One month after, MùPùF.org is still under construction. The user interface begins to settle and what you see is almost what the website will look like in a near future.
It’s time to review what we have done and what is still left to do.
What have been done
Since I didn’t explain anything about how the website is developed, I had to blog about it.
So, here are a few points that I find interesting.
Subversion
As you may have noticed, there is a text that starts right under the octopus (currently ‘svn r116’).
We decided to develop the website using Subversion so as we can hack the website on our machines and then update server’s version easily. It is also possible for you to track the development version of the site (currently 116).
This improvement allows us to keep the website running while we are hacking on it :)
Django
This website is developed using the Python framework called Django.
As we had to create a custom website that would reflect what MùPùF.org is, we needed to use a flexible and powerful language. In my opinion, Python is really a powerful scripting language because it can use a lot of common libraries and it is also quite simple to write bindings for this language. Also, both the memory and processor footprints are quite low.
Loading time
Now, let’s see the consequences of all theses changes on the average page’s loading time.
On the ordinate, the loading time in ms and on the abscissa is the time.
Liquid error: undefined method `include?’ for nil:NilClass
As you can see, there is a major drop in loading time, this drop is due to the re-installation of the server that has been explained in my last blog post.
About a week or so after, the loading time increased, this is due to the deactivation of cache in cherokee to easy our work of integration. Be sure we will reactivate it shortly.
We already had the impression the website was snappier, numbers are here to prove it now!
What is left to do
Concerning blogs
Comments
Yes, we know, our blog system still sucks. It still lacks the killer feature that allows you to leave comments on our posts! Don’t worry, this should be ready in a near future.
You will be able to send comments without registering, you’ll just need to pass the capcha test.
Finish Tags
At the moments, tags are working properly on our localhost version but not on our server. I can’t really explain the problem but a bug report has been opened and Denis may explain the problem in depth later.
So, for now, you can see tags but not click on them unless you want to get an exception :).
Categories
Categories already exist in our administration system but we haven’t implemented it yet.
Once again, this should be done in a near future.
Concerning packages
comments ?
It could be interesting for users to comment our packages. Feedbacks are always important.
You will be able to send comments without registering, you’ll just need to pass the capcha test.
flag packages outdated
As we may not follow the development of a program we already packed-up, we would like to add the flag ‘outdated’ as Archlinux do.
Misc.
Researchs
As you may have discovered by yourself, the Research button in the menu bar is not working.
We are still discussing on what to do, so, it may not open that soon.
Add CVs in contacts
The current system supports CVs for users, but we are not actually showing it in the contact page.
Should be added soon :)
Release the web site
Ah! An interesting point. As this website is, in our opinion, what hackers community need, we decided to release it so as it can be useful for the creation of your website.
We may ship some css/template work also, but it is your work to make it work the way you want. We just wanted to reduce your development time so as you can focus on your real work and less on your website.