Textpattern CMS support forum
You are not logged in. Register | Login | Help
- Topics: Active | Unanswered
#13 2005-04-15 12:05:36
- davidm
- Member
- From: Paris, France
- Registered: 2004-04-27
- Posts: 719
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
Great job, thank you for the effort now we’ll be able to finally go forward on this :))
Guidelines really sums us perfectly what we discussed, and the step by step guide will helpfully make the process a real breeze… once again, I can’t emphasize too much on this, Thanks !
Now let’s get down to work :)
.: Retired :.
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
As I find time (and it takes a lot), I’m going to thoroughly revamp the Admin Panal write-ups in TextBook (though help is always appreciated). I’m nearly done with the first one, the Write Panel, if you want to see what I’m talking about.
For those who have been around here a long time, you might be thinking “whoa, dude, overkill”, but that is because we take things for granted once we already know them, but believe me, this is NOT overkill, this is badly needed document salvation for people who are coming here for the first time. Hell, even I’m learning a lot by getting down and dirty with these write-ups; thinking about the panels in ways I’ve not before.
I’m already seeing such benefit from this that I’m beginning to think that Appendix A should be reinsterted as it’s own chapter, following chapter 2, becoming chapter 3 (bumping everything down one chapter). Think about it…once you install Textpattern for the first time, where do you need (or want) to go? The Admin panels! Especially now that you need to check diagnostics and such; and with the level of detail and structure (with screenshots) I’m aiming for, I think it really lends a lot to shrinking the learning curve. Anybody see it differently? I would honestly like to know if so.
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
Excellent write-up, Destry. I think this is the level of details that we should go for. I agree with your reasoning.
One thing, though: pushing a chapter in between others is a bit problematic since chapter names are included in the URLs. I linked to an article and today a reader pointed out to me that the URL had changed. That shouldn’t happen all too often.
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
Yes, andreas, you are right. I did consider that, and that’s why I’m bringing it up. To some extent it’s going to be the nature of the beast, especially for wikis, and especially in the early stages (like we really still are considering the content level). If there are more “groans” than “greats” about it, then we’ll just leave it be I guess.
One thought in favor of it…I can’t imagine there are a great many links at this point that can’t be revised, and when the new chapter pages are created, we could drop the “Chapter n” part of it and just leave the base title, that would ensure that if chapter title pages ever changed again, it wouldn’t make any diff for links, so long as people linked to the chapter title page and not to individual articles (that’s where it can really get sticky…chapter sections are just going to evolve, no getting around it).
Anyway, let’s see what kind of feedback this gets before doing any chapter restructuring.
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
I think this looks fantastic.
Shoving is the answer – pusher robot
Offline
#18 2005-04-23 14:38:00
- marios
- Archived Plugin Author
- Registered: 2005-03-12
- Posts: 1,253
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
Destry you did a lot of work on that , great job , wonderfull, it’s coming together slowly, slowly like a big puzzle .
regards,marios
⌃ ⇧ < ⎋ ⌃ ⇧ >
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
Announcement
For those who responded above, thanks (@marios: yes, big puzzle indeed). Issues surrounding TextBook never really generate much discussion, and since there’s no major complaints I’m moving forward with the TOC change proposed above. Hopefully this will be the last major reconstruction, but this is an ever-evolving effort afterall so no promises can be made. One thing I will also do is change chapter pages so that they reflect only the title and not the chapter number too, that way if chapters ever do evolve again, it won’t have any affect on existing links from thereon to chapter title pages (doing that was a lack of forsight originally on my part).
The expected TOC changes are…
- Move Appendix A to become Chapter 3 (as proposed and justified above)
- Move Chapter 4 to a temporary Appendix E: TextBook Article Holding Pen, which will be a new out-of-the-way place for content that is in limbo until a place in TextBook’s context is better realized. Chapter 4 is currently somewhat of a dead chapter. Items currently in chapter 4 will move into the new appendix, some of which will likely be folded into other chapters (e.g., Common Web Site Setups with Textpattern) once thos sections get attention.
- The current Appendix B will be dropped. Nobody really contributes to it; it’s forum fodder anyway.
- The current Appendix C is dead, but we’ll leave it for now in the event somebody wants to take it upon themselves to breath life into it.
- The current Appendix D will be changed to a new title and basically be a listing for all top-level Textpattern Resources…such as what is suggested in this thread.
The resulting TOC will be…
Chapter 1: Textpattern Orientation
Chapter 2: Textpattern Acquisition and Installation
Chapter 3: Textpattern Administration Interface
Chapter 4: Common Web Site Setups with Textpattern
Chapter 5: Advanced Topics
Appendix A: Textpattern Tag Definitions
Appendix B: Textpattern Plugin Availability
Appendix C: Importing “X” System to Textpattern
Appendix D: Textpattern Resources Listing
I probably won’t get around to this until later in the week, for what it’s worth.
Last edited by Destry (2005-06-10 05:53:05)
Offline
#20 2005-04-26 19:07:53
- fin
- New Member
- Registered: 2005-01-04
- Posts: 2
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
hmz … i tried to create an account a while ago and i couldn’t …
is it not allowed to contribute to that wiki? :/
(link “create an account or log in” only shows the login field …)
greets
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
<em>fin wrote:
<blockquote>hmz … i tried to create an account a while ago and i couldn’t …is it not allowed to contribute to that wiki?</blockquote></em>
Have another look at the User Accounts page, and read slowly this time.
Last edited by Destry (2005-05-06 10:37:13)
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
I’m a little slow to realize, but textpattern.com has been updated with the rc3/1.0 download, as well as some great new links to TextBook, the TxP Resources site, and the TxP Magazine. Pretty darn cool. I’m glad to see all of those things made it.
I’ve updated TextBook with instructions on manually Upgrading to a New Release, can someone go and make sure they are logical, correct? Thanks in advance.
Also, now that TextBook is linked up official like, it would be nice to get more help on TextBook content. There are currently about 57 user accounts in there. Only a very small number of those people have contributed anything, especially entire sections of content. Imagine if all 57 did; TextBook would be bursting at the seems with useful and accurate information. Don’t know what to contribute? There’s a lot of sections labeled Needed or In progress that could be pitched in on. In fact, if a section does not have a 1.0 OK next to it, then it needs to be reviewed and if necessary revised (if it’s OK, then add the 1.0 OK to it). Completely new content, or content you are unsure about putting, can be added to the holding pen (Appendix E) where an editor (like myself) will fold it into TextBook’s structure accordingly.
While I’m streetcorner preaching, I might as well throw-in that it wouldn’t hurt if the guys who create Textpattern drop a line or two in TextBook once in a while (I realize there’s priorities, but…), imagine the morale it would have on the rest of the army…and I’m pretty sure it’s standard practice with all the other publishing system environments out there; I’m mean who is better to say how something works than the guys who design how it works, right?…the base details anyway, someone else can always make it understandable to the masses.
Maybe TextBook could be used as a info feeder to fill all those empty help links in the actual install, such as I keep finding in the admin panels for rc3/1.0. Again, I know there’s priorities, but…
Did I say how much I like Textpattern? (Reminds me of a scene from The Talented Mr. Ripley, when Jude Law’s character is talking about his refrigerator…but I’ll leave that to the sleuths.)
Last edited by Destry (2005-05-06 10:29:48)
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
Destry, thanks for the reminder. At the moment, I can’t contribute. Textbook’s on the to-do list but further up are things that pay the rent. You’re certainly not forgotten, though!
Offline
Re: [wiki] TextBook...officially adopted by Textpattern!!!
but further up are things that pay the rent.
I hear that. But just to clarify, this isn’t for me, necessarily, it’s for the community, especially all the new arrivals to the wonder that is Textpattern. (lays on another slice of cheese)
Offline