Clinton's Powerpoint presentation is great resource. Whenever I can't explain the benefits of IBatis, I show them that presentation and they understand. Maybe we could convert that to some sort of Flash slideshow so people could view it righ within their browser.
--- Brandon Goodin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Rick Reumann sent this to me. I'm posting it here so we don't lose > it. > I saw some suggestions here that are good. I'll comment on it later. > Any other comments are welcome. > > Brandon > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Wrote this fast, so I'm sure parts of it don't make sense:) > > iBATIS web site suggestions > > Since iBATIS.com will more than likely be the first place a new > person > to the technology will go to, I think it's most beneficial for the > inital presentation of information to aid the new iBATIS newbie. > > Currently when you to go iBATIS.com you are presented with 'news' on > the home page. Sure that's nice for those already keeping up with the > technology but it now becomes work for the new person to have to find > out crucial information about iBATIS. > > Here are my sugessions. > > 1) Change the Home Page and provide link to "Home." Currently "news" > is the home page. I think the Home page should be there to describe > iBATIS (above news provide the Home link and also make the main > iBATIS > heading a link to home). Content on the Home page might be stuff > like... > > * What is iBATIS? Elaborate on the info in the About section. > Seems odd there is a large section on background, but there seems to > be so much more you can say about what iBATIS provides. > * What benefits are there to using iBATIS? ( no need to write > JDBC code, easy mapping to objects, can write regular SQL, caching, > easy to use, etc) > * Getting Started (this should also be a link on the left menu) > Topmost left menu: Home, Getting Started, News, Events, News Archive > > > (I know "Home" seems cheezy but it almost has become a standard. You > could relabel it something like "Welcome" (ala Amazon) but people > have > come to expect a way to get > back to the 'first page') > > 2) Concerning the "getting started" link. I think iBATIS really needs > this. I understand that iBATIS is really two seperate products, and > under each product under "Software" this is explained, but someone > new > to iBATIS could benefit from a "getting started" link giving them > some > tips for what they might want to download (more than likely I'm > guessing most are initially coming for the Data Mapper). This getting > started link could also explain about looking at the good > documentation bla bla. > > 3) Example of code. I code of sworn on the older site, there was a > quick example showing an SQL map and how that would map to an object. > I think it's a good idea to show this on the web site. I don't think > a > new user should have to download the whole JPetStore app in order to > get a feel for how cool iBATIS is. Showing a couple code snippets > would be nice to really hook people and get them looking at the > documenation. > > 4) Not critical but under Resources, I'd love to see an HTML version > of the documentation. The PDF is great but it's somtimes a pain to > have to go to a PDF. It would be great if that PDF was in HTML and > the > contents could be broken up into hyperlinks. Not sure how viable this > is, but it would be nice if that resources section on the left was > broken out right there into the links- FAQ, Documentation, wiki, > Other > Resources, etc. Seems a bit awkward that The Project section has a > break down of smaller links below it "team" "bylaws" etc yet the > Resources section doesn't. If anything, I'd flip this around. Most of > that Project information could be on one page vs small subsection > links. If you are going to break the Project section out into smaller > subsections, then the Resources section should do the same. More > likely someone is going to want to quickly get to a FAQ or > Documenation then they are going to want to get to "Bylaws." > > 5) Under the Downloads documention section should the sections # SQL > Maps for Java, Developer Guide # SQL Maps for Java, Tutorial be > changed to DataMapper? > > 6) The Downloads section is confusing. Since iBATIS is offering two > products (Data Mapper and DAO shouldn't they be separate downloads? > If > they aren't going to be separate I think it should be explained on > that page. I think a link to the "Gettting started" page should be > provided there also. "If you aren't sure what you need to download > click 'getting started'" >
