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[wiki] TextBook International? Main Page?
This is an IA post, but I’m making this a new post in the hopes it gets more eyes from our wiki translators too. It concerns two issues: 1) whether or not to keep the name of the wiki as “TextBook International” (favoring instead just “TextBook”) and 2) whether or not to keep the main page structured as it currently is. Since this is largely relevant to translation efforts, I hope those folks wouldn’t mind adding a couple words to the cause, though anyone should feel free to comment.
The rest of this post principally addresses the second issue and has two parts. Get a beverage. :)
Part A
I’ll be the first person to strongly advocate TextBook’s international aims, 100%, but we have come to a point where we need to make a choice with the Main Page, as this is a pivotal point in the wiki that lends to other decisions about how things are mechanically achieved.
Let’s consider the history for good measure. Some may remember when folks representing one of the supported languages aggressively lobbied for more wiki prominance, which resulted in the Main Page concept we have currently. In fact, the current design is a compromise of what they wanted and what was technically possible. What they wanted, theoretically speaking, was their own wiki with a domain reflecting as much (e.g., en.textbook.net). That’s not the language in question or the exact domain structure, but you get the idea. Despite domain alias-ing trickery, to achieve what was desired would have required a separate install of MW, which didn’t make sense when a single install could be used to mirror content in any language as it currently does (and did at the time). It would also mean allowing a separate install for every other language that wanted one too, potentially resulting in a gaggle of TxB domains with no real unifying entry point. The compromise, then, was to forego multiple MW installs (sensibly) and turn the Main Page into the current language blocks and rename “TextBook” to something more indicative of it’s international scope (thus was born the label “TextBook International”).
The choice, then, is: do we maintain the language blocks on the Main Page as currently done, or do we turn it into an English content index that other languages translate in standard fashion?
Two additional notes for stewing: 1) The most verbal proponents for making the Main Page changes seem not to be active in the community anymore, so maybe the current design doesn’t have the diplomatic urgency it once did. On the other hand, it happened once for admirable reasons, it could happen again. 2) An English main page index was more or less what the Main Page was before the current design was lobbied into existance.
Of the two choices noted, my preference would be to revert the Main Page back to an English version index of sorts and let the index be mirrored like any other page being translated. Here’s why:
- Outside of the arguments for more prominence of other languages, there were fewer complaints before with respect to finding content (likely related to #5 below).
- TextBook is configured to be English by Default (a common theme in the Txp family of sites). It’s inherent that all translation efforts would follow the English pages.
- Based on looking at the volume of translation for certain languages in the time since making the change, dividing the main page real estate seems slightly unwarranted.
- If we make better use of the left navigation, we necessarily localize it to English (see section Limitations) because English is the default language (configured as so), thus the sidebar nav is out of balance/context with the other languages represented on the main page.
- An English index Main Page would simply be a more direct vector (by at least on click) into content that already exists, English or otherwise.
- It’s similar to the Codex main page, which is an oft-cited example of a CMS docs wiki done right.
Part B
Looking past the decision for the moment, consider the mechanics I would propose using, which will work either way, but described here in context of using an English index.
The Premise:
A weak point with a Main Page index combined with a sidebar navigation by topics is the potential for duplicating the index; once on the main page, and again the index sections on the topic index pages (via the sidebar navigation). The problem being you need to maintain the index lists twice (or more if you have mininavigation too).
The Actuality:
There’s an elegant solution that Txp folks will appreciate as it’s akin to the beauty of tag and form magic.
We use wiki templates to create topic lists once and insert them whereever they are needed. To demonstrate this, please consider the demo wiki where this is already setup. The sidebar nav shows:
- Orientation
- Installation
- Admin-side
- Tags Reference
- etc
The Main Page index reflects the same structure, but the principle links are available too under each topic header. Look at the content in edit mode, however, and what you will see are template tags that are inserting the lists, not the lists themselves. Follow a link from the sidebar navigation and you’ll arrive at a topic index not at the Main Page location. For the Orientation and Installation topics, which contain subtopics, the index is the same as the respective lists on the Main Page, and created from the same templates.
The Admin-side and Tags Reference topics, which also make use of mininavigation lists, are done the same way, but even more sweetly. Using Tags Reference as an example: the list options that appear under the Tags Reference header on the Main Page index is from the same list template that creates the Admin-side mininav menu. The two presentations are possible because for the mininav, it’s one template embedded in another. The mininav is itself a template with the “Tags idex” template embedded:
<div id="mininav"><p><strong>Tag reference quick links:</strong></p>
{{Tags index}}
</div>For translation authors, this simply means creating similar templates for use in their mirrored pages and titling them in their respective languages. The advantages of all this should be clear for wiki authors/editors. When changes need made and it affects multiple pages, it’s as easy as editing a single template’s list items and boom. Done! Regardless of location or presentation.
This technique could also be used to recreate the language blocks on the current TxB Main Page, but the question is do we stick with those language blocks or go with an index like suggested with the demo?
Last edited by Destry (2008-10-02 14:56:02)
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Re: [wiki] TextBook International? Main Page?
Destry wrote:
do we maintain the language blocks on the Main Page as currently done, or do we turn it into an English content index that other languages translate in standard fashion?
Good stuff as always there, sir.
I subscribe to your logic and support the latter. But I’m English so somewhat a) biased, b) in the minority in the World Language stakes (something like, what, 7% of the world have English as a 1st language, rising to about 1/3 if you take the second language into account? Hardly big fish).
If it makes translating simpler and the block reuse stuff makes it a smoother process (it certainly does appeal, given the TXP parallels), your proposition’s hard to fault from this corner. Be interesting to hear the views of people who can translate stuff.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook International? Main Page?
Wearing my German translator hat (which I still use a lot), I admit I’ve never understood the prominence of the current language menu as the very first, most important navigational tool. Neither have I groked the the “awaiting world domination in 3, 2, 1 seconds” title of the site.
So my vote is on: content first, language renditions second. English is the lingua franca, so it will lead the pack.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook International? Main Page?
BTW: May we have templates for the current version number, download location, various TXP network URIs and such, to simplify future changes of such?
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Re: [wiki] TextBook International? Main Page?
^^ same here. English as the main language. Show a link to switch to a translated page only if it’s actually available.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook International? Main Page?
wet wrote:
May we have templates for the current version number, download location, various TXP network URIs and such, to simplify future changes of such?
Sure. Though, anyone can make/use a template, so it’s not really a ask-as-needed situation. However, let’s revisit this again as we start making some changes so it’s more clear exactly where and in what context they will be needed.
The constraint is that a template must be used in context of the “content” div contained in the skin’s index file (namely TextBook.php). The new skin (i.e., demo site) is the result of a lot of skin index file customization; for example all the masthead area is not contained in the content division, so MW templates could not be used in the wiki masthead as currently designed. That’s why I suggest we return to these template needs later when it clear where in the interface they are needed so we can figure out any necessary workarounds. Anything in the middle main content area div is not a problem.
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Re: [wiki] TextBook International? Main Page?
And, uh, thanks for the replies. :)
We will revert back to an English main page index using templates to effectively single-source index lists (among other things), and drop “International” from the wiki identifier.
Last edited by Destry (2008-10-03 14:45:20)
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