OSGeo:UK Website Re-Design

[dbauszus-glx]

The current website has become somewhat long in the tooth.

We'd like to collect some ideas in this issue thread before we look at a more modern static site generator.

I have good experiences with eleventy and will have a look whether it is possible to launch a draft redesign in a new branch.

There is a good selection of minimalist open source themes available.

https://www.11tythemes.com/

[jashanbhullar]

How about Hugo or Astro?

From my experience with FOSS4G:UK 2025 website, I would say the website needs to have:

• Ability to work with multiple themes? (as we did with the FOSS4G:UK 2025)
• Strict rules for the editing the websites, not just GitHub rules but linting, maybe automated tests in CI?
• Let's define the use cases of the website, like we ever plan to integrate LDAP from the OSGeo then it'll need a lot more work. It doesn't need to be done now or even in a year but should document what needs to be done on the website.

Will think more on this.

[nickbearman]

I would say it's important for editing the website to be kept as simple as possible. The simplicity of the existing site has been complemented before and it's something I think we should keep.

[dbauszus-glx]

@nickbearman I wouldn't say the current site is particularly easy to maintain especially with different frameworks and languages [ie ruby] used to build the site and then to build to the nested event sites. But I hear where you are coming from and simplicity should be the number one priority.

@jashanbhullar That being said I don't want to use hugo and throw go into the mix. Build performance [ie generating a static site] is not an issue.

I really want to clean up the current structure. There are so many iterations of the OSGeo logo files.

The structure of the repository needs to be better documented.

@jashanbhullar I like the idea of astro. This is probably the static-site-generator with the biggest support community and allows to integrate any features we would like to see.

A very simple theme and static generated site is all what we really need.

Jody Garnet put this on the OSGeo forum in regards to the website. [It] is devoted to our public service “empower everyone” mandate. With a focus on out-reach - news / events / advocacy / communication content written for an audience of GIS and IT professionals.

With that in mind there should be an about page highlighting the work and structure of OSGeo:UK as the local chapter of OSGeo with an overview of our committee structure. There should be links to the OSGeo community and an explanation in regards to mailing lists which is a major hurdle for young members to get invlolved.

We should actively promote the newsletter with the note that our members are defined as subscribers to the newsletter. There should be an archive with previous editions of the newsletter if available.

The main news section should have the form of a blog. Where we add markdown files which become news articles. The latest article being presented on the front/landing page.

There should be a page dedicated to foss4g events with links to previous event pages and information in regards to the current planning of a future event. The previous events should not be re-build on every commit. They should be built as they are now and served as static files from their folder. There should be only one build process and not a mix and match of various build processes in various languages with various frameworks and themes.

There should be a dedicated section in regards to GoFundGeo. This is getting lost at the moment.

There should be links to our social media channels.

We should integrate a sponsor section through GitHub. https://github.com/sponsors/OSGeo

There should be a link to this repository to report issues and get involved with the work.

[dbauszus-glx]

I'll try to setup a minimum astro landing page in my fork of the repo in the next two weeks.

[nickbearman]

Thanks @dbauszus-glx

One thing I like is the fact you can make a (small) change either directly on the GitHub website, or via Git locally, without needing to build the site locally.

"For small edits you can edit via the GitHub interface, simply navigate to the file and choose the edit option. Most content is in markdown format and GitHub provides a preview option."

So this is specifically what I would like to keep.

Agree 100% about all the comments on improving the structure, removing old logos etc. Thanks for your work on this.

[ajgwords]

What about Quarto and setting up some GH actions to build it. I'll be honest, I don't even know if that would necessarily work as I'm not a developer, but Quarto uses markdown as input and converts that to HTML.

We need to make sure that the method for updating is not limited to developers as we have no idea who will be on a future committee - they could all be proponents of FOSS but not code writers.

[dbauszus-glx]

The landing page should be simple and focus on the essentials? What is OSGeo:UK? What is OSGeo?

OSGeo:UK is the local chapter of OSGeo for the United Kingdom.

The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted to an open philosophy and participatory community driven development.

There should be a dedicated about page with more detailed information.

Contact information as well as a call to action button to sign up to the newsletter should be provided on the front page.

There should be a dedicated events page and a dedicated newsletter page with an archive of previous newsletter issues.

[dbauszus-glx]

https://www.magicpatterns.com/c/betqb8dyfmgwhevzl9ntyh/preview

@jashanbhullar has setup a preview to comment on the landing page, layout, and navigation.

[jashanbhullar]

Architecture Side of things. I have a lot of doubts and stuff to go through. Some of them I am listing down. Feel free to comment on these.

1. Is this following code required? Why is it there in the first place?

<script>
    let spans = document.getElementsByClassName('osgeoemail');
    for (let i = 0; i < spans.length; i++){
        spans[i].innerHTML = Tea.decrypt("TaP7QMCgFhScZikfQl5S2WfHPdfSh44LhvA4yCJITheD063TvlsEuDlGFtNkE+SCMIKiymkA/88=", "foss4g");
    }
</script> 

It decrypts to = '<a href="mailto:osgeouk@gmail.com">osgeouk@gmail.com</a>'

2. There are two ways to migrate the code to astro. Use the static builds from jekyll, use the markdown and create a new HTML pages using astro. Both have their own cons and pros, and I am happy to discuss more with anyone interested.

3. The current repo side is exceeding 300MB due large presentations sitting in the repository. I would ideally like to move them to a different platform (even a Google Drive) and link them on the website. This is increasing the repo size and also slowing down the builds (not big things, but certainly good to have some best practises)

[jonnyhuck]

The Tea encryption snippet was probably me - its is just a simple way to avoid the email address getting scraped. I'm happy for it to be removed if you prefer

[jonnyhuck]

I would agree with not having large files on a site using a static generator - I don't know if there is something akin to git LFS that would avoid them being re-copied every time (which would resolve the build issue). On a server I would imagine that you could just exclude the directory in the Jekyll config and then just keep a copy in the directory, but I'm not sure that would be achievable via GitHub. It is probably easier to just put them somewhere else that can be linked from the site (like Google Drive).

[tomchadwin]

https://www.magicpatterns.com/c/betqb8dyfmgwhevzl9ntyh/preview

Apologies if specific feedback is premature, but on the above mockup page, some text is slightly clipped:

[nickbearman]

Thanks @jashanbhullar and @dbauszus-glx the home page example is looking good.

It did take 5-10 seconds to load when looking on my phone, which feels like a long time. Is this representative of how it will work?

I like the idea if UK Projects, putting what we do front and central. Events and Get Involved work well to.

Is the idea then to show projects? That's what appeared on my phone.

Perhaps we could make Projects, Events and Get Involved look a bit more like options- ie click here to find out more - and nearer the top?
I will need to have a look on a desktop computer too.

Is there anything else you'd like input on at this stage?

Thanks
Nick