[RULE] Call to arms and requirements for the website

[James Miller]

Let me see if I understand correctly what's being discussed.  It seems to
me a web developer - possibly to become webmaster as well - is being
solicited for the RULE site.  Is that correct?  If so, is there already
hosting available for the site?  I ask because I have a young friend who's
become pretty adept at this sort of thing, whose help I may be able to
enlist.  Quite likely I could get him to do the development being proposed
(and I'm pretty sure he could handle all of it), and perhaps even get him
to do some ongoing webmastering - for an unspecified term.  If I've
understood correctly, and if it seems my friends talents and services
could be of help to the RULE project, please respond to that effect
onlist.  Then, I can make a proposal to my friend.  If I've misunderstood
something basic, please correct me and/or ignore this post.

James

On Fri, 20 Feb 2004, 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
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Original home page of the RULE project: www.rule-project.org
> 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
> 


_______________________________________________
Original home page of the RULE project: www.rule-project.org
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