[RULE] Testing of new website started. Contributors wanted

[C David Rigby]

Hello, RULErs,

	SPIP's content management falls into two broad categories.  The actual 
pages are articles, and a tree-like structure is implicit in how the 
database is organized.  However, what is actually displayed on any given 
page is also a result of a template that uses SPIP's built-in formatting 
language (developed in PHP) to select articles and layout the 
presentation.  In the SPIP model, writing & editting articles can be 
done in the "Private Area" accessible only to Administrators, Editors 
and writers.  That functionality is accessbile via a web browser.  The 
actual templates can only be accessed and editted via a standard Unix 
shell account.  At least until someone writes a PHP-based interface to 
the CLI under Linux, I suppose...

	Anyway, to do some of the things mentioned by Marco (such as 
simplifying the display of information, removing the references to the 
author's other articles, etc.) the templates need to be modified.  I 
feel like I understand the principles and the scripting language well 
enough, I just need to spend some time poking about in the code until 
the displayed pages have the desired appearance and functionality.

	Question for Marco: are you working on a script in in bash or PHP?  Are 
you working on converting the existing HTML or playtext pages, or the 
install reports, or both?

	I tried but failed to get an automated backup system in place for the 
server before going off on vacation, but did not succeed.  I have 
altered my strategy since getting back behind the keyboard, so I hope to 
have it operational within a couple of days.  Operational implies 
tested, so there will probably be some server downtime while I do 
something drastic to the contents of the server's hard drives to make 
sure I can recover the from the backups.  But now that I seem to have a 
real user population doing real work, I had better take care of that 
first!  I'll issue a warning via the mailing list before I bring the 
system down.

Cheers,
C David Rigby

M. Fioretti wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 19, 2004 12:09:29 PM +0300, Richard Kweskin  rkwesk at hellug.gr  wrote:
> 
>>Hi Marco
>>
>>What strikes me most on the new page you have made is the
>>simplicity. I so much prefer things simple! 
>>
>>Putting myself in a first timer's shoes, I imagine (1) download it
>>(2) info on how to make it go. 
>>
>>All the rest I would put on a seperate intro page with a link from
>>the first with a brief but clear label. 
>>
> 
> 
> Well, right now the page is simple because I haven't added content to
> most sections, so they don't show up in the left sidebar :-)
> 
> The structure I'd like to give is the one in the initial message. I
> will try, however, to not make the second level headings show in the
> top page. What do you think?
> 
> Right now, I am investigating how to insert all the pages we have
> today in the SPIP database with a script: once I have succeeded in
> that, we'll have a complete bunch of mostly badly formatted article:
> at that point we can divide the jobs (coeditors wanted!) to fix them
> up working in parallel.
> 
> Another thing I want to do, thinking ahead to when the pages
> unavoidably will contain more than today, is how to not show some
> extra information: for example, I don't see much added value in
> knowing who wrote an article, or in having all the other articles from
> the same author showing in a box: this is not a columnists forum,
> people don't come to us to read all and only the writings from Marco
> or anybody else.
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> ciao,
> 	Marco Fioretti
> 


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