[cairo] cairographics.org website

[Fontana Nicola]

On Thu, 2020-12-10 at 23:04 -0800, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> ...
> Maintaining a website is a separate skillset than maintaining a
> codebase, and there are a LOT better ways to maintain a website than the
> way Cairo is using currently, so if someone was interested in doing a
> from-scratch redesign of the Cairo website, that could be a great
> contribution to the project and potentially could help a lot in
> revitalizing it.
> 
> Since the way the website is maintained is cumbersome in many ways, I
> would suggest all options be on the table for consideration.  But that
> said, here are my random thoughts that can be used to help elucidate
> possible requirements:
> 
> * The biggest source of new content is the release announcements.  Make
>   sure it is trivially easy for the release manager to add news items
>   for releases.  Ideally, whomever makes releases should have no extra
>   task to add a news item beyond the regular release announcement.
>   (Currently, it's a bit involved...)
> 
> * There's a lot in the website that probably could be dropped.  In
>   particular, a lot of stuff in the Examples section and maybe some
>   items under Documentation.  I tried to prune out 404'd info but keep
>   as much in place as possible, but perhaps being more selective would
>   result in a better 'less is more' solution.
> 
> * I certainly don't think Cairo needs a full CMS.  However, with it now
>   being hosted via gitlab I expect there are easier solutions for how
>   the site is edited and extended.  I.e. maybe worth converting pages to
>   markdown?
> 
> * https://www.cairographics.org/download/ needs re-thought out.  This is
>   presumably one of the most tangibly important pages the website
>   provides.  It's too lengthy and too wordy, and some of it may be out
>   and out wrong.  I would suggest all the platform-specific stuff should
>   become links to external info, and the page should more focus on
>   building from the devel vs stable tarballs and checkouts.
> ...

Hi all,

my suggestion instead would be to use a CMS, specifically SilverStripe
(the CMS used by LibreOffice). Technically speaking, SilverStripe is a
framework *and* a CMS.

The main arguments in favour of this solution are:

* given a proper infrastructure, I am willing and able to maintain the
  back end;

* a framework is highly programmable, so repetitive operations (such as
  release announcements) can be easily streamlined;

* other redundant actions can be automatic, i.e. adding a new download
  item in the download page or updating the download button in home page
  to the latest release, automatic email to the mailing list on new
  releases or whatever.

The main arguments against this solution are:

* performances: there's no way you can beat a static page;

* you will need to have a LEMP platform on the server;

* security: having a scripting language server side surely poses more
  risks than not having it.

In maintenance terms (longevity, robustness, burden), I don't think
relying on a specific static site generator gives any advantage over
relying on a specific CMS.

If there is something already integrated in gitlab I would say that many
integrations should be already there for free. In that case I cannot be
of any help though.

Ciao.
-- 
Nicola