TextBook
TextBook is the Textpattern documentation wiki. I spearheaded the project into existence in December 2004, and gradually settled into the role of wiki advocate and manager for a couple of years following. In 2006 I took hiatus from the Textpattern community (becoming a father partly the reason), and returned again in 2008 to help put documentation efforts back on track.
Project Deliverables
First course of action was to re-assume a position in wiki coordination to get things done. I’m currently acting as kind of wiki editor, architect, designer all rolled into one. Executive decision-making for the wiki is the role of another person, and I’m fine by that. After that, my deliverables have fallen into four different areas.
New, Custom Skin
- New design mockups (received favorably by community after showing) to improve wiki interface usability and presentation.
- Customization of TextBook’s XHTML and CSS following mockups (with a few changes).
- Creation of collaborative styles for use in template use and content development.
Restructure of Content Architecture
- Better use of wiki namespaces to sort content by type (e.g., wiki help content from txp user doc content, and custom namespace(s) introduced).
- Better use of wiki categories to provide more automation to content organization and wiki navigation.
- Better use of wiki templates to facilitate content maintenance and strengthen intrawiki navigation by topic context.
- Simplified grouping of main documentation topics; likewise reflected in the simplified navigation column (left column).
- Deletion of dead/obsolete pages, including ancient redirect pages.
- Renaming of quality content pages for conciseness and better reflection of article topics
- Breaking out topics buried in compound articles (articles covering multiple topics) as new pages, thus improving access and use of this information.
Content Development
- Writing wiki author and admin help content to assist wiki collaboration, translation, and long-term management.
- Editing article content for accuracy, clarity and conciseness.
- Redeveloping content images to reflect current Textpattern interface, as well for fit in new wiki design.
Extending Functionality
Researching and implementing new wiki extensions that may provide significant benefit to the Txp community in both using and contributing to TextBook.
