[mapserver-dev] Rethinking our doc site build workflow (+vote)

[thomas bonfort]

PSC,

In light of the recent projectsvm downtime and the (increasing, given
the new translations) load we are putting on that server while
building our docs, I would like to propose that we transition our
build process to use travis-ci for the compilation part.

In clear, docs would be automatically built on travis-ci.org once a
commit is pushed on the stable or master branch, and would then be
scp'd/rsync'd to the public projectvm directory on success.

Advantages:
- no need to maintain build scripts on the projectsvm
- the actual travis config files are simple and minimal:
https://github.com/tbonfort/docs/commit/1d178ab6e6d0765adfbb0fea40404a6a1803a969
(without the logic to publish to mapserver.org yet, though)

Inconveniences:
- we rely on an external service we have no control on. we can always
switch back to the current solution if needed (no www.mapserver.org
downtime, the docs would just not be in sync while we transitioned).
- building the PDFs has a non-negligeable impact on build times and
apt packages needed to be installed on the travis instances. They
would therefore be disabled by default, but might be enabled on a
case-by-case basis if the commit message contains a magic keyword.
- it might seem we are loosing control as to what is published on the
mapserver.org website (given the resulting website is automatically
published). In practice this is more or less already the case with the
automatic builds happening on the projectsvm.

I've had confirmation from the travis team that we are not abusing
their system by implementing this:

===================================================================
Hey Thomas,

Thanks for getting in touch and checking with us!

We absolutely don't mind you using our service to build and push your
documentation site, quite the opposite.

We're always happy to see people adopt Travis CI in unexpected and new
ways, so by all means, ship it!

Cheers, Mathias

--
Mathias Meyer
=====================================================================

Before investing more time on this, I will need a go from the PSC. I'm
going to be offline next week and unable to respond, but will start
the transition at my return if no -1s are casted.

+1 Use Travis-ci platform to build and publish mapserver website

best regards,
thomas