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diff --git a/zarb-ml/mageia-discuss/20100922/000617.html b/zarb-ml/mageia-discuss/20100922/000617.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1b4000add --- /dev/null +++ b/zarb-ml/mageia-discuss/20100922/000617.html @@ -0,0 +1,183 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> +<HTML> + <HEAD> + <TITLE> [Mageia-discuss] Website software + </TITLE> + <LINK REL="Index" HREF="index.html" > + <LINK REL="made" HREF="mailto:mageia-discuss%40mageia.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BMageia-discuss%5D%20Website%20software&In-Reply-To=%3CAANLkTi%3DTRmsVDHkuUCzAQ-izWf2BJwGvt%2BEnO%3Dgg%3DxiN%40mail.gmail.com%3E"> + <META NAME="robots" CONTENT="index,nofollow"> + <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> + <LINK REL="Previous" HREF="000621.html"> + <LINK REL="Next" HREF="000630.html"> + </HEAD> + <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"> + <H1>[Mageia-discuss] Website software</H1> + <B>Romain d'Alverny</B> + <A HREF="mailto:mageia-discuss%40mageia.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BMageia-discuss%5D%20Website%20software&In-Reply-To=%3CAANLkTi%3DTRmsVDHkuUCzAQ-izWf2BJwGvt%2BEnO%3Dgg%3DxiN%40mail.gmail.com%3E" + TITLE="[Mageia-discuss] Website software">rdalverny at gmail.com + </A><BR> + <I>Wed Sep 22 01:09:20 CEST 2010</I> + <P><UL> + <LI>Previous message: <A HREF="000621.html">[Mageia-discuss] Joining +</A></li> + <LI>Next message: <A HREF="000630.html">[Mageia-discuss] Website software +</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#617">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#617">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#617">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#617">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> + <HR> +<!--beginarticle--> +<PRE>On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 05:11, Diego Bello <<A HREF="https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-discuss">dbello at gmail.com</A>> wrote: +><i> I think Romain has a lot to say here. +</I>><i> +</I>><i> He knows the needs of the current Mandriva site so he can say +</I>><i> if the best option is a CMS or a custom developed site (Symfony anybody?). +</I> +Well, yes and no. I can mostly relate what choice has been made at the time. + +We got several experiences with some CMSes that were not so good in that: + - web team was way too small to master the whole thing; + - editing pages was restricted by a limited set of templates; +especially, a CMS could now allow to edit inline HTML, so fine-tuning +the contents layout was a no-go; + - its ease-of-use for non-technical people was supposed to distribute +editorial responsibility within the organization; in fact, very few +people did it themselves, rather sent a mail to the webteam to +integrate an open office document; + - its ease-of-use was too to help for translation process; that was +partly true, it helped yes, to some extent (too small a team being the +culprit, he, but making this way harder to manage in the end); + - no dedicated or available skills to maintain it (so many nightmares +to fix common issues or upgrading it); + - performance issues under heavy loads; + - no apparent content strategy from one migration to the other +(broken links & redirection all around; missing contents; inconsistent +design across the whole domain, etc. but that's another topic, yet). + +Not that I am complaining. These were great times and there were lots +of good things to learn from these CMSes too (maybe not stable enough +at the time or not properly mastered) but that was what was +experienced. Goal was to improve on this. + +><i> I think the most important feature here is internationalization, cause +</I>><i> Mageia really needs to show itself to the world, and let me tell you +</I>><i> the world doesn't speak English only. +</I> +Indeed. Now you have to take into account several things: + - you've got to decide whether you use a pivot language content tree +or leave several language trees evolve on their own; that is, having a +reference from which you translate/adapt everything, the process being +more or less fast depending on your translation team; or, having an +mutual agreement between all editors, and moving each language tree to +its own pace; for a start, I would suggest the former (ie, having a +reference tree to translate from), then adapt; + - translating, better, localizing a web site is not about only +translating chunks of text; you sometimes need to rework pictures, +labels, layouts, add/remove specific contents; so it may require +several basic webmastering skills (editing HTML, working on graphics, +understanding and coding CSS, bits of Javascript and so on); + - you've got to decide if you strive for a standard-looking website +or if you want to apply a specific look and be able to fine-tune +everything; again, that depends on your "global" web team capacity of +production and maintenance; + - coordination of the localization process of the website is a huge +task in itself; + - all your website does not necessarily have to rely on a single +solution; you can have a blog platform here, a static set of files +there, a drupal over there, a forum here, ad-hoc download platform +there, etc. it really depends on several parameters; + - questions to ask are: what does Mageia do? why? how do we organize +all this information? who produces/uses it? what should be the +user/visitor experience/goal? what's the best tool for that? + + +Now, back at the time (it was first drafter in early 2007 and went +into prod in the fall of 2008), I wrote a very basic "decorator" web +framework that let me build and design standalone HTML/PHP pages +(against a set of CSS rules and a minimalist theme, to be revamped +later with a graphics designer - didn't happen, sadly) in the old-way: +files and directories. All this was versioned on a SVN (crucial part +of the system) to allow for collaborative webmastering (I wouldn't +call that editing as, again, it's not just updating chunks of text). + +This was only for the main "institutional" website (aka www/www2) +where things are pretty static (a big update every 2 months or so, +plus gradual improvements in the meantime). Around this connected a +blog, a news feed (that could have been a blog), forums, wiki, +support, download, e-commerce platforms, etc. + +It was far from perfect of course, but it was valid and working in +that context and back at the time because: + - content was mostly static; few areas needed to have dynamic +behaviour, and when it did, a small ad-hoc webapps system was +available to take on that job; + - so you didn't really benefit from having a database; + - it proved effective for deploying a standard look to most of the +distinct platforms, all from a single web service (top nav bar + basic +CSS rules); + - présupposé was that only webmaster-skilled people would manipulate +it; and it would keep it away from people that would not care at all +about the website global consistency (about information architecture, +design, navigation, localization, content strategy, etc.); that was +part of my job, actually; + - experience with Blogdrake translation team proved it more fluent +than a conventional CMS (or so I thought), although there were lots of +improvements to do (especially in direction and how we would have +proceeded); + - there were interesting improvements to find (because, well, it's +not an "ideal" solution), like, setting up a mixed templating system +to help formatting standard pages across all locales; + - and in the end, because I felt more confident with a minimalist +solution I could understand and manage with other translators than a +big thing I couldn't; + - and it wasn't as stupid as that as other big web projects seemed to +use a similar solution (which I learned through discussions that I +freely inspired from too) for parts of their website. + +That was unpublished code, unfortunately (although it was in my +plans), so I can't publish it. But I can redraft it, as it's pretty an +easy architecture to reproduce and code is not that big. Most of the +work is still, well, in how you design and build your website. No tool +will write a good story for you. + +Now, things may be slightly different: + - I won't manage websites directly, but most likely coordinate and delegate; + - you certainly have better ideas. + +Sorry to be so long (ah, don't start me with that topic! ;-) ), just +to state what I learned and think is important to take into account. +You may want to use something like that too (or not). + +Cheers! + +Romain +</PRE> + + + + + +<!--endarticle--> + <HR> + <P><UL> + <!--threads--> + <LI>Previous message: <A HREF="000621.html">[Mageia-discuss] Joining +</A></li> + <LI>Next message: <A HREF="000630.html">[Mageia-discuss] Website software +</A></li> + <LI> <B>Messages sorted by:</B> + <a href="date.html#617">[ date ]</a> + <a href="thread.html#617">[ thread ]</a> + <a href="subject.html#617">[ subject ]</a> + <a href="author.html#617">[ author ]</a> + </LI> + </UL> + +<hr> +<a href="https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-discuss">More information about the Mageia-discuss +mailing list</a><br> +</body></html> |