<html><head><style type="text/css"></style></head><body><div style="font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><DIV><FONT color=#033d21>Hi :)</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21>I think there is a danger of "yet another" guide to ubuntu which increases confusion and may become difficult to keep updated. However, surely it might be possible to use redirects so that when people arrive at the new place they are simply automatically redirected to the relevant page within existing documentation. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21>The existing documentation is already read-only to an extent (even the Community Documentation). Only people determined to make a change can get the logins and if someone makes a mess or adds spam then other people either revert to earlier versions or adapt the revision. Many times even a 'wrong answer' can help people find a new approach that simplifies things for everyone. Note that there are overviews of all changes made within an existing wiki such as Community Documentation.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21>It sometimes feels wrong when doing paid work to simply use existing stuff that has been created by other people but this is exactly what helps us get the whole job done. For example, the Spanish Governments paid translators to translate Ubuntu into Spanish and they used existing systems, alongside volunteers, to get through the work-load. As a result Spanish was the first completed translation and gets completed first, even before English (Gb), at each new release of Ubuntu. This benefits a significant chunk of the world as a great many countries speak Spanish. So everyone wins, everyone that prefers using Spanish at least and possibly the people that find it easier to translate from Spanish into some other language. The governments win because while they only pay a certain number of translators they get a much larger result than they directly pay for and many have an Ubuntu-based distro carefully modified for their own country. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21>The main thing is to find the easiest and longest lasting way of achieving your targets in an acceptable way. If someone here does have a good idea that you find helpful then go with it. If you find my comment unhelpful or unacceptable within you aims then ignore it. No harm either way.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21>Good luck and many regards from</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#033d21>Tom :)</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><BR> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif"><BR> <DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><FONT face=Tahoma size=2> <HR SIZE=1> <B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> Ahmed Kamal <ahmed.kamal@canonical.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> ubuntu-doc <ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Mon, 2 August, 2010 8:21:43<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> Re: Accessing wiki content from another web app<BR></FONT><BR>On 07/30/2010 09:01 PM, Mathias Gug wrote:<BR>> Hi Ahmed,<BR>><BR>> Excerpts from Ahmed Kamal's message of Tue Jul 27 07:17:30 -0400 2010:<BR>> <BR>>> I have been asked to work on building a consolidated web portal for<BR>>> everything that relates to Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. Part of what I want<BR>>> to do is to gather lots of documentation pages from the wiki, and<BR>>> present them in a consolidated manner on that portal. I think it's a<BR>>> good idea to keep the content on the wiki, where it's easy to edit for<BR>>> everyone, while dynamically pulling content from the wiki to construct<BR>>> that consolidated reading material in an eye pleasing manner. The web<BR>>> application will most likely be a Django app. The way I am imagining how<BR>>> to pull this off, is to have the Django app connect to the wiki using<BR>>> its API (xmlrpc or similar) and pull the contents of its pages, which<BR>>> then renders them in a way that blends with the look and feel of the portal.<BR>>><BR>>> <BR>> What's the reason to have a read-only copy of the documentation directly<BR>> into the portal?<BR>><BR>> If the goal is to have the documentation more reader-friendly I'd<BR>> suggest to actually improve the wiki *itself* so that it benefits<BR>> everyone.<BR>><BR>> It should also be possible to organize the wiki pages as a book. It<BR>> seems that one of the step in importing the documentation into the<BR>> portal is to organize it - why not do that directly in the wiki?<BR>><BR>> As far as branding is concerned it may possible to brand differently all<BR>> relevant sub pages.<BR>><BR>> I'd rather see the documentation linked from the portal and indexed<BR>> when searching from the portal.<BR>><BR>> Write once, read at one place, linked and indexed from many places.<BR>><BR>> <BR>Hi Mathias,<BR><BR>Thanks for your feedback. I agree that the wiki itself should be <BR>improved, and the "book style" collection of pages should be made <BR>available on the wiki itself, I'll try to add that there too. As for why <BR>this documentation is being presented in a read-only manner over that <BR>portal. Well, although this decision has been made for me up in the <BR>chain, the reasons I understand why this is needed, is to provide a <BR>new-comer with one central location that has all the information he <BR>would need about the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud product. Asking a <BR>new-comer, probably from a Windows background to locate the ubuntu wiki <BR>and click through 50 pages there can be a high barrier for entry. <BR>However again, for all the Ubuntu geeks out there, I agree the wiki <BR>should always be the canonical source of information. That's why I'm <BR>keeping all the info there and only mirroring it somewhere else<BR><BR>Regards<BR><BR>-- <BR>ubuntu-doc mailing list<BR><A href="mailto:ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com" ymailto="mailto:ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-doc@lists.ubuntu.com</A><BR><A href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc" target=_blank>https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-doc</A><BR></DIV></DIV></div><br> </body></html>