Unified Documentation Resource for Processwire

[Orkun]

Hi Guys

It would be awesome when all the resource about processwire (tutorials, docs, cheatsheet, recipes, videos, api, faq etc...) would be unified on one documentation website called "docs.processwire.com".

The new site would gather infos & data from these resources:

• https://processwire-recipes.com/
• http://processwire.tv/
• https://www.pwtuts.com/
• https://processwire.com/docs/
• http://cheatsheet.processwire.com/

and would unified it on the final site https://docs.processwire.com.

I think It is far more better to have one endpoint for all the processwire resources & wisdom then mutliple sites. This way it is far more easier to get into the processwire world and choosing processwire as the next main cms for further projects.

 

The Documentation Site could perhaps look like this (it is just a mockup, so don't expect to much from me ):

 

[szabesz]

6 hours ago, Nukro said:

It is far more better to have one endpoint for all the processwire resources & wisdom then mutliple sites

Sure. The issue is that there is more. For example the Blog is also full of organized info. At least one blog post is organized... but the all the blog posts as one entity is not really.

Maybe one an endpoint which is actually a search feature that can search them all at once?

Merging all this stuff looks like a mighty task.

[rick]

15 minutes ago, szabesz said:

Merging all this stuff looks like a mighty task.

Yes. Yes, it is. And the longer any organization is put off the mightier that task becomes.

[szabesz]

11 minutes ago, rick said:

And the longer any organization is put off the mightier that task becomes.

I couldn't agree more  Maybe that is why I already proposed:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/17348-is-pw-becoming-more-popular/?do=findComment&comment=150914

"...I propose to make 2018 the year of the documentation, so to speak. What if we could stop hunting for new features for a while and concentrate on the following in 2018..."

[monchu]

14 hours ago, Nukro said:

Hi Guys

It would be awesome when all the resource about processwire (tutorials, docs, cheatsheet, recipes, videos, api, faq etc...) would be unified on one documentation website called "docs.processwire.com".

2

In reality, the unified and structured content can be implemented in the corporate world, not really in the opensource community.

In opensource community anyone only able to devote a few hours of their times, but it's already a valuable knowledge for someone else.

Internet technology taught us to change our mindset from structured to unstructured content. From centralised to distributed information. The search engine and bookmark technology help us to manage the unstructured content on our part.

[dragan]

In addition to what already has been said in this thread, I'd like to add this:

Of all open-source projects I ever came across, PW is very well documented. I've seen commercial apps which are documented far worse.

Can it be improved? Certainly.

Will it ever be 100% complete and perfect - and suit everyone? I don't think so.

But I found that I can easily get most infos with a "keyword site:.processwire.com" Google query. Building your own bookmark collection helps. Keeping up-to-date by signing up to the PW newsletter helps as well. Digging into the source code helps too (as @bernhard recently has shown with his module-tutorial, there are true treasures buried right inside core code).

Having said all that, maybe it would be worthwhile to try and build a Google CSE (custom search engine), which should be free to use for non-commercial / open-source communities, at least last time I checked.

That's not to say I would oppose a unified docs.processwire.com project; but the effort is not to be under-estimated.

 

[dragan]

Case in point: It took me all of 5 minutes to create a Google CSE with all of the URLs mentioned in the first post - plus Ryan's github repo:

https://cse.google.com/cse/publicurl?cx=013706179141317928628:dendm4c3gpq

[bernhard]

still i find chromes search shortcuts the best option - at least if you know where you want to search for your term...

custom search for "custom admin"... lots of annoying ads (yes, i know you can "turn them off"...)

search "pw custom admin"

and finally searching in the blog: "blog custom admin"

But maybe for newcomers such a search can be helpful (though I think someone already built one some time ago...)

[dragan]

Sure. But having a search that crawls several domains/sites in one go is surely a plus.

And frankly, there is no reason not to have uBlock installed and running

Also, since I switched from Chrome to Firefox Quantum recently, I realized there's apparently still no way to add a custom search like pre-Quantum (right inside the search/location field) with a keyword, like in Chrome. But I guess I'm nerding out now so I'll shut up.

[Kiwi Chris]

I think one way possibly to encourage more unified documentation would be to allow user comments on official documentation like PHP documentation or MSDN.

Currently it appears that there's no way to comment on official documentation, and that encourages fragmentation, as you either have to post in the forums or on another site.

I understand moderation might be an issue, as questions belong in the forums, not in the official documentation, but user contributed examples and tips would make sense as comments with the official documentation.

Comments allowing links could also refer to relevant threads in the forums or external articles to avoid having to reinvent what's already available.

The official modules directory already allows comments, so presumably it wouldn't be too hard to add something similar to documentation?

[szabesz]

5 hours ago, Kiwi Chris said:

I think one way possibly to encourage more unified documentation would be to allow user comments on official documentation like PHP documentation or MSDN.

We have already discussed it, this idea got some "likes" too: https://processwire.com/talk/topic/11998-growing-processwire-in-2016/?do=findComment&comment=111499

5 hours ago, Kiwi Chris said:

I understand moderation might be an issue

If it is possible to check this forum's data then it would be possible to give edit rights to only certain forum members based on that, for example.

[Kiwi Chris]

15 hours ago, szabesz said:

If it is possible to check this forum's data then it would be possible to give edit rights to only certain forum members based on that, for example.

That would be a good model. If only people with a certain level of contribution could post comments, that would likely prevent new users coming along and posting questions on the documentation site.
Stack Exchange uses reputation based management to restrict some activities and responses I think, and the model works well there.