Re: New website for the PHP project

On Sun, Feb 3, 2019 at 5:15 PM azjezz <azjezz@protonmail.com> wrote: > > Hello Internals ! > > As @official_php suggested [1], I'm here to propose a new website for the PHP Project. > > In my opinion, current design looks old, outdated and bland. This sadly may reflect > "badly" on the language > > reputation nowadays. > > New comers find it hard to go around the website, to write "comments", report issues > or write RFCs. > > Even signing up for the internals mailing list wasn't an easy task [2]. > > Since the development of PHP 8.0 has started, I think its a good idea to start working on a new > website. > > # Global proposal > > The proposal here is to do a major rewrite of the PHP sites. This rewrite would includes > php.net, windows.php.net, > > bug.php.net, wiki.php.net, qa.php.net and other official php websites. > > It would be done with this in mind: > > * No PHP framework (to avoid favoriting one) > > * Keep it simple: little to no changes to the database structures > > * This site should look modern, simple and feel welcoming. > > * A new home page, not a "news" page, but a page simply showing the PHP Logo, a code > example maybe and > > the download link [3]. > > * A new community website [4], it can be a place for people to ask questions and discuss php in > general - no one uses IRC anymore. > > * Single account: Users should be able to use the same community account to file bugs, create a > new RFC (depending on karma) and leave notes on the documentation. > > * Ideally all *.php.net websites would be "merged" into a single brand new website, > but I'm not sure about the hosting > > specificities (eg, what server does what). > > # FrontEnd Framework > > We don't need that too, but we can use one ! there's some light-weight options out > there. > > but i'm pretty sure some people in the php community have experience with front-end > development and will happily contribute. > > see : > > - https://mustard-ui.com/ > > - https://getuikit.com/ > > - https://bulma.io/ > > - https://picturepan2.github.io/spectre/index.html > > # Next steps > > I would really like to hear opinions about this proposal. > > [1] https://twitter.com/official_php/status/1091903415377108994 > > [2] https://twitter.com/SaraMG/status/1092185205572542466 > > [3] > https://camo.githubusercontent.com/762e5d9fcaaa4ecf645343350a91929f99f452e9/68747470733a2f2f692e696d6775722e636f6d2f584477675261662e706e67 > > [4] https://php.net/community > > --- > > Saif Eddin Gmati <https://azjezz.github.io> I appreciate the enthusiasm. If you think the current PHP website is old, out-dated, and bland, you must have not experienced the previous one: https://i2.wp.com/www.geekgumbo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/phpsite45.png In any case, I hope you realize this is an ambitious project. It will take a very long time to build a cohesive UI, and then also a very long time to update the bugs, windows, docs, wiki, etc, websites to use it. If you are seriously committed to this, then the next step is to create mock-ups for every type of page across PHP.net that you can find, and to share them on the PHP Webmasters mailing list (which I've cc'd). Then, we'll probably give you a few more pages that needs mocks, after which you will then have to attempt to build the mock-ups in a few different codebases. I did the last redesign, and I took a less rigorous approach. If I were to do it again, I would be much more rigorous in gathering requirements and building mock-ups. There were a lot of pages which needed re-worked because of my design, which took even more time. While it's okay for some pages to be re-worked content-wise to fit the new design, you want to minimize it.