Re: [wxCode-users] About site reworking

[Francesco M. <f18...@ya...>]

Hi all,
    these are some things I thought for new wxCode website; feel free to 
give your opinion or let us know what you think is missing or what is 
superfluos...


1) create a new wxCode LOGO; something which gives the idea of an 
extension / additional components for wx; I know it's not easy to 
translate this effect in an image and also I'm very bad with graphics 
(looking at result, you won't believe it, my image.png files for my 
components took me a lot of time ;-))


2) NEWS must be easy to add; SF.net tracker is easy to use but how to 
show it in our website ?
I've found that it's possible to show SF.net news items in a website 
using SF HTML data export facility 
(http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=1502&group_id=1) so 
I suggest to begin to use SF news system which is much more easier & 
quicker to use rather than editing a page by hand, commit it to CVS, log 
in SF shell servers and checkout the website in the right folder !


3) the STYLE of the website is a thing more subjective. I've found two 
XHTML-compliant styles which would be easy to use:
http://www.oswd.org/viewdesign.phtml?id=1165&referer=%2Fbrowse.php%3Fpage%3D1%26sort%3Ddownloadsdesc

and

http://www.oswd.org/viewdesign.phtml?id=1192&referer=%2Fbrowse.php%3Fpage%3D1%26sort%3Ddownloadsdesc

which one do you suggest ?
Keep in mind that it should have a left sidebar menu; Sinorca theme (the 
first link provided above) is not frame-based but we could still modify 
it to use frames even if I think that's not required.


4) I suggest to use the following technologies for the website:
XHTML 1.0
CSS 2.0
PHP 5.0
MySQL <--- this one would be useful for components info storing and 
since it's very easy to connect to PHP, it would allow to do a lot of 
things like show components categorized by author, category, name....
A good database for wxCode would have the following fields:

-Name:     (no restrictions: both lower and upper case)
-Subdir:   lowercase unix name / link to the site which hosts the 
component if it does not a CVS repository on wxCode
-Status:   Alpha/Beta/Stable/Unmantained (last one is for administrators 
which 'disappear': i.e. become unreachable and do not admin the 
component anymore)
-Category: generic GUI / wxWindow-derived / non-GUI
-wxWidgets supported version & port:  wxMSW-2.6/wxGTK-2.5/.../all
-Docs:           doxygen/hand-written/not-available
-Build system:   bakefile-based/makefiles/project files/not-available
-External dependencies:   .... external libraries .../none
-Admin contact info:    my...@my... (i.e. an email address)
-Wiki:    enabled as comp's website/enabled/disabled
(the first one could be used by those developers who do not want to use 
the CVS /website folder and want to have a wiki-way to edit the 
components' website)
-Description: ....

The submission form would create an email to wxCode-users and when 
administrator's approval is given, the submission form would add to the 
database the new component's info.


4) the htdocs ORGANIZATION:
the website would be all in /htdocs (I omit /home/groups/w/wx/wxcode);
the components website folders would go in /htdocs/components/compname 
folders;
the components docs would go in /htdocs/docs/compname/ folders;
the components screenshots would go in /htdocs/screenshots/compname folders;
the WIKI would go in /htdocs/wiki and it would have a page (or more) for 
each component which can be used by users/developers/both for comments & 
info / component's website.


5) sections of the wxCode website which will appear on the left sidebar:
- news (synched through PHP with SF.net ones)
- about wxCode (what is it and a link to wxWidgets; some rules for the 
*users*: how to submit a buf/feature-request/patch tracker entry; how to 
subscribe wxcode-users... )
- components (the actual link to complist.php which links component 
websites, docs, screenshots, wikis, downloads)
- submit your component (an overview of wxCode services; license issues; 
rules of component administration; submission form)
- support (current support page)
- links (current links page)
- search (a google search link)


6) the wxCode component TEMPLATE: we should create a new folder in 
wxCode\template (or something like that) which provides:
1) a default dir structure for new components
2) link to the default bakefile build system
3) a simple website\index.html page which contains the sections:
- description
- screenshots
- documentation
- download details
- further enhancements
- known bugs
- contact info
which can also be used as wiki template page for those who want a wiki 
for their component's website.


All wiki, components website & wxCode website should use the same style 
for a coherent design (see point #3).

What do you think of this plan ?

Thanks,
Francesco Montorsi