[mapserver-commits] r8009 - trunk/mapserver/rfc
svn at osgeo.org
svn at osgeo.org
Wed Nov 5 20:17:18 EST 2008
Author: hobu
Date: 2008-11-05 20:17:18 -0500 (Wed, 05 Nov 2008)
New Revision: 8009
Modified:
trunk/mapserver/rfc/ms-rfc-46.txt
Log:
don't rag on Plone for our failures
Modified: trunk/mapserver/rfc/ms-rfc-46.txt
===================================================================
--- trunk/mapserver/rfc/ms-rfc-46.txt 2008-11-05 18:01:12 UTC (rev 8008)
+++ trunk/mapserver/rfc/ms-rfc-46.txt 2008-11-06 01:17:18 UTC (rev 8009)
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
******************************************************************************
- Operation Ditch Plone
+ Migrate Website to OSGeo
******************************************************************************
-:Date: 2008/09/16
+:Date: 2008/11/5
:Author: Howard Butler
:Contact: hobu.inc at gmail.com
:Last Edited: $Date$
@@ -20,43 +20,46 @@
Purpose
==============================================================================
-Developers have expressed dissatisfaction with the current MapServer Plone
-site, the Plone site rather poorly serves the needs of the project, and its
+Developers and users have expressed dissatisfaction with the current MapServer
+site, the site rather poorly serves the needs of the project in many instances, and its
maintenance and upkeep is limited to a single system administrator (Howard
-Butler). Operation Ditch Plone (ODP) will aspire to replace Plone's usage
-in the MapServer website with a hybrid setup that is similar to the
-infrastructure that the OpenLayers_ currently maintains.
+Butler). This RFC will aspire to replace the current MapServer website
+with a hybrid setup that is similar to the infrastructure that the
+OpenLayers_ currently maintains.
==============================================================================
Failures of the Current Website
==============================================================================
-The MapServer Plone website could be considered the 2.0 version of the
+The current MapServer website could be considered the 2.0 version of the
MapServer project's web presence. The 1.0 version of the website was a
-completely static. The Plone version of the website looked to allow through-the-web
+completely static. The current version of the website looked to allow through-the-web
editing to lessen the burden for documenters. Over three years into the effort,
it is pretty clear that the website has not had the desired effect with respect
to documentation, and it is getting in the way of the project doing other business.
-Other failures, in no particular order:
-* Plone is a bitch to maintain
-* Plone is a bitch to configure to run speedily
-* Plone is a bitch to upgrade
-* Plone is a bitch
-
Administrative Failures
-----------------------
Our uptime has been ok, but one effect of the current setup is that no one
except Howard Butler takes responsibility for our web infrastructure. Part of
-the reason for this is there are very few Plone admins available (they must be
-getting paid well to put up with it somewhere else) and part of the reason is
+the reason for this is there are no other Plone admins that have volunteered time
+in the MapServer community in the three plus years the site has existed, and part of the reason is
that Howard bootstrapped the 2.0 version of the site and it was easy to leave
it in his hands. Howard doesn't have the time to be able to keep things up at
anything over a subsistence level, and administration of MapServer's web
presence must be distributed if we are to achieve any progress.
+Survey
+------
+
+A `survey`_ that hoped to determine if the community had any feelings about
+how the site is currently serving the community was rather inconclusive. While
+generally positive about the site, the self-selected sample size of eighteen dwarfs
+the nearly three thousand mailing list subscribers, and I am uncertain what
+was expressed captures the general sentiment.
+
==============================================================================
Goals
==============================================================================
@@ -64,23 +67,23 @@
Here are some goals that the 3.0 version of the MapServer website should achieve:
* Make it easy for folks to find the docs
-* Stay the hell out of developers' way
+* Stay out of developers' way
* Allow documenters to get their job done
* Allow limited user-contributed information in the form of wiki pages
-* Have a gallery that doesn't suck
+* Have a gallery that works better
* Move off of UMN computing and integrate within OSGeo's infrastructure
Make it easy for folks to find the docs
---------------------------------------
-Some people have complained that it is difficult to find documents on the Plone
+Some people have complained that it is difficult to find documents on the
website unless you know the exact place in the hierarchy. Because our mind-reading
webpage finding software isn't quite up to snuff, the new website should make it easy enough
for documenters to organize and reorganize information in logical and interlinked
-ways. It seems the strictly-enforced Plone hierarchy causes more problems than
+ways. It seems the strictly-enforced hierarchy causes more problems than
it solves in this regard.
-Stay the hell out of developers' way
+Stay the out of developers' way
------------------------------------
The current website is quite slow. Slow to edit, slow to view, and slow to
@@ -93,7 +96,7 @@
Allow documenters to get their job done
---------------------------------------
-The Plone website fails documenters in a number of ways, but the most important
+The website fails documenters in a number of ways, but the most important
failure is the inability to tie documents to specific MapServer versions. A
new iteration of the MapServer website must allow this to happen. Luckily,
we already have tools to version documents (our source code repository), so
@@ -108,25 +111,27 @@
instance already provides this capability (along with single-signon), and we
can take advantage of it to accomplish this goal.
-Have a gallery that doesn't suck
+Have a gallery that works better
--------------------------------
-The `OpenLayers Gallery`_ doesn't suck, and it does an excellent job of highlighting
-how people are using OpenLayers_. Our gallery does suck, it is hard to add
-new entries, and doesn't really highlight anything.
+The `OpenLayers Gallery`_ works better than the current MapServer gallery,
+and it works much easier from a management/administrative standpoint.
+A benefit of using OpenLayers' gallery software is both projects can
+enjoy the benefits of improving it, which is not possible with the
+current MapServer gallery.
Move off of UMN computing and integrate within OSGeo's infrastructure
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-Just recently (Sept 15th -- Sept 16th, 2008), the server that houses the Plone
+Just recently (Sept 15th -- Sept 16th, 2008), the server that houses the
site was having power supply unit issues (they have been resolved), but it is a
-fact that the Plone site is running on a very old Solaris machine that could be
+fact that the site is running on a very old Solaris machine that could be
decommissioned at any point without much of a head's up. MapServer no longer
brings grant monies to the UMN, and while they have been gracious to continue
hosting us, we need to move somewhere where we have more control over our
destiny. Reasons like this are exactly why OSGeo exists, there are
resources there for us to use, and we should move the website there at the
-same time as we dump Plone.
+same time.
==============================================================================
Implementation
@@ -134,7 +139,7 @@
We are going to unabashedly rip off OpenLayers' web infrastructure. This includes
the gallery, static website, and Trac integration. OpenLayers' web infrastructure
-meets a lot of the goals above, it stays the hell out of the way of the developers
+meets a lot of the goals above, it stays out of the way of the developers
and does a good job of serving the users' documentation needs. The mechanics of
how this transition will take place are described below:
@@ -163,4 +168,5 @@
.. _OpenLayers: http://openlayers.org
-.. _OpenLayers Gallery: http://gallery.openlayers.org
\ No newline at end of file
+.. _OpenLayers Gallery: http://gallery.openlayers.org
+.. _survey: http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/community/polls/website-future/questionnaire_view_results
\ No newline at end of file
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