Scrolling Game Development Kit Forum
SGDK Version 2 => News and Announcements => Topic started by: bluemonkmn on 2011-05-12, 05:22:20 AM
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Just a quick note (no time to elaborate right now). I am considering posting a newly formatted site. You can preview it here: http://samlancashire.com/sgdk2 (http://samlancashire.com/sgdk2). I welcome comments about whether the new site is 100% better or if you would miss any elements fromt eh old site.
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Will the top menu have dropdown options? Because links like "documentation" should remain easy to access, it would be a shame to lose them.
If you only want my opinion on "the look and feel", I like the new one very much. :)
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This site is exactly the proposed content for the new site, so *anything* that is missing should be noted. I have noticed the screenshots are missing, and Sam (the author) also noticed the "About the Author" page is missing. So he will be adding those this evening hopefully. I will pass along your comment about the documentation link. Thanks.
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Hi.
I added the screenshots and a link to the documentation in the nav bar.
Should I add the About the Author stuff into the About page or still have it as an extra page (linked to in the nav bar)?
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I think the "About the Author" section could go at the end of the About page.
The unused space in the side-bar troubles me. I'm having a few thoughts about it and related topics:
1. The requirements are something that the user should be aware of before downloading. In addition to listing them in the side-bar, maybe it would make sense to duplicate the requirements section from the about page on the download page. Have a sub-section on the Downloads page for "Requirements" with introductory text like "Before downloading, make sure your system can fulfill these requirements." We can leave the requirements summary in the side-bar too (like you already do), but I just had that thought while looking at it.
2. It would be nice if the screenshots were more prominent. Since they form a relatively narrow list, do you think it would make sense to put the screenshots in the side-bar, to give the side-bar some more purpose?
3. In my version of the site, I actually have a file called NavBar.inc which is included in all the other html files. They're actually .shtml files so that I don't have to maintain the navigation links independently on each page. Would it be practical to do the same with these pages to include a common navigation bar, and possibly the portion of the the side-bar that doesn't change? Details of all the formats supported by SourceForge are at https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sourceforge/wiki/Project%20web%20and%20developer%20web%20platform (https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sourceforge/wiki/Project%20web%20and%20developer%20web%20platform). Details about shtml format are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Includes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Includes). If you don't have a way to test .shtml files, I can probably implement that part myself.
4. Now that the "About" information has its own page, I don't think I need the "Important Information" heading. The sub-headings by themselves will suffice. I can change that just as easily as you, though (after I get the site).
5. Do you happen to know a good way to automatically include RSS feed/links on a page? Then I could just have the RSS feed instead of manually adding news links, right?
Also, I just noticed that the bold formatting of the text at the beginning of most of the news items was lost.
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1. The requirements are something that the user should be aware of before downloading. In addition to listing them in the side-bar, maybe it would make sense to duplicate the requirements section from the about page on the download page. Have a sub-section on the Downloads page for "Requirements" with introductory text like "Before downloading, make sure your system can fulfill these requirements." We can leave the requirements summary in the side-bar too (like you already do), but I just had that thought while looking at it.
Sounds good to me.
2. It would be nice if the screenshots were more prominent. Since they form a relatively narrow list, do you think it would make sense to put the screenshots in the side-bar, to give the side-bar some more purpose?
Also makes sense to me- perhaps thumbnails in the sidebar than can be clicked to see the full size image?
3. In my version of the site, I actually have a file called NavBar.inc which is included in all the other html files. They're actually .shtml files so that I don't have to maintain the navigation links independently on each page. Would it be practical to do the same with these pages to include a common navigation bar, and possibly the portion of the the side-bar that doesn't change? Details of all the formats supported by SourceForge are at https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/sourceforge/wiki/Project%20web%20and%20developer%20web%20platform. Details about shtml format are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_Side_Includes. If you don't have a way to test .shtml files, I can probably implement that part myself.
Both the nav bar and the footer are .php files. They are included in every page via a line of php. There is no need for .shtml, Sourceforge supports php. It would be a good idea to make the sidebar an include as well.
4. Now that the "About" information has its own page, I don't think I need the "Important Information" heading. The sub-headings by themselves will suffice. I can change that just as easily as you, though (after I get the site).
OK. I'll remove it.
5. Do you happen to know a good way to automatically include RSS feed/links on a page? Then I could just have the RSS feed instead of manually adding news links, right?
Yes, I can write a php script to do that. I also have a sort of barebones php-mysql CMS that I wrote for my blog that I could incorporate if you'd rather use that. (functionality for adding, deleting, and editing news entries via an admin panel, automatically updates rss feed)
Also, I just noticed that the bold formatting of the text at the beginning of most of the news items was lost.
I see that, I will fix it.
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The new site (http://sgdk2.sf.net) is posted! Please speak up if you see anything out of order.
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Great stuff! Nice work Sam!