The Website: Forbodings Wiki Improvements

[AF]

Forboding did work on the Wiki. This thread is to discuss those changes and what issues there are with them further to a suggested deployment.

My recommendation is they be deployed, hopefully Forboding can go into greater details about his changes.

[FLOZi]

Last I heard the plan was to revert to basic mediawiki styling without forcing the wiki into the 'main' theme - has this changed?

[gajop]

Forboding did work on the Wiki. This thread is to discuss those changes and what issues there are with them further to a suggested deployment.

My recommendation is they be deployed, hopefully Forboding can go into greater details about his changes.

I'm against deploying anything before we get the changes in detail. Still haven't even seen a screenshot of Forb's work.

[AF]

Agreed, I'm hoping Forboding can clarify things, I was reliant on test.springrts.com, but that instance of his work no longer exists.

[Forboding Angel]

The wiki was set to using a bootstrap related responsive theme. It was very clean and I had added a bunch of styling to solidify elements more.

It was no longer compressed into the existing site design like it is now, which is strangling it.

Mediawiki themes are very archaic and ass backwards (even moreso than phpbb, and phpbb themes are godzilla level of fail and stupid). Going with the bootstrap related theme was the only way to get fully responsive design, and a truly future proof manner of wiki handling. The end result was a very minimalist attractive design that allowed the content room to breathe, improved readability, and vastly improved the capabilities of the wiki as a whole. Furthermore, it was no longer restricted within the confines of the website, which was, in and of itself, a massive step forward.

[Silentwings]

Could we have link to working examples of what you're wanting to change to? Or at the very least screenshots and a detailed changelog.

[Forboding Angel]

Yeah you could have a link, but there is one problem. JK deleted it all and the entire database.

[gajop]

Could we have link to working examples of what you're wanting to change to? Or at the very least screenshots and a detailed changelog.

Again, this.
@FA:
Surely you can start it on your own machine and post screenshots?
The only thing I got from your post was bootstrap/responsive design, and that's hardly all there is to it.

[Forboding Angel]

He deleted the database, Gajop. Yes, I have a backup of the skin. I kept backups of everything, but abma insisted on putting the wp database in with phpbb, mediawiki, mantis. As a result, I could not make backups of any db because that single db is MASSIVE.

AF is working on a dev setup for us though. The biggest loss, by far, is the wp database. I have the theme, but there is a lot of info that is stored in the DB that will have to be redone.

[AF]

my fork of the wordpress branch has files to setup VVV, so git cloning it into the www folder of a VVV setup and running vagrant up --provision should get you half way there.

The issue Im having at the moment is that VVV uses nginx, so the wiki redirects to /wiki/main and I get a 404. I'll have screenshots once I have that working though, there's an Nginx extension that supports Apache htaccess rules

[AF]

I managed to get the sample database loaded



Pretty standard Bootstrap styling.


My recommendation would be some padding on the main menu, and a simpler logo with a similar height and things should look nice and tight

[AF]

Code blocks and headings

[AF]

Tables and lists

[AF]

I would also suggest that code tags no longer be block elements inside paragraphs.

[knorke]

From screenshots it mostly looks "different", whether it is better..matter of taste? For example so large headings look silly to me.
Personally I kinda like how when switching through multiple tabs, one can always recognize the spring wiki by its background color.

1) links with these icons are annoying
2)imo no need for ever-present (?) "spring engine development wiki" logo.
I guess the normal spring header would still be on top? Then it is two spring logos right underneath each other.
3)With current headings one can see if it is heading, or sub-heading or sub-sub-sub-sub-heading by the amount of > arrows in front. Seems here it is only font size which is less clear.
4) "Lua Performance" looks like another heading, when it is in fact the page name. (in current wiki that is made clear)

"Tables and lists" look the same? (except for colors of course)

What about for example synthx highlighting or http://springrts.com/mantis/view.php?id=1592 ?

[knorke]

I would also suggest that code tags no longer be block elements inside paragraphs.

Not sure what you mean, the screenshoted page uses <code> tags. If you mean the extra <pre> tags that is because the code tags alone sometimes break. For example:

Code: Select all

<code>
local a = 100
+3
*2
-60
</code>

will look like:

Not only did "100+3" get put onto same line but the *2 is also wiki synthax for bullet point lists..
There are more ways to break code tags. for example:
if a==b==c wants to be come a heading
print [[blabla]] becomes a link
With extra pre tags it always works. Would be interessting if such things are fixed.

[Forboding Angel]

Knorke, the page title has a separator line underneath it.

The headings don't need the chevrons, that is a ugly way to do things. All that is needed is styling for each heading. The things you list, in actuality, are quite trivial to correct. The current wiki method is crappy. We can do better.

For example, here is an example of good typography: http://framework.web.cern.ch/framework/2.0/typography/

[knorke]

The headings don't need the chevrons, that is a ugly way to do things. All that is needed is styling for each heading.

The left one I can recognize as level-3 heading. The right one I have no idea.
Important because of way how many spring pages are nested.

The things you list, in actuality, are quite trivial to correct.

I will await more representive screenshots then.

[Forboding Angel]

I am not beholden to you.

[gajop]

Personally I kinda like how when switching through multiple tabs, one can always recognize the spring wiki by its background color.

I actually think our current color theme seems unprofessional. Can't really point out why, it just seems off putting.

1) links with these icons are annoying

What links?

For example so large headings look silly to me.

Agreed, most of them should be h2 size (from the forb's CERN link).

PS: Quite a few changes, we should definitely have it on test.springrts or someplace else before it goes live.