I'm pretty new at working with OP and Drupal and I'm using it for about a month now.
I really like OP, but it has an awful lot of features and figuring out how to do something takes a lot of time. I frequently have issues with functionality, theming or layout and usually I can find a workaround and also frequently skip because I can't figure out the remaining 5%
I always document my findings, use version management and implement a DTAP strategy (Development, Test, Acceptance, Production) to work things out. But I almost gave up on OP because its just overwhelming for starters. I notice that a lot of users have similar problems.
I want to start writing some howto's in the OpenPublish group to help OP-starters (and myself too), but I need input from other users. The main howto is the primary message and I'll update it when other readers post comments. These may contain things like:
- howto backup/migrate/restore an OP site (done it about 50 times and now it takes me about 10 minutes)
- howto theme OP with custom templates
- howto structure of OP (relations between views, blocks/pages, context, panels etc)
- howto redirect an article to a package (don't know how to do it yet)
- etc etc
This takes a lot of time to do, so I made a poll to see if there are enough people that are willing to participate in this. The poll will last for 2 weeks and then I'll evaluate the results. Thank you.
Comments
Documenting is one thing in
Documenting is one thing in the entire process I think.
If we do it, we do need some support of OP developers as well.
I think that we can post some docs here, but cannot pin it forever.
We might have to ask them to give us some space on their official website (http://openpublishapp.com/doc/openpublish-user-documentation) where they put it after review.
-Ronald
op documentation
I agree with you becasue in their site some of the documentation is not completed such as http://openpublishapp.com/doc/customizing-base-theme-sub-theme.
-Leo
documentation on OP site, but input from OP group
I thought about the documentation section of OpenPublish too. I would prefer it, since it's the right place for it. Though, community user-input cannot be given there. This group would be the right place for it. When the howto has some body it should be moved to the OP documentation.
I also agree that OP Developers should help a little too. This doesn't have to be exhaustive, but some pointers to the right direction would surely help. So I'll give it a go now (also intended for other OpenPublisher administrators/editors etc)
I would like some pointers on how to create a Feature for a custom content type (such as featured article)
How do I start with gmaps in OpenPublish? With locations-module I can assign locations to node's, but how do I put the mark in a gmap and display it (??)
What is the order (inheritance) in which the templates of OP are used? When I go to views, I see a lot of tpl.php, but these are mostly composites and I can find segments of them in other templates. I would like to write something about the functioning of this. I think this would be very useful for people trying to customize OP.
Good points on documentation
For some time, we (Phase2) have discussed the idea of a wiki for community documentation. It was hard at first until we had a "community" of sufficient size/interest to do such a thing. After all, it is a nice open source way to contribute, but you might also be inviting spammers and critics to just take a shot at your hard work and ruin it for everyone. however, it seems like our OP community is growing and maybe its time for a wiki approach. Thoughts?
+1 for a wiki
+1 for a wiki
thought bout documenting
thanks for taking time to look at the initiative from Jurgen and all members who want to be involved.
As with the localize server which is a very good step forward in internationalization of OP maybe we could get a server like that to build the documentation and then put it online?
We could write up on the op documentation site as well, but that would be impossible to keep track of.
Maybe people interested can get somewhere read-write rights and comment on eachother if something is finished?
Great discussion and an
Great discussion and an awesome initiative from Jurgen.
We've always hoped that an initiative like this would arise, but really wanted it to come from the community, because that's when it is done in the most efficient way.
There's even a section in the documentation - Do-It-Yourself tutorials which was created for this very purpose and was "sitting around" for the right time. Looks like the time is right now. I will be more than happy to open that section to the community. Ideally, I think it should be moderated by the community to avoid spamming.
I would suggest to appoint several moderators and go from there, maybe Ronald and Jurgen for starters if they are OK with it?
My thought was to try it in a tightly-controlled way initially (content can be submitted but can only be published by a moderator). Eventually it can be as open as Wikipedia, where everybody can publish/edit but it's reviewed. The latter, while more democratic, does involve more work/attention from moderators though - so you tell us how do you prefer to proceed.
Again - very excited and happy to see this discussion.
Thank you.
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http://twitter.com/inadarei
I'm happy to do it, no
I'm happy to do it, no problem at all!
I think in the beginning the moderator option is good and we can see from there where it goes.
If it grows a bunch, then we can look at different options.
-Ronald
No problem here
It would be good to do. Tell us how we can moderate it. I think you can reach us by email.
For the next 10 days I'm not near a computer or internet, but happy to start after that :-)
Awesome! Many thanks for
Awesome!
Many thanks for volunteering, guys!
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http://twitter.com/inadarei
This is great initiative
Thanks a lot looking forward to learn from the community where real things happen.
what's the status?
I'm back and at the moment have time available. What I've been thinking of is starting with the following:
How can I start doing this and how (when) can we (Ronald and me) get rights to start this?
Sorry guys. Our developers
Sorry guys. Our developers are working hard on extending the documentation infrastructure to allow for this functionality.
We should have it ready for you real soon.
Thanks for your patience.
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http://twitter.com/inadarei
Count me in.
I would love to help on the documentation. I've blown myself out of the water with OP countless times (and continue to do it) so have picked up quite some experience.
My question though: How would the howtos be posted here? As discussions (seeing that we cannot create stories in groups)?
In essence, I believe the wiki would be best until irakli sorts us out..
http://satyamediagroup.com
Do-It-Yourself is working; is it official?
I was able to post a limited article at http://openpublishapp.com/doc/do-it-yourself-tutorials. Is it officially available?