Documentation versus Community Wiki (was Re: How to improve dojo performance in Struts 2.0.9)

[Ted Husted <hu...@apache.org>]

Since projects like Struts wear our code "on our sleeve", there's
always a discussion over whether the website should represent the
latest documentation or the documentation for the "best available"
release. Over the years, we've done it one way and the another, and
now we do it both ways :)

The latest documentation for Struts 2.0.x is at

 * http://struts.apache.org/2.x/

You can get here by following the home link to the "2.x draft docs".

The documentation for the Struts 2.0.9 release is archived at

 * http://struts.apache.org/2.0.9/

You can get here by following the link to the Struts 2.0.9 documentation.

The draft documentation is saved first to the Confluence wiki software at

 * http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/WW/

It's then immediately converted to HTML, on an edit-by-edit basis, and kept at

 * http://cwiki.apache.org/WW/home.html

Then every hour or so, the cwiki site is synchronized with the the main site at

 * http://struts.apache.org/

When we vote a test build to a release (of any flavor: alpha, beta,
GA), we archive the HTML version of the documentation for future
reference. When a release is designated GA, we update the appropriate
links on the main site to point to the archival copy.

Now, all this applies to the "documentation wiki". Since we bundle the
HTML version of the documentation wiki with the release, we require
authors to file a CLA, to ensure that we actually have distribution
rights.

To cover all the bases, we also maintain a "community wiki", that is
not bundled with the distribution.

 * http://cwiki.apache.org/S2WIKI/home.html

It's open to anyone who signs up for an account on Confluence.
Sometimes, we do move documentation from the community wiki to the
documentation wiki, if the author can a CLA.

Sadly, not everyone can file a CLA. Many organizations still use
aggressive IP agreement that assign rights to our every stray thought
to the company, 24/7. In fact, some organizations grant a special
dispensation for the ASF so that their employees can file CLAs.

This is a little off-topic, but on occasion organizations have asked
me to a sign restrictive NDA/IP agreement just do onsite training.
Once, the agreement was so broad, I couldn't even sign it in good
conscious. Ultimately, corporate counsel drafted a less restrictive
agreement, just so that we could conduct training and an high-level
architectural review. :)

HTH, Ted.
<http://husted.com/ted/blog/>

On 10/9/07, Wes Wannemacher <we...@wantii.com> wrote:
> This was my original suggestion to post it into the community wiki
> because any changes that would be made to the main wiki may not
> propagate until the next release of struts (2.1.x?) which this may no
> longer be an issue. I figured it could be posted there and if the
> powers that be know a special way to tie it to the 2.0 docs, we could
> push it in. If not, at least it would stay in the community wiki.
>
> -W
>
> On 10/9/07, Don Brown <do...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > To add to that, there are really two wiki's - official docs (WW) and
> > the informal docs (S2WIKI),
>
> --
> Wesley Wannemacher
> President, Head Engineer/Consultant
> WanTii, Inc.
> http://www.wantii.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscribe@struts.apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: user-help@struts.apache.org