netjuke-docs — This list is for the Netjuke documentation project

Re: [Netjuke-docs] FAQ Update

[Blake W. <sb...@ib...>]

Hi Paul -

This is great actually! I've launched the new Netjuke site, which prominantly features a FAQ section that is in need of love. Florian and I will give you whatever input we can once you post your topics. I've provided a fair bit of documentation recently (though there are still holes on the page), but have been slowed down by various projects and the need to produce code. Netjuke2 development has also opened, and I'm using phpdocumentor tags to help provide in depth documentation for users and developers going forward. It seems the documentation hole is rapidly closing :) Anyway, I look forward to seeing what you've cooked up for us.

Thanks,
Blake

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003 06:23:34 -0700
sil...@si... wrote:

> I'm back from vacation, and after volunteering months ago to help work on the 
> FAQ, I think I'm making some progress.
> 
> Just wanted to send a quick shout out and let you know I haven't forgot.  :)
> 
> I've really struggled from a topics standpoint in the FAQ, especially around 
> installation and troubleshooting.
> 
> I've incorporated a lot of the general info off of the main site, and some 
> other frequently asked questions.
> 
> My goal is to post the topics / questions by the end of this weekend, and get 
> feedback from the list, and keep plugging away at the answers / subjects so we 
> can move forward with the FAQ.
> 
> I apologise for doing most of this on my own in a vacuum, and I really hope it 
> meets with everyone's approval.
> 
> Paul
> 
> 
> 
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[Netjuke-docs] FAQ Update

[<sil...@si...>]

I'm back from vacation, and after volunteering months ago to help work on the 
FAQ, I think I'm making some progress.

Just wanted to send a quick shout out and let you know I haven't forgot.  :)

I've really struggled from a topics standpoint in the FAQ, especially around 
installation and troubleshooting.

I've incorporated a lot of the general info off of the main site, and some 
other frequently asked questions.

My goal is to post the topics / questions by the end of this weekend, and get 
feedback from the list, and keep plugging away at the answers / subjects so we 
can move forward with the FAQ.

I apologise for doing most of this on my own in a vacuum, and I really hope it 
meets with everyone's approval.

Paul

[Netjuke-docs] Netjuke Reloaded

[Blake W. <sb...@ib...>]

Hi all -

I spent the better part of my weekend creating a new Netjuke website, cleaning up documentation, and opening the new 1.1 branch. My current development branch will not be committed to CVS until the 1.0 release (which is complete as far as I'm concerned -- we're waiting on some translation changes). But in the meantime, I've made some major infrastructure changes that will hopefully help in speeding development of this project.

NEW ROADMAP

As of the 1.0 release, Netjuke development will now follow a stable/unstable branch system. Versioning will follow the Linux kernel's model (even numbers for stable releases, odd for development). This will allow us to make more frequent releases and make the process of stabilization and collecting user feedback that much easier.

The 1.1 development tree is now open. Florian has been maintaining a separate branch of code for awhile now, so the first task will be merging our trees and then getting CVS back into sync. I'll cover what's new in a minute.

NEW WEBSITE

I've redone the Netjuke website using PostNuke as the CMS. In addition to being very pretty, the new site features much more thorough documentation, a comments system, news, RSS Syndication, etc. I'm still adding content, but plan to launch the site simultaneously with the 1.0 release. The site will also allow for delegation in the support/documentation sector and areas for contributed patches, themes, and modules.

You can check out the new site (currently hosted on my home workstation) at http://adeline.dotcave.com/postnuke/html. Please comment on the site and help me make sure it's perfect for release :) If you would like to help with content, please let me know and I'll add you an account.

DOCUMENTATION PROJECT

I've recently started a new mailing list devoted to helping with the documentation of Netjuke and clearing up our lingering support issues. While I am very good at moderating the forums and answering support e-mail, the documentation could go a long way toward reducing the number of support issues in the first place.

The new website dovetails with this documentation project as the first documentation issue is constructing a relevant FAQ. Currently there are two volunteers working on this. :)

I'll be handling constructing developer documentation. Marking up the source with phpDocumentor tags (similar to javadoc) will become standard practice and should result in a very thorough documentation of the source by the 1.2 stable release series.

DEVELOPMENT TREE (1.1)

This is where the really interesting stuff is happening. Because of the branching of the project, there will be heavy development and changes going on in the devel source. Releases will be made every few weeks or as called for by developers and the installer will be brought up to date at the time of release. Since stability will be secondary on this branch, innovation and experimentation will be encouraged. The DEVELOPMENT_CHANGES.txt file will become even more crucial in maintaining the changelog, installer, and documentation.

There are a number of changes I have already made in my source tree. Here's a quick run-down of the current devel branch:

- Completely removed all track counts from database. SQL count() function will be used when counts need to be calculated. The counts were unreliable and only useful for easing the task of maintaining the special N/A data records. 
- New error system. Netjuke is now totally output buffered (except for special pages such as import, db-maintain, etc). This allows Netjuke to catch errors (especially those thrown by failed database queries) and display a nicely formatted error message instead of the page mysteriously breaking.
- Identified and fixed bug in importer related to single quotes in track names.
- Added new 'magic' developer macros. Setting debug_db=1 in any request turns on adodb's debug mode (all queries are echoed to the screen) and setting raw_errors=1 disables output buffered errors
- Page generation time is displayed on development builds
- Amazon web services integration has begun. This allows Netjuke to fetch cover images and other metadata from Amazon.
- Ratings and review system has been added. (Need some good star graphics)

Changes that are on my TODO list:

- Front page customization. A blocks system will be used (similar to geeklog/postnuke etc) and I will provide a number of blocks (latest artists, albums, genre table, etc)
- Arbitrary creation of user groups
- User permissions (ACL) system. This will allow a user/group to moderate a particular genre, category, front page, post reviews, etc.
- Associated media will be maintained in the database. Images, videos, etc will be able to be associated with particular tracks, albums, artists, etc. 
- Enhanced community features. Who's Online?, What's Streaming?, Currently Playing (jukebox), etc.
- Expand explore view to include track view, use cover art, ratings, etc. 
- Searching will return groups instead of tracks when in explore mode (searching for an artist will return a list of albums, instead of a list of tracks)
- Sequential edit mode. Turn any listing of tracks into an edit page with text fields for each item with one click.
- CD Burning. On Unix platform, Netjuke will be able to use cdrecord for burning from the archive. Control by ACL and IP address.
- Manage media formats. Instead of manually editing the formats line in prefs, there will be a table for enabling/disabling known formats and arbitrarily adding new formats.

And a bunch more stuff that is written down in my little notebook at home... :) All of this will be added to the TODO page and then hit with a strike-through when implemented.

Anyway, that's my state of the jukebox address for the time being.

Comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

Thanks!
Blake

[Netjuke-docs] Now that things are settled..

[Blake W. <sb...@ib...>]

Ahem! Well it seems that our list is up and running, so let's get down to it. In addition to the formal documentation efforts we've already talked about, I'm going to begin marking up the Netjuke sourcecode in phpDocumentor (http://phpdocu.sourceforge.net) as I work and see if I can't convince the other developers to do the same. Hopefully by the time we have the FAQ done, everything will be lovely and we can make user/devel docs largely from the marked up source code. Once Netjuke 1.0 is released later this month, I'll be forking development for a new tree that will contain substantial changes (mostly below the hood, though this will be very visible), so why not document the code as I gut it out and replace it?

Just a heads up on where things are headed :)
Blake

Re: [Netjuke-docs] test

[Tomasz K. <ne...@fl...>]

At 17:04 2003-06-10, you wrote:
>Seeing if this blasted thing is delivering properly yet :)

I can see it - if that's proper or not I can't tell... ;)

Re: [Netjuke-docs] test

[Paul <sil...@si...>]

Looks good to me!

On Tue, 2003-06-10 at 16:04, Blake Watters wrote:
> Seeing if this blasted thing is delivering properly yet :)
--=20
Paul <sil...@si...>

[Netjuke-docs] test

[Blake W. <sb...@ib...>]

Seeing if this blasted thing is delivering properly yet :)

Re: [Netjuke-docs] Getting the ball rolling

[Paul <sil...@si...>]

Sounds great, I've been itching to get started, but had to rebuild a
couple of my PCs, so the timing worked out.

When you say the 3 of us, as in Florian, you and me, or am I missing
someone?

Anyone have any best of class FAQs in their head they've seen before and
might recommend as we get started?



On Tue, 2003-06-03 at 17:35, Blake Watters wrote:
> Hi guys -
>=20
> So far the three of us are the documentation project at this point :) Hop=
efully we can use this list to coordinate a little bit and produce some qua=
lity documentation. I'm hoping that you two will be able to work together a=
nd produce the documentation without too much help from me (aside from tech=
nical liaison issues). Florian and I are already going crazy working on b19=
, even without b18 totally out the door (waiting on these blasted translato=
rs).
>=20
> Anyhow, before I got distracted with all this OSCOM non-sense, we had lar=
gely agreed that the documentation should have two manifestations :
> A FAQ to address common questions, basic technical issues, etc
> and
> a User/Admin Guide Providing more detailed 'manual' style documentation.
>=20
> For now, I'd like to focus on the FAQ primarily. Netjuke is going to unde=
rgo significant UI changes in b19 and there's no need to write for future r=
evision. I'm going to produce detailed technical overviews for all the chan=
ges that we do, so hopefully I'll wind up building good developer documenta=
tion as a by-product of development and we can digest it into end-user term=
s in a few months.=20
>=20
> How's this sound?
>=20
> Blake
--=20
Paul <sil...@si...>

[Netjuke-docs] Getting the ball rolling

[Blake W. <sb...@ib...>]

Hi guys -

So far the three of us are the documentation project at this point :) Hopefully we can use this list to coordinate a little bit and produce some quality documentation. I'm hoping that you two will be able to work together and produce the documentation without too much help from me (aside from technical liaison issues). Florian and I are already going crazy working on b19, even without b18 totally out the door (waiting on these blasted translators).

Anyhow, before I got distracted with all this OSCOM non-sense, we had largely agreed that the documentation should have two manifestations :
A FAQ to address common questions, basic technical issues, etc
and
a User/Admin Guide Providing more detailed 'manual' style documentation.

For now, I'd like to focus on the FAQ primarily. Netjuke is going to undergo significant UI changes in b19 and there's no need to write for future revision. I'm going to produce detailed technical overviews for all the changes that we do, so hopefully I'll wind up building good developer documentation as a by-product of development and we can digest it into end-user terms in a few months. 

How's this sound?

Blake