Website Meeting - 2006-01-30 - Minutes
======================================

Present
-------

 * Tim
 * Faux
 * Bruce
 * Polar
 * Laurence
 * murphy
 * BlueParrot

1. History of the website project
=================================

Tim briefly described the history of the website project.

 * The original website was written by Silver a few years ago.
 * There was some effort to port it to mod_perl by bucko, but this never
   happened.
 * PlanarPlatypus attempted a from-scratch redesign that involved Zope last
   year, but this never got off the ground.
 * DrWatson gave Tim access to the website account in December 2005, and Tim
   has spent two months reviewing and patching bits of the code.
 * Tim is now forming a group to redesign the website, hence this meeting.

2. Current status
=================

The website project currently has the following resources:

 * An SVN repository with the current code [0]
 * A Trac project management system [1]
 * An IRC channel, #website on irc.uwcs.co.uk
 * The precedents of using the server 'bermuda' for development, and the
   techteam list for emailing notices.

Problems with the current website have been identified, and are listed on the
website project's Trac wiki.

3. Proposed method
==================

The website will be written in Perl, to make it easier to port the current
code. Tim has identified the following existing Perl modules:

 * Class::DBI (CDBI) - database abstraction
 * Perl Template Toolkit (TT) - HTML abstraction
 * Catalyst - an MVC framework for Perl, that can link the above modules

It is proposed that we use these.

Additionally, the new site should be designed to work with mod_perl from the
start.

4. Schedule
===========

Tim would like to have a completed site (implementing all the features of the
existing site) ready by the end of the current term. This puts an ultimate
deadline of 10th March 2006 for this milestone.

It was agreed that by the next meeting (on Mon 6th February 2005) we should
have a testing Apache server with mod_perl enabled, running a skeleton Catalyst
setup, and all interested parties should have access to it. This implies that
they will require accounts on bermuda, and membership of a 'website' group.

Faux was to change the founder of the #website channel to Tim. Everyone was to
familiarise themselves with the code in the SVN repository, so that they know
which features they are intending to implement. It is also desirable for people
to investigate Catalyst, CDBI and TT, so Tim shall create suitable links in the
Trac wiki for these. SVN commit access for everyone is also required.

5. Questions
============

BlueParrot asked what those who don't know Perl are going to be able to do for
this project. Tim replied that helping with the XHTML generation (by learning
about the Perl Template Toolkit) would be helpful, and there would soon be CSS
to write.

6. Next Meeting
===============

6th February 2006, at 6pm in Xanana's. Murphy apologised in advance for his
absence.

[0] http://svn.uwcs.co.uk/repos/website/
[1] http://trac.uwcs.co.uk/website/trac.cgi/