When I first put on FarCry I was under the impression that Aura was optional -- just a demo site you could install if you wanted to -- and FarCry was a framework that was independent. I'm sure having the 3 separate downloads doesn't help this misconception.
After just experiencing what's needed to justify using FarCry, as great as Geoff's feature list is, at the end of the day they wanted to play with a demo, and it has to look impressive. If we can get an impressive feature filled demo site available for download and install then it would make our lives easier convincing them that FarCry's the way to go. People look at Aura and then at sites using FarCry and they find it hard to see the connection.
The feature demo doesn't need to show off every bit of flexibility that FarCry has, but it needs to demonstrate its flexibility to non-cf'ers. Pretty much all that's needed to convince them is to use the admin to be able to make major changes to the site and watch the changes reflected in the browser and to demonstrate how a joe-sixpack can add a new page to the website. Add in a few demos of content reuse (maybe have something showing in 5 different pages) and a custom PLP and they should be happy =) always helps that the price is right (thanks Daemon!)
Some possible inclusions in the feature demo site - includes (use of existing cf code) - multi-page tocs - n-level navigation - image handling - custom objects (with custom PLPs) - content reuse (very important!) - site map - categorisation
I'd be willing to make up a nice, snazzy and more corporate looking template (graphics, xhtml + css) and CF coding (though might need some guidance for the farcry specifics). It's a shame the default rich-text-editor isn't xhtml compliant as many companies (and government organisations) are now aware of, and would like to adhere to, the disability discrimination act.
Steps to get started:
1) Define a fake company with a purpose statement, corporate image etc (ala Trio Motors)
2) Define the page structure and what type of objects and content would best demonstrate the ease of use, content reuse and extensibility of FarCry. Design to impress both the client and the developer.
3) Create the site using as many FarCry best-practices as possible (making sure objects stay as generic as possible so as to be added to the future developer exchange -- such as an FAQ object?)
4) Create a nice template
5) Create two pages on the farcry website that give a tour of the demo site -- one for clients and one for developers -- with screenshots and stuff to show them what they can do.
And the big clincher... how can an entire site be bundled up for platform-independent distribution?
- tim
Lee Aston spoke the following wise words on 23/01/2004 11:32 PM EST:
Hi Geoff,
I know the default installation is full functional, but not much
functionality is demonstrated in the default site. How about adding several
new options to the menu bar in the default installation. News, Events, Facts
and Nav could be added to demonstrate an implementation of each. Nav could
demonstrate how to use the side bar for links, in the same way the farcry
site does. I think a lot of newcryers like me would love to have something
like this to learn from.
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MXDU2004 + Macromedia DevCon AsiaPac + Sydney, Australia http://www.mxdu.com/ + 24-25 February, 2004
