[Serusers] Re: [Serdev] New search-page

[Greger V. Teigre]

Yes, this looks good.
I agree with Jan that we maybe can simplify a bit. Here are some 
additional suggestions that you might want to consider:
- Instead of having three panes, just link to the documentation. I think 
this makes it easier to get the iptel.org menus and context. People can 
decide themselves if they want to open a new tab, window or whatever 
using shortcuts in their browsers
- The search form may be simplified a bit, either by removing fields or 
making a Advanced >> link that shows more options
- I think version of ser and module, as well as type of entity are 
useful. Whether we need input parameters and flags? I think they are 
more for developers and (if necessary) could be put on the advanced 
form.  The name of the entity is a bit like free text search I feel?
- The flag field could be a drop down field with the available flags, or 
checkboxes for each flag. I don't think people know what the flags are 
(except the developers)
- Maybe name of entity and free text search could be merged into one? 
I'm not sure if we want to search across anything else than the name of 
function or param?  I think it would be useful to search in name, for 
example you get type in "radius" to get all functions, params, and RPC 
calls with radius in the name
- If the form is dynamic, do we need a Submit button at all?
- If we only have the search form and the output table, it would be nice 
to have a horizontal "search bar" instead of a vertical form. With the 
dynamic update one can quickly add for example parameters to get an 
overview etc
- I think the parameter flag is relevant in the output table, and the 
flags should probably be listed in textual form.  Or maybe even better, 
each flag represents a specific property, so there could be one column 
per param flag that is ticked off if the flag is set?  This way we could 
quickly see if a function is allowed in onreply route, failure route etc. 
The drawback is that the search app has to be updated if more flags are 
added
- I think the column name "Param Flag" is a bit confusing. I assume this 
is the number of parameters that the function takes? So it is not a 
flag, the flags identify in which parts of ser.cfg the various functions 
can be used.
- I think we can start with a web 2.0 app and then see if it makes sense 
to create something else or maybe just save static outputs that people 
can view
- I don't think we currently have any marks (#ref) in the html output of 
the module docs. But I assume the stylesheet can be adapted. Jan, is 
this possible?
- I don't think the app will be able to know if the documentation is 
missing. Only when following the link, the user will be brought to 
either just to the module doc or, with #refs, to the right location in 
module docs, and the user will discover that something is missing.
So, I think we need a "Report missing or insufficient 
documentation"-link for each element in the table. Maybe that can be 
done by creating a form out of the table, a checkbox at the beginning of 
each row, a comment field at the bottom, and a "Submit missing or 
insuffient documentation report" button at the bottom
- And finally, I disagree with Jan on the drupal integration. Maybe we 
will want to include searchable html docs as part of an install package, 
on another website, or we may (heavens no) switch system. I think we 
will be able to get the headers, menus etc the same way we have made the 
module docs (by embedding code as content on a drupal page). Integration 
is the root of all evil and the more independent we can make this, the 
better, IMHO

g-)


Jan Janak wrote:
> Hello,
>
> The page looks impressive, I also find it quite complex. I think what we
> need is much more simple system which will allow to do us roughly the
> following:
>
> 1) Lookup a function/parameter/select/rpc by name (and optionaly ser
>    version you are interested in).
> 2) Generate alhpabetical lists of function. parameters, selects, rpcs
>    for a given version.
> 3) Generate lists of functions, parameters, and selects grouped by
>    modules.
> 4) Provide a PHP function which will take a function/parameter/select
>    name and SER version and will return a link to the documentation
>    page. Even better provide a drupal filter that will insert such
>    links automatically in drupal pages.
>
> The whole system should be probably written in PHP because we will need
> to integrate it with drupal. Some sort of drupal integration (filters,
> taxonomy) would be very useful too, because this would buy us great deal
> of automatition.
>
> In general, take a look at drupal, http://www.drupal.org and try to see
> if there is any chance of integrating it with the system.
>
>    Jan.
>
>
> Marcin Pazdro wrote:
>   
>> Hi all,
>> I'm going to improve the documentation search page (or rather to
>> create new search engine).
>> Here:
>> http://www.iptel.org/ser_documentation_dynamic_search_page_functional_specification
>>
>> I have placed a functional specification that describes main
>> guidelines of new search page.
>> I would like to get some feedback from you. Please let me know if you
>> have some comments, tips or questions.
>> pazdro :)
>> _______________________________________________
>> Serdev mailing list
>> Serdev at lists.iptel.org
>> http://lists.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serdev
>>
>>     
>
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> Serdev at lists.iptel.org
> http://lists.iptel.org/mailman/listinfo/serdev
>
>
>   
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