Web site

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GRASS Web Site planning

The current GRASS web site appear a bit overloaded and unmodern (since it has been kindly handcrafted with vim since 1998, of course following some evolution from plain HTML to HTML/PHP with RSS integrated). The question is:

  • go Content Management System (CMS)?
  • or stick with static pages?

To keep in mind:

  • traditionally low number of contributors (hey, this could be better with a CMS)
  • mirror sites want to copy/clone the site without more efforts than using rsync (i.e., static copy)
  • the new layout should be modern, fresh and attractive

Update 7/2010: grass.osgeo.org is now running on new hardware on Debian Lenny.

Nice sites

Here a list of sites which are looking nice:

reSt + Sphinx

  • Geotools.org
    • System: Sphinx
    • Advantages:
      • Page files can be maintained in SVN
    • Disadvantages:
      • No WYSIWYG editor
      • I think the GeoTools site is about as fancy as you can get with it (not very).

CMS Made Simple

  • CMS Made Simple
    • System: CMS Made Simple
    • Advantages:
      • WYSIWYG editor
      • Access control via roles
      • Static mirroring seems to be possible via http
      • Very light system, installed in a few minutes
    • Disadvantages:
      • Requires browser for editing

Drupal

  • OSGeo Foundation
    • System: Drupal
    • Advantages:
      • WYSIWYG editor
      • Access control via roles
      • Static mirroring seems to be possible via http (? check)
      • Can be run within OSGeo's Drupal server
    • Disadvantages:
      • Requires browser for editing
      • Rather heavy system, installation may be complex but OSGeo can provide it
  • a command-line admin tool called Drush is available.
"Drush is a command line shell and scripting interface for Drupal, a veritable Swiss Army knife designed to make life easier for those of us who spend some of our working hours hacking away at the command prompt."
  • Geopublishing
    • System: Drupal (? unsure)
    • Advantages:
      • see OSGeo above
    • Disadvantages:
      • see OSGeo above

PmWiki

  • LyX
    • System: PmWiki
    • Advantages:
      • Looks professional, it's very hard to tell that their front page is actually a wiki
      • Does not make the homepage look like a personal blog (/node12345) or wiki site
      • Wiki editing means low barrier to entry
      • Lightweight (200kb) & snappy
      • html→pmwiki converter: libhtml-wikiconverter-pmwiki-perl
      • The LyX people took good notes on how to set it up (here) and are approachable.
      • A good philosophy (more)
      • Stored on disk in flat files so you can use unix command line power tools to bulk maintain pages.
      • thus Mirrorable
      • See lyx's www-* svn
      • See lyx's RSS feeds
      • Active, monthly/quarterly new releases for the last 5 years
      • Translations status looks nice
    • Disadvantages:
      • All skins look somewhat old-fashioned to me (MN)
      • Install by hand as no Debian package
      • Might have a single administrative password for locked pages (ie homepage), so need to investigate how change history is stored (e.g.).

Wordpress

this page is mostly a "It Works!" placeholder, but gives the idea.

Unknown

unknown
unknown
  • Sakai
    • It's obviously using one but I'm not sure which one it is
(the page code contains "jQuery.extend(Drupal.settings...")
  • Thunar
    • It's obviously using one but I'm not sure which one it is.
or handcrafted with vi? See last line in source code

Prototype GRASS site

technical details pls?

New OSGeo Web site