Re: Drupal as candidate to be challenged



(((Right before sending this email I see Vincent's response, more brief
and more clear. :)  Anyway, here we go.)))


En/na Claus Schwarm ha escrit:

>  * Why do the links look so strange? For instance, 
>    
>       /index.php?q=en/214-releasenotes
> 
>    I believe this should be 
> 
>      /en/214-releasenotes 
>  
>    in the final version, right?

Yes. Clean URLs are obtained with ModRewrite support (see f.i.
http://guadectest.ourproject.org/ ). We will request it to the GNOME
sysadmins once we set up the real site in window server.


>  * What about all the existing links, then? Will they break?

Most would work as well because they are defined as relative links in
forms and not hardcoded in HTML. If we start in window with a fresh
installation the best would be to have clean URLs since the beginning.


>  * Where's the functionality to make donations? See
>    http://www.gnome.org/friends/

Integrate this "functionality" is as easy as copy the very same HTML
lines that link to the PayPal site from that page (see its source). With
additional Drupal modules you can do exactly the same donation via
PayPal *withouth leaving the gnome.org site* + other payment methods +
integraton with CiviCRM so you keep track of who is who in your
actual/potential donnors universe (see
http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviContribute+Guide ).


>  * Where's the functionality to make a bounty list? See
>    http://www.gnome.org/bounties/

There is not such functionality available as Drupal module. But what's
the problem keeping the current bounty system? I'm sure there are
possibilities of integration if we want to.


>  * Where's the functionality to show votes? See
>    http://foundation.gnome.org/vote/votes.php?election_id=1

Same as with the bounties.


>  * Where's the event table which was one of the rationales for the
>    change to dynamic pages? Or do I mix something here?

I have activated just very few Drupal modules in order to not overwhelm
anybody. In the core CivicSpace install there are three event related
modules:

- event: Lets users make events and keep calendars.  	

- eventfinder: Lets users search for events based on location and event
type.

- volunteer: Provides volunteer functionality for events.

CiviCRM also handles event related information.

I can activate them if you want, although my suggestion was to have one
day all the event related stuff in the subsite events.gnome.org. This is
why I didn't want to mix it with www.gnone.org.

See also:

RSVP: http://drupal.org/node/19424
Signup: http://drupal.org/project/signup


>  * Is there a way to make page feedback? 

Yes.


>  * Why is the language navigation so prominent (on top)? As a users,
>    I'm not interested in how many langugages the page is translated in.
>    See the bottom of http://news.google.de/news?ned=us for a good list,
>    IMHO.

As stated in the homepage, this site doesn't provide look&feel, nor
structure or layout. Things appear as they come out of the box. I
haven't spent more than a couple of hours mounting everything you see
there. Taking out that list of languages implies one click. Puting it at
the bottom à la mozilla-europe.org takes a but of theme design
(CSS+PHP). But we haven't agreed a page layout design so it's not worth
to invest a minute in coding, in my opinion.


>  * Is there no way to get rid of the expendable trees?

You can edit menus as you wish. If you register I can give you gnome.org
editor and dveloper permissions and you will see for yourself all you
can do.


>  * Why are there news on the front page -- or why is it looking like
>    news? Who's going to write them?

It's just a RSS feed. See
http://gnomedotorg.ourproject.org/index.php?q=aggregator/categories/1

Most of the dynamic contents in wgo will come from what the subsites
decide is best for them. For example, if you publish new stuff in the
GNOME Journal you get the headlines in that block.


>  * Do we really want comments on our front page?

In this dummy test why not. In the real homepage no. You can decide
whether you want comments or not on each page you publish, it's just a
box you tick off or not. I'm going to disable comments i the homepage
(dum-di-dum...) Done.

>  * Does a potential visitor really care about who's online and who's
>    new?

Possibly not. I just wanted to show this functionality. Taking out these
blocks implies only deselecting two checkboxes (... done). This is
another action you could do yourself with editor/developer permissions.
You can also leave the choice to the registered users, offering them the
possibility to add/take out the blocks.


>  * Why's there a 'log-in' and a 'create content' link, that is shown to
>    visitors?

We haven't talked about what we want visitors to do. I think we want
users to register, keep contact with them and inviting them to increase
their level of involvement.

About 'create content' this is the default string, it can be renamed
like any text string you see. gnome.org is currently offering several
channels to "create content", from submitting a background image to
participate in a mailing list, file a bug, ask for support, edit a wiki
page... Instead of letting the users find by themselves we could help
them from the homepage.


>  * What about all the wgo/project/* sites? Are they going to be
>    integrated and if so, how?

If they want, each could have all the Drupal functionality and run quite
autonomously their site, sharing layout themes (with flexibility to
small design variations) and users. This wouldn't imply more software
installed, the same Drupal can handle different subsites.

If they prefer to stay in the CVS they can stay, no problem.


> I admit the language functionality you describe sounds really nice!

It is nice!

> However, the list is long enought to be careful about declaring Drupal
> to be "the platform for the wgo revamp!"

You concerns refer to THIS dummy site, but they are covered by the
Drupal functionality. I'm not saying this dummy site is the candidate,
it is a dummy site to play, try, test.

Well, you are almost asking to have all the work done before even
deciding if we choose this platform. :)  With permissions and a look to
the http://drupal.org/handbooks you could play and try yourself all your
suggestions.

This means Drupal as a tool can integrate the concerns you have made.
This means Drupal keeps the position of candidate to challenge.  :)


> Remember that you asked to me to summerize my concerns. ;-)

Thanks for doing it so quick.

-- 
Quim Gil - http://desdeamericaconamor.org

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