GSoC applicant proposal, Uday PB

PL/Java online documentation improvements

Project goal:

The goal of the project is to improve the PL/JAVA online documentation website in terms of appearance, usability, information showcase and functionality.

Project deliverables:

1)    A PL/JAVA documentation website having four major categories ( Usage, release information, modules and project documentation).

2)    Auto generated documentation pages for the above-mentioned sections.

3)    A page showing documentation tree for more than one release of PL/JAVA.

4)    A custom package which uses maven-site-plugin to generate new webpages whenever required.

5)    A style (CSS) framework class that has all the PostgreSQL style configurations ready to use.

6)    An additional template for about us page or any additional information required based on velocity template.

Project implementation plan:

The project can be divided into three phases as follows:

1)    CSS framework class and Velocity templates:

Analyze the existing PostgreSQL documentation website and identify all the style including typography, color, theme, headers and footers. Create a CSS class file having the color scheme, footer and header styles, font styles and text sizes. Use existing velocity engine code to accommodate new release documentation.

2)    Maven-site-plugin package with custom skins:

Since the PL/Java documentation should look like the original PostgreSQL documentation, create a template file and a new skin using the maven-site-plugin from apache. Document the template file configurations and skin styles. Create a multi-module site menu (https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-site-plugin/examples/multimodule.html) that would accommodate multiple releases of PL/Java.  The sub-files will inherit the site URL from parent POM. The new pages containing the newer release information would inherit data from JavaDoc using Velocity.

3)    Documentation and Testing:

Document the new documentation tree menu developed using maven-site-plugin and the skin. Create documentation for the CSS style class and velocity plugin changes.

Timeline:

This week-by-week timeline provides a rough guideline of how the project will be done.

May 4 – May 16

Familiarize with website and velocity. Start with simple CSS framework class to clone the original PostgreSQL documentation website styles and themes.

May 17 – May 30

Start writing the CSS framework class and a new routine to import new release data using maven-site-plugin and velocity. Maintain a configuration file to track the progress.

May 31 – June 5

Make minor changes to the existing Pl/JAVA documentation website template to visualize the improvements. Start implementing multi-module menu changes in the website. Add new skin using maven-site-plugin skins (which will use styles from the CSS framework class).

June 10 – June 25

Create a dummy data file to test the documentation trees multi-module menu. This should include at least two dummy release data to test the page aesthetics and user experience. Conduct feedback survey to analyze the new look of the website and the user experience.

July 1 – July 10

Improve minor typography issues and color schemes across the website and its pages. Document the test routines and the website code base. Also document the skin and style configuration used.

About me :

I am a computer science graduate student at Arizona State University pursuing projects in Node.JS, MySQL and react-native. I am part of the Google developer’s club here where I volunteer to contribute on several of their projects including some applications that help students find the right professor using HTML, CSS, Velocity and GitHub pages.  I have a combined experience of 5 years developing and deploying websites using several frameworks including Vue.JS, Reast.JS and site generators. I have used PostgreSQL in some of my projects that involve analysis and querying of geo-spatial data and hence I would like to contribute to this project.