ryan Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 This week we're going to look at our path for growth in 2016, which is already off to a nice start! This includes where we've been, where we're going, and how we will get there–with your help. We actually do have several core updates prepared too, but mostly smaller things that will fit better in next week's post. This post originally started as a section of our 2016 roadmap, but I decided it really deserved its own post, so saved it for this week so that we could cover it more in-depth. However, you might consider this part of, or a continuation of, our 2016 roadmap. But rather than looking internally, much of this post looks externally, outside of our software and community, and into the bigger picture of ProcessWire in the web development/design world. https://processwire.com/blog/posts/growing-processwire-in-2016/ 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szabesz Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 What might really expose ProcessWire is a book on packtpub.com. These books really helped me to jump start website development about five years ago: http://www.amazon.com/SilverStripe-The-Complete-Guide-Development/dp/0470681837 https://www.packtpub.com/web-development/silverstripe-24-module-extension-themes-and-widgets-beginners-guide I especially liked the first one (The Complete Guide to CMS Development). Nowadays ProcessWire is a lot more beginner friendly then SilverStripe (for example) except that there isn't a well organized book/tutorial for beginners. Such a tutorial should not just scratch the basics, but give an example of how to develop a somewhat complex, database driven website. The above mentioned books did achieve that. (They are outdated and have never been updated, but still good examples.) And I agree that upgrading the cheatsheets with lots of examples is a good idea. I spent 7 years developing Flash/ActionScript games and websites, and I loved the docs Adobe created for ActionScript. It was packet with lots-and-lots of code snippets, most methods had one ore two (or even more) examples, one just had to copy+paste them and tweak them to their liking. Php.net's idea of utilizing the developers to add notes and code snippets is one way to do it, so besides adding "official" snippets, commenters should be able to add their own too. The new WordPress docs site does the same. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joer80 Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 I have been pushing it on quora and there are usually a few others that will as well. Thats a great place. ie. https://www.quora.com/We-need-a-CMS-that-manages-images-and-themes-but-does-not-enforce-some-framework-Any-suggestions or https://www.quora.com/I-need-a-website-Should-I-use-WordPress-or-HTML-CSS-more-info-in-description or https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-make-content-editing-easy-for-my-web-design-clients/answer/Joe-Regan 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Knight Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 Ryan - you're the twinkly fairy atop our ProcessWire Christmas tree. But seriously, I wonder if you should include a screen grab from GoogleTrends too? It does a great job of showing the increase in Searches for ProcessWire on Google. BTW, your clarity and openness here just highlights the WTF-fest surrounding another platform I use. Nobody knows the number of the next version, they can't agree on the product name, there's no public (if any) roadmap and it's probably over a year since there was any type of public info. I wish them well but reading great posts like yours on how solid PW is and how bright it's future (and present) is, clarifies for me that banking on PW has been the right decision for my business and clients too. And that's not because the other CMS is headlining at Confusion-Palooza but because PW on its own merits has a bright, long road ahead. You've written too a post which I'll happily send clients to when they ask "well, what is ProcessWire"? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BartekG Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 One suggestion: the forum threads linked in the post require not only for the viewer to be a forum member, but also to have enough number of posts to see them. That could make an impression of closeness of PW, while certainly that's not the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Rockett Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 One suggestion: the forum threads linked in the post require not only for the viewer to be a forum member, but also to have enough number of posts to see them. That could make an impression of closeness of PW, while certainly that's not the case. Hi BartekG, As I understand it, the choice was to not allow search engines to index all the conceptuals being posted in the threads, mostly because we'd only want the finished product to be seen by them. (This was a suggestion made by kongondo - not sure about the specifics there.) That said, the idea was not for it to be 'closed'. The Beer Garden's original purpose is to hide discussions that may involve client work, which is why one needs to be a member to see it. For additional 'protection', it does require that users have 10 posts to their name. Therefore, the posts about the brand and site unintentionally (I'd think) fall within that ambit. (Not sure if the post count can be reduced on a per-post basis.) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan Posted January 23, 2016 Author Share Posted January 23, 2016 But seriously, I wonder if you should include a screen grab from GoogleTrends too? It does a great job of showing the increase in Searches for ProcessWire on Google. Maybe so, that's a good idea. I'll include that in the 2017 version. Though I figure everyone already can see that, whereas a site's Google Analytics isn't public to everyone. One suggestion: the forum threads linked in the post require not only for the viewer to be a forum member, but also to have enough number of posts to see them. That could make an impression of closeness of PW, while certainly that's not the case. I knew the Beer Garden required one to be a member, but had missed that there was a minimum post limit. I suppose that makes sense. Maybe rather than linking to it, I should post a screenshot in there? @Mike Rockett is that okay with you if I put a sample of the design in the post? If so, which one do you want me to use? (or maybe I link to one on your site?) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Rockett Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 (edited) @Mike Rockett is that okay with you if I put a sample of the design in the post? If so, which one do you want me to use? (or maybe I link to one on your site?) Sure thing! I think it'll be great to show one of the concepts separately. I think a linked screenshot (with the hero area only) of your favourite one will do fine. (Though I leave it up to you - whatever you think will be best.) Edited January 23, 2016 by Mike Rockett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Gretsky Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 I am really glad this topic is brought up in the community discussion. I think we all can benefit from PW being more known and used all around the world. It does not pay off to be good at something nobody else around want to use. It is not like karate secret move you can win the fight with. Your customer has to agree and preferably desire that you use PW. More like Kamasutra than martial arts. But those are common words you all understand those thing better than me.I said about "known" and "used" in the same sentence, but those are quite different things although connected. I do not think that we can or should expect PW to be as commonly used as Wordpress or Joomla, as it is obviously targeting a narrower target audience. But we definetely wish and can expect almost everyone in the web-dev world to at least be familiar with the name. And we want it to have a positive connotation.This is a task, and if we want to achieve it, we need to know, when it is achieved. I think that we need to set goals for 2016 and track the porogress. Site visits might not be the best parameter to evaluate for this particular purpose. I am well aware of Symfony 2 framework and I entertain my thought that once I will learn it and use, but I do not visit their site anywhere near often. What other measurable metrics can we track? Backlinks? Google trends? Maybe even conduct some kind of sociological survey now and in the end of 2016?I also suggest we organize ourselves in our effort. What about conducting a number of marketing campaigns with defined goals, timeframe, and summing up in the end? I can propose a few right now: Get PW more stars on Github. So we can be rated closer to the top in the searches like "PHP CMS" and so. If we do it in condensed period of time, we can even make it to trending, which can bring us quite a number of newcommers. Get PW more reviews with stars on bitnami, which will position PW closer to the top of the apps list. Get PW atop of syn.in on alternativeto.net. I think we deserve at least No. 4 . It could be beneficial to make a dedicated forum thread for the campaign to encourage forum members to participate. We also probably want to investigate the target resource's anti-spam policies if any and organize against them. What do you think? 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diogo Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 If someone has a submission power in product hunt, now is the time to talk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruMeditation Posted January 23, 2016 Share Posted January 23, 2016 PHP Trends.com is a site I visit a lot to find out what's new or upcoming. Click on the link and then click on the + button for more info etc. It will be nice to see PW rise up the ranks. http://phptrends.com/ http://phptrends.com/dig_in/processwire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Gretsky Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 PHP Trends.com is a site I visit a lot to find out what's new or upcoming. Click on the link and then click on the + button for more info etc. It will be nice to see PW rise up the ranks. http://phptrends.com/ http://phptrends.com/dig_in/processwire I think PHP Trends gets its data from github. So if we get some significant grow in likes in the latter, we will get to PHP Trends mainpage. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuruMeditation Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 I think PHP Trends gets its data from github. So if we get some significant grow in likes in the latter, we will get to PHP Trends mainpage. I had no idea. I do however know it's a nice simple and clean resource for finding new scripts and software. I've found a lot of handy tools on there that I knew nothing about previously. I like unbiased sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Knight Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 Just noticed there's quite a few videos and screenshots in the docs using very old Admin themes. Screenshots should be relatively easy to update once a theme is accepted (default or Reno). Videos are going to be tricker. But as someone who initially looked at PW and then bounced off due to the look of the early admin (bloody designers!) I think these first impressions are vital and should be updated. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diogo Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 If someone has a submission power in product hunt, now is the time to talk So, some days later I'm the one who has submission powers in product hunt. They just sent me an invite And... here it is! https://www.producthunt.com/tech/processwire PS: You don't need an invite to register and upvote, and we need those upvotes to appear on the homepage 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Gretsky Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) Yahoo! Seems like our little campaign was successfull! Not without some changes in the alternativeto.net's inner workings (I do not know where that cyn.in went and how Joomla lost 2 voices), but anyway! Something to count as success at the end of the year. Edit: Interesting, have we got any trafic increase from there? Edited March 15, 2016 by Ivan Gretsky 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szabesz Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Thanks Ivan for bringing it up! I must have missed it, but now it is 93 as I added my own "like" to it (an obviously someone else too). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Gretsky Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Since my last post we got 8 more likes! Should I keep posting here till we outrun Wordpress ? Come on! Gimme a hundred! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grimezy Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Done! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveP Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Thanks Ivan for bringing it up! I must have missed it, but now it is 93 as I added my own "like" to it (an obviously someone else too). Guilty as charged, 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krlos Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 I think the best way to promote PW is through documentation and tutorials for new users or users that are migrating from other CMSs. One of the great strengths of wordpress is the large amount of available material for novice users. I know by myself that PW is super easy, but apart from the tutorial "Simple website tutorial" by Joss there's no other complete tutorial about PW that can take you from knowing nothing to understand how it PW works. I'd love to do some tutorials by myself, but I still do not trust what I am doing or if I am doing well. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kongondo Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 (edited) @joer80, I split your post (and replies to it) into a new thread since it was going off on a tangent in relation to the contents of this thread. The new thread (couldn't find an apt title - feel free to change it) can be found here: https://processwire.com/talk/topic/12765-distinct-pages-api-split-topic/ Let's continue your discussion there. Edited March 17, 2016 by kongondo 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joer80 Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 That works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
szabesz Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 I think the best way to promote PW is through documentation and tutorials for new users or users that are migrating from other CMSs. One of the great strengths of wordpress is the large amount of available material for novice users. I know by myself that PW is super easy, but apart from the tutorial "Simple website tutorial" by Joss there's no other complete tutorial about PW that can take you from knowing nothing to understand how it PW works. +1, so I completely agree. However, just for reference, in addition to "Simple website tutorial" by Joss there exists the old wiki which is still good for beginners (thanks to the fact, that the basics do not change, another thing I do like a lot in ProcessWire): http://wiki.processwire.com/index.php/Category:Long_Tutorials Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beluga Posted May 3, 2016 Share Posted May 3, 2016 Would it be possible to do an example for this: http://notejam.net/ Just wondering about "All implementations are SQLite based".. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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