Description: Description: Everything you need, to help maintain our site
Smaug Is Looking for a Few Good Webfolk
[This document needs some fixing, because David A. Gatwood designed into the site some templates that this doc doesn't yet cover, and because there are some matters of syntax requirements and site policy that aren't yet covered here, either. So far, those are explained only in David's mailing list posts.]
Smaug can always use people willing to help with the Web site. If you want to help, good! Thanks for offering.
Starting Out:
The easiest way is to grab a copy of the HTML, edit to suit, and then put
it up on a Web site and show the group what you've done. (Ask on the
mailing list [http://lists.svlug.org/lists/listinfo/smaug] if you need
Web space for this.)
Easiest way to do this from the Linux command line[1] is this:
Anyhow, the site is in relatively simple HTML (v. 4.01 Transitional) with
a few tables. The right-side navigation buttons are JPEGs with white text
in the "Comic Sans" typeface (about 16 point or 12 pixels), sometimes
called "comic sans ms". You'll find that typeface furnished standard in
The GIMP, among other places.
Developer Access:
Persistently helpful people will be added as "developers" to the SourceForge
Smaug-Web project [http://sourceforge.net/projects/smaug-web/]. You'll then
be able to check in changes to the Web site, without help. Do so like this:
export CVS_RSH=ssh
cvs -z3 -d:ext:developername@cvs.smaug-web.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/smaug-web ci htdocs
(Alternatively, scp your new files to your SourceForge home directory on shell.sourceforge.net, and then check them into CVS locally.)
(You must have software installed supporting the SSH v. 1.x AKA "ssh 1" protocols.) Your changes will be auto-applied to the live site within the hour. Don't worry to much about other developers objecting: If they (or you) object to your changes, CVS lets them be easily reverted to prior versions. That's part of why we use version control.
Do not attempt to edit the live site HTML directly: That just wastes your time. Why? Because developer dgatwood auto-runs a script called "web_update" at five minutes past each hour, overwriting the site HTML with a fresh checkout from CVS. web_update is in /groups/s/sm/smaug-web, and yes, you're welcome to run it manually after checking in changes, instead of waiting for dgatwood's cronjob.
[1] If you're on MS-Windows, you will need one of the MS-Windows ports of the command-line cvs tool, or WinCVS. For some pointers, check for a document stored alongside this one in SourceForge's Document Manager called "How to run CVS with SSH under Windows 9x/NT/2000".