[Cu-wireless] NG article

[Chase Phillips]

A CVS module on groogroo contains all of the XML files and build scripts
for creating the website.  Jakarta velocity and ant are used to create the
site from the XML files.

[ How-to build the cuwireless website on groogroo ]

  Assuming your shell is sh/bash, set the necessary environment variables
  in your session.  (You may want to put these statements in your
  ~/.[bash_]profile.)

    $ CVSROOT="/var/cvs"; export CVSROOT
    $ JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jdk/1.1"; export JAVA_HOME

  Checkout the website docs from CVS.

    $ cvs co wireless

  Enter the CVS project's working directory.

    $ cd wireless

  Edit any XML files in the repository you need to update.

    $ emacs xdocs/index.xml
    $ emacs xdocs/site.css
    $ emacs xdocs/stylesheets/project.xml

  Optionally, tag your working directory with a release moniker prior to
  building the site.

    $ cvs tag release-1-3-tag

  Build the site using the included 'build.sh' script.

    $ ./build.sh

  At this point, a docs/ directory exists and contains all of the files
  necessary to represent the new cuwireless website.  Assuming you have
  write permission to the HTML root directory of the website on groogroo,
  install the new site.

    $ mv /var/www/wireless/htdocs /var/www/wireless/htdocs.bak
    $ cp -a docs /var/www/wireless/htdocs

  Optionally, store the site backup (/var/www/wireless/htdocs.bak) in the
  snaphots directory.

    $ mv /var/www/wireless/htdocs.bak /var/www/wireless/snapshots/2003010100

  Note: I don't care what format you use.  I have been using YYYYMMDDXX
  where XX is incremented by one per snapshot made that day.

More text in-line.

On Mon, 30 Dec 2002, David Young wrote:

> Sascha and I would have made updates the easy way if we had known how,
> and if we were not in a hurry to update the site. We knew that you had
> adopted some sort of app framework, and it was evident in the HTML. But
> we did not know how to use the framework, and so we started editing the
> HTML files, even though that involved a lot of rote work.

I'm sorry there was confusion about how to update the site.  I would have
sent these instructions earlier if I'd known that somebody wanted them.

> Sascha is going to be making lots of changes to the site really soon
> (tomorrow pm, hopefully). As soon as you can describe briefly how to use
> the framework, we will use it. Otherwise, we will keep on doing things
> the bad old way. We feel pressed to update the site, since people who
> read the N-G article will be visiting the Web site.

Let me know if there are any questions my instructions didn't clear up.

> Just to be clear, here is a short requirements list: I would like to
> see a modicum of separation of style and content. I do *not* want for an
> arbitrary visitor to be able to make changes, Wiki style, not even changes
> "pending approval."  If the content is contained in editable flat files
> or XML on groogroo, that's quite sufficient: vi or emacs beat editing
> from a browser any time.  Revision history through CVS is a plus.

  o The site is stored in CVS and each file has a revision history.

  o The current XML-based site separates style and content.  The
    style/layout for each page of the site is defined in

      xdocs/stylesheets/site.vsl

    while the content of each page is defined in the other XML files in
    the CVS module.

  o All files (minus multimedia files) are editable as plain-text files.
    Some of the files are in XML, others are written in the Velocity
    template language.

The maxim of my letter was built around increasing the "updatability" of
the site.  From what you say here, you don't want the site to be updatable
by arbitrary visitors (no to wiki).  This really puts a bullet into the
updatability mantra.

Also, since most app frameworks will more or less start pulling away from
revision controlled files in favor of storing information in parts in a
database, I'm not confident that a solid framework will be found that
satisfies your requirements.  In fact, it sounds like you're quite happy
with the current technologies used by the site.  If this isn't the case,
let me know.

regards,
Chase Phillips
--
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