-Original Message-
From: Troy Laurin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: dinsdag 15 maart 2005 4:03
To: Gert Driesen
Cc: nant-developers@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [nant-dev] Redesigned homepage
Hi Gert, all,
Responses inline.
... Also, it's currently impossible to tell which entries are
links and which are just holders for child items,
without waving the
mouse over each item... eg, Documentation and Contributing aren't
links, but Releases and Nightly Builds are. Modifying
the styles so
links are more obvious is definitely (again imho) a must.
Feel free to provide a proposal. GUI/Web design isn't
really my cup of tea.
I won't manage time tonight, but I'll try to send something through
tomorrow night.
No hurry.
Also, the default size of the menu on the left is taller
than the page
itself! If using a similar menu system to this, it might be worth
collapsing the user manual section by default, and also to combine
Releases and Nightly Builds into a single Downloads section, also
collapsed by default.
The Release and Nightly Builds section do not just provide
downloads. They
also contain links to the docs matching each release/nightly build.
For the non-javascript people, the Downloads
link would replace the Releases and Nightly Builds links,
since they
go to the same page anyway.
That was a mistake in my proposal. The Nightly Builds item
should have no
link, or have the same links as the Archive section.
Does the tree script support adding Collapse all and Expand all
links to the bottom of the menu? Useful for those times you just want
to get it out of the way, or when you want to see everything so you
can find what you're after... it also tends to make the default
state (expanded, partially expanded, etc) of the menu less critical.
Just added them (see attached version).
Then again, it might just be an excuse to
put more content in the front page.
Guess I'd prefer a good menu and more content ;-)
Doesn't really sound like a bad thing, does it? :-)
As a first cut, it certainly feels more functional (and
professional
:-) than the current page. I think it's certainly worth
ironing out
any issues and updating the site with a trendy new look.
For now, I'm only updating the home page itself. We'll need
to look into
modifying the other pages, while keeping it maintainable.
Definitely get it right before making changes everywhere :-)
Does sourceforge support server-side includes? That could be a simple
way to get a common menu (and even the header) into every page in a
consistent fashion.
Not sure, but most of our documentation is auto-generated, so we might be
able to use that.
Alternatively, (and I'm reluctant to suggest this, mostly because of
the people expected to access the site, as Orion suggested) you could
modify the site to use a frameset... the menu could be moved into the
left-hand frame, with the option for the header to be in a top frame,
or in-line with the content.
The benefits are that navigation is consistent for all pages, plus the
download size for each page is much smaller, and the menu remembers
its own state between pages (since it is never reloaded). The
drawbacks are of course that it is very hard to make a frames-based
website friendly to non-frames-enabled browsers, without providing a
second copy of the website that doesn't use frames... but does mean
twice the website maintenance!
I'd like to avoid frames (at almost all cost).
At the same time as I look at the styles for the menu links, I'll look
at the site web, and see how inter-linked everything is, see how
feasible it might be to create a site that's made for frames but still
usable without frames... unless you (or Nant's users) really don't
_want_ frames, of course.
Let me know if you want a hand with the script behind the
hierarchical
menus, I'm not exactly a web designer, but I've done my dash with
javascript (including *shiver* cross-browser support) and would be
willing to look at any issues.
Have a look at the update I sent as reply to Orion's feedback.
Excellent! Works consistently under IE and FireFox... I don't use any
other browsers, so can't say how it works in anything else :-)
Do you think I should bring it online in its current state (see attachment)
?
Gert
NAnt Home.zap
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