Re: New website for the PHP project

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Monday, February 4, 2019 2:02 AM, Levi Morrison <levim@php.net> wrote: > 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 In my opinion, current design looks old, outdated and bland.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. I'm not proposing updating the UI and other websites to use, instead rebuild all PHP websites. for the mock-ups, i have created a GitHub repository : https://github.com/azjezz/web-php-mock-ups/ this would take more time than just updating the UI, but the PHP website is getting old and most of it is broken or just hard to use. i would appreciate any help or suggestions for the UI. as it would be the first step before starting to build the new website.