[kdewebdev-site] redesign of the quanta web site

[Philipp Wendisch]

Chris Martin wrote:
> Andras Mantia wrote:
>> On Tuesday 17 April 2007, Philipp Wendisch wrote:
>>> Andras Mantia wrote:
>>>> On Tuesday 17 April 2007, Philipp Wendisch wrote:
>>>>> yes it is, i work on debian, and it's quite simple. drupal comes
>>>>> with its own installer. but actually i rather use typo3 instead of
>>>>> having to deal with drupal, beside the fact that drupal is mysql-
>>>>> and postgresql-only.
>>>> So I have no idea what is typo3. Any link how to install drupal on
>>>> Debian? I assume it is not that simple like "apt-get install
>>>> drupal".
>>> yes, but it is very easy, grab the tarball form drupal.org, unpack it
>>> and run the install-script from your browser. it is quite straight
>>> forward
>>
>> The server where this should run is in a remote place (without X
>> installed), but I have full rights to it. Do I run the install script
>> on my browser at my local computer? Well, I will see it later (once I
>> get some time for this), but if you have the answer/experience, I'd be
>> glad to hear it.
>>
>>> typo3 is another cms, it is very powerful. and  -yes- there is a
>>> debian package available ;-) a little search on apt-get.org reveals
>>> where to find it
>>> http://www1.apt-get.org/search.php?query=typo3&submit=Anfrage+abschic
>>> ken&arch%5B%5D=i386&arch%5B%5D=all
>>
>> Good this apt-get.org. I'm not a Debian guru, my system runs suse, but
>> the server where kdewebdev.org is hosted is a debian one, this is why
>> I'm asking about debian.
> 
> Who needs apt-get.org? just use apt-cache
> 
> apt-cache search typo3
> apt-cache show typo3
> 
> If you have any Debian questions, feel free to email me. I've been using
> it on my desktop, and servers, for years.

I only posted the link to show how easy it is for non-debian users to find
packages ;-)

> 
> 
>>> but after all before discussing wether to use a ready made cms, would
>>> there be any effort? ok I do not have access to the website-svn, but
>>> before switching it would be interesting to know wether it would be a
>>> waste of the already existing code or not. would it make sense?
>>
>> Surely we will waste some code. The question is how useful would be a
>> CMS in the end, when you think about maintenance, adding new features
>> (like rss feeds, blogs, forums), updating its look and feel and so on. 
> 
> The real question is what do the developers want? I think RSS is a
> given, but that's easy enough to code (and it comes built in to most
> blogs/forums). Do you guys want blogs? Do you want forums? Or are you
> just giving examples?
> 
> 
>> I don't know the answer for these questions as I never used any CMS.
>> I wrote part of the kdewebdev.org code to easy our work as much as
>> possible regarding adding new releases, news, sub-sites and all these
>> from Quanta itself, so it is basicly also a test-bed for Quanta. I'd
>> like to continue to use Quanta in the future as well to maintain the
>> site, but would be interesting to see how Quanta can be made to work
>> together with a CMS.
> 
> IMO a CMS is intended to not have to use such as Quanta. Obviously the
> site developer would use it to create/edit/upload templates and such,
> but the content would be added and managed through the CMS. In theory,
> once the site is up and running, you wouldn't really need Quanta for
> updating content.
> 
> 
>>  After all it comes down to the same thing: make the site easier to
>> maintain and develop.
>>
>> Andras
>>
> 
> I think CMS are easy to maintain (in a pointy clicky way).
> I also think the people that maintain the kdewebdev site are more than
> capable to edit code, and don't need features a CMS provides. Unless
> they just want an easy WYSIWYG editor to type news into. If that's all
> you want, FCKeditor or TinyMCE could be dropped in to a page to add
> news, FAQs, etc., much easier than moving everything to a CMS.
> 
> Also IMO CMS are a pain to develop around, especially for the type of
> things that the kdewebdev sites already contain. BUT, that said, things
> like RSS, blogs, and forums all come with most CMS (or are available as
> a plugin). So, again, it's really a matter of what the developers want.
> 
> It's been a while since I've looked at the site code, but if I remember
> correctly there is already some form of template in place. I was
> thinking it applied to all sites (*.kdewebdev.org), but I could be
> wrong. Seems to me it'd be easier to just drop the new design in that,
> rather than try and stuff it all into a CMS.
> 
> I realize old accounts weren't moved to the new server. So if you'd
> create mine again, I'll check out the latest site code. That way I'm not
> speaking from fading memories, and could make a more informed suggestion.
> I can also do what I can to assist in coding new features, or
> integration (with either the new design into the existing site, or a CMS).
> 

I never had an account to view the code, but as you are obviously gifted
programmers, I am sure a CMS would not be that neccessary. For blogging, it
would be ok to use a blogging engine such as wordpress or similar, because
there is none on kdewebdev.org yet.

I must say that the page itself has proven to be well structured, I find
everything I need. So why not improve eye candy and keep the code?

And providing a news feed or aggregate other news is really not that
complicated that it could not be done within some spare time (for example mine).

And using a CMS IMO would mean to give up Quanta's very own designation:
developing webapps. I mainly use Quanta to extend CMSs, create XHTML/CSS-Based
Templates, and not to create content.

-- 
Philipp Wendisch

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