George, It's a start!
Since you mentioned it, I took a crack at making some logo images by merging together the Microsoft .NET logo (look) with the Lucene logo. I am not sure what Apache's policy is on one project using another project's logo, so if I went horribly wrong here somebody please tell me. I made one wide logo (490px) for the bigger viewports and a narrow one (200px) for the smaller viewport. Not sure if these dimensions will work, but if not let me know what might work and I will see what I can do. The bigger one has a magnifying glass (the international symbol for search) which feels like it definitely needs to be there. We can then use a bigger version of the magnifying glass on NuGet so it all matches. I also used Lucene's colors which don't match the current theme of the website - let me know if you prefer to change the logo colors rather than the theme. I uploaded the images (and their .psd files) to https://issues.apache.org/jira/projects/LUCENENET/issues/LUCENENET-589 A few comments: 1. The "unvisited" colors of the links are blue on blue which makes them blend into the background (making them almost invisible). 2. I am a bit torn on putting the quick start on the home page vs taking Simple Injector's approach and just linking to it on the API docs. I like the code front and center on the site, but it seems like the quick start should be part of the API docs so it is easy to find when you are looking at them. 3. Some other links we should have: a. StackOverflow - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/lucene.net b. Wiki - https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/LUCENENET/Lucene.Net (Out of date now, but I can work on updating it now that I have access) c. JIRA Issue Tracker - https://issues.apache.org/jira/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20LUCENENET%20AND%20status%20%3D%20Open d. Other Lucene Ports - https://wiki.apache.org/lucene-java/LuceneImplementations e. NuGet - https://www.nuget.org/packages?q=Author%3A%22The+Apache+Software+Foundation%22+Tag%3Alucene.net f. Apache website - http://www.apache.org/ g. Mailing lists - https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/LUCENENET/Mailing+Lists h. License - http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 i. Latest Release - https://dist.apache.org/repos/dist/release/lucenenet/ j. Release Archive - https://archive.apache.org/dist/lucenenet/ k. Contribution Guide - https://github.com/apache/lucenenet/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md 4. If we do have the quick start on the home page, the first 2 examples should be the simplest way to create an index and the simplest way to search it (with none of the "extras"). Take a look at the https://github.com/apache/lucenenet/blob/master/src/Lucene.Net.Demo/IndexFiles.cs and https://github.com/apache/lucenenet/blob/master/src/Lucene.Net.Demo/SearchFiles.cs demos - we should have something like this, but without the console app, extra methods, etc. - just the basic "write index" and "search index". Having additional examples is fine, but these two should be the most prominent. 5. The code samples should always show the correct usage of putting IDisposable types in a using block. 6. I think we should standardize on American English. Having a StandardAnalyzer class being described as an "analyser" just looks strange to me. Or, if you prefer to localize the site that would work too, but might be a lot more work than you bargained for. 7. The headline should probably be "Lucene.Net is a high performance full-text search engine library for .NET". Technically, we support .NET Framework 4.5.1+, .NET Core, Mono, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Mac, and Xamarin.Andriod, but that is a bit wordy (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/net-standard). You can use that fact as content somewhere else, though (or just say that we support .NET Framework and .NET Standard 1.5, which would cover any future platforms MS decides to add to .NET Standard). "Embeddable" also doesn't seem like the right term to use: http://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/embedded-software. I know what you are trying to say, but I think the term "library" covers it, since it sets it apart from being a "service". 8. I think it is still important to state our three primary goals on the home page (https://lucenenet.apache.org/). Maybe they don't belong at the top, though. 9. If we are going to have a single NuGet package manager console command, it should be for the Lucene.Net package. 10. If you are looking for content to fill the homepage with, there is some great stuff here: https://lucene.apache.org/core/ (although there needs to be some fact checking against lucene 4.8.0 on each of these points) 11. It's no longer 2016 :) (well, maybe it is in Australia). Thanks, Shad Storhaug (NightOwl888) -----Original Message----- From: George Kinsman [mailto:geo...@georgekinsman.com] Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2017 8:41 PM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: Re: New Website Hi there, I spent some time over the last week on a draft version of a new website. I've uploaded a repository to github (https://github.com/gkinsman/LuceneNetDraftSite) with the site and build scripts. You can run `build.ps1` to do a one time build, and `build.ps1 -watch` to start an http server and watch script. A sample screenshot of it is here: http://i.imgur.com/YR7wSpj.jpg. Obviously I've made some assumptions in the sample code, and it's a very rough draft - but it's a start, and should be quite easy to add to. I haven't touched the logo - I don't have the skills to better the current design. Let me know your thoughts. George ________________________________ From: Shad Storhaug <s...@shadstorhaug.com> Sent: 08 July 2017 17:37 To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: RE: New Website A concern is the amount of maintenance involved with so many tools. We already have a lot of them, so it would probably be best to reuse the tools we have if possible to keep the learning curve and maintenance of the infrastructure down. > . I'm not sure how strict the rules are on exactly *what* code needs to be > hosted at Apache, but perhaps it might be wise to create a github org for > Lucene.Net for non-core repositories. We could then store the static site > there, and deploy it to apache.org as per the rules. The lucenenet project is already part of the Apache GitHub org. I don't think it is possible to be part of more than one organization. I have worked with GitHub pages before and they recommended to set it up as a different branch in the same repo. I thought it was a PITA at the time because I had to do a git clean every time I switched between branches, but now that I think about the workflow a bit more there could just be separate working directories for the lucenenet project and the web site each pointing to a different branch. So, reusing the current repo (on a separate branch) is a possibility. We could also receive PRs for the doc updates, provided we provide the instructions where to find them in the repo. And using a different branch means we can easily have 2 different CI triggers so they can be independent. > If we used something like Wyam, content updates would become a matter of > changing/adding a new markdown document to the site repository, which could > then be built and deployed using AppVeyor<https://www.appveyor.com/> to > apache.org. AppVeyor - Continuous Integration and Deployment service ...<https://www.appveyor.com/> www.appveyor.com #1 Continuous Delivery service for Windows Your new build server in a cloud. Start in minutes. Enjoy faster results. No issue with using Wyam. However, we already are using TeamCity for CI and should probably just create a separate build for the web site on TeamCity (https://teamcity.jetbrains.com/project.html?projectId=LuceneNet_PortableBuilds), so we don't have yet another tool to learn/provide permissions for. We are also using Powershell for the build script, so it would be best to use Powershell in this case as well as a wrapper around whatever tooling needs to run (if necessary). > Let me know your thoughts on what I've outlined above - I'm going to begin > working on some ideas for design, which I'll update you with as I go. I'd be > happy to set all of the above up, I think it comes down to where you'd be > willing to host the static site repository, and whether you want to go down > the GitHub org path - assuming you're happy with the direction. It sounds like you have the right idea. Actually, I like Autofac's design even more than SimpleInjector. Although, it would be nice if some of the rest of the team let us know their thoughts as well. Prescott, Stefan, Itamar, Wyatt? Does anyone know who has or how to get access to update the existing web site, or if it is possible to change the DNS record for lucenenet.apache.org to a new location? The API docs are hosted on the same subdomain so this applies to that project as well. Recent News/Updates Frankly, this is another thing that we really should cut out of the design unless someone is willing to commit to keeping it updated. If we have a design that doesn't have any dates or versions on it, it will always be current and we don't run the risk of it looking dead even if nobody touches it for a couple of years. I don't see any dates or version numbers on Autofac or SimpleInjector's websites. Do we really need to announce to the world that the project teeters on the edge of extinction because not enough people contribute? It doesn't sound like the right formula to building a successful community. Vote It looks like the last release had a couple of design proposals and the team voted on the one they preferred (http://apache.markmail.org/message/aafm74wp556dlohm?q=lucenenet+website). Sounds like a great way to have community involvement...but if there is only time for one design proposal I will vote on it :). -----Original Message----- From: George Kinsman [mailto:geo...@georgekinsman.com] Sent: Saturday, July 8, 2017 9:48 AM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: Re: Mailing List Documentation SimpleInjector's site looks really good, although as you say it's important to have some code samples on the homepage too. Some examples of project homepages that I think do a really good job at this include Serilog<https://serilog.net/>, Autofac<https://autofac.org/> and Nancy<http://nancyfx.org/>. Each of them have clean designs, code samples, and installation directions - and each of them are great examples of very active .NET open source projects too. I think we could implement a nice modern design with these things front and centre, which would give the project a great web presence. Where Each of those projects are hosted using Github Pages<https://pages.github.com/>, which is a static content host. They use static generator tools like Jekyll to convert markdown from a git repository into a plain html website. If we used something a little more modern like Wyam<https://wyam.io/> with a custom theme, then we could just host it in a github repo. Another thing about those previously mentioned projects is that they each<https://github.com/autofac> have<https://github.com/serilog/serilog> their own<https://github.com/NancyFx> GitHub org, with many separate repositories for tooling/examples/public site etc. I'm not sure how strict the rules are on exactly *what* code needs to be hosted at Apache, but perhaps it might be wise to create a github org for Lucene.Net for non-core repositories. We could then store the static site there, and deploy it to apache.org as per the rules. How If we used something like Wyam, content updates would become a matter of changing/adding a new markdown document to the site repository, which could then be built and deployed using AppVeyor<https://www.appveyor.com/> to apache.org. That would give us a very low barrier to entry for contributions (a GitHub PR), and allow you guys to interact with the community really easily. The process from an approved PR to the site being updated would be entirely automatic. The DocFX work could be hosted in a separate repo too, which could be hosted/deployed alongside the main site. I completely sympathise with you that the project needs to appear to be a bit more active - I think this would be a great step to take to let the wider .NET community know about the enormous amount of effort you're putting into this new port, and to pull in new contributors. I'd love to help get there however I can. Let me know your thoughts on what I've outlined above - I'm going to begin working on some ideas for design, which I'll update you with as I go. I'd be happy to set all of the above up, I think it comes down to where you'd be willing to host the static site repository, and whether you want to go down the GitHub org path - assuming you're happy with the direction. Cheers, George ________________________________ From: Shad Storhaug <s...@shadstorhaug.com> Sent: 07 July 2017 23:32 To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: RE: Mailing List Documentation George, I started a new issue on JIRA to track the progress of this: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LUCENENET-589. The only thing that is clear about the project at this point is that we don't really have a clear idea what is required, so the first step is to start picking brains about what we are actually building. I would say we could probably have that conversation here on the dev mailing list and use the information gathered here to list and prioritize requirements on JIRA, and then work exclusively on JIRA from there. Some of those things to nail down are where to build it (in the lucenenet repo or somewhere else) where to host it, and how to deploy it. One concern is the ability to easily update it with recent news. I don't know offhand whether it makes more sense to integrate/build some kind of simple CMS or if that means we need to build a TeamCity task to deploy it frequently with updates, or some other method. Personally, my primary concern is to keep the project going. It is not acceptable to have a web site that looks like it belongs to a project that nobody is maintaining (when in fact we are). We should aim to make it look like a community that people are not afraid to jump in and help with. I am partial to SimpleInjector's design: https://simpleinjector.org/index.html with a modern look and feel, responsive design, and links to all of the appropriate places to get support for the product and how to get involved. A quick start guide for Lucene.Net is also essential to learning the basics before diving into the API docs. Simple Injector<https://simpleinjector.org/index.html> simpleinjector.org Simple injector is free. Simple Injector is open source and published under the permissive MIT license. Simple injector is, and always will be, free. Thanks, Shad Storhaug (NightOwl888) -----Original Message----- From: George Kinsman [mailto:geo...@georgekinsman.com] Sent: Friday, July 7, 2017 1:20 PM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: Re: Mailing List Documentation Thanks Shad, great list there. I'd be happy to work on a new public site/design/icon this weekend - would this be the appropriate forum to post ideas/progress, or perhaps a github issue/new repo? The DocFX docs look great too, it'd be great to host them alongside/inside a new site. Also as an aside (perhaps not the right thread for this), but I'm interested in porting the TermFrequencyAttribute (patch here https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LUCENE-7854) from Lucene 7 in order to customise the method of obtaining the term frequency at index time. It looks like the building blocks for this already exist in Lucene.Net 4.8, so I might try and spend a little time spiking out the idea if there are no objections. ________________________________ From: Shad Storhaug <s...@shadstorhaug.com> Sent: 07 July 2017 14:56 To: geo...@georgekinsman.com Cc: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: RE: Mailing List Documentation > I'd be willing to help out with this in whatever form. Since this project is > an Apache one, does that preclude it from using something other than apache > hosted docs? Something a little more user friendly like ReadMe (ReadMe.io) or > ReadTheDocs might be useful? (ReadTheDocs.io). Both have free open source > licenses/allowances - a great example of readme is here: > https://docs.getseq.net/docs. George, there is a (not so exhaustive) list of ideas of things to work on here (https://github.com/apache/lucenenet/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#other-ways-to-help). Also see the 2 sections above for additional things that can be done to help. -----Original Message----- From: Prescott Nasser [mailto:geobmx...@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, July 7, 2017 11:26 AM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: RE: Mailing List Documentation That's a good question - it's been a while. Stefan do you recall the rules around this? I also am unfamiliar with those services, but would they support the effort underway for DocFX? I think DocFX outputs some nice HTML which should be pretty easy for us to host at apache -----Original Message----- From: George Kinsman [mailto:geo...@georgekinsman.com] Sent: Thursday, July 6, 2017 5:04 PM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: RE: Mailing List Documentation I'd be willing to help out with this in whatever form. Since this project is an Apache one, does that preclude it from using something other than apache hosted docs? Something a little more user friendly like ReadMe (ReadMe.io) or ReadTheDocs might be useful? (ReadTheDocs.io). Both have free open source licenses/allowances - a great example of readme is here: https://docs.getseq.net/docs. Cheers, George From: Prescott Nasser Sent: Friday, July 7, 06:45 Subject: RE: Mailing List Documentation To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Since that was a while ago, I don't think it made it anywhere. Also not sure there is a benefit to digging through the mailing list again - let's just make this a re-ask for help? Or open up a new thread with a better subject to catch some attention? -----Original Message----- From: Shad Storhaug [mailto:s...@shadstorhaug.com] Sent: Thursday, July 6, 2017 1:41 PM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: RE: Mailing List Documentation I have to dig through the email, but as I recall we had 2 volunteers offer their help to build our web site. At the time I assumed that they were being contacted offline or on a list that I didn't have access to. Do you know if they were replied to? Perhaps they still have the time and willingness to help...? -----Original Message----- From: Prescott Nasser [mailto:geobmx...@hotmail.com] Sent: Friday, July 7, 2017 3:35 AM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: RE: Mailing List Documentation I couldn't for the life of me remember (or find out) how to get you permissions. So I filed a ticket with INFRA (https://issues.apache.org/jira/servicedesk/agent/INFRA/issue/INFRA-14530). Definitely need to update all of our documentation and website. I'm not a web designer - but I can help any community member who is and who wants to help us revamp our web presence? I'm following the progress on this PR https://github.com/apache/lucenenet/pull/206, which I think will solve our documentation issues. Just need to get a lot of people writing up samples on how to get started using Lucene and different features -----Original Message----- From: Shad Storhaug [mailto:s...@shadstorhaug.com] Sent: Thursday, July 6, 2017 1:13 PM To: dev@lucenenet.apache.org Subject: Mailing List Documentation Hello, We received a complaint (https://github.com/synhershko/LuceneNetDemo/issues/3#issuecomment-307391518) from someone who wanted to contribute, but couldn't figure out how to sign up for the dev list because (apparently) the WIKI documentation isn't clear enough (https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/LUCENENET/Mailing+Lists). He tried to signup using the *actual* email listed on the page (list-subscr...@lucenenet.apache.org) and it bounced. He also made mention of our out of date documentation on the web site and WIKI pages. What happened with the web site revamp project and can we get that going now that we are officially on NuGet? People get the impression the project is dead. Also, could someone give me access to the WIKI so I can start working on updating the docs there? Is that the recommended place to add documentation (such as walkthroughs, .NET platform specific setup instructions, etc.) or should we aim to make that part of the API documentation (https://github.com/apache/lucenenet/pull/206)? While we are on that subject, is the plan to put the new API docs at http://incubator.apache.org/lucene.net/docs/3.0.3/Index.html (with the new version number), or somewhere else? Thanks, Shad Storhaug (NightOwl888)
