The following is the State of Codex. It includes reports on the general status of the WordPress Codex, including number of articles, issues to be addressed, and a status of activities.
Number of Articles
Current Number of articles in Codex today: 4,649
Number on June 26, 2005 was 436 Codex Cleanup ends
Number on June 25, 2005 was 430
Number on June 21, 2005 was 407
Number on June 18, 2005 was 397 Codex Cleanup begins
Number on June 11, 2005 was 360
Number on June 4, 2005 was 330
Issues
The following is a list of issues and items to be accomplished for Codex. If you have any additional items to add to this list please add those items.
Forum Posts of Codex Articles
In order to connect the dots between the WordPress Support Forum and the WordPress Codex, the two have teamed up to provide weekly releases of posts in the major sections of the Forum highlighting one or more documents in the Codex. A list of the documents to be featured is found at Codex:Forum Post Features.
It is a priority of the documentation team to see that these documents represent the quality the Codex has to offer.
- Current Status
- Documentation team alerted to cleanup these documents.
- If you have a suggestion for an article for use on the forum, please post it below the horizontal lines on the list in the appropriate category.
Next Version Release of WordPress
The Documentation Team is beginning to prepare for the next releases of WordPress. This includes maintaining the Changelog for v1.6 and keeping apprised of interim releases.
New Articles, New Sections, New Codex?
A consensus should be reached on how to document changes and enhancements to WordPress. Options include:
- Creating New Article: Entails creating a new document describing the new functionality as seen in Site Architecture v1.2 and Site Architecture 1.5.
- Adding Sections: Create sections in an existing articles with each version detailed in its own section as seen in User Levels.
- New Copy of Codex: Create another copy of Codex for the new version.
Preparation Issues
Other issues to address concerning a new release of WordPress are:
- Lead Time for Preparation: Define adequate lead time for Documentation team to prepare changes before official release.
- Recruit Documentation Volunteers for Beta Testing New Versions: Recruitment for volunteers to beta test the new version will be needed, allowing them time to write about the changes necessary.
- Increased Coordination with Forum Support Team In order to prepare the Codex to provide new documentation, we will need to make a plan for coordination between the Forum and Doc Teams to relay information regarding questions and answers on the new version.
Current Status
Here is what we do know:
- Changes to WordPress
- All current Template Tags will be carried forward. New ones will also be added (notice how that page already includes 1.5 specific tags)
- No or few alterations will need to be made to current WordPress Themes.
- The Loop will remain basically the same.
- The majority of plugins will continue to work, but there will be core changes that will "break" some plugins.
- Improvements to Pages admin panel and improved Administration Panel behavior and functions will be made.
- Upgrading and installing WordPress will continue its tradition for quick and easy.
- Articles Possibly Affected
- Articles which may be directly affected by the release of the new version (general list):
- Administration Panels
- Template Tags
- Writing Posts
- Plugin development articles will need to be expanded to include new version issues
- Database articles need to reflect any new changes to the structure and use
- Other Side Effects
- The more users familiar with WordPress may wish to expand the program's customizability during the release of v1.6, triggered by the publicity of the upgrade. Therefore, the documentation team needs to consider:
- Increasing documentation about queries
- Increasing documentation about customizing The Loop
- Increasing documentation about template customization
- Expanding templates and template tag documentation
- Expanding documents and information on writing plugins
Identify Additional Documentation
Requests continue to come in for documentation from the many various sources used previously by WordPress and WordPress-related sites to be moved into the Codex. We need to identify which remaining sites wish such documentation to be moved in, and create plan for implementation.
Suggestions
- Current Status
- Awaiting Action.
Codex Sysop Help Wanted
The following are a list of things that need to be done on the Codex that require Administrative Sysop attention:
- FAQ TOC: CSS class to improve look of the Table of Contents used in FAQs. See FAQ Troubleshooting for an example. We need to apply a class to the FAQ TOC that will allow it to be floated to the left, not right, overriding the default behavior.
- Codex Logo: Replacing the MediaWiki logo with a WordPress logo for Codex. See MediaWiki FAQ on changing logo.
- New Skin or Look for the Codex: Put together a team for implementation of a new look for the Codex or decide to let it be for now.
- Wiki-Tech Status: Is work ongoing regarding building a new wiki? What will be its function in regards to the current Mediawiki run WordPress Codex? Replacement?
- Current Status
- Awaiting Action.
Review of Codex Policies
Concern over the Codex Copyright, Project, Image, and other policies continues to come up. We need to clearly and visibly define these for the protection of the contributors of the Codex. These documents need to be reviewed and edited for accuracy and dissemination:
The following questions also need to be answered:
- Can Codex be shutdown to the public?
- What license is Codex under (same as WordPress itself?
- Can someone copy Codex and make a book and sell that book
- "The GPL allows Codex to be printed and sold. You can distribute it in
whatever form to your heart's content as long as you abide by the GPL and
allow everyone downstream free distribution as well. In the case of a
printed book, you must also make the source for that book available as
well (the text and markup). - Ryan (Added here by Podz)"
- Current Status
- Awaiting Action.
New Page Policy
Revisit policy where new pages need to be created under User space instead of the main namespace. Should this continue?
The benefits of continuing the practice allows contributors to edit and draft their work until it is ready for release without others infringing on their work.
The disadvantages are it is confusing to the users that new articles should be created under the User space, it is unusual behavior for those familiar with a "wiki", it seems to discourage participation, and it creates a level of hostility towards those viewed as Codex bosses.
If the policy is to continue, steps may need to be taken to prevent search engines from access to the User Pages. This prevents incorrect information from being cached by search engines and easily found by the user via search engines.
- Current Status
- Awaiting Action.
Upcoming MediaWiki Upgrade
Information is out that the new upgrade version of MediaWiki will be out soon. The sysops need to alert the Documentation team of when the upgrade will be implemented so they may alert the Forum Support members and others regarding potential downtime of the Codex.
- Current Status
- Awaiting Action.
Access to Database
Statistics on usage are being gathered by the documentation team for reports. Access to usage statistics needs to be delegated to one or more of the documentation team members for such reporting.
Some consistent problems in editing have arisen and a request is being made to expand sysop access to the database and CSS for such updates and queries.
- Current Status
- Awaiting Action.
Codex Backup Process
- Document and publish Codex backup process and procedures
- Document and publish Codex restoration process (in event of lost data or upgrade 'fallbacks')
- Current Status
- Awaiting Action.
Activities
Codex Cleanup Week June 18-26
Arbitrary New Articles (brand new, not revised and fixed): 21
Arbitrary Tasks Completed (new tasks, not ongoing efforts): 18
- Changes to the Codex
- Since Wednesday, June 15, several days before the start of the cleanup week, people were already starting to pitch in. While exact numbers are hard to estimate without access to site statistics, it looks like about 3000 changes have been made to the Codex since then. More changes are continuing as the Cleanup team continues their cleaning.
- While 21 people "officially" signed up, many more signed up for specific tasks and made offers of help via the IRC Chat #wordpress-docs.
- We put together a User Statistics chart to track how many people worked on the Codex and what their contributions were during the 9 day event.
- The Task list has been cleaned up to only show the lists of items awaiting activity and signup at Codex:Tasks. The accomplished tasks have been moved to the discussion page: Codex_talk:Tasks.
- The list of new articles submitted to Codex are as follows:
Categorizing the Codex: While everyone on the Cleanup team has worked hard on this, special recognition needs to be given to the "categorizing team" who categorized EVERY one of the more than 400 articles on the Codex. The categories are coordinated with the main table of contents and listed at the bottom of every page. This will help increase the connection between related documents and improve user friendliness in the Codex. It is a huge, boring task and kudos to them for plowing through it all.
Summary
As it stands now, the Codex Cleanup Week has been a resounding success. Many goals set for this project have been accomplished:
- Increased awareness of the WordPress Codex as a resource
- Improvement of the reputation of the WordPress Codex as a valued resource
- Increased connection between the Forum and the Codex
- Increased volunteer activity on the Codex. See: Codex:Cleanup/User_Statistics
- Increased documentation
- Improved checking and verification of documents from a "team" and not an individual resulting in documents released faster and better quality assurance
- Improved communication
- Development of a task list for directing volunteer efforts
- The number of articles requiring copyright or expansion has been minimized. While some remain, they are the newest articles and/or are awaiting review and verification by experts.
WordPress-docs IRC Support
In June 2005, the old #wp-docs channel on the IRC FreeNode Server was changed to the official channel of #wordpress-docs. It is now registered and has OPS. Its use during the Codex Cleanup was invaluable as documentation volunteers were able to walk participants through the process of adding content to the Codex and to stay on top of the activities on the Codex.