Closed Bug 646920 Opened 13 years ago Closed 13 years ago

[Release Channel] Set-Up new WordPress blog for Rapid Releases

Categories

(www.mozilla.org :: General, defect, P1)

Product:
www.mozilla.org
Component:
General
Platform:
x86
macOS
Type:
defect

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED

People

(Reporter: lmesa, Assigned: ryansnyder)

References

Details

Attachments

(1 file)

More from Mozilla box example
45.23 KB, image/tiff
Details 
We need to set up a blog to support the new channels in the rapid release. We are working on a new template for the page and need a blog that can be easily maintained. We also need to be able to tag posts per release, so if a blog post is about the aurora channel, we should be able to tag the post easily, etc.
Copying our blog-building expert, Craig. Craig, is this something you could help with?

Laura, can you share more details about timing, etc so Craig can plan accordingly?
(In reply to comment #1)
> Copying our blog-building expert, Craig. Craig, is this something you could
> help with?
> 
> Laura, can you share more details about timing, etc so Craig can plan
> accordingly?

We're expecting this to be live on May 3rd, so ideally we would have something to look at and play around with for the 19th.
To be clear, I'm hoping Craig can build the blog. Does that mean his work period would be 4/19-5/3 then?
(In reply to comment #3)
> To be clear, I'm hoping Craig can build the blog. Does that mean his work
> period would be 4/19-5/3 then?

We need to get the template for him to implement, so ideally he could start work once we get the template (next week) and have something that we could see on the week of the 19th. The blog would need to be live on the 3rd, so I guess his work schedule would be between april 11-22, with some time to help fix bugs/qa until the 3rd.
I can begin construction as soon as the design is ready. Assuming it's just a standard blog and you don't need a lot of custom functionality, that's more than enough time to build a theme. Tagging posts is part of WordPress right out of the box so that's no problem. Do you have any other specific technical requirements that might add any complexity?

Will this be part of the blog.mozilla.com network, maybe blog.mozilla.com/releases/? Or will it be a separate site under its own domain? We'll need to get server-ops in the loop to set things up, of course.
(In reply to comment #5)
> I can begin construction as soon as the design is ready. Assuming it's just a
> standard blog and you don't need a lot of custom functionality, that's more
> than enough time to build a theme. Tagging posts is part of WordPress right out
> of the box so that's no problem. Do you have any other specific technical
> requirements that might add any complexity?
The only thing I can think of is a place to put links back to other pages (for example, the news letter download page in bug 646868).  


> 
> Will this be part of the blog.mozilla.com network, maybe
> blog.mozilla.com/releases/? 

I think that makes sense.  

> We'll need to get server-ops in the loop to set things up, of course.
Craig, what kind of bug/s do I need to file for IT?
Depends on: 646943
(In reply to comment #0)
> We need to set up a blog to support the new channels in the rapid release. We
> are working on a new template for the page and need a blog that can be easily
> maintained. We also need to be able to tag posts per release, so if a blog post
> is about the aurora channel, we should be able to tag the post easily, etc.

Hey Laura & Team,

I know this is a fast-moving train & I'm pretty new to processes. But, jumping in before we go too far down the development path, but is there an explanation about the reason for the logic behind 

1.) choosing to use a blog structure for this product (reason for both admin users and end-users/audience)

2.) choosing to use Wordpress over another content solution (e.g. how will this work into our larger content challenges & has anyone checked in with James about our own Mozilla dynamic solutions for providing user control over the content?)

Would love any background, etc. and of course thoughts, ideas, and more from webdev & engagement on this.

Best,
CB
(In reply to comment #7)
> (In reply to comment #0)
> > We need to set up a blog to support the new channels in the rapid release. We
> > are working on a new template for the page and need a blog that can be easily
> > maintained. We also need to be able to tag posts per release, so if a blog post
> > is about the aurora channel, we should be able to tag the post easily, etc.
> 
> Hey Laura & Team,

> 
> I know this is a fast-moving train & I'm pretty new to processes. But, jumping
> in before we go too far down the development path, but is there an explanation
> about the reason for the logic behind 
> 
> 1.) choosing to use a blog structure for this product (reason for both admin
> users and end-users/audience)

Because of how quickly things are moving and our past experience with beta pages for fx 4, we are hesitant to create pages that we'd have to update on short cycles. It was painful for everyone and we want to avoid the maintenance. We like the idea of a blog where we can easily post the latest news without having to worry about getting design, QA, WebDev and IT involved for every 6 week cycle. We also will be using email as another primary communication channel for all news for the 4 channels. I'm open to other ideas, but again, we need to have this ready for phase 2, which is currently scheduled for early may with the beta release. 

> 
> 2.) choosing to use Wordpress over another content solution (e.g. how will this
> work into our larger content challenges & has anyone checked in with James
> about our own Mozilla dynamic solutions for providing user control over the
> content?)

I didn't realize that Wordpress was a product we want to move away from. Having said that, I'm not sure what a better solution may be, considering our time constraints. I'm open to options ;)

> 
> Would love any background, etc. and of course thoughts, ideas, and more from
> webdev & engagement on this.

You can see a basic wiki here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Features/ChannelSwitching/Engagement_Support


> 
> Best,
> CB
(In reply to comment #8)
> > 2.) choosing to use Wordpress over another content solution (e.g. how will this
> > work into our larger content challenges & has anyone checked in with James
> > about our own Mozilla dynamic solutions for providing user control over the
> > content?)
> 
> I didn't realize that Wordpress was a product we want to move away from. Having
> said that, I'm not sure what a better solution may be, considering our time
> constraints. I'm open to options ;)

I think Wordpress is a good fit for these needs. We can separate dynamic content into two things: lots of new updates for people watching the betas/auroras, and tiny semi-frequent updates for the latest released version.

Wordpress works for the former problem, and at some point we'll figure out how to solve the latter problem with some kind of custom content solution.
We're not opposed to Wordpress if it's the right fit, but we should decide on Wordpress as a team.

There is mozilla.com, other blogs (hacks), other sites (nightly.mozilla.org, mdn, mozilla.org) -- all can be leveraged and have existing traffic and serve a similar audience (early adopters).  Plenty of options.

I had a couple of questions:
- Is your intended audience en-US only?  WPML presents many issues for l10n, and wordpress itself isn't the greatest.
- How can we leverage nightly.mozilla.org, mdn or hacks.mozilla.org for this?  Do we want to?
(In reply to comment #10)
> We're not opposed to Wordpress if it's the right fit, but we should decide on
> Wordpress as a team.
> 
> There is mozilla.com, other blogs (hacks), other sites (nightly.mozilla.org,
> mdn, mozilla.org) -- all can be leveraged and have existing traffic and serve a
> similar audience (early adopters).  Plenty of options.
> 
> I had a couple of questions:
> - Is your intended audience en-US only?  WPML presents many issues for l10n,
> and wordpress itself isn't the greatest.

I'm not sure we'll be translating the blog posts you'll see on this blog here--probably only the final release posts that will be cross posted on mozilla.com. 

Let me ask Mayumi. 

> - How can we leverage nightly.mozilla.org, mdn or hacks.mozilla.org for this?

so, we don't want to promote nightly.mozilla.org widely because the nightly channel is a very specific user group. Having said that, we still need somewhere that people can grab those builds, so we're leaving a reskinned version in that location. 

Hacks.mozilla.org will probably cross post with us, but the reason we aren't using thier blog is because we need to grow the userbase of the aurora and beta channels, and the best way to do that and to make it more comfortable to people is through a mozilla.com branded site.
(In reply to comment #11)
> (In reply to comment #10)
> > We're not opposed to Wordpress if it's the right fit, but we should decide on
> > Wordpress as a team.
> > 
> > There is mozilla.com, other blogs (hacks), other sites (nightly.mozilla.org,
> > mdn, mozilla.org) -- all can be leveraged and have existing traffic and serve a
> > similar audience (early adopters).  Plenty of options.
> > 
> > I had a couple of questions:
> > - Is your intended audience en-US only?  WPML presents many issues for l10n,
> > and wordpress itself isn't the greatest.
> 
> I'm not sure we'll be translating the blog posts you'll see on this blog
> here--probably only the final release posts that will be cross posted on
> mozilla.com. 
> 
> Let me ask Mayumi. 

We will not be localizing the blog page.
Hmm.  How many beta users are in non-english speaking locales?
(In reply to comment #13)
> Hmm.  How many beta users are in non-english speaking locales?

In the early betas between 10-25%, in later betas, up to 40%.  Having said that, Aurora as a channel will not be localized, while Beta will likely be localized by the top 10 languages.  It doesn't make too much sense to me to localize the blog post page if we're not going to be localizing the blog posts or the channel newsletters.
(In reply to comment #14)
> (In reply to comment #13)
> > Hmm.  How many beta users are in non-english speaking locales?
> 
> In the early betas between 10-25%, in later betas, up to 40%.  Having said
> that, Aurora as a channel will not be localized, while Beta will likely be
> localized by the top 10 languages.  It doesn't make too much sense to me to
> localize the blog post page if we're not going to be localizing the blog posts
> or the channel newsletters.

Any more thoughts here, or can we move along with Wordpress?
hi laura, 

talk to morgamic today. he's okay with us moving forward with wordpress for now. however, if we do decide that we want the blog post localized, he also brought up the point that it would be harder to localized using wordpress. 

the other option is to build our own, but that will take 3-4weeks. 

given we don't have 4 weeks, for this purpose, we can probably move on with wordpress. 

morgamic, feel free to chime in if I missed anything.
hi all, 

what's the next steps here. do i need to assign this to anyone? 
the goal is to have this ready by may 3rd.thanks
Summary: Set-Up new WordPress blog for Rapid Releases → [Release Channel] Set-Up new WordPress blog for Rapid Releases
Assignee: nobody → craigcook.bugz
Priority: -- → P1
Target Milestone: --- → 2.3
hi craig, do you have everything you need to start the set up? please let us know if we need to provide any addition info to get this process started. thanks!
(In reply to comment #18)
> hi craig, do you have everything you need to start the set up? please let us
> know if we need to provide any addition info to get this process started.
> thanks!

Sorry, I should clarify my role. I'm a front-end designer/developer, and I was initially included here because I can build a custom WordPress theme if you have a design (or I can design one for you if you tell me what you need). If you have a finished design ready to go I may still be able to build it this week for a May 3rd launch, assuming I could start construction NOW. But if you're just now beginning the design process, I fear the time window is closing rapidly and there's just no way to complete design and development before May 3rd.

At this stage you'll probably have to go live with one of the available standard themes and we could always implement a new custom theme later. Or, if you don't need a complete custom design anyway, I could very easily adapt the main Mozilla blog theme the same way we did for the mobile blog, with a different header graphic. Compare http://blog.mozilla.org to http://blog.mozilla.org/mobile/. We just need to find a graphic for the header and decide what other design changes you might want and I could have it done ASAP.

I also built the add-ons blog theme (http://blog.mozilla.com/addons/) and that could also be modified pretty easily to suit your purposes (though you may want to run it by the add-ons team to make sure they're willing to share their branding ;)).

To actually set up the blog itself, someone (probably from IT) with administrative access to the blog.mozilla.org network will need to handle that. I don't have that access so I can't be of any help there. I'm not really sure what the procedure is for getting that done, but it probably entails assigning this bug (or a new one) to server-ops with a few details on WordPress settings, any plugins you may need installed, and a list of users they should add to the new blog. IT can tell you what information they'll need to complete the setup.
hi craig. thanks for the update. 
I couldn't access these sites http://blog.mozilla.org and http://blog.mozilla.org/mobile/. but we basically wanted to use the same templates.
 so i wanted to find out what you need from us to provide to get you started. Do you already have these templates etc? let me know. 

thanks!
(In reply to comment #21)
> I couldn't access these sites http://blog.mozilla.org and
> http://blog.mozilla.org/mobile/. but we basically wanted to use the same
> templates.

Yes, both of those links should have been .com, not .org. Sorry for my typo.

>  so i wanted to find out what you need from us to provide to get you started.
> Do you already have these templates etc? let me know. 

I have all the template code (I built them both), so I just need whatever header graphic you'd like to use. Is there some kind of library of these mascot illustrations we could pick from? Or if nothing comes to mind, maybe just a big Firefox logo? 

And I know you want to be able to tag posts but the base template doesn't really feature tags, so I'll make sure they're shown prominently on yours. Any other special changes you'd like to see?
Depends on: 653036
hi craig. working with slater's team to get a header graphic for the blog. stay tuned.
hi craig, how long does it take to get the template up after i provide the header graphic? I just requested the header graphic. i know initially this was a may 3 ask, we can now have a few days after may 3rd since beta is not releasing at that time.  but my goal is to get the template up and running sooner than later.
(In reply to comment #24)
> hi craig, how long does it take to get the template up after i provide the
> header graphic? I just requested the header graphic. i know initially this was
> a may 3 ask, we can now have a few days after may 3rd since beta is not
> releasing at that time.  but my goal is to get the template up and running
> sooner than later.

I can have everything *but* the header done by the end of this week, then just add the image at the last minute, the instant it's ready. So we could still be up by the 3rd if all goes well, but it'll be good to have those few extra days of wiggle room if we need it.
I have the theme staged at http://wpstage.focalcurve.com/releases/ 

Just awaiting the header graphic and any other changes/revisions you'd like to see.
(In reply to comment #26)
> I have the theme staged at http://wpstage.focalcurve.com/releases/ 
> 
> Just awaiting the header graphic and any other changes/revisions you'd like to
> see.

hi craig. thanks for sending this over. will be reviewing this page and let you know of any changes or revisions. 

In the meantime, you can find the final header image you can use for the blog template: https://bug653036.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=529099 (can also be found in bug 653036. 

thanks again.
hi craig, 

here are some feedback regarding the page: 

Updated Headline: 
Welcome to the Future of Firefox
(please make headline link to mozilla.com/firefox/channel)
Tagline: Be the first to know what's new with upcoming Firefox releases. 

Need to add on the far right column of the page: 

Under Categories: 
Aurora
Beta 
Nightly 
Mobile Beta
Addons
Feedback

Connect with us (on top of more from mozilla) - see attachment 
sign for aurora and beta newsletter
facebook (Firefox Test Drivers)

more from mozilla (see attachment or blog.mozilla.com far right column)
(In reply to comment #28)
> hi craig, 
> 
> here are some feedback regarding the page: 
> 
> Updated Headline: 
> Welcome to the Future of Firefox
> (please make headline link to mozilla.com/firefox/channel)
> Tagline: Be the first to know what's new with upcoming Firefox releases. 
small tweak from tagline: Please use "Be the first to know what's new with our upcoming releases" thanks!

> 
> Need to add on the far right column of the page: 
> 
> Under Categories: 
> Aurora
> Beta 
> Nightly 
> Mobile Beta
> Addons
> Feedback
> 
> Connect with us (on top of more from mozilla) - see attachment 
> sign for aurora and beta newsletter
> facebook (Firefox Test Drivers)
> 
> more from mozilla (see attachment or blog.mozilla.com far right column)
(In reply to comment #28)

I've made most of these updates. Notes below:

> Updated Headline: 
> Welcome to the Future of Firefox
> (please make headline link to mozilla.com/firefox/channel)

Typically a site's title links to the home page, as it does here currently (when you're on any page other than the home page). Linking the title to somewhere offsite might be confusing to users expecting a different destination. Instead of linking offsite from the title, maybe we should put a prominent link to the channel page somewhere else? A box at the top of the sidebar? Or callout elsewhere in the header, maybe above the title? Or move the title up and put a callout below it? It should be clearly labeled as the place to go to get the latest releases.

> Tagline: Be the first to know what's new with upcoming Firefox releases. 

The tagline is actually something you'll configure in WordPress, it's not hard-coded in the template. You can also omit it by leaving the field blank. I've updated it on the staging site but you'll need to enter it into the final site as well. 

The title is also a dynamic field, but the title *is* hard-coded in the template simply because it requires some special styling for the two different fonts.

> Under Categories: 
> Aurora
> Beta 
> Nightly 
> Mobile Beta
> Addons
> Feedback

You'll define the categories in WordPress and the template merely displays whatever categories you create (as long as there is at least one post in the category; no sense linking to an empty category). I copied over some filler content from an earlier staged version of the Mozilla blog so the category names you saw before were a bit misleading, sorry.

> facebook (Firefox Test Drivers)
What's the full URL for this facebook page?
(In reply to comment #31)
> (In reply to comment #28)
> 
> I've made most of these updates. Notes below:
> 
> > Updated Headline: 
> > Welcome to the Future of Firefox
> > (please make headline link to mozilla.com/firefox/channel)
> 
> Typically a site's title links to the home page, as it does here currently
> (when you're on any page other than the home page). Linking the title to
> somewhere offsite might be confusing to users expecting a different
> destination. Instead of linking offsite from the title, maybe we should put a
> prominent link to the channel page somewhere else? A box at the top of the
> sidebar? Or callout elsewhere in the header, maybe above the title? Or move the
> title up and put a callout below it? It should be clearly labeled as the place
> to go to get the latest releases.
> 
- currently the mozilla firefox links to mozilla.com right?
can we make the "Welcome to Future of Firefox" headline link to /firefox/channel? if not the headline, can we make "upcoming Firefox releases" from the tagline link to channel page? if not, im fine with creating a call out somewhere as well. top side bar is fine.
> 
> > facebook (Firefox Test Drivers)
> What's the full URL for this facebook page?
- we are working on possibly converting it to a page as it is a group right now.
Here is the current link: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=173578463110
(In reply to comment #32)
> - currently the mozilla firefox links to mozilla.com right?
> can we make the "Welcome to Future of Firefox" headline link to
> /firefox/channel? if not the headline, can we make "upcoming Firefox releases"
> from the tagline link to channel page? if not, im fine with creating a call out
> somewhere as well. top side bar is fine.

We could add a link in the tagline if we hard-code it, which is certainly possible. But I think a callout in the sidebar would be better and stand out even more. A user looking for the place to download the latest build might not think to click a fairly innocuous link in the tagline, but a big box that shouts "Download Firefox" is pretty clear.

I've added a box in the sidebar, though the actual text of the link could be rephrased. We do need to keep it short and punchy though, a call to action rather than a lengthy description. We could add an extra blurb under the link if you want to include a bit more info about where the link is going.
(In reply to comment #33)
> (In reply to comment #32)
> > - currently the mozilla firefox links to mozilla.com right?
> > can we make the "Welcome to Future of Firefox" headline link to
> > /firefox/channel? if not the headline, can we make "upcoming Firefox releases"
> > from the tagline link to channel page? if not, im fine with creating a call out
> > somewhere as well. top side bar is fine.
> 
> We could add a link in the tagline if we hard-code it, which is certainly
> possible. But I think a callout in the sidebar would be better and stand out
> even more. A user looking for the place to download the latest build might not
> think to click a fairly innocuous link in the tagline, but a big box that
> shouts "Download Firefox" is pretty clear.
> 
> I've added a box in the sidebar, though the actual text of the link could be
> rephrased. We do need to keep it short and punchy though, a call to action
> rather than a lengthy description. We could add an extra blurb under the link
> if you want to include a bit more info about where the link is going.

copy for the box can be:
Download and test the build that’s right for you.
(In reply to comment #33)
> (In reply to comment #32)
> > - currently the mozilla firefox links to mozilla.com right?
> > can we make the "Welcome to Future of Firefox" headline link to
> > /firefox/channel? if not the headline, can we make "upcoming Firefox releases"
> > from the tagline link to channel page? if not, im fine with creating a call out
> > somewhere as well. top side bar is fine.
> 
> We could add a link in the tagline if we hard-code it, which is certainly
> possible. But I think a callout in the sidebar would be better and stand out
> even more. A user looking for the place to download the latest build might not
> think to click a fairly innocuous link in the tagline, but a big box that
> shouts "Download Firefox" is pretty clear.
> 
> I've added a box in the sidebar, though the actual text of the link could be
> rephrased. We do need to keep it short and punchy though, a call to action
> rather than a lengthy description. We could add an extra blurb under the link
> if you want to include a bit more info about where the link is going.

copy for the box can be:
Download and test the build that’s right for you. 

thanks!!
Target Milestone: 2.3 → 2.4
http://wpstage.focalcurve.com/releases/ is up to date with the latest changes. If all is well we can move on to the next step and get it into production as soon as possible.
(In reply to comment #36)
> http://wpstage.focalcurve.com/releases/ is up to date with the latest changes.
> If all is well we can move on to the next step and get it into production as
> soon as possible.

hi craig. this looks great! thanks!
The theme is in Subversion in r88375. 

The next step is to get server-ops to deploy the code to production and "network activate" the theme so it will be available to use on network blogs. They'll also be the ones to handle creating your new blog under the blog.mozilla.com network, and they'll likely want infrasec to review the theme code but there shouldn't be any issues. When your blog is created, configured, and the theme is set, you'll be good to go.

One additional thing you'll want to do once you're up and running is create the Archives page. Just make a new page (under Pages > Add New) and give it the slug "archives". The page title can be anything you like, but the slug is important because that's what the theme code uses as a hook to generate the page. Leave the content of the page blank; the custom template takes care of everything (see http://blog.mozilla.com/archives/ for a live example).
hi craig! thanks again for helping us with the template. 

LauraF, should I assign this back to you? who do i need to assign it to and keep the ball rolling?

thanks everyone!
hi craig, 

we got a new header graphic for the blog. would you be able to swap it out in the template: https://bug653036.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=531036?

will assign to lauraf after we get the new template. 

thanks craig.
(In reply to comment #40)
> we got a new header graphic for the blog. would you be able to swap it out
> in the template:
> https://bug653036.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=531036?

Updated in r88511
thanks Craig! it looks great! will be assigning this steven now for implementation!
Assignee: craigcook.bugz → steven
hi steven, 

Here is the final design: 
http://wpstage.focalcurve.com/releases/ 

can we use this link: blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases

live date: the first blog 5/17 or 5/19 for the beta release (stay tuned for the final date)

please let me know if you need additional info.
Target Milestone: 2.4 → 2.5
I'm not sure I'm the right person to handle this implementation. Setting up a WordPress instance would mostly involve server configuration and database setup. 

James, do you know who usually handles this?
Adding Ryan, this is a great opportunity to use your contractor toolkit and instructions. Thoughts Ryan!
Assignee: steven → ryansnyder.me+bugs
Blocks: 656422
Pushing the theme code from SVN to production is probably a task for server-ops (may want to file a separate bug since this comment thread is running long). 

As far as setting up the blog itself, anyone with network administrator access on the blog.mozilla.com network can create the new blog and add one admin user. That admin user can handle the rest of the configuration (activating the theme, creating categories, adding more authors, etc) and I'd be happy to walk them through that, or even finish the setup myself if you want to give me temporary admin access. 

I'm not sure who oversees the blog network though. That may fall to server-ops as well.

Also: The network admin will have to "network enable" the Releases - Nova theme to make it available to network blogs, and the releases blog admin will just select the theme from the list under Appearance > Themes.
Currently, we have a number of blogs setup under blog.mozilla.org/{blog-name}.  IT is responsible for administering the Wordpress blog sites.  An IT request should be filed for new blogs under that domain.

Assuming we have committed the theme to an svn repository, we will need to include that information in the IT request ticket.
Bug is complete! Thanks Everyone!
http://blog.mozilla.com/futurereleases/
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 13 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Component: www.mozilla.org/firefox → www.mozilla.org
Component: www.mozilla.org → General
Product: Websites → www.mozilla.org
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