Re: Knowledge Base for 2.0
Stas Bekman [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On Sun, 16 Sep 2001, Jim wrote: I am able to provide hosting at least during development. I'll put out a URL when we get something together. That's great! Once it's working, we may start using it for all ASF projects and then it'll be easy to host it on ASF machines. Sounds good. I've just stumbled upon SuSe knowledge base -- very nice: http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/index.html I did look at it - initial impression is very favorable. Also check http://thingy.kcilink.com/modperlguide/, which is a special version of the guide that generates a page per section rather than having huge pages. So it should be able to take a document and split it into factoids/sections and while keeping them in relation, like the URL above. So when you search, each item gets searched separately, but when you view a section, you can still easily jump to the adjusent sections in the original doc. This will take a little more thought, but I don't think it's unreasonable. and we have some docs in modperl-docs cvs rep already. Not much yet, but it's the beginning. Good for testing with :) One thing I'd like to add is that the system should be capable of scratching its database and rebuilding everything from scratch. Consider some documentation being used as a source, getting modified, or some items become absolute and get removed, some items get added. Somehow the system should be able to handle this. I should be able to track sufficient metadata that I can do this without having to have the documents around (for the indices used in the interface) or from the documents themselves (if *all* database files are wiped). This also allows for arbitrary addition/deletion of arbitrary documents. I started a project on sourceforge so I could use CVS and let others see what's going on. I'll add RFEs that are mentioned on the list at some point. http://sourceforge.net/projects/perlkb/ I'm concentrating on the backend stuff. Someone else can focus on the frontend(s) -- we can make the frontends subprojects just like the backend. Each can have their subdirectory in cvs (basic future direction -- not enough backend done yet for that). I'll put together a test interface at some point - not meant to be functional, just testing. I also haven't emailed the perl modules list yet, so the PerlKB name might change at some point (the perl module, not the sub-project name). +- James Smith - [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.jamesmith.com/ [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://cis.tamu.edu/systems/opensystems/ +--
Re: Knowledge Base for 2.0
On Sun, 16 Sep 2001, Jim wrote: Last month, there was some mention of putting together a knowledge base for the mod_perl 2.0 documentation. I'm getting to the point at work that I can start throwing some time to it. Here are some thoughts I'm having regarding the design (programming target). I am able to provide hosting at least during development. I'll put out a URL when we get something together. That's great! Once it's working, we may start using it for all ASF projects and then it'll be easy to host it on ASF machines. I've just stumbled upon SuSe knowledge base -- very nice: http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/index.html I think the first thing we need to do is figure out what we want the knowledge base to do. I would like to see this be a general purpose application that happens to do the job well enough for our use with mod_perl docs as well as other unrealted areas. It is because of the general use of the application that I may able to devote time at work to the project. So... in general, my take on a KB is that it provides the following: o Easy access to the right document at the right time This is for customers and customer support o Easy management of documents This is for the developers and writers These two items could easily be built as two independent interfaces around a common backend. I'd like to take this fall semester and develop the backend so we can work on front ends in the spring. The backend will need to support the following operations: o Indices of documents - keywords, title, author, etc. o Management of documents - insert, delete, modify, classify (setting keywords, ...) Also check http://thingy.kcilink.com/modperlguide/, which is a special version of the guide that generates a page per section rather than having huge pages. So it should be able to take a document and split it into factoids/sections and while keeping them in relation, like the URL above. So when you search, each item gets searched separately, but when you view a section, you can still easily jump to the adjusent sections in the original doc. o Ranking of documents for search results o probably other things I'm not thinking about at the moment Documents will need to be understood in a variety of formats such as docbook and pod. Probably use pod as the initial format since that is what the mod_perl 2.0 docs will be written in. and we have some docs in modperl-docs cvs rep already. Not much yet, but it's the beginning. We can use AI::Categorize to form the initial keywords for a document. The system can learn as documents are added. We might want to include revision control someday -- perhaps use CVS, which might allow for an easy CLI. Otherwise, we can create an XML-RPC interface and design some CLI tools around it. Or both. This would be in addition to any web-based interface we might have. I'll try to spit out some more thoughts as they come. Please feel free to contribute. Now's the time to get the wish list put together. Cool! One thing I'd like to add is that the system should be capable of scratching its database and rebuilding everything from scratch. Consider some documentation being used as a source, getting modified, or some items become absolute and get removed, some items get added. Somehow the system should be able to handle this. _ Stas Bekman JAm_pH -- Just Another mod_perl Hacker http://stason.org/ mod_perl Guide http://perl.apache.org/guide mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://apachetoday.com http://eXtropia.com/ http://singlesheaven.com http://perl.apache.org http://perlmonth.com/
Re: Knowledge Base for 2.0
On Sun, 16 Sep 2001, Jim Smith wrote: On Sun, Sep 16, 2001 at 02:37:50PM -0500, Jim wrote: Last month, there was some mention of putting together a knowledge base for the mod_perl 2.0 documentation. I'm getting to the point at work that I can start throwing some time to it. Here are some thoughts I'm having regarding the design (programming target). If this needs to go on the docs-dev list, I'll take it there. It'll take awhile before there will be enough people on that list, therefore please keep the posts here for now, so we could get more feedback. After a while when the docs-dev list will become more active we will move the discussion there. _ Stas Bekman JAm_pH -- Just Another mod_perl Hacker http://stason.org/ mod_perl Guide http://perl.apache.org/guide mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://apachetoday.com http://eXtropia.com/ http://singlesheaven.com http://perl.apache.org http://perlmonth.com/
Re: Knowledge Base for 2.0
On Sun, 16 Sep 2001, Jim wrote: I'll try to spit out some more thoughts as they come. Please feel free to contribute. Now's the time to get the wish list put together. Some ideas (from the user's perspective): It would be nice if, the user interface provided a configuration and version form that the user could select for responses. For example, an article may cover all Apache versions between certain version numbers, or all versions above some value. It would be nice if, a sort priority were available. In other words, the date of the article or the keywords may be most important. (etc.) It would be nice if, the knowledge base could connect the information dots. In other words, would contain references (links) to related information. Of these, Guide, Debugging, and Archive references would be useful. It would be nice if, the information entered during a query could be used to post to an email list. In other words, if the user does not finding useful information, that it would be easy to post a message, that would get human feedback. ++ | George Sanderson [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.xorgate.com ++
Re: Knowledge Base for 2.0
On Sun, Sep 16, 2001 at 02:37:50PM -0500, Jim wrote: Last month, there was some mention of putting together a knowledge base for the mod_perl 2.0 documentation. I'm getting to the point at work that I can start throwing some time to it. Here are some thoughts I'm having regarding the design (programming target). If this needs to go on the docs-dev list, I'll take it there. --jim
