[ZDP] Zope Documentation Project Status and Plans

[Maik Roeder]

Hi !

Jimmie Houchin wrote:
> However, what I was somewhat specifically refering to was the official
> Zope docs, the guides, et al. I don't know of the availability of those
> docs via cvs. There was mention of such possibility at one point, but
> haven't seen it since.

Quoting the Zope Documentation plan at:

http://www.zope.org/Members/Amos/Documentation/Plan

"Overhaul Zope Guides & References

The current Guides and References need to be updated to keep pace with
Zope development. They also need to be opened up so that community members
and everyone at DC can contribute to them. To this end we are transitioning
away from Framemaker towards DocBook XML. We will make documentation
available via CVS and provide write access to selected community members.
This will make it easier for folks to make changes and additions to Zope's
core documentation. We will provide examples to show how to author Guide
and Reference  material, and we will maintain scripts to build output in
a variety of formats.
[...]
Project Contact: amos@digicool.com"
 
> I haven't yet gotten around to looking at the ZDP docs much yet. I think
> it would be nice if there were more of a central repository of Zope
> docs. Docs, how-tos, etc. are currently pretty scattered. The search
> facility on the Zope site at least the last time I looked didn't allow
> much access to the metadata of the documents. On the ZDP list I had a
> brief discussion with Alex Ratti (sp?) about this concerning the
> organization of his 'all how-tos' pdf.

We plan to solve this problem by linking to Zope.org documents from ZDP.
The links will be enriched with meta-information so even though not
all documentation is available in one place, there can be one place
from where all documentation can be reached. Kamon Ayeva is working on
this.
 
> Right now it is difficult to put your hands on all of the material on
> any given subject. Being able to mine the knowledge of others better and
> easier would make the attainment of ZZen much easier. If that can be
> said. :)

We are also planning to make Zope documentation available under certain
subjects and topics, so people can get right to the information they
need, and get an overview of what exists and what is missing. David
Kankiewicz has postponed his efforts because of ZCatalog bugs on our
ZDP Zope server.

To get aware of what is going on in the ZDP-project, we have a list
of all documents that have been added in the last 7 days on the start
page. This list should be easy to track to see whether something interesting
has been added. To further enhance the awareness, I will be developing Changes
History and Contributor History ZClasses to track documentation and programming
efforts.

Further plans concern a new Portal ZClass to give different users a 
different view on the Information Space, which makes most sense with
the Subject/Topic enhancements. In addition, I consider making the
Zope Source code searchable on the ZDP site. Another task is to
provide a way to rate content so people can get right to the good
stuff.

Rik Hoekstra has contributed a Context Orderer, which allows
to sort all documents in a folder in one form, and which will be
extended to edit arbitrary properties of all documents in a folder.
We have started using TaskFolders and Tasks to organize the Development
of the ZDP-Tools, and I have a first version of a Threaded Discussion
Forum working as a first result.

As you can see the ZDP is devoted to the mission of providing Zope
documentation and giving new views on existing Zope documentation.
The ZDP-Tools are developed on-site, and this is the one official
version. This makes it very easy for people to enhance the ZDP-Tools,
because development takes place concurrently and in a running system.

I invite everyone to help the ZDP site better serve the needs of
the Zope community. Please send your comments to zdp@zope.org.

Best regards,

Maik Röder


-- 
Open Source is "about being able to work together with people you've
never  met, on projects that  are in  a constant state  of flux,  on 
a time schedule  that would  cause a  hummingbird's  head to  spin."
Paul Ferris, http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/1593/1/