[Nfb-web] Why PMWiki was Re: introduction

Sun Mar 29 00:47:58 UTC 2015

although I can’t provide free help, if needed I can provide you consultation or training or even a php developer at a discounted cost.

Gabe Vega
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> On Mar 27, 2015, at 1:14 PM, erik burggraaf via Nfb-web <nfb-web at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi Michael,
> 
> I'm a member of the inclusive android team.  You can see our work here.
> http://www.inclusiveandroid.tk
> Drupal is a good fit for that site in terms of scalability and all four other members of the team voted for it.  Unfortunately, it turned out that none of us actually has all of the skillsets to use the features of Drupal that we need for the site.  To his credit, the guy who lobbied hardest for Drupal on the inclusive android project has done most of the development work himself and paid to farm out the pieces he couldn't handle out of his own pocket.  Still, I didn't think it would be a good fit for the nevada affiliate.
> 
> I've also taught wordpress when I was working as an access technology trainer.  Wordpress has it's own accessibility team, but somehow still manages to be inaccessible out of the box for many tasks.  So, when you run into one of those, you have to go in and turn on accessibility mode and so on.  It's not terrible, but aside from the general clunkiness of the accessibility effort I had two concerns with wordpress:
> It doesn't have all the cms features I want for the nevada affiliate,
> and, no matter what you do, a wordpress site almost always looks like a wordpress site.
> 
> When I took this on in December of 2014, the nfb nevada website consisted of three or four flat html pages in 24 point black, replete with spelling mistakes, a colossal  dinosaur of a logo, the personal cell number and email address of the affiliate president, and some dopey microsoft word files, some of which were several years old.
> 
> The new president and I envisioned something fully modern, unique in look and feel that offered value added services to members and acted as a portal for all members to see what is happening across the entire affiliate.  There isn't a php programmer in the affiliate.  We have a former web designer, but he doesn't feel comfortable doing it since he lost his vision.  So, we're stuck with my very limited php skillset along with what I can look up myself online.  PMWiki allows us to put in just the features we want.  It's very light weight and fast.  It's portable, making it possible for me to write in features on a test site in my personal web space, then quickly and easily transfer completed and working features over to the public nfb nevada site.  Since I almost never get it right the first time, I feel a lot better with this workflow than I do on inclusive android for example where the public sees all our test patterns and our errors if we f* things up.
> 
> In nevada, NFB is 100% run by volunteers.  No one, including myself is paid.  So, I didn't want to be spending hundreds of hours on coding the site, then have to take information from chapters and divisions all across the state and spend more hours putting content in.  Nevada is also, I hope rare, in that our leadership hasn't been very good.  Transparency has been pour.  We have been loosing members.  At our state convention in November there was a nearly holesale change in leadership.  It was hostile and there was a tremendous amount of work to do to recover.  From a website standpoint, all information about how to access the site, usernames, passwords, domain, and so on was missing just for starters.  So we had two immediate needs:
> First, we needed a system which would allow many people across chapters and divisions to add their own content on any platform using any accessibility tool with very little in the way of skillsets required.
> Second, we needed the site to be easily transferable so that some one with limitted skill sets could take over in the event that I stop doing it for any reason.  PMWiki can be administerd from any mobile phone or computer on any operating system with any screen reader or magnifier by anyone with the most basic word processing skills and web browsing skills.  For example, to make a heading, insert an exclamation point and a space in front of the content you want to make a heading for.  Heading levels are 1 largest to 6 smallest, and the number of exclamation marks decides what heading level the text will be.  Three exclamations for a heading level three.  To close the heading, leave a blank line.  Press enter twice.  This methodology lends itself to training which is where my real skills ly.
> 
> I thought that having such a simple concept for a site would bring people together as a team and allow members a chance to get involved.  Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out that way yet.
> 
> PMWiki has most if not all of the features we want.  Right now, we already have invidualized contact forms, a calendar which can be imported to your mobile phone, and we sort'a have the email lists.  I could really use some one to check my code for that.  Eventually, users will be able to apply for programs and services online, pay their membership and update their membership information, register and pay for state convention, and buy items from a small online shop, just to name a few things.
> 
> Some of the key advantages are, excellent documentation and an email support group, ease of use once implemented, hundreds of extensions to add functionality, speed, stability and security.
> 
> The main disadvantage that I've found is that a significant number of the scripts are dated.  Sometimes they haven't been ugraded for php55 compatibility.  Some have clearly been abandoned in the alfa or beta stage.
> 
> It's taken me a lot longer than I like to get my act together, but I'm hoping to add a new feature every two weeks or so until I run out of ideas.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Erik 
> On Mar 26, 2015, at 8:45 PM, Michael Hansen <mhansen4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Erik,
>> 
>> If you have questions in the future shoot them out to the list that's what it is here for. If someone can help they will. As for PmWiki I think that most of use if we use a CMS use either Drupal or Word Press. 
>> 
>> I personally don't know anything about PmWiki. Can you tell us a little bit about it and what drew you to it over some of the more bigger names in the CMS arena?
>> 
>> Thanks
>> Mike
>> 
>> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 11:37 AM, erik burggraaf via Nfb-web <nfb-web at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> Thanks Gary and all,
>>> 
>>> I'm just wondering.  Is there any one with php and or css experience that would be willing to help me out from time to time?  I'm not a very good webmaster truth be told.  I have a lot of good ideas.  I read and understand documentation, although sometimes it takes a few reads on my part to get the point across.  I'm not afraid to try new things and I don't mind looking up how on google.  But my knowledge of code is really limitted.  I'm learning as I go.  I'm using the PMWiki system for building the nevada site and it's very easy to put together.  I can also get help from the PMWiki users list, and some of the developers have been good to give me a hand with things like upgrading their scripts for php 5 compatibility as needed.
>>> 
>>> I'm a bit hapless unfortunately, and so I do stuff.  Like, on Monday I installed a script to add a mailing list subscription form to the site and it worked just fine.  The thing is, the script is only for one mailing list, and I've got two.  So, I hacked  together the code so that some one could choose the list that they want to subscribe or unsubscribe from and it works... Sort'a.
>>> 
>>> The confirmation message changes properly according to the list I choose, but it always tries to subscribe to the same list no matter which one I choose.  So, there's a logic error somewhere and I spent 5 hours on monday building and testing the code, then a half hour or so each day going over and over it since then, and I don't see it.  Probably just lack of experience, but I'm behind on development and could use a mentor with the experience to spot these things.
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> 
>>> Erik
>>> On Mar 25, 2015, at 10:52 AM, Gary Wunder <gwunder at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Welcome, Erik. Thanks for what you are doing in Nevada.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: Nfb-web [mailto:nfb-web-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of erik
>>>> burggraaf via Nfb-web
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 10:27 AM
>>>> To: nfb-web at nfbnet.org
>>>> Subject: [Nfb-web] introduction
>>>> 
>>>> Hello list,
>>>> 
>>>> My name is Erik.  I took over the nfb nevada website in November of last
>>>> year.  It took a while to get a first draft posted, but it is now happening
>>>> at http://www.nfbnevada.org.
>>>> 
>>>> Best,
>>>> 
>>>> Erik
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>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Mike Hansen
> 
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