[Geoserver-devel] Shutting down old GeoServer documentation (GEOSDOC)

Michael_Melvin · January 28, 2011, 10:33pm

Hi all. I'd like to bring up the subject of shutting down our old documentation, hosted at:

This was the location of the original GeoServer documentation, before the migration to Sphinx (with projects now hosted at http://docs.geoserver.org). We elected to leave up all of the historical content in order to help migration/transition. It has now been almost two years, so I think it's high time to get tough with ourselves, and force people to migrate to the new content.

There are other, more pragmatic reasons to do this. Do a search for "geoserver shapefile" on Google, and you get:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC/User+Tutorial+Shapefile

This page has screenshots from GeoServer _1.5.1_. Users should be instead looking here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/gettingstarted/shapefile-quickstart/index.html

Or maybe here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/data/shapefile.html

Try searching for pretty much anything involving GeoServer, and chances are that it points to the old documentation. That's unfortunate, because we've all done a lot of great work to produce updated quality documentation, so people should see it.

By the way, I'm not talking about the GEOS space, which should remain. The space contains not only the download pages and the GSIPs, but also the homepage itself.

So I am proposing the following:

* Redirect (301) users who navigate to the old documentation to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/index.html or maybe just http://docs.geoserver.org
* Take down the GEOSDOC space (storing it somewhere safe so we can extract information we find we need).

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Mike Pumphrey
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

Andrea_Aime4 · January 29, 2011, 7:45am

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:33 PM, Mike Pumphrey <mike@anonymised.com> wrote:

Hi all. I'd like to bring up the subject of shutting down our old documentation, hosted at:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC

This was the location of the original GeoServer documentation, before the migration to Sphinx (with projects now hosted at http://docs.geoserver.org). We elected to leave up all of the historical content in order to help migration/transition. It has now been almost two years, so I think it's high time to get tough with ourselves, and force people to migrate to the new content.

There are other, more pragmatic reasons to do this. Do a search for "geoserver shapefile" on Google, and you get:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC/User+Tutorial+Shapefile

This page has screenshots from GeoServer _1.5.1_. Users should be instead looking here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/gettingstarted/shapefile-quickstart/index.html

Or maybe here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/data/shapefile.html

Try searching for pretty much anything involving GeoServer, and chances are that it points to the old documentation. That's unfortunate, because we've all done a lot of great work to produce updated quality documentation, so people should see it.

By the way, I'm not talking about the GEOS space, which should remain. The space contains not only the download pages and the GSIPs, but also the homepage itself.

So I am proposing the following:

* Redirect (301) users who navigate to the old documentation to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/index.html or maybe just http://docs.geoserver.org
* Take down the GEOSDOC space (storing it somewhere safe so we can extract information we find we need).

Thoughts?

I think the idea is sound, from a user point of view it's better not
to end up reading
the old docs that might be outdated.
I'm however not certain we ported over all the info from the old
docs.... what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

Cheers
Andrea

--
Ing. Andrea Aime
Technical Lead

GeoSolutions S.A.S.
Via Poggio alle Viti 1187
55054 Massarosa (LU)
Italy

phone: +39 0584962313
fax: +39 0584962313

http://www.geo-solutions.it
http://geo-solutions.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaaime
http://twitter.com/geowolf

-----------------------------------------------------

Simone_Giannecchini3 · January 30, 2011, 9:46pm

I agree with andrea here.

It would be great to be able to get to it somehow although by default
we do show only the new one.

Regards,
Simone.
-------------------------------------------------------
Ing. Simone Giannecchini
GeoSolutions S.A.S.
Founder

Via Poggio alle Viti 1187
55054 Massarosa (LU)
Italy

phone: +39 0584962313
fax: +39 0584962313
mob: +39 333 8128928

http://www.geo-solutions.it
http://geo-solutions.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/simonegiannecchini
http://twitter.com/simogeo

-------------------------------------------------------

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 8:45 AM, Andrea Aime
<andrea.aime@anonymised.com> wrote:

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:33 PM, Mike Pumphrey <mike@anonymised.com> wrote:

Hi all. I'd like to bring up the subject of shutting down our old documentation, hosted at:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC

This was the location of the original GeoServer documentation, before the migration to Sphinx (with projects now hosted at http://docs.geoserver.org). We elected to leave up all of the historical content in order to help migration/transition. It has now been almost two years, so I think it's high time to get tough with ourselves, and force people to migrate to the new content.

There are other, more pragmatic reasons to do this. Do a search for "geoserver shapefile" on Google, and you get:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC/User+Tutorial+Shapefile

This page has screenshots from GeoServer _1.5.1_. Users should be instead looking here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/gettingstarted/shapefile-quickstart/index.html

Or maybe here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/data/shapefile.html

Try searching for pretty much anything involving GeoServer, and chances are that it points to the old documentation. That's unfortunate, because we've all done a lot of great work to produce updated quality documentation, so people should see it.

By the way, I'm not talking about the GEOS space, which should remain. The space contains not only the download pages and the GSIPs, but also the homepage itself.

So I am proposing the following:

* Redirect (301) users who navigate to the old documentation to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/index.html or maybe just http://docs.geoserver.org
* Take down the GEOSDOC space (storing it somewhere safe so we can extract information we find we need).

Thoughts?

I think the idea is sound, from a user point of view it's better not
to end up reading
the old docs that might be outdated.
I'm however not certain we ported over all the info from the old
docs.... what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

Cheers
Andrea

--
Ing. Andrea Aime
Technical Lead

GeoSolutions S.A.S.
Via Poggio alle Viti 1187
55054 Massarosa (LU)
Italy

phone: +39 0584962313
fax: +39 0584962313

http://www.geo-solutions.it
http://geo-solutions.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaaime
http://twitter.com/geowolf

-----------------------------------------------------

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Gabriel_Roldan2 · January 31, 2011, 6:02am

what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

+1

Gabriel.

Cheers
Andrea

--
Gabriel Roldan
groldan@anonymised.com
Expert service straight from the developers

Ben_Caradoc-Davies · January 31, 2011, 6:24am

+1. Please. The old docs get far too much Google-attention.

On 31/01/11 14:02, Gabriel Roldán wrote:

what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

+1

Gabriel.

Cheers
Andrea

--
Ben Caradoc-Davies <Ben.Caradoc-Davies@anonymised.com>
Software Engineering Team Leader
CSIRO Earth Science and Resource Engineering
Australian Resources Research Centre

Michael_Melvin · January 31, 2011, 6:56am

Thanks for your thoughts, folks.

what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

I think that's perfectly fine. If we put the pages behind a login
page, they might still show up in Google though (although I guess it
could be as simple as an entry in robots.txt to prevent this). But
I'd also like to ensure that the user when trying to go to a page on
GEOSDOC doesn't just a see a "Log In To Confluence" page, but instead
either gets redirected or is given a note saying that the page is no
longer here. What is the best way to accomplish these tasks?

Thanks,
Mike Pumphrey
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:45 PM, Andrea Aime
<andrea.aime@anonymised.com> wrote:

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:33 PM, Mike Pumphrey <mike@anonymised.com> wrote:

Hi all. I'd like to bring up the subject of shutting down our old documentation, hosted at:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC

This was the location of the original GeoServer documentation, before the migration to Sphinx (with projects now hosted at http://docs.geoserver.org). We elected to leave up all of the historical content in order to help migration/transition. It has now been almost two years, so I think it's high time to get tough with ourselves, and force people to migrate to the new content.

There are other, more pragmatic reasons to do this. Do a search for "geoserver shapefile" on Google, and you get:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC/User+Tutorial+Shapefile

This page has screenshots from GeoServer _1.5.1_. Users should be instead looking here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/gettingstarted/shapefile-quickstart/index.html

Or maybe here:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/data/shapefile.html

Try searching for pretty much anything involving GeoServer, and chances are that it points to the old documentation. That's unfortunate, because we've all done a lot of great work to produce updated quality documentation, so people should see it.

By the way, I'm not talking about the GEOS space, which should remain. The space contains not only the download pages and the GSIPs, but also the homepage itself.

So I am proposing the following:

* Redirect (301) users who navigate to the old documentation to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/index.html or maybe just http://docs.geoserver.org
* Take down the GEOSDOC space (storing it somewhere safe so we can extract information we find we need).

Thoughts?

I think the idea is sound, from a user point of view it's better not
to end up reading
the old docs that might be outdated.
I'm however not certain we ported over all the info from the old
docs.... what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

Cheers
Andrea

--
Ing. Andrea Aime
Technical Lead

GeoSolutions S.A.S.
Via Poggio alle Viti 1187
55054 Massarosa (LU)
Italy

phone: +39 0584962313
fax: +39 0584962313

http://www.geo-solutions.it
http://geo-solutions.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaaime
http://twitter.com/geowolf

-----------------------------------------------------

Andrea_Aime4 · January 31, 2011, 7:50am

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 7:56 AM, Mike Pumphrey <mike@anonymised.com> wrote:

Thanks for your thoughts, folks.

what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

I think that's perfectly fine. If we put the pages behind a login
page, they might still show up in Google though (although I guess it
could be as simple as an entry in robots.txt to prevent this).

Mumble, don't see how. As far as Google is concerned those pages
should simply disappear. It should just take the time to have Google
reindex the docs site.
Is there any way to force or strongly suggest a revisit?

Cheers
Andrea

--
Ing. Andrea Aime
Technical Lead

GeoSolutions S.A.S.
Via Poggio alle Viti 1187
55054 Massarosa (LU)
Italy

phone: +39 0584962313
fax: +39 0584962313

http://www.geo-solutions.it
http://geo-solutions.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaaime
http://twitter.com/geowolf

-----------------------------------------------------

jive · January 31, 2011, 8:20am

Well you could change the login page ... and make a note that docs are have moved:
- http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Customising+the+Login+Page

The other step to take is to restrict the space from being viewed by normal confluence users (and only allow it to be shown to another group - such as confluence administrators).

I am not sure what screen is shown when someone tries to display a page they do not have permission to view? It would be ideal to figure out what that page is and update the text accordingly.

Jody

On 31/01/2011, at 4:56 PM, Mike Pumphrey wrote:

Thanks for your thoughts, folks.

what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

I think that's perfectly fine. If we put the pages behind a login
page, they might still show up in Google though (although I guess it
could be as simple as an entry in robots.txt to prevent this). But
I'd also like to ensure that the user when trying to go to a page on
GEOSDOC doesn't just a see a "Log In To Confluence" page, but instead
either gets redirected or is given a note saying that the page is no
longer here. What is the best way to accomplish these tasks?

Thanks,
Mike Pumphrey
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:45 PM, Andrea Aime
<andrea.aime@anonymised.com> wrote:

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 11:33 PM, Mike Pumphrey <mike@anonymised.com> wrote:

Hi all. I'd like to bring up the subject of shutting down our old documentation, hosted at:

  http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC

This was the location of the original GeoServer documentation, before the migration to Sphinx (with projects now hosted at http://docs.geoserver.org). We elected to leave up all of the historical content in order to help migration/transition. It has now been almost two years, so I think it's high time to get tough with ourselves, and force people to migrate to the new content.

There are other, more pragmatic reasons to do this. Do a search for "geoserver shapefile" on Google, and you get:

  http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC/User+Tutorial+Shapefile

This page has screenshots from GeoServer _1.5.1_. Users should be instead looking here:

  http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/gettingstarted/shapefile-quickstart/index.html

Or maybe here:

  http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/data/shapefile.html

Try searching for pretty much anything involving GeoServer, and chances are that it points to the old documentation. That's unfortunate, because we've all done a lot of great work to produce updated quality documentation, so people should see it.

By the way, I'm not talking about the GEOS space, which should remain. The space contains not only the download pages and the GSIPs, but also the homepage itself.

So I am proposing the following:

* Redirect (301) users who navigate to the old documentation to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/index.html or maybe just http://docs.geoserver.org
* Take down the GEOSDOC space (storing it somewhere safe so we can extract information we find we need).

Thoughts?

I think the idea is sound, from a user point of view it's better not
to end up reading
the old docs that might be outdated.
I'm however not certain we ported over all the info from the old
docs.... what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

Cheers
Andrea

--
Ing. Andrea Aime
Technical Lead

GeoSolutions S.A.S.
Via Poggio alle Viti 1187
55054 Massarosa (LU)
Italy

phone: +39 0584962313
fax: +39 0584962313

http://www.geo-solutions.it
http://geo-solutions.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaaime
http://twitter.com/geowolf

-----------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Offer-- Download ArcSight Logger for FREE (a $49 USD value)!
Finally, a world-class log management solution at an even better price-free!
Download using promo code Free_Logger_4_Dev2Dev. Offer expires
February 28th, so secure your free ArcSight Logger TODAY!
http://p.sf.net/sfu/arcsight-sfd2d
_______________________________________________
Geoserver-devel mailing list
Geoserver-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
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Michael_Melvin · February 3, 2011, 6:03pm

Okay, after working with Evan C (sysadmin extraordinaire), and David W (idea person extraordinaire), here's is how we've tackled this issue.

The GEOSDOC space and all its child pages now redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org.*

Want to see the old GEOSDOC space? No problem, go here:

http://old.geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC **

The space is now viewable by Admins only, so you'll have to be logged in. And now we'll get the avalanche of people saying "where is this super important page!?", in which case we should make JIRA tickets.

One last thing. For simplification, we didn't do any specific redirects. We can do this though (to the limits of our sysadmin's patience). For example:

http://geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC/User+Tutorial+Shapefile

could redirect here if we wanted:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/gettingstarted/shapefile-quickstart/index.html

Thanks to both Evan and David, and to everyone on the thread for your thoughts.

* Please let me know if you think it should instead redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/ . I wasn't sure.

** Might take a bit for the DNS entry to propagate.

Thanks,
Mike Pumphrey
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

On 1/30/2011 11:50 PM, Andrea Aime wrote:

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 7:56 AM, Mike Pumphrey<mike@anonymised.com> wrote:

Thanks for your thoughts, folks.

what about
just locking down that space to authorized users and hide it from the
rest of the
world instead?

I think that's perfectly fine. If we put the pages behind a login
page, they might still show up in Google though (although I guess it
could be as simple as an entry in robots.txt to prevent this).

Mumble, don't see how. As far as Google is concerned those pages
should simply disappear. It should just take the time to have Google
reindex the docs site.
Is there any way to force or strongly suggest a revisit?

Cheers
Andrea

jive · February 3, 2011, 11:41pm

The GEOSDOC space and all its child pages now redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org.*
Want to see the old GEOSDOC space? No problem, go here:

http://old.geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC **

The space is now viewable by Admins only, so you’ll have to be logged in.

Nice that will allow us to rescue content if needed.

Thanks to both Evan and David, and to everyone on the thread for your thoughts.

Please let me know if you think it should instead redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/ . I wasn’t sure.

I really think we should redirect to “user” above; as that presents a table of contents; allowing people to find “shapefile” on the page and get to where they were going.

I also note that the generated docs have a link to “legacy documentation” that now needs to be removed.

Jody

Michael_Melvin · February 4, 2011, 6:03pm

Hi Jody. Thanks for the input. I'm fine changing the redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/ . Any objections?

As for the Legacy documentation link, good catch; I've just removed it from the theme templates.

Thanks,
Mike Pumphrey
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

On 2/3/2011 3:41 PM, Jody Garnett wrote:

The GEOSDOC space and all its child pages now redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org.*

Want to see the old GEOSDOC space? No problem, go here:

http://old.geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC **

The space is now viewable by Admins only, so you'll have to be logged in.

Nice that will allow us to rescue content if needed.

Thanks to both Evan and David, and to everyone on the thread for your thoughts.

* Please let me know if you think it should instead redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/ . I wasn't sure.

I really think we should redirect to "user" above; as that presents a table of contents; allowing people to find "shapefile" on the page and get to where they were going.

I also note that the generated docs have a link to "legacy documentation" that now needs to be removed.

Jody

Michael_Melvin · February 7, 2011, 6:21pm

With no objections, GEOSDOC now redirects to:

http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/

Cool.

Thanks,
Mike Pumphrey
OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org

On 2/3/2011 3:41 PM, Jody Garnett wrote:

The GEOSDOC space and all its child pages now redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org.*

Want to see the old GEOSDOC space? No problem, go here:

http://old.geoserver.org/display/GEOSDOC **

The space is now viewable by Admins only, so you'll have to be logged in.

Nice that will allow us to rescue content if needed.

Thanks to both Evan and David, and to everyone on the thread for your thoughts.

* Please let me know if you think it should instead redirect to http://docs.geoserver.org/stable/en/user/ . I wasn't sure.

I really think we should redirect to "user" above; as that presents a table of contents; allowing people to find "shapefile" on the page and get to where they were going.

I also note that the generated docs have a link to "legacy documentation" that now needs to be removed.

Jody