I think sticking with a flexible format is great and the forrest layout is a lot nicer than the square look we have now. However, I would like to distinguish ourselves from the drab blue and gray that we see so much of. I would also like to provide some more user friendly functions to the site. Providing clear links to what people want to get at is important. Sometimes for a new user it can be a frustration knowing where to start. I think we should create certain user experience goals and not simply go with the standard cuz it's easier for some future predeccesor to manage. My focus is our users as well as the developers. Although, I don't plan on creating some out of this world nonsense to maintain, I do see a need to provide a level of enhancement to the standard apache experience. Also, I'm not looking to get in and start tweaking xml files without posting some mockups for a consensus from everyone. Hopefully we can all agree that improving the user experience is a good thing.
Brandon On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 08:03:26 -0500, Ted Husted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 07:33:02 -0700, Clinton Begin wrote: > > Brandon, you are the best web developer on our team. I would be > > super happy to have you take over the website development. I > > agree that the forrest thing is pretty yucky (as is iBATIS.com at > > the moment). > > > > I think having a CVS repository and a continuous integration server > > (cruise or anthill) would be awesome for concurrent site updates > > and automated publishing. Heck, if we get good enough at it, we > > could publish the same site to both iBATIS.com and the incubator > > site (of course making it clear that the Apache site is the > > official one, and ibatis.com is just a "quicker link"). > > > > +1 from me. > > The mechanism for automatically updating a Forrest site from SVN is already > available. The only reason we aren't using it today is because we are waiting > for a break in development before porting the CVS to SVN. > > Forrest just generates the site according to a skin. Write a new skin, get a > new site. Even with the stock skin, the site could look a whole lot better > just by adding logos that matched the colors. The one we plunked down was > meant for a white site, not a blue site. > > Right now, we are not using some of the layout features, like the tabs across > the top. The Forrest site makes better use of these: > > * http://forrest.apache.org/index.html > > On our site, we have automatic breadcrumb feature, which will be useful as > the site grows deeper. The important thing to note is that everything we > maintain is in XML that can be validated by an editor and is -always- > validated when the site is built. Basically, it's geek-proof. :) > > I think what I like best about using something Forrest is that the knowledge > is transferable. What we do with Forrest, another team using Forrest can do > too. It's also something our users can use internally for their own team > sites. (Every development team should have one!) > > Again, my one and only concern is that what we do is accessible to ourselves > and our successors. I'd very much like to see the source to the site, and > other documentation, kept in XML, so that we have something that can be > automatically converted to other formats via XLST. > > What I think we need to add most is more content. Forrest can generate both > HTML and PDF content from XML. I haven't integrated the DocBook version of > the DevGuide into the build yet, but I went ahead and added links to the ones > we built for the SourceForge site. > > * http://ibatisnet.sourceforge.net/DevGuide/index.html > * http://ibatisnet.sourceforge.net/DevGuide.pdf > > We can make the XML sources for the DevGuide part of the Forrest build, so > both the HTML and PDFs are generated automatically. > > Of course, more FAQs would be nice, some of which we can mine from the User > Guide. I'd also like to start a Cookbook, based on some of the techniques > we're using at work. Of course, that can also be automatically built as both > HTML and PDF too. > > To get started on the wiki, I need apsite karma, which I've requested from > Infrastructure. They are trying very hard to push as much as possible down to > the PMCs, so that we can just do it ourselves. > > * http://wiki.apache.org/general/WikiFrequentlyAskedQuestions > > -Ted. > > > > > Cheers, > > Clinton > > > > > > On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 19:19:13 -0700, Brandon Goodin > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> I hate to be shallow. But, i believe that it is important to make > >> a good visual and organizational impression on users. I wouldn't > >> mind throwing some better visual and organizational concepts out > >> for the website. Would anybody be offended if i started offering > >> a more original look to the iBatis apache site? or are we going > >> to let the apache site be generic and concentrate on the > >> ibatis.com as our continuing point of contact with users? > >> > >> Brandon > >
