1
Herko
[content] The framework
  • 2006/1/3 15:18

  • Herko

  • XOOPS is my life!

  • Posts: 4238

  • Since: 2002/2/4 1


Read this post carefully, it contains a lot of information.

The first step in this project is to get some consensus on what content the website should ideally provide. The basic structure is laid out in this post, but the details are not set and fixed.

TASK: Please post your thoughts on the structure of the new sites in this thread.
When doing so, please remember that new content needs to be written, and when suggesting new content, you're also committing yourself to creating this content (or getting it created).

The new structure
The most important change is the structure of the websites. From having one main website with all the content and several development websites, we're moving towards three portals designed to bring focus to the users of the websites. Each portal provides information that is not exclusive to each portal, but presents that information from a specific context. The 3 portals are not 3 different XOOPS installs, but act as 3 entries to the relevant information available. Access to this information is no longer provided by module only, but via 'sections'. The sections are pages that bundle information from several modules providing easy access to the most relevant information.

The XOOPS Product Portal
The XOOPS product portal (referred to as XOOPS), whose target audience is people who are looking for a system to manage their websites with, and people who are starting with XOOPS. This portal provides the basic information and downloads necessary to make a choice (for XOOPS of course) and get started. This site has little interaction, and contains a lot of static information.
The sections for this portal are:
- Homepage (page with introduction and recent news about the product, with easy links to downloads, documentation)

- What is XOOPS
- 10 reasons to use XOOPS (list of reasons why someone would choose XOOPS as platform)
- Testimonials (from all kinds of users)
- XOOPS in the press
- System requirements
- Features (description of the product features)
- Open Source (description of what open source means for end-users)
- License (description of what the GPL means: what you can and can't do)

- Downloads
- Get started (a fully working download that is easy to install and easy to learn the power and ease of XOOPS)
- Latest core (download the latest *stable* versions of the core)
- XOOPS Packs (packs contain preselected sets of modules and themes for a specific purpose)
- Most popular modules
- Most popular themes

- Documentation (easy install guides in PDF, CHM, HTML and flash movies, operation guides etc. In different languages, presskit)

- About us
- The XOOPS Foundation (description of the XOOPS Foundation and it's role in the XOOPS project)
- The XOOPS Community (introduction of the team leaders and key members of the community)
- Who made XOOPS (credits file (updated), per version: who contributed to which version)
- How to contribute (description on how one can participate in the project and make a contribution)


The XOOPS Community Portal
The XOOPS Community portal resembles the current website most, with the target audience of people who are looking for support for their XOOPS powered website and want to provide support to other users. The level of interaction in this portal is very high. The portal provides services to the community and easy access to most of the files that are ready for use. The sections on this site are:
- Homepage (page with short introduction of the services available, recent news, recent forum posts and easy access to FAQ, documentation)

- News (Overview of the news, grouped by topic, also press releases, articles)

- FAQ (Organised and less cluttered FAQ overview)

- Documentation (a new documentation setion with 'Official' and community documentation, in different languages)

- Forums (Overview of the forums -less forums then we have now)

- International support (List of certified XOOPS support sites)

- Information (static information 'what is XOOPS', 10 reasons to join the community, how to behave, how to contribute, Hall of Fame, Friends of XOOPS, Press releases, presskit)

- Downloads (core, modules and themes)

- Links (reorganised links section)

- Business directory (mid-term addition: list of certified XOOPS service providers (hosting, development, design, implementation, support)

- About us (The XOOPS Foundation, the Teams, contact us)


The XOOPS Development Portal
The XOOPS Development portal is probably the smallest of the three portals, because it's only purpose it to provide access to the different development sites the XOOPS developers use, such as the development forge, the devteam website, the sourceforge.net pages and currently the berlios SVN repository. Added to this will be a few sections:

- Homepage (with easy access to the developer sites and services, as well as status information on the main development projects)

- Developer Resources (a collection of links and tools that can be used to develop for XOOPS)

- Business directory (certified XOOPS service providers such as commercial developers, designers, hosting providers, etc.).

- How to contribute to development (information about reporting bugs, contributing patches, where to make modules and themes, etc.)

2
Shine
Re: [content] The framework
  • 2006/1/3 16:11

  • Shine

  • Just can't stay away

  • Posts: 822

  • Since: 2002/7/22


Just two small questions to get it a bit clearer:

Quote:
FAQ (Organised and less cluttered FAQ overview)

I miss a seperate tutorials section. A lot of ansewered questions within the momentary cluttered faq should be present in a seperate Tutorials or even a Tips and Tricks section?

Quote:
- Documentation (a new documentation setion with 'Official' and community documentation, in different languages)


What exactly do you mean with Documentation? What kind of documentations are you talking about and/or do you have in sense?

Grtz., Shine

3
Herko
Re: [content] The framework
  • 2006/1/3 16:35

  • Herko

  • XOOPS is my life!

  • Posts: 4238

  • Since: 2002/2/4 1


This is by Carnuke!!! I agree completely tho

Docs proposal update:

The latest version of smartsection is now available and ready for using as the XOOPS documents library. The purpose of this post is to update administrators of proposed security measures and request that FTP admins upload smartsection and the accompanying library module to xoops.org modules. I will then ready the modules for input before going online to the XOOPS public area.

Security is a hot subject at the moment, so I am laying out the working protocols for the document library for approval or improvements. Please comment as required.

1- The documents library will contain existing material that has previously been displayed on xdocman.
2- This material will be inputed as wrapped pages similar to TinyContent to form the new library list.
3- Wrapped pages will be uploaded through the browse/upload feature to smartsection from my own PC.
4- I will enlist help from other trusted volunteers to do this, who will be listed as library administrators.
5- Library administrators will require admin access to smartsection only.
6- the wrap feature is only available to module administrators.

7- The concept of the Document library is that it should be community driven and populated, not just by administrators, but also by anyone who has a useful contribution to documentation for xoops. This will include:

8- Module developers, theme designers, core developers to submit their own user/admin documentation for their own projects, XOOPS enthusiasts who have some skills in educative/information writing.

9- Who can access the 'submit' page? XOOPS Administrators, Document library administrators should have initial access to submit documents via the submit page. However the module will be configured to treat all material subject to moderation.

10- How do other genuine submitters get access? This needs to be decided on bases on what level of security is required.

a) We could allow all registered members to access the submit page, given that all content will be subject to moderation anyway.
b) Alternativley, we should require prospective submitters to apply for permission to submit, in order to present their reasons first and verify their credentials.
c) In the case of b) above, we should create a new 'Documenters group' allowing smartsection module submit access.

11- What can be submitted? The documents library needs to be configured to allow HTML markup in the content page. This should be through koivi editor that needs to be installed. Submitters also need the option to be able to attach files to their submission. This is surely the most contraversial request, but is required in order to submit the most presentable documents which are supported by formatting and images.

12- Mimetypes: Smartsection uses a mimetype filter to accept only selected files attached to any document. The purpose of attachements is to allow the following:

a) Images to be uploaded to the XOOPS server as part of the submitted document. (Gif, Png, Jpg)
b) Compressed Archive files of language translation to support the main document.

13- It is important to allow image uploads of images used within any document. This is to ensure that any submitter does not call images from another remote server. If we allow images as part of the submissions we can be sure to retain document integrity independently.

14- We considered useing language sub-categories, but this created too many categories for the module to be useful and easily navigated. File attachements is a better option, as they are connected to the documents.


15- SUBMISSION and MODERATION

Regardeless of any submission, no publication will take place untill an approved XOOPS or libray administrator has viewed and scrutinised the content as follows:

a)- Both summary and main body fields need to be fully read
b)- Markup should be verified to include only text and image and table formatting only.
c)- No other scripting language will be accepted.
d)- No imgscr calls to any other servers should be accepted (these can be gateways to malicious alternatives)
e)- No inclusion of external pages from other servers will be accepted. (as above)
f)- Any atachements of images should be viewed in isolation of the page first
g)- Following the above checks, the submission must be previewd and checked for visual correctness.
h) Any Compressed archives should be D/L and virus scanned.
i)- Following a safe result, archives should be decompressed and checked as a-g above.
j)- No extra atachements are permitted within archives.
k)- If the moderator is completly happy with the content, he may publish the document to the public side
l)- The moderator my reject any document outright or contact the submitter to query the content.
m)- The moderator may reject the document, if it is felt that the content repeats existing material, or is superfluous.

ALL rejected material should be PLACED OFFLINE NOT DELETED. If suspect content is found, the submission becomes potential evidence. Consult a XOOPS administrator for further action.

n)- Moderators will ensure that each document is correctly numbered, categorised and contains enough meta information to be traceable to the author/ originator.

16- What is The library module? It's a single blank page dummy module. It's purpose is only as a display page for smartsections blocks. This enables users to browse the library without distraction from other page content.

17- Where are files uploaded?

Attached files ../uploads/smartsection/
General images ../uploads/smartsection/images/
Category images ../uploads/smartsection/images/category/
Articles images ../uploads/smartsection/images/item/
Page wrap files ../uploads/smartsection/content/

The best working permissions I have achieved on my server is 666 for all directories listed here.

17- To Do!

a) Upload smartsection to xoops.org
b) Upload the library module to xoops.org
c) Install koivi editor and configure for use with smartsection.
d) Decide on security for submission strategy (See point 9 &10 above)
e) Input existing content
f) Appoint library moderators/administrators
g) Open XOOPS Documents library to users.

PLEASE feedback on this now, if you have questions, improvements, criticisms.

Thanks.

Richard

4
JMorris
Re: [content] The framework
  • 2006/1/4 1:35

  • JMorris

  • XOOPS is my life!

  • Posts: 2722

  • Since: 2004/4/11


Overall, excellent approach! I feel this will be much more intuitive for all of us.

I will contact Ackbarr ASAP to coordinate setting up the prerequisites on the server.

Best Regards,

James
Insanity can be defined as "doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

Stupidity is not a crime. Therefore, you are free to go.

5
wtravel
Re: [content] The framework

I think the initially proposed framework would be a major improvement compared to our current site(s). What I kind of miss in the current site and also in the proposed framework is the possibilty to view project pages.

For example, I would love to see all information on restructuring of the xoops.org website on one project location, a collection of pages which show the scope of the project, related links and documents etc. The visitors to the site do not have to worry about going through all the posts, if they want to look up some information.

So, somewhere within the framework I would make some room for XOOPS (non-coding) projects. With links to the projects at least on the community homepage.

What do others think about this?

6
talunceford
Re: [content] The framework

Maybe have a tutorials section......

7
kapeman
Re: [content] The framework
  • 2006/1/5 17:08

  • kapeman

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 87

  • Since: 2005/5/3 1


Since module compatability varies greatly by XOOPS version, I would like to see the modules categorized by version compatability at a high level and then by category.

For example:

2.2.3 Modules
Admin tools, Community etc.

2.0.13.2 Modules
Admin tools, Community etc.

8
gestroud
Re: [content] The framework
  • 2006/1/5 18:21

  • gestroud

  • Home away from home

  • Posts: 1538

  • Since: 2004/12/22


ensure that all documentation is presented clearly - no matter what the language is. we don't want people guessing about instructions.

9
stefan88
Re: [content] The framework
  • 2006/1/5 18:41

  • stefan88

  • Community Support Member

  • Posts: 1086

  • Since: 2004/9/20


Will it be good to have screenshots in product portal. Both of XOOPS diferent modules, admin and so on and diferent themes, that will show what could be achieved.

Maybe the press kit should be in About us section.

Will be nice if at least product portal is multilanguage with the general information and maybe have links to local support sites.

How about a selection of "Made with xoops" sites. Best sites that again will show what could be achieved and show creative use of modules, themes and so on.

I know this one will be very questionable, but how about a hack repository. From one side it is not good to mess things. But from the other it is also part of xoops, so what about a small category in dev ...?

And I realy like the idea from wtravel to organize things in projects (news, forum, comments, downloads ... ), so you will not have to dig and again miss something.
..

10
davidl2
Re: [content] The framework
  • 2006/1/5 19:15

  • davidl2

  • XOOPS is my life!

  • Posts: 4843

  • Since: 2003/5/26


Quote:

kapeman wrote:
Since module compatability varies greatly by XOOPS version, I would like to see the modules categorized by version compatability at a high level and then by category.

For example:

2.2.3 Modules
Admin tools, Community etc.

2.0.13.2 Modules
Admin tools, Community etc.


Splitting up the modules by compatible versions would be a good idea...

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