[ZDP] Some remarks about the portal design(s)

[Maik Roeder]

Hi Rik !

> Hi Maik,
>
> Please remember all remarks are meant as remarks, _not_ as criticism. 

I need criticism ! This way I can find out where the problems are,
and this challenges me to do a better job. This is the power of peer 
review - Before you even get a chance to do something silly, someone
will come along and tell you, like Stephan Richter, who told
me some hard facts about CSS because I made some uninformed statements
on the mailing list :-)

> I  just think it needs to be said you're doing a terrific job for the ZDP and for
> ZOpe in general. 

Thanks !

> I know it is easy to remark on someone else's work, but still, think
> about i as thinking along...

OK.
 
> > - The separation between the yahoo-like portal things and the
> > ZDP-projects lower on the page is a bit strange.
> 
> Right. I am still experimentin with this.
> 
> [rh] OK.

I think it could be done like the page on www.experts-exchange.com,
where all subjects and topics are listed for a community, and you
only navigate to the topic.
 
> > Moreover it is not clear what is what, and why it is there.

This could be done by putting in the abstracts of all Subjects
on the overview page I described above.
 
> "All Resources and Links relating to the Subject "DTML" and all Topics for
> Users"
> [rh] Yep, I appreciate your efforts, still I'm afraid they're not clear
> enough. A little weeding will do wonders ;-)

I have done some weeding in the Topics already. There the listing goes like
this:

Community: Zope Users
Subject: DTML
Topic: Security
 
> > - The members portal should give an 'overview at a glance' of what
> > changed at the zdp site and where to find it
> 
> I have deactivated this feature, because of too many changes. I need
> to work on this later.
> 
> [rh] OK. Perhaps you could use some help? (all this seems like a terrible
> lot of work)

There is too much chaos right now, and I'll wait until things have
settled. When the basic stuff is really well thought out, I will
define Tasks, and you can select.

There are already some open Tasks here:

http://zdp.zope.org/projects/zdptools/tasks
 
> > - While I really like the direct search options, they are not always on
> > topic (like searching on Zope.org for projects in the Members portal).
> 
> They are generically on topic. I want to have user defined searches as
> well, but this it for now.
> 
> [rh] OK. We'll wait and see ;-)

I have already implemented part of this in a Searchengine ZClass, which
will allow people to add custom Searches specifically for this SearchEngine.
I have postponed this effort because there are more important things.
 
> [rh]Yes, but Chris WIthers has been plugging the searchable mailing list
> archives at his site (can't find a link now, sorry)

He already seems to have added this to the Mailinglist link which is accessible
on the top of each page via [Check Mailinglist].

The archives need to be linked in later, because they are specific to
a certain Community, and I only have general searches right now.


Greetings,

Maik Röder