[WEBSITE] Proposal to rework the Flink website

[Fabian Hueske-2]

Hi everybody,

I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
flink.apache.org).

My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
valuable information about the project and the community.

A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
answers to the following questions:
* What is Apache Flink?
* Does it address my use case?
* Is it credible? / Who is using it?

To achieve that, I have:
* Rework menu structure into three sections to address different audiences:
  - Potential users (see above)
  - Users
  - Contributors
* Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid, moved
"Powered By" section up
* Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
* Reworked "Use Cases" page

The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions about
Flink or need help.
For that, I have:
* Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed community
page)
* Removed IRC channel info

Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new texts.

Thanks, Fabian

[1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109

[Stephan Ewen]

Big +1 to this!

I would like to contribute to this effort and help strengthen the way Flink
presents itself.


On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
> flink.apache.org).
>
> My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
> valuable information about the project and the community.
>
> A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
> answers to the following questions:
> * What is Apache Flink?
> * Does it address my use case?
> * Is it credible? / Who is using it?
>
> To achieve that, I have:
> * Rework menu structure into three sections to address different audiences:
>   - Potential users (see above)
>   - Users
>   - Contributors
> * Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid, moved
> "Powered By" section up
> * Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
> * Reworked "Use Cases" page
>
> The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions about
> Flink or need help.
> For that, I have:
> * Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed community
> page)
> * Removed IRC channel info
>
> Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new texts.
>
> Thanks, Fabian
>
> [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
>

[Ted Yu]

+1

On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 9:46 AM, Stephan Ewen <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Big +1 to this!
>
> I would like to contribute to this effort and help strengthen the way Flink
> presents itself.
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > Hi everybody,
> >
> > I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
> > flink.apache.org).
> >
> > My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
> > valuable information about the project and the community.
> >
> > A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
> > answers to the following questions:
> > * What is Apache Flink?
> > * Does it address my use case?
> > * Is it credible? / Who is using it?
> >
> > To achieve that, I have:
> > * Rework menu structure into three sections to address different
> audiences:
> >   - Potential users (see above)
> >   - Users
> >   - Contributors
> > * Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid, moved
> > "Powered By" section up
> > * Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
> > * Reworked "Use Cases" page
> >
> > The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions about
> > Flink or need help.
> > For that, I have:
> > * Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed community
> > page)
> > * Removed IRC channel info
> >
> > Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new texts.
> >
> > Thanks, Fabian
> >
> > [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
> >
>

[Ken Krugler]

Along these lines, it would help to add a sitemap (and the robots.txt required to reference it) for flink.apache.org and ci.apache.org (for /projects/flink)

You can see what Tomcat did along these lines - http://tomcat.apache.org/robots.txt references http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap.xml, which is a sitemap index file pointing to http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap-main.xml

By doing this, you can emphasize more recent versions of docs. There are other benefits, but reducing poor Google search results (to me) is the biggest win.

E.g.  https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate <https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate> (search on flink reducing state) shows the 1.3 Javadocs (hit #1), master (1.6-SNAPSHOT) Javadocs (hit #2), and then many pages of other results.

Whereas the Javadocs for 1.5 <https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.5/api/java/org/apache/flink/api/common/state/ReducingState.html> and 1.4 <https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.4/api/java/org/apache/flink/api/common/state/ReducingState.html> are nowhere to be found.

Thoughts?

— Ken

> On Jun 5, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Stephan Ewen <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Big +1 to this!
>
> I would like to contribute to this effort and help strengthen the way Flink
> presents itself.
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> Hi everybody,
>>
>> I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
>> flink.apache.org).
>>
>> My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
>> valuable information about the project and the community.
>>
>> A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
>> answers to the following questions:
>> * What is Apache Flink?
>> * Does it address my use case?
>> * Is it credible? / Who is using it?
>>
>> To achieve that, I have:
>> * Rework menu structure into three sections to address different audiences:
>>  - Potential users (see above)
>>  - Users
>>  - Contributors
>> * Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid, moved
>> "Powered By" section up
>> * Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
>> * Reworked "Use Cases" page
>>
>> The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions about
>> Flink or need help.
>> For that, I have:
>> * Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed community
>> page)
>> * Removed IRC channel info
>>
>> Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new texts.
>>
>> Thanks, Fabian
>>
>> [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
>>

--------------------------------------------
http://about.me/kkrugler
[phone]

[Aljoscha Krettek-2]

Yes, making sure that google search results point to the most recent doc would be very good. :+1

Also +1 to the general effort, of course.

> On 5. Jun 2018, at 20:19, Ken Krugler <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Along these lines, it would help to add a sitemap (and the robots.txt required to reference it) for flink.apache.org and ci.apache.org (for /projects/flink)
>
> You can see what Tomcat did along these lines - http://tomcat.apache.org/robots.txt references http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap.xml, which is a sitemap index file pointing to http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap-main.xml
>
> By doing this, you can emphasize more recent versions of docs. There are other benefits, but reducing poor Google search results (to me) is the biggest win.
>
> E.g.  https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate <https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate> (search on flink reducing state) shows the 1.3 Javadocs (hit #1), master (1.6-SNAPSHOT) Javadocs (hit #2), and then many pages of other results.
>
> Whereas the Javadocs for 1.5 <https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.5/api/java/org/apache/flink/api/common/state/ReducingState.html> and 1.4 <https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.4/api/java/org/apache/flink/api/common/state/ReducingState.html> are nowhere to be found.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> — Ken
>
>> On Jun 5, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Stephan Ewen <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> Big +1 to this!
>>
>> I would like to contribute to this effort and help strengthen the way Flink
>> presents itself.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi everybody,
>>>
>>> I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
>>> flink.apache.org).
>>>
>>> My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
>>> valuable information about the project and the community.
>>>
>>> A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
>>> answers to the following questions:
>>> * What is Apache Flink?
>>> * Does it address my use case?
>>> * Is it credible? / Who is using it?
>>>
>>> To achieve that, I have:
>>> * Rework menu structure into three sections to address different audiences:
>>> - Potential users (see above)
>>> - Users
>>> - Contributors
>>> * Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid, moved
>>> "Powered By" section up
>>> * Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
>>> * Reworked "Use Cases" page
>>>
>>> The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions about
>>> Flink or need help.
>>> For that, I have:
>>> * Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed community
>>> page)
>>> * Removed IRC channel info
>>>
>>> Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new texts.
>>>
>>> Thanks, Fabian
>>>
>>> [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
>>>
>
> --------------------------------------------
> http://about.me/kkrugler
> [phone]
>

[Fabian Hueske-2]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

+1 for adding a sitemap.xml and robots.txt to the website.

I think we can make this a separate issue. I'll create a JIRA for that.

Any other thoughts or feedback?

Thanks, Fabian

2018-06-06 9:34 GMT+02:00 Aljoscha Krettek <[hidden email]>:

> Yes, making sure that google search results point to the most recent doc
> would be very good. :+1
>
> Also +1 to the general effort, of course.
>
> > On 5. Jun 2018, at 20:19, Ken Krugler <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> >
> > Along these lines, it would help to add a sitemap (and the robots.txt
> required to reference it) for flink.apache.org and ci.apache.org (for
> /projects/flink)
> >
> > You can see what Tomcat did along these lines -
> http://tomcat.apache.org/robots.txt references http://tomcat.apache.org/
> sitemap.xml, which is a sitemap index file pointing to
> http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap-main.xml
> >
> > By doing this, you can emphasize more recent versions of docs. There are
> other benefits, but reducing poor Google search results (to me) is the
> biggest win.
> >
> > E.g.  https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate <
> https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate> (search on flink
> reducing state) shows the 1.3 Javadocs (hit #1), master (1.6-SNAPSHOT)
> Javadocs (hit #2), and then many pages of other results.
> >
> > Whereas the Javadocs for 1.5 <https://ci.apache.org/
> projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.5/api/java/org/
> apache/flink/api/common/state/ReducingState.html> and 1.4 <
> https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.4/api/java/org/
> apache/flink/api/common/state/ReducingState.html> are nowhere to be found.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > — Ken
> >
> >> On Jun 5, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Stephan Ewen <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >>
> >> Big +1 to this!
> >>
> >> I would like to contribute to this effort and help strengthen the way
> Flink
> >> presents itself.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi everybody,
> >>>
> >>> I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
> >>> flink.apache.org).
> >>>
> >>> My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
> >>> valuable information about the project and the community.
> >>>
> >>> A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
> >>> answers to the following questions:
> >>> * What is Apache Flink?
> >>> * Does it address my use case?
> >>> * Is it credible? / Who is using it?
> >>>
> >>> To achieve that, I have:
> >>> * Rework menu structure into three sections to address different
> audiences:
> >>> - Potential users (see above)
> >>> - Users
> >>> - Contributors
> >>> * Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid, moved
> >>> "Powered By" section up
> >>> * Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
> >>> * Reworked "Use Cases" page
> >>>
> >>> The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions about
> >>> Flink or need help.
> >>> For that, I have:
> >>> * Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed community
> >>> page)
> >>> * Removed IRC channel info
> >>>
> >>> Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new
> texts.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks, Fabian
> >>>
> >>> [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
> >>>
> >
> > --------------------------------------------
> > http://about.me/kkrugler
> > [phone]
> >
>
>

[Fabian Hueske-2]

Hi,

I'm planning to put the reworked website online next week.
You can have a look at PR #109 [1] to check the changes and give feedback.

Btw. I've created FLINK-9541 to track the effort of adding a sitemap.xml.

Cheers,
Fabian

[1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
[2] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FLINK-9541


2018-06-06 12:57 GMT+02:00 Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]>:

> Thanks for the feedback so far.
>
> +1 for adding a sitemap.xml and robots.txt to the website.
>
> I think we can make this a separate issue. I'll create a JIRA for that.
>
> Any other thoughts or feedback?
>
> Thanks, Fabian
>
> 2018-06-06 9:34 GMT+02:00 Aljoscha Krettek <[hidden email]>:
>
>> Yes, making sure that google search results point to the most recent doc
>> would be very good. :+1
>>
>> Also +1 to the general effort, of course.
>>
>> > On 5. Jun 2018, at 20:19, Ken Krugler <[hidden email]>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Along these lines, it would help to add a sitemap (and the robots.txt
>> required to reference it) for flink.apache.org and ci.apache.org (for
>> /projects/flink)
>> >
>> > You can see what Tomcat did along these lines -
>> http://tomcat.apache.org/robots.txt references
>> http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap.xml, which is a sitemap index file
>> pointing to http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap-main.xml
>> >
>> > By doing this, you can emphasize more recent versions of docs. There
>> are other benefits, but reducing poor Google search results (to me) is the
>> biggest win.
>> >
>> > E.g.  https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate <
>> https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate> (search on flink
>> reducing state) shows the 1.3 Javadocs (hit #1), master (1.6-SNAPSHOT)
>> Javadocs (hit #2), and then many pages of other results.
>> >
>> > Whereas the Javadocs for 1.5 <https://ci.apache.org/project
>> s/flink/flink-docs-release-1.5/api/java/org/apache/flink/
>> api/common/state/ReducingState.html> and 1.4 <
>> https://ci.apache.org/projects/flink/flink-docs-release-1.
>> 4/api/java/org/apache/flink/api/common/state/ReducingState.html> are
>> nowhere to be found.
>> >
>> > Thoughts?
>> >
>> > — Ken
>> >
>> >> On Jun 5, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Stephan Ewen <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Big +1 to this!
>> >>
>> >> I would like to contribute to this effort and help strengthen the way
>> Flink
>> >> presents itself.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> Hi everybody,
>> >>>
>> >>> I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
>> >>> flink.apache.org).
>> >>>
>> >>> My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
>> >>> valuable information about the project and the community.
>> >>>
>> >>> A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
>> >>> answers to the following questions:
>> >>> * What is Apache Flink?
>> >>> * Does it address my use case?
>> >>> * Is it credible? / Who is using it?
>> >>>
>> >>> To achieve that, I have:
>> >>> * Rework menu structure into three sections to address different
>> audiences:
>> >>> - Potential users (see above)
>> >>> - Users
>> >>> - Contributors
>> >>> * Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid, moved
>> >>> "Powered By" section up
>> >>> * Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
>> >>> * Reworked "Use Cases" page
>> >>>
>> >>> The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions about
>> >>> Flink or need help.
>> >>> For that, I have:
>> >>> * Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed
>> community
>> >>> page)
>> >>> * Removed IRC channel info
>> >>>
>> >>> Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new
>> texts.
>> >>>
>> >>> Thanks, Fabian
>> >>>
>> >>> [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
>> >>>
>> >
>> > --------------------------------------------
>> > http://about.me/kkrugler
>> > [phone]
>> >
>>
>>
>

[Fabian Hueske-2]

Hi,

I've merged the proposed changes for the website.
As usual, we can incrementally refine and improve it.

Best,
Fabian

2018-06-15 16:16 GMT+02:00 Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]>:

> Hi,
>
> I'm planning to put the reworked website online next week.
> You can have a look at PR #109 [1] to check the changes and give feedback.
>
> Btw. I've created FLINK-9541 to track the effort of adding a sitemap.xml.
>
> Cheers,
> Fabian
>
> [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
> [2] https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/FLINK-9541
>
>
> 2018-06-06 12:57 GMT+02:00 Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]>:
>
>> Thanks for the feedback so far.
>>
>> +1 for adding a sitemap.xml and robots.txt to the website.
>>
>> I think we can make this a separate issue. I'll create a JIRA for that.
>>
>> Any other thoughts or feedback?
>>
>> Thanks, Fabian
>>
>> 2018-06-06 9:34 GMT+02:00 Aljoscha Krettek <[hidden email]>:
>>
>>> Yes, making sure that google search results point to the most recent doc
>>> would be very good. :+1
>>>
>>> Also +1 to the general effort, of course.
>>>
>>> > On 5. Jun 2018, at 20:19, Ken Krugler <[hidden email]>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Along these lines, it would help to add a sitemap (and the robots.txt
>>> required to reference it) for flink.apache.org and ci.apache.org (for
>>> /projects/flink)
>>> >
>>> > You can see what Tomcat did along these lines -
>>> http://tomcat.apache.org/robots.txt references
>>> http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap.xml, which is a sitemap index file
>>> pointing to http://tomcat.apache.org/sitemap-main.xml
>>> >
>>> > By doing this, you can emphasize more recent versions of docs. There
>>> are other benefits, but reducing poor Google search results (to me) is the
>>> biggest win.
>>> >
>>> > E.g.  https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate <
>>> https://www.google.com/search?q=flink+reducingstate> (search on flink
>>> reducing state) shows the 1.3 Javadocs (hit #1), master (1.6-SNAPSHOT)
>>> Javadocs (hit #2), and then many pages of other results.
>>> >
>>> > Whereas the Javadocs for 1.5 <https://ci.apache.org/project
>>> s/flink/flink-docs-release-1.5/api/java/org/apache/flink/api
>>> /common/state/ReducingState.html> and 1.4 <https://ci.apache.org/project
>>> s/flink/flink-docs-release-1.4/api/java/org/apache/flink/api
>>> /common/state/ReducingState.html> are nowhere to be found.
>>> >
>>> > Thoughts?
>>> >
>>> > — Ken
>>> >
>>> >> On Jun 5, 2018, at 9:46 AM, Stephan Ewen <[hidden email]> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Big +1 to this!
>>> >>
>>> >> I would like to contribute to this effort and help strengthen the way
>>> Flink
>>> >> presents itself.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> On Tue, Jun 5, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Fabian Hueske <[hidden email]>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >>> Hi everybody,
>>> >>>
>>> >>> I've opened a PR [1] that reworks parts of the Flink website (
>>> >>> flink.apache.org).
>>> >>>
>>> >>> My goal is to improve the structure of the website and provide more
>>> >>> valuable information about the project and the community.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> A visitor (who doesn't know Flink yet) should be able to easily find
>>> >>> answers to the following questions:
>>> >>> * What is Apache Flink?
>>> >>> * Does it address my use case?
>>> >>> * Is it credible? / Who is using it?
>>> >>>
>>> >>> To achieve that, I have:
>>> >>> * Rework menu structure into three sections to address different
>>> audiences:
>>> >>> - Potential users (see above)
>>> >>> - Users
>>> >>> - Contributors
>>> >>> * Reworked start page: updated the figure, added a feature grid,
>>> moved
>>> >>> "Powered By" section up
>>> >>> * Replaced Features page by more detailed "What is Flink?" pages
>>> >>> * Reworked "Use Cases" page
>>> >>>
>>> >>> The PR should also improve the page for users who have questions
>>> about
>>> >>> Flink or need help.
>>> >>> For that, I have:
>>> >>> * Added a "Getting Help" page (less content than the detailed
>>> community
>>> >>> page)
>>> >>> * Removed IRC channel info
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Please give feedback, suggest improvements, and proof read the new
>>> texts.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Thanks, Fabian
>>> >>>
>>> >>> [1] https://github.com/apache/flink-web/pull/109
>>> >>>
>>> >
>>> > --------------------------------------------
>>> > http://about.me/kkrugler
>>> > [phone]
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>
>