All, The blog has been migrated now with redirects in place as well: https://cloudstack.apache.org/blog/
For now the blog is being manually built from the docusauras-staging branch and its assets and blog content are copied to the asf-site branch. This will be fixed by a Github Actions automation once the website is fully migrated. Please continue to review and test the staging site at https://cloudstack.staged.apache.org/ and report/suggest at https://github.com/apache/cloudstack-www/issues Thanks and regards. ________________________________ From: Rohit Yadav <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 21:34 To: us...@cloudstack.apache.org <us...@cloudstack.apache.org>; dev@cloudstack.apache.org <dev@cloudstack.apache.org> Cc: priv...@cloudstack.apache.org <priv...@cloudstack.apache.org> Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] CloudStack Website build and modernisation Ivet, All, Thanks for reporting and suggesting. The mailing list strips off attachments/images, may I ask to report any/all outstanding issues, enhancements, and features for the website here to help us track and address them in a structured manner: https://github.com/apache/cloudstack-www/issues My proposal is to have us log issues on the above-mentioned Github issue tracker link for the website, and triage the issues and work on the blockers (and whatever bandwidth/time permits). In the meanwhile, I'll add some documentation on how to work with the staging website for both technical and non-technical contributors. I think we can use Github and/with a headless CMS that is asf-compliant. If we don't have any objections and blockers, I'll start a proposal/vote on the migration of the staging site as our project website around mid-may as the asf-infra mandated deadline is 31st May '23. Regards. ________________________________ From: Ivet Petrova <ivet.petr...@shapeblue.com> Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 18:09 To: us...@cloudstack.apache.org <us...@cloudstack.apache.org> Cc: dev@cloudstack.apache.org <dev@cloudstack.apache.org>; priv...@cloudstack.apache.org <priv...@cloudstack.apache.org> Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] CloudStack Website build and modernisation I am volunteering to do a check and comparison between the old pages and new pages in the next 2 weeks. - As for the icons - I suggest we get some from freepik or Fontawesome? Please see these: https://fontawesome.com/icons/linkedin?f=brands&s=solid https://fontawesome.com/icons/square-twitter?f=brands&s=solid https://fontawesome.com/icons/youtube?f=brands&s=solid https://fontawesome.com/icons/square-github?f=brands&s=solid - As for the header - You want to keep it as the existing one, but I see a whole new section for Learn More about ACS with Case Studies and other docs. As we have this as a change on the home page, what is the concern of changing the header too? I would like to propose two options for how it shall look. Both options will make the website front page to look more professional and polished. This is quite important as this is the first user interaction with the website and specifically for people new to the technology it will make an impression. In both options you have a simple background image + text as overlay. I am attaching the background images for a discussion. Also it is good to have some nice Title and H1 on home page (title and subtitle in the header). These are affecting the website SEO performance and optimisation and can help us to go up in the search result when users are searching for a solution. I am proposing the following copies for the header: Ttile: Flexible, easy-to-use and powerful open-souce Infrastructure as a Service cloud computing platform H1: Apache CloudStack is used by a number of cloud providers, telecoms, MSPs and enterprises around the world! Proven to be reliable to manage tens of thousands of physical servers installed in geographically distributed datacenters. As a main CTA, it will be good if we have just one button in the header - the Download one, so that people have a clear action to do and not wondering between two options. If you compare to other technologies websites, most of the big vendors and our main competitor have a clear single CTA in the header. [cid:FD241238-4C5C-4347-84FD-0774200C9975] [cid:DBCD2BA6-86B3-419C-9243-6D3628085204] Kind regards, On 3 May 2023, at 15:06, Rohit Yadav <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com<mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com>> wrote: Thanks again for another iteration of the review Ivet; * I wouldn't in this iteration change too many graphics/design elements, I've tried to keep the staging website more or less similar to the current website in terms of layout, content. I would suggest that we can do this later (in fact I wouldn't be able to assist, if there are graphics/svg I can help replace - but I think the project website should keep its trademark'd logo/banner as-is without changes on the homepage). * I've removed the social media link from the menu bar. I can revisit adding them to the footer (I need to find which icons library it supports that I can use). * I've already acknowledged on the blog categories as a TODO item. However, I don't think it's a blocker. I don't know how to add them in the sidebar, anybody who's good at JSX/MDX/React can help. So, far I found the Doris project does it https://doris.apache.org/blog so it should be doable just that I don't know how (yet). I've added the blog and made some improvements to the downloads page, otherwise, all pages/content is copied from the current website to the staging website. Any volunteers who can compare all the pages from https://beautiful-pastelito-4eb422.netlify.app/ against https://cloudstack.apache.org/ and report any further changes? Thanks and regards. ________________________________ From: Ivet Petrova <ivet.petr...@shapeblue.com<mailto:ivet.petr...@shapeblue.com>> Sent: Wednesday, May 3, 2023 15:53 To: us...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:us...@cloudstack.apache.org> <us...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:us...@cloudstack.apache.org>> Cc: dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org> <dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org>>; priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org> <priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org>> Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] CloudStack Website build and modernisation Hi, Wouldn’t it be better to have a nice header banner as a background image on the home page instead of just the logo? We have the logo in the top left corner, + texts Apache Cloudstack + Logo in the header - 3 times just on the first page before scrolling. Can I have the dimensions of the header banner, so that I can design a few options? The social media links from the main menu can be removed and put as icons in the footer. This is the best practice: [cid:1C2B1F7A-076C-4D14-BA3F-2CFC3AD8BEE3] As for the blog, I still think that having the blog categories as subpages in the main menu is confusing. From a UX perspective it is better to land the visitors in the blog with a single click on the tab on the main menu. Now the tab Blog is not clickable, so basically people cannot go to the blog and review all categories and content there. IMO this will affect the optimal UX as they need to choose a category first and then they are limited to it, which leads to less time spent in the blog. Kind regards, On 3 May 2023, at 12:46, Rohit Yadav <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com<mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com>> wrote: All, Update - All content and pages from the current website and blogs until Feb have been migrated to the following staging website. Only a few new blog posts aren't migrated, I've asked ASF-infra to share the latest dump on the same. Alternatively, they may be manually added by contributors. The staging website is updated again and could use another iteration of community review: https://beautiful-pastelito-4eb422.netlify.app/ The images from Ivet's mail on dev@ were stripped but received them via private@ and have addressed most of the suggestions. I couldn't figure out how to replace the sidebar of the recent post with the categories list, it may be possible by extending the React component of the framework which needs to be learnt in order to do so. For now, I have not removed the blog menu from nav bar. I'm looking at about 30 other Apache TLP websites (https://github.com/search?q=org%3Aapache+docusaurus.config.js&type=code) that use the same framework the staging website uses. Any such iterations should be do-able or could be iterated with some help from the community. I've compiled a list of some of the Apache TLP project websites that use the same static-site-generator framework we want to migrate to, to refer to and learn from them: https://kvrocks.apache.org/ https://apisix.apache.org/ https://doris.apache.org/ https://submarine.apache.org/ https://milagro.apache.org/ https://linkis.apache.org/ https://yunikorn.apache.org/ https://bookkeeper.apache.org/ https://inlong.apache.org/ https://streampark.apache.org/ https://seatunnel.apache.org/ Regards. ________________________________ From: Rohit Yadav <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com<mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com>> Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2023 22:34 To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org> <dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org>>; priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org> <priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org>> Cc: dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org> <dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org>> Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] CloudStack Website build and modernisation Thanks for the feedback Ivet but I don’t see the images in your mail. Could you forward your mail to me or open an issue on the apache/cloudstack repo. The system we’re using and the design/theme that you advice you don’t like has been in use by several other TLP ASF projects such as Pulsar, Doris, Apisix etc. I followed them only because so we can agree to follow the general trend by these other projects. I also don't see why the design can't be iterated. Everyone is welcome to take the initiative forward, I have spent several nights to get this far so I’ll try to incorporate those changes but a complete change in static-site generator framework is not an option for me to persuade. I wouldn't volunteer to redo the website again. The website is at the staging state now, except two use-cases pages and new blog posts since late Feb all of the content has been migrated. If there are objections I'm happy to take a step back and bin the project, but there's the ASF infra mandated 31st May deadline. Alternatively, we can put this to vote. Regards. Regards. ________________________________ From: Ivet Petrova <ivet.petr...@shapeblue.com<mailto:ivet.petr...@shapeblue.com><mailto:ivet.petr...@shapeblue.com>> Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2023 10:11:45 PM To: priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org> <priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org>> Cc: dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org> <dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org>> Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] CloudStack Website build and modernisation Hi Rohit, Thanks for doing the heavy lifting. Great that we have the most important things migrated. Now it is time for some polishing on top according to me. I would object migrating and launching the website and blog as it is now. The thing which worries me is that it really looks like a PoC and not completed work, which will be bad for our reputations. Plus it is obvious it is a new website/CMS (it definitely does not look the same as the old one). So from outside it looks like “CloudStack has a new website and it’s worse than their old now, which has not been changed in the last 10 years”. As an action plan I suggest we do the following: - implement a new design on the home page - I can prepare few background images + icons + some additional info for 2-3 more sections - consider the fonts of the whole website - change the footer - it is huge now and on some pages t is 1/3 of the page. - rearrange a bit some internal pages - the ones for features, so that it can represent better the project capabilities. - considering the new look, we would need to match the use cases pages to it. Shall we do this together to discuss how to arrange them? - can we align the logo of ACS in the menu on top and the content like shown in the image below. We need to have all of the content on all pages aligned in the same way? [cid:88EA3183-D483-4305-AD40-6704074893F3] - https://beautiful-pastelito-4eb422.netlify.app/who - this page has bugs on top - on the page:https://beautiful-pastelito-4eb422.netlify.app/features The column on the right side is not needed, so we can remove it. Again we can add some header banner, to look more organised. Please, provide the size needed. [cid:8C53FDAF-36CC-4597-8907-D19D9C2C0FCC] - We have a huge footer currently. Considering that most of the pages are short in content, I would suggest we keep the existing footer content on the old website, but just ad a dark background to it as you have done. - As for the blog - this needs to be a single button in the main menu without dropdown. When a user clicks it, he needs to be redirected to the main blog page. On the place of Recent Blogs, please put the blog categories: [cid:1D57043F-4A93-4475-A901-B93A76788596] These are the immediate changes I see now. IMO we need to be careful what we launch and how it looks as this can affect the overall perception for the project and its development. Kind regards, On 1 May 2023, at 8:54, Rohit Yadav <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com<mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com>> wrote: All, The ASF infra has advised deprecating and removing Roller support by 31st May 2023, our project blog is based on Roller. Since my previous mail, I have been reviewing alternatives and options that are compliant with ASF policies and have looked at several other top-level Apache projects on how they manage, maintain, and publish their websites and blogs. For reference, some of that progress and options have been discussed at https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/INFRA-24170 In order to have an ASF-compliant website and blog setup that would be more inclusive for our non-technical contributors, I've set up a proof-of-concept blog+website [1] using Docusauras (and configs from one of the ASF project websites, treat all the content outside of the blog as placeholder pages or lorem-ipsum) which is a static-site generator used by a dozen other Apache TLP websites [0] such as Apisix, Pulsar etc. This PoC has all most of our blog migrated (except the most 4-6 new ones), but pending migration of website content; and is currently integrated with a Netlify CMS which isn't as rich as WP but allows a committer/PMC to login via Github and manage the website+blog using a rich-text markdown editor [1][2] where editing/saving content created git commits pushed to Github. I'm also looking at other headless git-based CMSs that we can use. We may revisit any design/theme changes in the future, if there are no objections as the first iteration I propose to migrate all our project website content along with the Roller blog to this PoC and ask interested contributors to review and collaborate in an on-going basis as we need to migrate the blog by 31st May '23. I hope to update again regularly. [0] https://github.com/search?q=org%3Aapache+docusaurus.config.js&type=code [1] https://beautiful-pastelito-4eb422.netlify.app/blog/ [2] https://beautiful-pastelito-4eb422.netlify.app/admin/ Thanks and regards. ________________________________ From: Rohit Yadav <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com<mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com>> Sent: Wednesday, February 8, 2023 15:07 To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org> <dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org>> Cc: priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org> <priv...@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:priv...@cloudstack.apache.org>> Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] CloudStack Website build and modernisation All, The ASF infra has advised recently that they're deprecating and removing Roller support, our project blog is based on Roller. Given this hasn't received any objections on this thread, I've spent some time in the last two months exploring options that solve most of our website and blog requirements. I explored several other top-level ASF project websites and found they had built their website/blog/article using something like Pelican, Hugo, Jekyll and recently Docusaurus. Among these Jekyll is the oldest and most stable platform that Github supports out of the box. Most of these TLP websites use a CI/CD based staging->publishing pipeline, using Github Actions, Gitpod, Netlify etc. Among these various options, Docusaurus seems to satisfy many of the requirements and integrates with Netlify CMS (to support our marketing contributors who aren't necessarily git-experts; https://www.netlifycms.org/docs/docusaurus/). If there aren't any objections I would like to set up a staging/beta website (as perhttps://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/INFRA/Git+-+.asf.yaml+features#Git.asf.yamlfeatures-WebsitedeploymentserviceforGitrepositories this can be configured, using default it would be on cloudstack.staged.apach.org<http://cloudstack.staged.apach.org/><http://cloudstack.staged.apach.org/><http://cloudstack.staged.apach.org/>). Example TLP website source repos: Docusaurus: https://github.com/apache/apisix-website https://github.com/apache/shenyu-website https://github.com/apache/incubator-kvrocks-website Jekyll: https://github.com/apache/openwhisk-website https://github.com/apache/nuttx-website Hugo: https://github.com/apache/kyuubi-website https://github.com/apache/hop-website https://github.com/apache/dubbo-website Regards. ________________________________ From: Rohit Yadav <rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com<mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com><mailto:rohit.ya...@shapeblue.com>> Sent: Monday, December 19, 2022 14:57 To: dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org> <dev@cloudstack.apache.org<mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org><mailto:dev@cloudstack.apache.org>> Subject: [DISCUSS] CloudStack Website build and modernisation All, For 4.17.2.0 release publication on the website, I had to manually edit the website [0] build as I couldn't get middleman to work on either Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 (after spending a good hour to fix the ruby/gems build system). Any pointers on getting middleman/gems to work? As our website is dated, and in the past ASF infra has advised against setting up a dynamic CMS such as Wordpres for us I'm looking into alternatives that are ASF infra approved [1] and looking into Pelican and Jekyll. I'm also exploring what other ASF TLP websites are using for inspiration. I also found several apache projects such as apisix [2]<https://github.com/apache/apisix-website> having complex website build systems that use Netlify or other means of publishing websites. My high-level proposal is that we; (a) explore/investigate and migrate to a build system that is compliant with ASF infra policies and easy for anybody (esp PMCs and release managers) to setup/iterate locally, (b) integrate PR builds using Github actions or community CI/QA server (https://qa.cloudstack.cloud/) and, (c) we update the project website to use a modern library (something like Ant Design which we use with the ACS UI, or bootstrap, bulma, etc). Any suggestions, comments, or advice on this? [0] https://github.com/apache/cloudstack-www [1] https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/INFRA/Git+-+.asf.yaml+features#Git.asf.yamlfeatures-Staticwebsitecontentgeneration [2] https://github.com/apache/apisix-website Regards.
