help app spawn new pages (ie pages not > bundled by the Help app itself) for users to try them out, by having some > “try it out” button. > > Re topic 2, the issue with keeping the help center app outside of platform > is that we need to support documentation for multiple versions of XWiki. > For example, we modified the page menu in Xwiki 9.4 and there are over 10 > screenshots to update. However users of XWiki 8.4 (for ex) can also install > this app and if they get the new documentation, it won’t match what they > see in their wiki. The same can be said with the new notification feature > for example. > The Help Center can have versions that match XWiki versions. It can stay in contrib (I don't see it as core) and we release a new version when there are significant changes. > > > The advantage of moving it in platform is that it’s in sync with the > platform (ie less work) but we should only document platform features in > it. It also means longer release times since it’s linked to the release of > platform. Note that the rationale for having it in platform would be that > platform help is a core feature. > > > We could (and probably should) offer some places in the Help Center so > that Extensions could plug their help. And we could probably refactor a bit > the current content of the help center to move help for feature in the > extension UI part of those extensions. > The Help Center is right now more about promoting a hand-picked list of features (editorial work) rather than showing automatically help for any extension you have installed. Thanks, Marius > > Considering all aspects I think my preference goes to having it in > platform since I don’t think we have the manpower to maintain doc for all > versions of XWiki. > > WDYT? > > Thanks > -Vincent > >
