Hi Sanket,
Sorry for the delay, I'm frantically busy with some urgent work. If
you have a Skype account, you can also catch me on Skype
(traduction.biz)...
Trust you are well and had a good weekend. It was nice to see you reply and seems like you've already quite far ahead with your implementation.
Well, implementation as such is completely finished.
The only on-going work is http://media.libreoffice.org:8081
This is the public download point where all content on the repository
can be accessed by the public without requiring to log in.
Jeff Potts of the Alfresco project has developed this, and it requires
some work on the CSS to bring it into line with LibreOffice
presentation norms.
In addition, we need to work with Jeff in deciding what meta data to
display for each document. Notably, the version info would be used for
differentiating between document versions (Writer's Guide for LibO
v3.5, then v3.6, etc.).
The same document would be updated each time, and previous versions
would be preserved and still accessible for download via Alfresco's
versioning system. But the one linked to on the wike and LibO site
would be the most-recent version.
In effect, this would give the documentation team the opportunity to
have one version of a document that gets linked to on the wiki and the
LibO main site (http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/)
one time, without having to update links each time a new version gets
published.
But this requires definition of the meta data with the docs team.
Yes, my offer for help is still stands open. I can perhaps start with the general administration and move on to more advanced coding/backend stuff once I understand environment well enough?
I'm pretty much comfortable with the fully cycle - administration/installation, configuration, development and even documentation. I think it would be best if you can advice me - whats on your priority list and I can get cracking? Would love to be part of "The Staff"
At present, the big outstanding need is to finish a docs team
contributor's guide for the Alfresco platform, followed by an
administrator's guide (admin through the Alfresco admin interface
only).
This is a job that I have "sitting on my to-do list" for quite some
time, but have not yet been able to complete.
If you felt able to work on this, it would be a big boon.
Although Alfresco is a very powerful tool that can easily fulfill the
team's needs, and has a lot of additional valuable functionality in
relation to the tool they are currently using, there seems to be some
reluctance to change over as some team members are not familiar with
Alfresco. If they had a user guide, they'd *probably* take the plunge.
But, to write the guide, a certain amount (not massive, though) of
configuration work needs to be done setting up groups and putting
registered users in those groups. The groups aspect has to be thought
out with consideration that, in the future, other audiences in the
LibreOffice project might also decide to take-up Alfresco. That
potentially includes both documentation teams for other languages as
well as other teams within the project (design, etc.)
If you feel you're able to take a lead in this, your help would be
most appreciated.
In any case, to help you arrive at a decision, I've created an account
for you at http://alfresco.libreoffice.org and made you an
administrator. I'm mailing you the details off-list.
Once again, thank you for the offer of help. Does any of the above
seem feasible for you?
I can only add that there are a number of interesting developments at
the moment as regards Alfresco. Apart from the work that Jeff Potts is
contributing, work is also being done by Cedric Bosdonnat on CMIS
connectivity within LibreOffice.
This would make LibreOffice capable of connecting to and interacting
with an Alfresco repository (such as the one I'm currently operating
for the docs team) in the same way that Microsoft Office does with a
SharePoint platform. This is currently a significant functionality gap
that has importance for some corporate users.
That CMIS connectivity could ultimately mean that docs team
contributors would be able to upload work on a doc to the Alfresco
platform directly from within their LibreOffice, without having to go
through all the manual steps as at present.
So maintaining an Alfresco platform for the LibreOffice project has
more relevance than ever. However, I'm still largely a voice in the
wilderness in this respect, so you, Sharma, could certainly help bring
the good news to the docs team and to the LibO project management.
We're not totally alone as Alfresco advocates: Cedric has recently
also shown interest in admin'ing the LibO Alfresco platform, and Jeff
Potts has already done valuable work and given precious advice.
Apart from that, Jean Weber and Tom Davies also have admin powers on
the platform... But they need an admin guide to help them be able to
work effectively... In the past, Jean has said she'd be perfectly
happy to work with Alfresco if there was documentation to help her,
particularly if it had better functionality in respect of exploiting
meta data. (The online document previewing feature seems to be of less
importance to people, but it's one of the really cool features that I
*love* about Alfresco.)
So having those 2 guides - a contributor's guide and an admin's guide
- would be a valuable means of allowing the docs team to properly
evaluate the tool.