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

[Stephan Meißl]

+1

We could even investigate using "Read the Docs" [1] which offers a nice
service for building and hosting documentation.

cu
Stephan

[1] https://readthedocs.org/


On 04/04/2014 10:55 PM, thomas bonfort wrote:
> 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