Re: [Linux-aus] Linux Australia Website

"Andrew Donnellan" <ajdlinux@gmail.com> · Fri Nov 17 04:15:02 2006

On 11/17/06, James Purser <purserj@k-sit.com> wrote:

Okay to add some further detail to what I am envisioning.
The site needs to be simple to manage. This means simple to manage from
a non techie point of view.

I suppose that means a WYSIWYG editor. Who are we looking at to
maintain the site and are they really 'non-techies'?

Secondly it needs to be extendable. We need to be able to extend the
functionality of the site for any special requirements.

Zope can do this, a lot of the PHP CMSes have modules. Django and
other frameworks would require code to be written, although that is
not too hard.

Thirdly it needs to be supportable. By this I mean that if/when there is
changing of the guard the new people aren't presented with some archaic
codebase and the knowledge and documentation is up to scratch.
Those are my criteria for selecting the method for building the site.
Comments are welcome.
Now to what the site has to actually offer:
- Member_db integration: Any site we develop is going to need to
integrate seemlessly with Stewarts member_db system. This will include
look and feel as well as functionality.

If we choose a non-PHP based system a rewrite of member_db would be
required. Based on what I've seen of its functionality it shouldn't be
all that difficult to integrate.
- LA News Feed: As with the current site, we need to be able to keep
members informed via RSS and on site news.
- LA Press Feed: Media mentions of Linux Australia and events/issues
affecting LA membership.

By RSS as well?
- LA Store: This is a new item. Part of the discussion at the Face to
Face was various methods of raising funds for LA outside of
linux.conf.au. The LA Store would enable LA to sell merchandise and
better handle donations. Integration with the main site would be best.

Many PHP CMSes have store modules, however if we choose a non-CMS
solution we may not be able to do that level of integration.
- Jobs Database: As with the current site, we need to be able to offer
an area where jobs can be posted for viewing. As I understand it, this
is done via a mailing list/page generator magical thing.
- LA Monthly news letter: Something new and not a necessity but a nice
to have. This would give people the opportunity to submit articles and
tutorials on various FOSS services and packages.
- LA Media: As some of you may remember I started a media sub ctte a
little while ago. This hasn't done much lately. However there is a
wealth of video and audio from various LUGs around the country that
could be shared across the various groups. Whether this gets integrated
with the main site, or gets its own site is open to debate.

All seems quite good.
For a site of this type Drupal would suit at least for now but in the
long term I think it may be better to roll our own stuff with Django
or Zope, as I find that while they are harder to set up they can be
much more maintainable in the long term.
--
Andrew Donnellan
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