[WIP] FreeCAD's websites improvements initiative - Step 1 : Homepage and blog migration #165
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My 2 cents here, I'd say why not, indeed having both the blog and the website as one single structure seems a good thing, and wordpress is certainly a capable platform to do this. However, I also see problematic points to be studied:
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Hi @yorikvanhavre You're not wrong in saying that using a fully-fledged solution like a dynamic CMS using a database (WordPress), it's posing a number of obstacles to the open nature and accessibility for contributors of this part of the FreeCAD project, as accounts need to be set up, not everything is as transparent as on a git repository, there's the question of assigning specific roles, maintenance and the big point of translations too. So the plan has a bit changed in between. The idea is to continue this effort to reunite the main website and the blog, and to go instead with a static site generator. We are currently setting up a development environment and doing some tests, while advancing the design. Mockups will be posted here soon. The initial post has also been updated to reflect this change. |
YES! I like that solution much. My own blog is entirely composed of markdown files and uses a static generator (pico). Once it's set up, it's pretty straightforward, and it's all a question of creating templates, pretty much like wordpress. And you can keep the contents in a clean folders structure that is gitable, browsable and everything good. Hugo seems appropriate, I looked at it at the time I set mine up and seemed too hard to install (laziness always 😅 ) so I went for pico, but pico is less actively maintained, which is something I'd prioritize for FreeCAD |
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@prokoudine any insight here? |
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Hi all, I'm a regular contributor writing posts on the FC Blog. I'm not as technically versed in the web stuff but I am very much available if you want any insights as to what I/we would like in terms of functionality on the blog. Until earlier this week there were some really big functional issues with the blog, like no page break/truncation of posts, titles of posts not being links, no author names etc. After some research I suggested a wordpress template that Alex implemented and mitigated some of this. FWIW re the blog it's worth noting that it has a variety of content from tutorials to WIP updates etc so it needs a variety of stuff to work for all types of content well. One thing currently missing for example is image expansion on click or rollover which makes detailed tutorial content a pretty poor experience for the reader. Anyway.. happy to trial stuff/feedback or help in any way I can. Jo |
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FYI, I've just installed this lightbox plugin: https://archetyped.com/tools/simple-lightbox/ |
Hi Jo, Yorik and Alex, thank you for your input ! Indeed, the general idea is to integrate the Blog (called "News" in the Structure mockup above, the name is open to change of course) a lot more into the general website. I'll try to post mockups of the preliminary design next week =D It's planned to have the most recent post (title, featured image and summary if space allows) of every blog/news category displayed on the Homepage. Nothing is settled yet, but the gist is to have a base taxonomy with six different categories (announcements, events, developments, tutorials, showcases and highlights) that more-or-less match the current ones in WordPress. The first three are more "official" posts while the three latter are more "community" posts, although the difference is somewhat fuzzy and arguable ;D The new "highlights" one is still a bit vague and very open, but could be a way for community vote/award to highlight the work/involvement of some individuals or groups on projects related to FreeCAD, e.g. educational, external workbench/addon development, particular regional/language group or even slightly different topics about design, CAD, documentation, community/participatory projects, every month or season. So every category will have a dedicate template and prefilled archetype (a way to add new per-formatted content easily in Hugo). When we reach this point (tailor the template and archetype) we will certain need your help (and Alex's and others). The same goes for translations : ease as much as possible the work to add and manage content, despite the lack for the moment of WYSIWYG like WordPress (a headless CMS would be needed, maybe for later). Also, the way Hugo works, most non-list pages act a bit like a blog post, e.g. release notes, downloads pages, dedicated events pages, learning pages, donations pages, translations, etc. It's just the way the templates reuse the content and front matter data that changes. So anyone familiar with Markdown and after adding a few posts in the blog/news will be able to tweak/add content to the whole site. At first, on-boarding should be easy, then with time digging more into the powerful features like templates will make more sense. We'll setup a testing environment in a repository soon, still very much work-in-progress, but it will provide a test bed for improvements to the general design, interaction and content management.
Finally, we will keep you all informed as this progresses, hopefully fast enough... 1.0 is around the corner XD |
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Commenting on posts could be done in many ways that do not require additional moderating. Specially with social media that becomes easy, one could imagine posting new articles automatically to twitter/mastodon/facebook/forum/etc, and let people comment there. |
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@luzpaz this might interest you too |
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I liked that! Some remarks:
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Hi @yorikvanhavre !
I haven't done a mockup for the mobile version. If you look at the general layout, it's a grid (rows with 2 or 3 columns). In the mobile format, each "cell" will follow one after another.
It's indeed unfortunate to duplicate some effort on two places. However, pending further progress on the wiki/documentation, we felt it was important to promote the release of version 1.0 in an attractive way on the new unified website.
I completely agree, it's not required and could convey a false signal. This aspect was suggested by looking at the Godot, QGIS and other FOSS websites. With a dedicated donations page like currently, having the same information on the HomePage is redundant. Let's make a neat donations page and leave only the mention of the FPA association on the HomePage.
Absolutely, and you can tell it's still very much Work-In-Progress. Here are a few other questions to help move the design validation forward :
I'll try to update and post new mockups here very soon. |
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Cool! I think this is going well. Agree with everything above.
I would think this needs to stay flexible, and things might change in the future... I would try to propose a sensible choice now, and define a smart system so it's easy to manage
Definitely! Involving the community is the best way to go
Yes, the problem is always "who is going to do them" :) We are never sure if we'll have videos and when. Here too I would try to stay flexible |
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Hi @yorikvanhavre , @chennes , @concretedog , @prokoudine and @kkremitzki ! I hope you're all keeping well and enjoying the summer (or winter) time ! Sorry for not giving many news on this website project, I have been quite busy with IRL stuff lately =D However, I have now setup a WIP testing environment for this new unified website, which can serve as a development base to continue this initiative and hopefully, be somewhat ready along the 1.0 release. Here you can find the temporary repository. I recommend you have a look at the WIP Readme. The website in live on GitHub Pages. There are still quite a lot to do, add, change, tweak, of course =P. You can see the planned todo items on the Issues of the repository. Please, do test, let it know what you dislike, let it know what you find great =D The big question, I guess, is whether to launch this new unified website along the release of FreeCAD 1.0 ? |
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2 questions for now:
Thank you |
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Of course, it is impossible to object at this point. I liked the fluid nature of the current site better. The proposal in its current form seems very lifeless. The proposed layout is very monotonous, very routine. Of course, this can definitely be overcome. But I will miss the handmade feel of the current site. Also, it's not nice to be dependent on anything, even if it's open source. I'd rather it be as vanilla as possible. |
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Hi all. Just taken a look at the preview on the github pages. I really like what I see! Thanks for all the work on this. I of course am mostly interested in the blog style content and I'm really pleased to see the stuff like image expansion on click etc as it can make tutorial readability and use much better for readers. One thing myself and @prokoudine have been discussing recently, which is a small but challenging functionality, is automating new content announcements to fosstodon and X. At the moment Fosstodon is automated in the wordpress site but it just grabs the first arbitrary amount of characters and a link and toots. It's great as it means everything gets mentioned there, but it's crappy in terms of being a crafted toot. In other wordpress work (Tindie/Hackspace) they use a paid plug in "Jetpack" which adds a little window to write a toot/tweet and automates delivery to different platforms on publication of new content. I'm wondering if there is a solution for this type of functionality for the new site? Again, thanks for all the hard work on this. |
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I think it's looking good and coming along very well. But indeed there is probably still a long way until it's complete enough to replace the current website. There is an "in-between" solution being worked on at #178 , which I think would be in a good shape for 1.0 (which might be coming rather soon). I think yours here needs more time, also because we want it to stay working for a long time. So I'd say: Keep going, but let's not hook this to 1.0 because it's worth taking the required time to do it well. Regarding @Reqrefusion 's remark, I also like the simplicity of the current design, and I think it's important that people visiting the site feel it's a community project and not a commercial tool. FreeCAD is for everyone, it's "your own parametric modeler", and that's important to show, IMHO. That said, I don't see anything contrary to that in your design. It's mostly the kind of contents and text being shown that will transmit that message. And at the moment, since there is none, obviously it's hard to tell. I like much the structure where all the content is in one place. That should work pretty well and even allow, for example, to keep the contents somewhere else and gitmodule it into the website structure. |
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I very much like the structure, organization and flow of this so far. While I think we need more people to contribute content, it may be a good idea to start filling images with 'FreeCAD' stuff, even if they are only place holders in order to get a better feel for how this will look. There really is a lot to like about this so far. I agree with Yorik about not necessarily tying this to the release of 1.0 as I imagine it will be a herculean effort to crunch this in time and that would increase the likelihood of problems caused by rushing. Thanks for all of the work put in so far Marcus! |
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Hi @Reqrefusion , @concretedog , @yorikvanhavre and @obelisk79 ! Thank you all for the kind words and encouragements, it's motivating to hear that it seems to be heading in the right direction. =D As you all noticed, there's still quite a lot to be done until it's mature enough for broader use. I'm also in favor of taking the time to develop this properly, so thank you for your support and understanding on this matter. If we reach a sufficiently advanced stage for FreeCAD day and hackathlon (Fosdem 2025), it would be great to present the project ! To Jo: all the blog features I have in mind are not there yet, but will be added gradually after discussions depending on your (and others) needs and feedback. The image zoom in/out expansion is quite simplistic for the moment. I have also implemented a "lightbox" feature where all medias (images, videos, others) of the current page can be seen in full-screen and switched between them with arrows, but it's disabled for now because of some other issues. To Yorik: indeed, the state of this unified website is a bit dull for the moment, as it's mostly a boilerplate for future development. In that sense, beyond lacking content, most of the theme layout aspects are subject to change. |
Oh sorry I had missed that one. I would do exactly that, LGPL for the code (it's compatible with MIT so you can have MIT files in it) and CC for the contents. |
Nota bene: this issue is work-in-progress, more content will be added or changed following provided feedback
TL;DR
The gist of this first step of the websites improvements initiative is to prepare the Homepage and the Blog for the coming release of version 1.0 with a new, easier to maintain, documented and more accessible and welcoming website, using the common platform (the static site generator Hugo).
Context
FreeCAD's websites infrastructure has been developed organically over the years. It is made up of various parts which interact differently both for the end-user and the content contributor. Moreover they do not communicate easily with each other, they do have a different logic data-wise and incoherent visual designs. All this contributes to a problematic maintenance and is not advantageous for the project's impact. However, there are a number of positive qualities to be retained from the present state, which can serve as useful references for any improvement.
Early 2024, an initiative was launched by some Design Group contributors to review and improve the situation. This is the first step in a multi-year initiative.
This step has two simultaneous objectives : update the most crucial parts of the infrastructure in preparation for the release of FreeCAD 1.0, and lay the foundations for a set of guidelines and documentation for the websites infrastructure and maintenance.
Problems
Linked issues
Requirements
Note that this is a subjective appreciation, no strict criteria have been used.
+++ indicates a high importance or a high fulfillment (works great)
++ indicates a medium importance or a medium fulfillment (works ok)
+ indicates a low importance or a low fulfillment (works poorly)
General
Workflow
Scalability
Proposal
Design
Structure
├─ Homepage
├─ Features
├─ Download
├─ Releases
├─ News
├─ Documentation
├─ Community
├─ Contribute
├─ Donate
└─ About
WIP mockups
Homepage
Features Page
Download Page
Release Notes Page
News Page
Deliverables
Resources
The design and development work is mainly carried out by marcuspollio, with inputs and feedback from the Design Group (mainly Max, JigglyBuff , Obelisk, Mistermaker, Kadet, Alex) and some maintainers (Chris and Kurt). Some of them have offered to do code review, testing or content contributions. Translators have not been formally contacted at this time. A larger request for content (texts, illustrations, video, example files, etc.) will be made after the first deliverable is completed.
Indicative timeline
Questions
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