Re: [xwiki-devs] [Proposal] Release Notes Application

On 19 Sep 2016, at 13:46, Marius Dumitru Florea <mariusdumitru.florea(a)xwiki.com> wrote: On Sat, Sep 17, 2016 at 6:29 PM, Vincent Massol <vincent(a)massol.net> wrote: The release page layout should be responsive or at least it should look nice on a small screen. Hard-coding the 3-column layout is not nice.

The black background color of the gallery macro works when you have a single gallery, but in your case I feel it distracts the view.

I assume you group the new features by category,

but what about the order between the categories and inside each category. We want to push the most important features/categories first.

Also, when there are many (small) new features it may be good to visually mark their category (or separate each category, like the headings we have know) because someone reading the release notes may be interested only in a specific topic (e.g. Solr changes).

Plus, it may be hard to understand from the title that a specific new feature is related to a specific topic (category), especially when you scan the release notes quickly in search for something (the Table of Contents is useful for this). +1 for adding more structure to the release notes.

Thanks, Marius > > Next step: Provide a UI for adding a release notes news (right now I’ve > used the object editor to write the RN for 8.3M1). > > Thanks > -Vincent > > >> On 17 Sep 2016, at 12:27, Vincent Massol <vincent(a)massol.net> wrote: >> >> I’ve done a quick POC locally, if you’re curious: >> >> * 3 columns view (using {{news columns=“3”/}}: >> https://www.evernote.com/l/AHcrwTDtWzBL7JaGLsTvj3NcP95dEYwraOc >> >> * 2 columns view (using {{news columns=“2"/}}: >> https://www.evernote.com/l/AHche7VWkv1KgLZPkWqbVv_ZGn728y-tAzw >> >> * Livetable view of data: >> https://www.evernote.com/l/AHcItOb57M9AMIaU6HXBTO04c3o91dVKck4 >> >> Note1: I’ve added a title xproperty too. >> Note2: I’ve tweaked a bit the CSS of the galley macro but I could commit > this (see http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/ > Gallery+Macro?viewer=comments#xwikicomment_6). I’ll also need to talk to > marius about the 128px padding for left/right arrows (which I’ve reduced to > 45px for the screenshots above). >> >> Thanks >> -Vincent >> >>> On 16 Sep 2016, at 18:18, Vincent Massol <vincent(a)massol.net> wrote: >>> >>> Hi devs, >>> >>> I’m planning to write a Release Notes Application for xwiki.org. I’d > like to do something relatively simple in order to have a first working > version. >>> >>> Rationale >>> ======== >>> >>> * Have nicer looking release notes by defining a structure and a common > L&F >>> * For users, be able to see all the release notes item from a given > version to another version and by category >>> >>> Idea >>> ==== >>> >>> Specifically for the “New and Networthy" section have: >>> - A visual that looks like this: https://www.jetbrains.com/ > datagrip/features/ >>> - 2 columns layout >>> - For each item a screenshot and a summary text >>> - (optional) Have a “Learn more” button that goes to the item and > provides more info (and possibly more screenshots if need be) >>> >>> XProperties: >>> - Version (in which the item has been added). Static list >>> - Category (Help, Color Themes, Solr Search, AWM, etc). Static list >>> - Main screenshot >>> - Summary text >>> - Additional content >>> - Target audience (User, Admin, Developer). Static list >>> >>> Notes: >>> - If no “main screenshot” is provided then the generated report will > put the item in a Miscellaneous section >>> >>> For now I don’t want to handle other metadata for the releases notes, > i.e. translations, upgrades, backward compat, tested browsers, etc). > Precisely, I’m planning to write a “New and Networthy” application ATM, not > a full “Release notes app”. >>> >>> The way it could be used is through a {{news/}} macro, e.g.: {{news > from=“6.4” to=“8.2” [categories=“help,awm,...”] > [targetAudience=“user,admin”] /}}. >>> >>> Usage >>> ====== >>> >>> - There would be a page in the wiki to see the livetable corresponding > to all the release notes news (the xproperties above) >>> - Above this Livetable I imagine a form with several fields: >>> — From version, >>> — To Version >>> — Category (if not empty generate the report only for that category) >>> — Target (user, admin, dev). (if not empty only generate the report for > that target audience) >>> — + a “Generate” button to generate a dynamic "News and Networthy” > report >>> - We would also use Tags for each news to categorize it further, e.g. > “usability”, “performance”, and the LT would display the tag cloud. This > will allow for example to see all items between such version and such > version that are related to, say, performance >>> - We would still write a Release Notes page for each version but on > that page, we would use the {{news/}} macro (with from = to = the version > corresponding to that RN). On that page we would add all the other parts > that are not in the app yet, i.e. translations, upgrades, backward compat, > etc >>> - When an XWiki developers codes a new feature or improvement or new > API will use the app to add it. >>> >>> Future >>> ====== >>> >>> * Add a different release notes app to include the other metadata >>> * We could almost imagine using this “New and networthy” app to provide > reference documentation for our features… :) (along with automatic > “since”). That’s probably too science-fiction and I’m sure there are lots > of gotchas but just mentioning it here to make us dream a bit... >>> >>> I’m starting to work on the POC. Let me know what you think. >>> >>> Thanks >>> -Vincent