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Last post Author Topic: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017  (Read 159557 times)

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #25 on: January 13, 2016, 02:44 PM »
Glad to hear it's still in the works. This is the one thing I'm probably more interested in seeing come to fruition than almost anything else here.

It's been talked about and discussed for so long. And now it looks like it will actually be happening. Go DoCo! And the folks who are making it come to pass. :Thmbsup:


Oh it is most definitely happening.  I couldn't give an ETA on it (and wouldn't want to because as with most projects this big...who really knows?  I could say 3 weeks then have to leave for a month for unexpected things {not that I plan to!!!})

One thing I can and will say however, is that as of right now, we do have a fair amount of work to do, but the majority of this is just deciding which pages are going to be killed off (there's a lot of junk from YEARS ago that nobody ever uses/views and is so out of date that it really serves no purpose...but needs to be online in order to not have a whole lot of dead links on the site) - This is really the main part that bogs us down and it's like trying to swim through custard...really REALLY tedious work, but..and I will quote mouser here: "We need to embrace tedious"...never have truer words been spoken haha!

 

40hz

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #26 on: January 13, 2016, 04:28 PM »
I will quote mouser here: "We need to embrace tedious"...never have truer words been spoken haha!


LOL! If there ever was a koan for dealing with information systems, I think Mouser just coined it! (That beats the old "Seek simplicity. Embrace complexity!" - which is also equally true.)  8)

ewemoa

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #27 on: January 14, 2016, 04:32 PM »
* ewemoa casts a blessing spell in the general direction of Stephen ;)

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #28 on: January 14, 2016, 04:34 PM »
* ewemoa casts a blessing spell in the general direction of Stephen ;)

I think I'm gonna need to buy some potions in order to not lose my mind whilst doing this!

SOOOOOO MANY OLD PAGES THAT NOBODY EVER USESSSSSSSS!

Seriously...My sanity is being put to the test haha

wraith808

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #29 on: January 14, 2016, 05:53 PM »
SOOOOOO MANY OLD PAGES THAT NOBODY EVER USESSSSSSSS!

Hey!  I use those pages!   ;D

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #30 on: January 14, 2016, 05:56 PM »
SOOOOOO MANY OLD PAGES THAT NOBODY EVER USESSSSSSSS!

Hey!  I use those pages!   ;D

Then you can keep them...I don't want them anymore!

tomos

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #31 on: January 14, 2016, 05:59 PM »
I think I'm gonna need to buy some potions

P-o-o-o-o-tions for sale!
P-o-o-o-o-tions for sale!
P-o-o-o-o-tions for sale!

...
then again,
can you give a reference?

EDIT/Oups, sorry :P got my wires crossed -- of course you dont need any references when buying potions ;-)
Tom
« Last Edit: January 14, 2016, 06:06 PM by tomos »

wraith808

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #32 on: January 14, 2016, 06:08 PM »
I think I'm gonna need to buy some potions

P-o-o-o-o-tions for sale!
P-o-o-o-o-tions for sale!
P-o-o-o-o-tions for sale!

...
then again,
can you give a reference?

You calling him Miracle Max?

"Bring out your dead!" *Clank*
"Bring out your dead!" *Clank*



"I'm not dead yet!"

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #33 on: January 14, 2016, 06:27 PM »
Y'all owe me beer for this... ;D

tomos

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #34 on: January 14, 2016, 06:37 PM »
Y'all owe me beer for this... ;D

trade secret: beer is potions ;-)
Tom

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #35 on: January 14, 2016, 07:08 PM »
Le sneak preview

DC CMS Prev.pngOfficial CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017

wraith808

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #36 on: January 14, 2016, 07:13 PM »
Nothing looks different  ;D

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #37 on: January 14, 2016, 07:15 PM »
Nothing looks different  ;D

Yet ;)

Step 1: Recreate site in current form.
Step 2: Cry
Step 3: Update Things
Step 4: Have mental breakdown
Step 5: Overcome alcohol problems
Step 6: Make sure everything works
Step 7: Fix things that didn't work
Step 8: Release? (Hopefully)

 ;D

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #38 on: January 16, 2016, 02:39 AM »
Things are starting to come along really smoothly and look really nice now!  Really looking forward to the day that you guys all get to see it - although, that's gonna be an fun day...knowing that you are probably all finding things that I probably didn't make work correctly haha

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #39 on: January 16, 2016, 12:16 PM »
OK ladies...I have a bit of time to write some stuff down about the forthcoming upgrade, so figured I should let you all in on whats going on!

Over the last few months work has been progressing slowly but surely on the DC website upgrade.  We had a bit of a lull whilst I was dealing with some personal things, but now I am back and steaming ahead full power with everything and well...it's coming along fantastic!

What's New?: (The 3 most important things so far)
  • The move from static HTML to a full CMS
This is obviously the biggest and most important thing and the reason DC is going to be so much easier to keep updated in the future.  This gives
  • Updated website search function (via the website, not the forum - VERY powerful)
Fairly self explanatory so I will leave this at this.
  • User based article submission/hosting (One of the things I'm most excited about!)
FINALLY!  We now have a way people can write big articles (like the software shootouts, or the full reviews and such) and actually have them featured in a hugely prominent way, and with a fantastic selection of layouts to make them look awesome!


Along with this come a lot of behind-the-scenes changes as well as some funky stuff for people to see and use (don't want to give too much away at this point and really...everything is still subject to change).  We of course kept things like the Live Chat and other fairly well used areas, but there a lot of old pages which are simply going to be archived (They practically never get visited and would hold up the release date potentially by weeks, so they are coming to the CMS...but in a VERY basic format and won't really be highlighted in any way.  Perhaps those pages will be added in a better way at a much much MUCH later stage (IE: Once we work out all the kinks, the upgrade is complete and released, and I have recovered from a meltdown) but for now.....no.

Gotta give a huge shout-out to mouser as well because although from these posts it may seem like it's only me doing things, mouser is actually doing the CSS magic as well as some other major stuff (Pages that utilize the forum user information {license page and such}) as well as keeping the current site/forum up and running and also keeping his software as up to date and as bug free as he possibly can.  I take as much work away from him as I can when it comes to the CMS so he doesn't have a nervous breakdown before I do!!  ;D

Again...No release date or ETA as of yet, but what I can say is that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel...and it looks GOOD!

app103

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #40 on: January 16, 2016, 12:18 PM »
SOOOOOO MANY OLD PAGES THAT NOBODY EVER USESSSSSSSS!


Some of that is because they can't find them.

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #41 on: January 16, 2016, 12:21 PM »
SOOOOOO MANY OLD PAGES THAT NOBODY EVER USESSSSSSSS!


Some of that is because they can't find them.

This is true...and actually just gave me an idea....

If anybody has any golden-gems on DC that are really difficult to find, but think deserve to be put in a more prominent place on the CMS...let me know on this thread.

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #42 on: January 16, 2016, 12:27 PM »
Also...If anybody has any articles they want to write and be featured on release day, then please do so.  It would be fantastic to have some awesome new content for people to read on that day.  The article could be about anything you want, but please let me know in advance if you plan to do it so I can arrange a place to put it!

If you want a place to write it up/style it (because we don't have the "My Personal Area" anymore) then please let me know (via here or PM) so I can sort this out for you as well :)

ewemoa

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #43 on: January 16, 2016, 07:06 PM »
What formats can be used for an article?  Perhaps there is an example document?

I'd like to maintain the source documents in some kind of revision / source code repository (not asking for this portion) and be able to export / update to the CMS if possible.

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #44 on: January 17, 2016, 03:38 AM »
What formats can be used for an article?  Perhaps there is an example document?

I'd like to maintain the source documents in some kind of revision / source code repository (not asking for this portion) and be able to export / update to the CMS if possible.

For the moment formatting isn't something that has been decided - All I can really say for now is "format it however you want in whatever way you want and I will just recreate it on the CMS" - Once I have more done and am a bit closer to finishing the rest of the site then either me or mouser (or both) can work out how best to go about it (IE: Maybe a templating system, example documents, an editor of some sort...something?).  I'll certainly keep you updated on this though but if you have any thoughts on how you would like it to work, please let me know - Any ideas are very welcome  :D

mouser

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #45 on: January 17, 2016, 04:06 AM »
A main benefit of using a cms is that authors will be able to directly edit their articles in the CMS system, using Markdown (or Markup, etc etc)  formatting language and media/image manager, and the CMS includes a versioning system.

rgdot

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #46 on: January 17, 2016, 09:18 AM »
CMS includes a versioning system


 :up:

40hz

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #47 on: January 17, 2016, 10:00 AM »
I definitely think supporting markdown would be great. I'm a big fan of that. Simple, sweet, and gets the job done.

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #48 on: February 02, 2016, 02:02 AM »
Update:

The greater majority of the sites primary pages have been translated into the CMS - These include (but are not limited to):

• All of the top level pages on the website
• All of mousers Software pages
• Some 'Level 1' pages (About/Privacy Policy etc)

Obviously there is still a whole bunch of work to do (mainly because there are a LOT of pages on DC) but a lot of the older pages won't actually be translated into the CMS and will just be moved as a basic page (no point spending ~1 month doing the pages that nobody ever uses anyway) - If there is a call for it, then pages can be moved over 1-by-1 after the site is launched (So if you think a page we didn't move should be moved, just let me know, and I will move it over!)

One thing I am still really excited about is the prospect of seeing the site constantly updated by anybody who writes articles for DC.  These will all be given a nice place to live on the main website rather than just a forum post, and the writers can keep things up-to-date far more easily through their own Editor Admin Page!

If anybody has any questions, then feel free to ask and I will happily answer!

tomos

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Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017
« Reply #49 on: February 02, 2016, 03:38 AM »
Sounds great Stephen (& mouser of course) :up:

One thing I am still really excited about is the prospect of seeing the site constantly updated by anybody who writes articles for DC.  These will all be given a nice place to live on the main website rather than just a forum post, and the writers can keep things up-to-date far more easily through their own Editor Admin Page!

If anybody has any questions, then feel free to ask and I will happily answer!

1) will there be the ability to comment on/below articles?
2) will wiki-type pages be a possibility? (apologies if discussed before, I havent reread thread...)
Tom