Re: Making the download page user-friendly

Hi Greg,

This seems like a really interesting thought that would work in with the
new wwwdevel site very well (once it's moved into place). This would
give people a language localised page explaining the download options
they have and other relevant info (i.e. licensing is BSD/free/etc).

Trying to think of a way of doing this well, such that the list of
mirror and direct paths is generated every x minutes (to reduce traffic
to the mirror servers but keep the list of good ones fairly accurate),
but also ensure the page localisation also works.

Marc has pointed out that the PG Hackers mailing list has recently
discussed the structure of the downloadable PG files too, which might be
relevant as things might change, and that perhaps a combination of
alternative 2 and alternative 3 would keep the pages correctly refreshed
but reduce the backend server load?

?

Regards and best wishes,

Justin Clift

Greg Sabino Mullane wrote:
>
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> Regarding the page at:
>
> http://advocacy.postgresql.org/download/
>
> I think it should list the version in the link, offer a link
> to the mirrors, display the size of the file, and also have
> links to the md5 files.
>
> We could even generate links to the mirror sites ourselves,
> since a redirect to the main page would not bounce them
> automagically to the download URL.
>
> Perhaps something like this:
>
> "You can download the entire PostgreSQL project, or
> only the pieces you need. This server is based in
> Canada, please see the [list of mirrors below] for a
> server that may be closer to you.
>
> [small link to a help page with "which should I download?"]
>
> The entire project:
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Complete] Size: 10.8 Megs
> [Checksum for the above]
>
> Just the core project, without the docs, test, or opt (reword):
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Base] Size: 1.8 Megs
> [Checksum for the above]
>
> The documentation:
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Documentation] Size: 1.3 Megs
> [Checksum for the above]
>
> [etc. for opt and test, with good explanation for each of them]
>
> *PostgreSQL Mirror Sites*
>
> Small explanation here of what a mirror is and how to choose the
> best one.
>
> How to do the mirrors?
>
> Alternative 1:
>
> Canada:
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Complete] Size: 10.8 Megs [Checksum]
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Base] Size: 3.8 Megs [Checksum]
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Docs] Size: 1.3 Megs [Checksum]
> ..
>
> Mexico:
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Complete] Size: 10.8 Megs [Checksum]
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Base] Size: 3.8 Megs [Checksum]
> [PostgreSQL 7.3 Docs] Size: 1.3 Megs [Checksum]
>
> Pros: Everything on one page
> Cons: Everything on one page :)
>
> Alternative 2: they could use a pulldown menu to pick their
> country/mirror, and a script would return a page with the
> proper download links set for them.
> Pros: smallest page size, clean.
> Cons: requires CGI, extra clicks
>
> Alternative 3: Like above, but use a simple hyperlinked list
> of countries/mirrors that goes to a page with the proper
> download links.
> Pros: Easy to view, no CGI (although could be used)
> Cons: Page slightly large
>
> Alternative 4: Same as alternative 3, but the links go to
> the bottom of the page via anchors, to the same list as
> alternative 1. I think this one may be the best.
>
> Alternative 5: We use the host they are coming from to figure
> out what the best mirror is for them, and display that
> as the primary one at the top of the page. This one is more
> of an upgrade to the first 4. :)
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Greg Sabino Mullane greg(at)turnstep(dot)com
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