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[wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
This thread is meant to pursue ideas from here, but at a finer level, or rather in a new direction. See post number 55 of that thread for details. Basically, we’re sticking with the wiki for the time being, but going to do our darn-danglin-doodlest to fix it up in the usability arena.
Here is one idea. The colors and fonts and such are not fixed so don’t get hung up on that; the thing to be looking at here is simply the layout and organization for what would be palatable for most people. What do you think?
EDIT: The image below has been updated to reflect some of the great ideas brought to light by mary.
<img src=“http://textpattern.net/wiki/images/TxB-plan.gif” />Steps to Take
First thing I need to do is update the wiki to the latest version. As it is now we can’t work with the navigation much because it’s just so fixed in the core. Newer versions apparently make this a bit easier. I’ve been talking about doing this forever, I know, but it’s a matter of finding the time, and since I seem to be a one-person show here, it happens when I can get to it. (This is where it would be nice to have another admin helping out on the back end at times.)
Meanwhile, the community can provide more thoughts about the layout and terminology of links. Also what links should eventually go in the left column boxes. Note: only the Main Page will have this layout, the doc pages themselves will remain as they are, though we will try and make better use of image floating so text wraps on smaller images in the docs.
Also, think about what content should be removed from the wiki. Wilshire/Uber made a good point about all the empty pages and the visually noisy status flags. We should probably rethink the status flag issue and remove any empty, useless way-outdated pages.
OK, launch snowballs.
Last edited by Destry (2005-11-10 06:53:50)
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
The suggested layout looks good to me. I’d love to offer help, Destry, but I’m up to my neck in work myself.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
hakjoon will be joining me in the TextBook admin side of things…the brave soul stepped up. We’ll try and keep a log of our progress in the wiki at a yet to be determined location.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
I’m wondering on the level of redundancy about the blogger section. It may be blogger-friendly, but much of these infos, tips and so on would have to be rewritten somewhere else, aren’t they ?
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
I agree with Jeremie. I think the blogger section is a bit out of place. I would replace it with ‘Advanced topics’ and include topics like:
- Importing Content
- Backing Up Your Database
- Moving your Database
- Plugins
Another suggestion: add a blurb right at the top stating how the documentation is divided.
And rename ‘Beginners’ to ‘Getting started with Textpattern’
Other than that, I think the layout is great.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
Good, I expected there would be changes. The labels here were really just to give the idea of partitioning content for the ancticipated groups of users, which was a point brought up at least twice in the feedback.
davidwang…yeah, your right, that seems like the right way to go considering what is in TextBook now. Makes sense.
I’ll update the graphic so it’s not misleading anyone anymore.
EDIT: OK, graphic updated. I’ve added “Intermediate/Advanced” instead of just “Advanced”, becuase I think subject matter will be somewhat overlapping depending on who you are. I see the “Admin Panels” and such going into that section too, and that’s certainly intermediate (should be).
Last edited by Destry (2005-11-10 06:51:09)
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#7 2005-11-11 03:54:29
- Mary
- Sock Enthusiast
- Registered: 2004-06-27
- Posts: 6,236
Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
That format looks a lot more inviting. :)
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
I like the new look a lot better too. Now to get mediaWiki running so I can be of some use.
Shoving is the answer – pusher robot
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
hakjoon has made some test runs with the upgrade process and all checks out. (We wanted to make sure things were good first because we’re essentially leap-frogging a couple of releases.)
I’m also finishing with some crunch work I had going on another project and will now be able to turn my attention back to this a bit more.
Anyway, big ups for hakjoon looking into things!
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#10 2005-11-16 10:30:32
- davidm
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- From: Paris, France
- Registered: 2004-04-27
- Posts: 719
Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
I am a little late on the follow up (I confess been playing with MODx lately…) but nice job Destry, and great to have hakjoon on board so to speak.
If I got things correctly the idea is to upgrade Mediawiki and at the same time do the redesign ? Are we talking about the EnotifWiki mod of 1.5 beta4 which has FCKEditor and mail notification enabled ?
.: Retired :.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
Yes, for the time being we’re sticking with Mediawiki, I had to make that call because I did not see that arguments for a CMS over a wiki right now being very persuasive (not a single one addressed the multiple languages issue). Also, I didn’t pursue Instiki at this point in time (though it’s not forever ruled-out) because I just don’t have the time to do it or learn another system for this project. I think many of the issues can and will be addressed by improving the functionality of what we have and how the information is presented.
Thanks to hakjoon, TextBook is now updated and running 1.5.2, as available at the MediaWiki home page. I don’t know what all the benefits are right at this point, but we will list them out soon.
One thing that we are looking at is use clean URLs, which so far looks like is a good possibility without breaking any links. Also, because of the change in the way the new version handles management of the navigation, we can easily create new side navigation schemes, in fact that’s the next step, as well as ensuring the languages table is still functioning properly.
davidm, I didn’t know about Enotif or FCKEditor, thanks for pointing that out; they look interesting, and promising. If we can implement those, so much the better. That could help improve the fucntional value and member-friendliness of the wiki a lot. We’ll look into.
Everyone: What do you think should be the navigation scheme in the left side? How many boxes, their labels, and what links should go in them? Tell us now! You can see my example in this image.
Last edited by Destry (2005-11-16 12:24:37)
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Re: [wiki] TextBook wiki redesign planning
Destry wrote:
Thanks to hakjoon, TextBook is now updated and running 1.5.2, as available at the MediaWiki home page. I don’t know what all the benefits are right at this point, but we will list them out soon.
Oops, just to make this clear. I have not done the upgrade yet, I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear with that. I needed to make sure the translations were all working ok (which they are) but I didn’t have enough time last night to perform the upgrade.
I was going to send you a message about doing it tonight, but it seems like that would be fine so I will perform the upgrade tonight.
Sorry about the confusion.
Davidm: I’ll see if I can find some info on the MOD. It’s ridiculously hard to find information on mediawiki. They could really re-organize their documentation site.
Shoving is the answer – pusher robot
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