Marcus,
You didn't miss anything. Quite the opposite... you summarized how I
felt when I first started to look for a download for Stripes... and how
many people have felt including those that have probably turned away
from the project b/c of it or other variables.
It's outdated, unnecessarily confusing, and is in desperate need of an
overhaul. However, I think the site tried to move away mid-stream from
having to update the web page with every release but unfortunately
pointing people to a forge to find everything doesn't cut it as people
come to expect all artifacts for a release to be on ONE page not all
over the place.
Any project should cleanly list:
1) Stable release (recommended) - at this time 1.5.4
2) Snapshot releases (experimental) - at this time 1.5.5 Snapshot and
1.6.0 Snapshot
3) Archived releases (old) - a list of past releases
It's amazing what the words "Stable" and "Recommended" do from a
"perception" perspective when coming across software.
And for each release we need to capture:
1) The date of the release
2) The direct link to the binary AND source jars
3) The maven details for the release: Artificat, group, etc...
4) The link to javadocs
The dates are super important as they show the progression (or lack
thereof) and having (for any given release) a link to the binaries,
source and javadoc jars next to each other offers a feel good - OK - I
have everything I need as a developer to work with this software.
All of this is typically pretty easy to setup and maintain and can be
updated in a copy and paste fashion with new releases.
Of course this is nothing new and I'm sure if Ben et al. had ample spare
cycles then this wouldn't be like this but it sure would be nice if
someone had the time to clean it up... hint... hint... :-P
Cheers,
--Nikolaos
Marcus Kraßmann wrote:
Hi list,
not sure if this affects more the dev or the users list, so I will
start here.
I never felt good with the structure of the download area on
stripesframework.org.
Having a look on it, I see the current release version. Good, so far.
Now I would expect a download link for Stripes. Clicking the first
link with the word "stripes" in it will surely give me the current
release. But it doesn't! Instead, I get a very outdated
"Documentation Snapshot". What the heck?!?
Okay, sharply looking at the head lines. "Stripes Downloads" sounds
good. Some explanatory words, okay. But where is the f**king download
link? An (again) outdated Sourceforge RSS seems to be included,
anouncing Stripes 1.5.1, but clicking here again does not forward to
the JAR.
I don't want to be offending, but IMHO the download site is one of the
worst areas of stripesframework.org and it should really be redesigned
/ restructured. This is what I would do if no one would stop me from
doing it:
* Bring important stuff to the top, especially a link to
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/stripes/files/"; which is always
up2date! After this section, follow with documentation links (if
needed).
* Add a small Maven section with a Stripes dependency snippet. So
Maven users just need to copy&paste it into their pom.xml file.
* Eliminate anything related to old released before 1.5.x, or
create an own "archive" site for this outdated stuff.
* Remove the
"{rss:url=http://sourceforge.net/export/rss2_projfiles.php?group_id=145476&x=1}";.
Really important news are on the starting page in green boxes.
(And I have no clue how this RSS gets its data. I found this
link at SourceForge:
http://sourceforge.net/news/?group_id=145476 , but it generates
other news that the RSS link.)
* Maybe, add a link where the current 1.5.x SNAPSHOT can be
downloaded ("nightly build" based on the latest SVN code). Again
together with a Maven snippet.
What are your thoughts about this topic? Any other opinions? Did I
miss something, or do you feel that the download area is fine as it is?
Kind regards,
Marcus
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