While I've been waiting to see how the Zikula deployment went with Fedora Insight, we've finally seen a better update to docs.fedoraproject.org by using the native Publican site building tools. I've waited to push forward with a CMS solution for Fedora Docs until we had a working solution to design against.
While Publican gives us a way to build a nicely organized tree of content, it doesn't give other capabilities. I don't know of any plans to include this sort of thing in Publican natively:
* Ability to trigger (re)builds from source repositories via a webUI.
* Workflow control, either by group (writers, editors, publishers), or specific roles like that but per document (I can write this one, I can edit yours, and I can push hers to publish after you edit it.)
* WYSIWYG editor for DocBook XML from source repository.
Basically, we still have very high barriers to move from "edit stuff on the wiki" to "manage a full guide on DocBook XML." The main purpose for a CMS is to get the ability to publish and tweak docs.fedoraproject.org out of the hands of a very few, very busy people, and in to the hands of just about anyone that this team wants to authorize to do work there.
Talking in the meeting yesterday, I threw out some ideas around this and agreed to bring those here. I'm still interested in helping drive a CMS-like project for Docs.
So I'll throw out a proposal to get us started. This proposal exists partially because of our commitment to using Publican to publish. Another option is to use Publican only to generate documents, which are then loaded and versioned in a CMS e.g. Zikula or Drupal. Working under this other option would be more like the CMS experience others have -- you either work in the native editor, or you upload documents you created elsewhere.
== Docs CMS ==
=== Terms ===
* Publican is a command-line toolchain for building books as HTML, PDF, Epub, Text, etc. and publishing them to a static website with a navigation sidebar. It uses books written in DocBook XML that exist as installable RPM packages.
* Beacon is a wysiwyg, webUI editor that has been extended to support DocBook XML editing.
* Fedora Hosted (fh.o) is a hosting solution that is the source repository for Fedora Docs. Books primarily use Subversion or git as source control manager (SCM).
* WebUI is a generic term for the web user interface that we have to write or configure to wrap around and perform certain functions for this CMS. For example, it can present a button to a person with publishing privileges, when pressed triggers of a Publican build on the backend. This webUI could be custom code written in Python and TurboGears, or it could be Drupal with a few custom modules.
* A reader has the ability to read the website anonymously. No credentials are required.
* A writer belongs to a 'doc-writers' group and also belong to the group associated with each document, e.g. 'gitinstall-guide'. Being in the 'doc-writers' group is a prerequisite that exposes the Beacon editor function.
* An editor is the same as a writer, performing a different role in the process.
* A publisher is a member of the 'doc-publishers' group, which gives the permission to trigger special functions in the webUI - build a doc, rebuild a doc, install a doc package, etc.
=== WebUI architecture ===
Functions: 0. Read 1. Write/edit 2. Publish
0. Read a. Publican produces pages and navigation at docs.fp.org. i. These pages are static and not wrapped by the webUI. b. Readers use Publican's navigation to read guides.
1. Write/edit a. Writer clicks "Check out document for editing" (this is NOT a locking mechanism.) i. Clicking check out triggers a 'git clone' of the document repo. ii. The cloned git repo is then branched locally to the webUI server, for example 'git branch quaid-20100224-UUID' with a short, sequential UUID such as 'AA00'. iii. Beacon is then opened using the local file check out of the XML. iv. Beacon saves work only in the files in the cloned repo. An added functionality could trigger 'git commit' on save, but this might cause too many commits without a log message. v. The writer's training includes knowing to commit on a regular basis, in a granular fashion, when one or more edit+saves makes a good bundle for a commit. Clicking on "Commit changes" opens a log summary window, then a 'git commit -m "$dump_from_log_summary_window" is done on the local repo. vi. A writer's session should persist. When the writer returns and still has local changes committed but not pushed to the master git repo, the writer is offered those files to continue work on, or to checkout a different document. vii. When the writer is done with the writing session, the writer clicks a "Check in document to main repository". This triggers a 'git push' to the master repository.
2. Publish a. Publisher selects a document and version from a dropdown/checklist menu. i. This list is generated from installed packages on docs.fp.o, information extracted using 'rpm' commands. b. Publisher clicks "Rebuild and publish document." i. A koji scratchbuild is triggered, which grabs the latest source from the upstream repository and builds a package. ii. When the build is done, the package is installed from koji using yum. c. Publisher adds a new document to the publish list. i. Document must exist as package in koji already. ii. Publisher uses a Moksha widget to identify the meta-package OR a specific package name and version are supplied manually. iii. Package is installed on docs.fedoraproject.org. iv. Cached list of installed packages is refreshed to update document and version dropdown/checklist menus.
<eof>
- Karsten
On 06/25/2010 07:20 AM, Karsten Wade wrote:
While I've been waiting to see how the Zikula deployment went with Fedora Insight, we've finally seen a better update to docs.fedoraproject.org by using the native Publican site building tools. I've waited to push forward with a CMS solution for Fedora Docs until we had a working solution to design against.
While Publican gives us a way to build a nicely organized tree of content, it doesn't give other capabilities. I don't know of any plans to include this sort of thing in Publican natively:
Ability to trigger (re)builds from source repositories via a webUI.
Workflow control, either by group (writers, editors, publishers), or specific roles like that but per document (I can write this one, I can edit yours, and I can push hers to publish after you edit it.)
WYSIWYG editor for DocBook XML from source repository.
Basically, we still have very high barriers to move from "edit stuff on the wiki" to "manage a full guide on DocBook XML." The main purpose for a CMS is to get the ability to publish and tweak docs.fedoraproject.org out of the hands of a very few, very busy people, and in to the hands of just about anyone that this team wants to authorize to do work there.
Talking in the meeting yesterday, I threw out some ideas around this and agreed to bring those here. I'm still interested in helping drive a CMS-like project for Docs.
So I'll throw out a proposal to get us started. This proposal exists partially because of our commitment to using Publican to publish. Another option is to use Publican only to generate documents, which are then loaded and versioned in a CMS e.g. Zikula or Drupal. Working under this other option would be more like the CMS experience others have -- you either work in the native editor, or you upload documents you created elsewhere.
== Docs CMS ==
=== Terms ===
Publican is a command-line toolchain for building books as HTML, PDF, Epub, Text, etc. and publishing them to a static website with a navigation sidebar. It uses books written in DocBook XML that exist as installable RPM packages.
Beacon is a wysiwyg, webUI editor that has been extended to support DocBook XML editing.
Fedora Hosted (fh.o) is a hosting solution that is the source repository for Fedora Docs. Books primarily use Subversion or git as source control manager (SCM).
WebUI is a generic term for the web user interface that we have to write or configure to wrap around and perform certain functions for this CMS. For example, it can present a button to a person with publishing privileges, when pressed triggers of a Publican build on the backend. This webUI could be custom code written in Python and TurboGears, or it could be Drupal with a few custom modules.
A reader has the ability to read the website anonymously. No credentials are required.
A writer belongs to a 'doc-writers' group and also belong to the group associated with each document, e.g. 'gitinstall-guide'. Being in the 'doc-writers' group is a prerequisite that exposes the Beacon editor function.
An editor is the same as a writer, performing a different role in the process.
A publisher is a member of the 'doc-publishers' group, which gives the permission to trigger special functions in the webUI - build a doc, rebuild a doc, install a doc package, etc.
=== WebUI architecture ===
Functions: 0. Read
Write/edit
Publish
Read a. Publican produces pages and navigation at docs.fp.org. i. These pages are static and not wrapped by the webUI. b. Readers use Publican's navigation to read guides.
Write/edit a. Writer clicks "Check out document for editing" (this is NOT a locking mechanism.) i. Clicking check out triggers a 'git clone' of the document repo. ii. The cloned git repo is then branched locally to the webUI server, for example 'git branch quaid-20100224-UUID' with a short, sequential UUID such as 'AA00'. iii. Beacon is then opened using the local file check out of the XML. iv. Beacon saves work only in the files in the cloned repo. An added functionality could trigger 'git commit' on save, but this might cause too many commits without a log message. v. The writer's training includes knowing to commit on a regular basis, in a granular fashion, when one or more edit+saves makes a good bundle for a commit. Clicking on "Commit changes" opens a log summary window, then a 'git commit -m "$dump_from_log_summary_window" is done on the local repo. vi. A writer's session should persist. When the writer returns and still has local changes committed but not pushed to the master git repo, the writer is offered those files to continue work on, or to checkout a different document. vii. When the writer is done with the writing session, the writer clicks a "Check in document to main repository". This triggers a 'git push' to the master repository.
Publish a. Publisher selects a document and version from a dropdown/checklist menu. i. This list is generated from installed packages on docs.fp.o, information extracted using 'rpm' commands. b. Publisher clicks "Rebuild and publish document." i. A koji scratchbuild is triggered, which grabs the latest source from the upstream repository and builds a package. ii. When the build is done, the package is installed from koji using yum. c. Publisher adds a new document to the publish list. i. Document must exist as package in koji already. ii. Publisher uses a Moksha widget to identify the meta-package OR a specific package name and version are supplied manually. iii. Package is installed on docs.fedoraproject.org. iv. Cached list of installed packages is refreshed to update document and version dropdown/checklist menus.
<eof>
- Karsten
Another writer and I started coding up a project to do this. The main issue we hit was time, which is what killed it for us. This isn't a difficult project but it would take at least 6 months of full time development.
Chris
On 24/06/10 22:20, Karsten Wade wrote:
While I've been waiting to see how the Zikula deployment went with Fedora Insight, we've finally seen a better update to docs.fedoraproject.org by using the native Publican site building tools. I've waited to push forward with a CMS solution for Fedora Docs until we had a working solution to design against.
While Publican gives us a way to build a nicely organized tree of content, it doesn't give other capabilities. I don't know of any plans to include this sort of thing in Publican natively:
Ability to trigger (re)builds from source repositories via a webUI.
Workflow control, either by group (writers, editors, publishers), or specific roles like that but per document (I can write this one, I can edit yours, and I can push hers to publish after you edit it.)
WYSIWYG editor for DocBook XML from source repository.
Basically, we still have very high barriers to move from "edit stuff on the wiki" to "manage a full guide on DocBook XML." The main purpose for a CMS is to get the ability to publish and tweak docs.fedoraproject.org out of the hands of a very few, very busy people, and in to the hands of just about anyone that this team wants to authorize to do work there.
Talking in the meeting yesterday, I threw out some ideas around this and agreed to bring those here. I'm still interested in helping drive a CMS-like project for Docs.
So I'll throw out a proposal to get us started. This proposal exists partially because of our commitment to using Publican to publish. Another option is to use Publican only to generate documents, which are then loaded and versioned in a CMS e.g. Zikula or Drupal. Working under this other option would be more like the CMS experience others have -- you either work in the native editor, or you upload documents you created elsewhere.
== Docs CMS ==
=== Terms ===
Publican is a command-line toolchain for building books as HTML, PDF, Epub, Text, etc. and publishing them to a static website with a navigation sidebar. It uses books written in DocBook XML that exist as installable RPM packages.
Beacon is a wysiwyg, webUI editor that has been extended to support DocBook XML editing.
Fedora Hosted (fh.o) is a hosting solution that is the source repository for Fedora Docs. Books primarily use Subversion or git as source control manager (SCM).
WebUI is a generic term for the web user interface that we have to write or configure to wrap around and perform certain functions for this CMS. For example, it can present a button to a person with publishing privileges, when pressed triggers of a Publican build on the backend. This webUI could be custom code written in Python and TurboGears, or it could be Drupal with a few custom modules.
A reader has the ability to read the website anonymously. No credentials are required.
A writer belongs to a 'doc-writers' group and also belong to the group associated with each document, e.g. 'gitinstall-guide'. Being in the 'doc-writers' group is a prerequisite that exposes the Beacon editor function.
An editor is the same as a writer, performing a different role in the process.
A publisher is a member of the 'doc-publishers' group, which gives the permission to trigger special functions in the webUI - build a doc, rebuild a doc, install a doc package, etc.
=== WebUI architecture ===
Functions: 0. Read
Write/edit
Publish
Read a. Publican produces pages and navigation at docs.fp.org. i. These pages are static and not wrapped by the webUI. b. Readers use Publican's navigation to read guides.
Write/edit a. Writer clicks "Check out document for editing" (this is NOT a locking mechanism.) i. Clicking check out triggers a 'git clone' of the document repo. ii. The cloned git repo is then branched locally to the webUI server, for example 'git branch quaid-20100224-UUID' with a short, sequential UUID such as 'AA00'. iii. Beacon is then opened using the local file check out of the XML. iv. Beacon saves work only in the files in the cloned repo. An added functionality could trigger 'git commit' on save, but this might cause too many commits without a log message. v. The writer's training includes knowing to commit on a regular basis, in a granular fashion, when one or more edit+saves makes a good bundle for a commit. Clicking on "Commit changes" opens a log summary window, then a 'git commit -m "$dump_from_log_summary_window" is done on the local repo. vi. A writer's session should persist. When the writer returns and still has local changes committed but not pushed to the master git repo, the writer is offered those files to continue work on, or to checkout a different document. vii. When the writer is done with the writing session, the writer clicks a "Check in document to main repository". This triggers a 'git push' to the master repository.
Publish a. Publisher selects a document and version from a dropdown/checklist menu. i. This list is generated from installed packages on docs.fp.o, information extracted using 'rpm' commands. b. Publisher clicks "Rebuild and publish document." i. A koji scratchbuild is triggered, which grabs the latest source from the upstream repository and builds a package. ii. When the build is done, the package is installed from koji using yum. c. Publisher adds a new document to the publish list. i. Document must exist as package in koji already. ii. Publisher uses a Moksha widget to identify the meta-package OR a specific package name and version are supplied manually. iii. Package is installed on docs.fedoraproject.org. iv. Cached list of installed packages is refreshed to update document and version dropdown/checklist menus.
<eof>
- Karsten
I don't have the technical know-how to comment on the details of Karsten's suggestion, however as a relatively new contributor of limited technical abilities (arguably the kind of user we are aiming to attract with this) I have one or two thoughts:
1. It seems from Karsten's description that there are two things going on here: a) a system to make it easier for new contributors to write and edit documents (cloning repos, editing the files, pushing the edits back to the repos), and b) a system to make it easier to publish completed documents to the web. A web CMS might be able to tick both of these boxes - or it might be more appropriate (and less work) to use a separate tool for each.
2. Any user wanting to get involved in the Docs Project is going to have to learn new skills, new ways of thinking and working - and this is a good thing. However, if the learning curve is too steep, or even appears so to a potential new contributor, they might be put off. So I guess anything we can do to take advantage of new contributors' existing skills and experience could make the learning process easier. A lot of new contributors might not have had previous experience in using command-line tools to build marked-up documents from remote repositories - but they might have used a simple web CMS to publish their blog articles. A familiar working environment could go a long way to reducing the trepidation of learning new skills.
Just my two pence!
Nathan
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Chris Curran -
Karsten Wade -
Nathan Thomas