Website redesign

[SuperMat]

Hi all,

a few weeks ago on IRC, samuncle and me talked about a website redesign .
samuncle also made a basic mockup for the website redesign, see http://pix.toile-libre.org/upload/original/1385317576.png.
I could do the theme for the new website.

Ideas for the new website:
* Move to dokuwiki - that will be easier to theme
* Merge stkaddons.net into the main website (Someone proposed to rewrite the stkaddons.net site as a plugin) - stkaddons.net will be renamed to MySTK Rename STKaddons.net to MySTK
* Use two main colors - Orange headers for user documentation - Violet headers for programmers
* Share your own ideas

Proposed timeline:
Phase 1 (Preparing):
1. Get the approval of the core developers
2. Collect ideas of users core team
3. Create final mockups of the design
Phase 2 (Wiki Redesign):
4. Creating a DokuWiki theme
5a. Publish a test instance to test the new design and get feedback from the users (Note: this step is optional)
5b. Move the current wiki to DokuWiki and apply the design changes (this includes removing old and unneeded wiki pages like incomplete translations, documentation for deprecated features, ...)
Phase 3 (MySTK Development):
6. Move stkaddons to new subdomain (i.e. addons.supertuxkart.net or my.supertuxkart.net)
7. Retheme STKaddons/MySTK with the same theme as the wiki
6. Rewrite stkaddons.net as a DokuWiki plugin
7. Make changes to STK source code to use the new system

Who wants to help (reply to this topic if you want to help, and I'll include you here):
- sambuddhabasu (samgtr on IRC)
- supermat
...

Ideas, mockups and developers with a knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL are welcome .

Best regards,
supermat

[sambuddhabasu]

I really liked the whole idea of the website redesign. The idea of moving to dokuwiki is a good one as this would make documentation easier to handle. Also, it would be great if the index page contains some screenshots and small video clips or trailers of the new versions. This would make the site more interactive for the users. I'm believe that my knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL and Javascript would be required and hence, I would like to help in completing this goal.

[Auria]

Hmm. If you want this to happen, some people will need to step forward and do it, because really my own time will be spent on the game, I do not believe the website is bad enough that significant effort deserves to be spent on this. Also, our wiki is pretty huge, converting it all to another wiki would be a major effort. And when you so casually write " Rewrite stkaddons.net as a DokuWiki plugin", really, do you realize you are likely talking about several months of development and testing? Sorry, I am not very warm to this idea, seems like an enormous amount of effort for overall very little actual gain. If we want to change things, it seems to me it would be much easier to just adapt the CSS on our current setup. Given that we want to upgrade STK to have new graphics, networked gameplay, battle mode AI, etc. I very much doubt it's wise to invest several months on effort on the website

[SuperMat]

"Rewrite stkaddons.net as a DokuWiki plugin" was not my idea. I would just use the same CSS code on both pages too, but someone said, it would be better to rewrite stkaddons.

[samuncle]

1. Get the approval of the core developers

That's normal

2. Collect ideas of users

I'm not sure since everybody has it's own idea. You should focus about what the core team wants

3. Create final mockups of the design

yep

Phase 2 (Wiki Redesign):
4. Creating a DokuWiki theme
5a. Publish a test instance to test the new design and get feedback from the users (Note: this step is optional)
5b. Move the current wiki to DokuWiki and apply the design changes (this includes removing old and unneeded wiki pages like incomplete translations, documentation for deprecated features, ...)

yep

Phase 3 (MySTK Development):

Well that's for the future

Hmm. If you want this to happen, some people will need to step forward and do it, because really my own time will be spent on the game. I do not believe the website is bad enough that significant effort deserves to be spent on this

Yep I already said that to supermat . We (the core team) have no time to do this. But IMHO our website can be modernized to something a bit less confusing and if possible to show beautiful screenshoots on the main page.

Also, our wiki is pretty huge, converting it all to another wiki would be a major effort

It's not that huge since I removed ~200 outdated pages ^^. I think we can copy all pages by hand and remove all outdated things. It will be a good cleanup.

And about the docuwiki I'm ok. It's not a good idea. Adapting the CSS is a easier and better way to do that .

[hiker]

Hi,

I mostly have to agree with auria. What advantage would using a different wiki bring us? I'd think as well that just working on the existing wiki (and the css) would be good enough.

...

Hmm. If you want this to happen, some people will need to step forward and do it, because really my own time will be spent on the game. I do not believe the website is bad enough that significant effort deserves to be spent on this

Yep I already said that to supermat . We (the core team) have no time to do this. But IMHO our website can be modernized to something a bit less confusing and if possible to show beautiful screenshoots on the main page.

Also, our wiki is pretty huge, converting it all to another wiki would be a major effort

It's not that huge since I removed ~200 outdated pages ^^. I think we can copy all pages by hand and remove all outdated things. It will be a good cleanup.

While I didn't count the number of pages, I would still say that improving the existing ones is a much more feasible approach than migrating to a new wiki.

Cheers,
Joerg

[SuperMat]

OK. The probably best thing with DokuWiki is that it doesn't need a MySQL database. It saves all articles in plain text files. MediaWiki's theming engine is very complex and you sometimes have to write unneeded code.

[Auria]

I agree this would be a valid concern if we were starting today, but since we already have it all setup, there's little cost in leaving it there. Besides, even though mediawiki can be a little hard to theme, we already have much of the job done

[SuperMat]

OK. If it's possible to get the current source code of the theme, I could try to work on it.

[Auria]

Hi,

well I could give you the files, but that wouldn't be very practical for you since you would be unable to test your changes anyway. I suggest using the firefox debugger (right-click, inspect element), there is a "style" tabs where you can see the STK CSS theme, and you can edit it there and see the results live in real-time.

[SuperMat]

Why? I could install MediaWiki on my computer and choose the theme. Or is the current theme not an usual mediawiki theme?

[Auria]

Fair enough. Here it is :

[samuncle]

Personally I'm in favor of using docuwiki.

We don't have a huge wiki and it's a good opportunity to start with a clean website.
Since in our wiki many pages are broken. There is many fake account etc.

It's also a good way to remove all old content.

[SuperMat]

You should make a decision which to use. MediaWiki or DokuWiki.

I can't redesign a website if I don't know which things I should use , but I agree with samuncle to migrate to DokuWiki,
because there are outdated pages (who wants to build STK 0.6 ) and spam/inactive users.

[Auria]

Joerg and I are both in favor of mediawiki, so I think that's what you should go for unless there is new information

[SuperMat]

OK, I'll have a look at the mediawiki theme.
All mockups are welcome!