David W. Van Couvering wrote:
Hm. You mention that *anybody* can update the Wiki. Perhaps that's not
such a bad thing. Postgres and PHP both have user-updatable
documentation, and this has become very valuable.
I need to clarify that I didn't mean to include the Derby docs in my
discussion below, only the main web site pages.
Is that what you're referring to for Postgres and PHP? do they support
update of web site content separate from the product docs? I thought PHP
had support for commenting on the product docs, but that isn't what I'm
talking about here.
Product doc updates could also be considered, but would entail feedback
to the DITA source for the Derby docs.
What if we had a controlled "official" version of the docs, and a
Wikified version of the docs that can be updated/appended to by anybody?
I would actually prefer a simpler approach. If a page should be
updateable by anyone, then move it to the Wiki. :-)
An example of something that cannot be moved is the downloads page at
http://db.apache.org/derby/derby_downloads.html and all it's associated
release pages.
-jean
Here's a thought as to how to do that:
- Use Forrest's great MVC approach to generate a Wiki-friendly version
of the docs and publish this to the Wiki
- Allow users to annotate the docs on the Wiki site
- At next release, merge valuable user comments into the docs, and then
generate a new Wiki-friendly set for that version
The only downside is comments that we don't consider "valuable" would
get orphaned in prior version doc sets on the Wiki set. But maybe
that's OK...
Thoughts?
David
Jean T. Anderson wrote:
Daniel John Debrunner wrote:
Looking at Stan's WMD, sorry WWD document in DERBY-913 I want to promote
a holistic approach to making getting started on Derby easier. Thus by
improving various areas such as documentation, web-site, product,
tutorials, FAQ etc. together we can gain a bigger benefit than by
increasing individual items to make up for deficiencies in other areas.
The web site needs a huge overhaul. Here are some of the issues I've
been mulling over.
(1) Web site content isn't trivial to update
Whether the web site is in Forrest, Maven, or Anakia (those seem to be
the big three at Apache), it involves learning the file formats those
products support and the build process, and this learning curve is a
barrier.
We've had a much higher rate of contribution to the Derby Wiki.
I'd like to move as much of the highly changing information on the web
site to the Wiki as we can. For example, I think that all of
http://db.apache.org/derby/integrate/misc.html can be moved to the
Wiki -- and reorganized. Some is eclipsed by
http://wiki.apache.org/db-derby/UsesOfDerby anyhow, but there are
categories not handled by that Wiki page.
We'll have to strike some sort of balance, though. One issue with the
Wiki is *anyone* can update it. Anything that requires controlled
updates by committers must stay on the web site.
(2) New users can't easily find what they need
Too many responses to posts on derby-user consist of an URL to that
information on the web site (or, lately, even on the Wiki).
The good news is we have a lot more content than we did a year and
half ago. The bad news is I've pretty much just shovelled it in and
some of it's pretty tangled now.
Perhaps a master "Start Here" page would help that is specifically
tailored for new users. It could be on the web site or the Wiki, with
a prominent tab on the web site that goes directly to that page.
(3) It's hard to find the downloads
I'm surprised by the number of requests I get which are "where are the
downloads?" Even though downloads are on the home tab, they clearly
aren't visible. So make downloads its own tab?
The real estate of a web browser can accommodate only so many tabs, so
we have to choose carefully. I'm hoping to free up some time soon to
look more closely at each of these areas.
-jean
