Season of Docs 2020 Proposal for Apache Flink (haseeb1431)

[Season of Docs]

Below is a project proposal from a technical writer (bcc'd) who wants to
work with your organization on a Season of Docs project. Please assess the
proposal and ensure that you have a mentor to work with the technical
writer.

If you want to accept the proposal, please submit the technical writing
project to the Season of Docs program administrators. The project selection
form is at this link: <https://bit.ly/gsod-tw-projectselection>. The form
is also available in the guide for organization administrators
<https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/admin-guide#tech-writer-application-phase>.


The deadline for project selections is July 31, 2020 at 20:00 UTC. For
other program deadlines, please see the full timeline
<https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/timeline> on the Season
of Docs website.

If you have any questions about the program, please email the Season of
Docs team at [hidden email].

Best,
The Google Season of Docs team


Title: Extension of Table API & SQL Documentation for Apache Flink Project
length: Standard length (3 months)
Writer information *Name:* haseeb1431
*Email:* [hidden email]
*Résumé/CV:*
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n9rvnqc9D8bs19mT_tfDlRedhAsS3Jv6qD86Fat6RFY/edit?usp=sharing
*Sample:* https://medium.com/big-data-processing
*Additional information:* I, Muhammad Haseeb Asif, is a dual degree master
students. I studied the first year at TU Berlin with a focus on cloud and
distributed systems. For the second year, I studied Data-Intensive
Computing at KTH. Currently, I am writing my master thesis on Apache Flink
state management API with Continuous Deep Analytics research group at RISE.
My master thesis is about exploring the possibilities to decouple the state
from the Flink compute node to reduce the reconfiguration time. Before
starting my masters, I have worked in the software industry for more than 8
years including leadership roles. Some of the roles, as Development
manager, required me to write and review a lot of technical documentation
and user manuals for projects. I would like to participate in the season of
docs since it’s related to my current work, area of interest, and future
career path as well. I have been actively working to become part of the
open-source, especially, Flink community. Having said that, I also started
our technical blog earlier this year where we post content about
distributed processing systems, majorly focusing on Flink. Furthermore, we
(along with a colleague) have submitted our talk as well for the Flink
Forward 2020.
Project Description I am submitting my application for the GSOD on “Extend
the Table API & SQL Documentation”. We will write API documentation such
that grandma can write queries as well. Although, we already might have the
structure but we will go through it as novice users and suggest ideas
wherever required. I am planning to work closely with mentors to understand
their thought process while sharing different ideas based on my prior
industry experience.

Some of the initial thoughts based on current documentation are

Overview page is currently a lot of information but needs to be revisited
and ordered in a way that a beginner and advanced user both can start
quickly. My idea is to have a getting started with different possible
tracks, a) starting a new project and then running the queries on top of
it, b) running SQL or Table API queries on top of an existing project.
We also need to have a complete map of the API documentation on the landing
page so users can see all the possibilities at first glance. It will be an
improved version of the “Where to go next” section on the current overview
page.

Concept page has quite good content but it’s too much crammed onto a single
page so we will have few subsections on this page. Similarly, other
sections Planners, Built-in functions, Connectors need more visibility
maybe on the overview page or left-hand side navigation bar. Connectors
page can be divided into more sub-sections e.g. connectors, formats, and so
on. System (Built-in) functions look fine to me since we have all the
possible methods available on a single page and users can refer to them as
cheat sheets all the time but will be happy to add more content around
that.

The three month period will be divided into different phases. Initially, we
will create a structure, like a sitemap, of the Table & SQL API
documentation. We will introduce sub-sections and introduce story lines as
shared above. Once completed, then we can have it reviewed with advance and
beginner level users. On the other hand, we can start writing about the
planners, connectors while we are waiting for the feedback. Once we have
received the feedback, we will restructure our API docs. Next, we will
focus to finish the writing for pending sections. Finally, If time allowed,
I am planning to take an example from scratch and show case end to end
project implementation which can be leveraged for FLINK-12639.

I propose that we can have an hour meeting after 2 weeks other than chats
on slack (or any other tools). I will share an initial project timeline
with expected weeks which will help us track the project progress on a
weekly basis as well.

Finally, this documentation is similar to our blog on medium.com where we
are adding all the basic details when we are learning different
functionalities of Flink API. It also makes me a unique candidate as I will
be verifying the documentation with hands-on implementations rather than
just writing the technical docs. This project will work as a dual sword for
me as I will contribute to the open-source documentation while learning the
Table and SQL API. {{EXTRA16}} {{EXTRA17}}