[Gimp-developer] Gramps-Connect and Narrative Web

[Jason Simanek <jsimanek gmail com>]

Hi,

I've spent this morning looking over parts of the Gramps-Connect HTML + 
CSS + JavaScript. I am hoping to contribute a little and work with Doug 
and whoever else is involved to make the Gramps-Connect better and maybe 
even responsive so that it will adapt well to smaller screens.

However, I also took a look at the Narrative Web template file. I was 
considering the amount of work needed to improve that as well since it 
has been stated that Gramps-Connect and Narrative Web would have shared 
resources.

I can't remember who worked with Rob on that HTML-generator code for the 
narrativeweb.py file, but to me it looks completely unapproachable. Last 
time I worked on Narrative web the template was largely HTML with Python 
handling the dynamic aspects. It was relatively easy to read and alter.

This current narrativeweb.py file is not that way. There is little or no 
visible HTML in the file. I can kind of decipher this new HTML-generator 
code, but there's no way I or probably any web designer is going to feel 
comfortable writing new HTML with this mechanism.

However clever this HTML-generator is, I think its continued use will 
only make the Narrative Web plugin less attractive to potential web 
dev/designer contributors. And it has almost no relationship to the 
template methods used on the new Gramps-Connect codebase.

I recommend divorcing the Gramps-Connect and Narrative Web resources. I 
think there is and will continue to be a lot of interest in 
Gramps-Connect. I think its HTML, CSS and JavaScript should be developed 
to be as efficient and modern as possible. Trying to accomplish that 
feat will be difficult enough without anchoring it to the aging and 
now-difficult-to-update Narrative Web code.

Leave Narrative Web where it is (stable, useful) and develop a new, 
cutting edge web platform on Gramps-Connect. Then, once Gramps-Connect 
has stabilized, rebuild the Narrative Web template based on Gramps-Connect.

I hope I am not offending anyone. This is just my perspective and 
opinion as a professional web designer and developer.

Jason Simanek