[RULE] Call to arms and requirements for the website

[C David Rigby]

Hi Marco,
	Looking at your requirements, all reasonable, I realize that my 
suggesiton of Drupal may be a bit heavy-weight.  One all too often 
forgets that not all the world does not have high-speed access.

	Some questions (not just for you but also for anyone else):

1)  What is the current website based upon?  Is it something you or 
others have custom written, or is it based on a CMS of some sort?

2)  What sort of resources are available in terms of a server?  In other 
words:

3)  Are we intent on Apache/PHP/MySQL and do we have the 
(hardware/software) resources to support it, or is something more 
"lightweight" possible or desirable?

Ciao,
CDR

Marco Fioretti wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> following the several suggestions on how to manage the website, here
> goes a random list of requirements. The bottom line is that I know quite well
> what is missing, but have no deep experience of the several CMS
> solutions suggested, or of others. I do know my bit of perl, mysql and
> php, however, and am more than willing to maintain the site.
> 
> This means that I can patch and improve something that already exists,
> but very frankly have no possibility now to set it up from scratch
> (including building the required forms or installing any CMS sw).
> 
> Hence, please, please please somebody else do set up now whatever
> solution, according to the guidelines below. I'm eager to help with
> *testing* it and take since now the responsibility to take it over and
> maintain it, tweaking whatever configuration and PHP/mysql bits
> will be necessary later on the road.
> 
>  I "just" :-) need to find the initial framework as below in place.
> 
> Of course, almost nothing below is set in stone. Any feedback is,
> well, mandatory :-)
> 
> Deadline: none mandatory, but it would be really, really nice to be
> ready when FC2 is released (~ early april, IIRC) and for that
> Ethiopian ICT congress I mentioned yesterday.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Marco Fioretti
> 
> content in pure text format??:
> 
>     frankly, I personally find adding stuff in a web form (wiki-wise)
>     expensive for dialup contributors and in general cumbersome and
>     limited (unless you do everything outside in a real editor and
>     then just paste it into the form). This is why I tried to set it up
>     web content as today:
> 
> 	produce pure ASCII content, without an HTML editor, with such a
>         markup that the source is perfectly readable.
> 
>         upload the ASCII text
> 
> 	have a cron script converting it to HTML
> 
>     If this is not possible using standard CMS system nor recommended
>     by more expert webmasters, html is also OK for me as long as it
>     remains possible to
> 
> 	     not care of site layout, ie generate/maintain only the
> 	     actual page content (no headers, footers, etc)
> 
>              do it offline and upload the result
> 
>              upload at once many pages, specifying for each its
>              location in the directory tree
> 
> 	     insert in each page pointers to chunks of PHP code (see
> 	     as example the source of the current home pages)
> 
> Access to manage web site:
> 
>     everything below must be doable via web (https) but not on ports
>     usually blocked by company proxyes and firewalls. One big problem
>     I have with the current system is that I can't do RULE
>     housecleaning during lunch break.
> 
> roles:
> 
>     I must be able to delegate upload of files in some areas and
>     posting of news to other project members. It must also be possible
>     to external users to submit news, test PC data/reports and sw
>     packages in a "pending approval" mode: they don't show on the web
>     pages, but I am sent an email to go and reject or approve for
>     publishing the new material.
> 
> Interactive threaded web forums:
> 
>     not needed, really. Most of our subscribers, current and
>     potentials, have no decent conectivity to use them, and want/are
>     forced to stay online as little as possible.
> 
> news:
> 
>      it must be possible to insert news (title, link to complete
>      article, short description) so that the N most recent are
>      constantly shown on the home page. Complete news database must
>      remain readable online, as today.
> 
> useful links
> 
>      it must be possible to insert links to useful non RULE resources
>      (title, category, URL, short description) so they are all
>      displayed in a bookmark kind of page
> 
> threaded customizable site map:
>  
>      an evolution of the current one: show directory structure, size
>      and change date, show only some subdirectories, or only the pages
>      updated in the last N days.
>    
> web page management:
> 
>     it must be possible to show as today the N most recently changed
>     web pages on the home page
> 
> mirror friendliness:
> 
>      easy to mirror automatically: HTTP headers telling what changed
>      since last weeks, relative URLs, etc..
> 
> support of test PCs and software map at least as today.
> 
> when news, new pages, or new SW is added, they should be announced
> automatically on mailing list. RSS feed generation is also very nice.
> 
> *LIGHT* HTML code and page layout:
> 
>      The site structure and content must certainly become easier to
>      understand and navigate than today, but think to people trying to
>      know how to get RULE through a 14.4KBps modem, links, a 486 and a
>      monochrome monitor (not to mention blind users). Let's limit as
>      much as possible frames, nested tables, colors, JavaScript.
> 
> tarball(s) with all the site content and mailing list archive must be
> generated daily and available for download.
> 
>      the reason is to make possible easy download and offline
>      consultation of all RULE site, also for the purpose (as it
>      happened last summer for Linux Pakistan to burn and distribute it
>      on Cd-rom
> 
> multilingual support: yes please
> 
> search whole content: yes please
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Original Rule Development Site http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/rule/> 
Original RULE mailing list: Rule-list at nongnu.org, hosted at http://mail.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rule-list
> 
> 


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