Topic: Online manual in e-smith-manager

[Ervin Jakab]

It would be nice to have a local online manual in HTML format, instead of a link to e-smith.org, when accesing Online Manual in e-smith-manager. I know I can download it separately but it would be nice to have it included in the ISO image.

[Paul Miller]

Hi Ervin

Ervin Jakab wrote:
>
> It would be nice to have a local online manual in HTML
> format, instead of a link to e-smith.org, when accesing
> Online Manual in e-smith-manager. I know I can download it
> separately but it would be nice to have it included in the
> ISO image.

I wonder if rsync would be a good tool to maintain this sort of thing.  

1. Download the manual to an i-bay called manual.

2. Change
            'http://www.e-smith.org/docs/manual' in /etc/e-smith/web/functions/online-manual where the current manual points to

3. When there are changes announced in the manual, run rsync with appropriate parameters against the html directory or add a 'update manual' button on e-smith-manager.

Even on a dialup, update would be quick.


Can you think of anything else?


Regards,
Paul Miller

[Ervin Jakab]

Wonderful idea, Paul!

Still my point is to make the docs available with the distro; when I download a 330 MB software, I expect the 6 MB of docs to be included (I mean what does 6 MB mean related to the 330).

Added to this, the rsync feature would be the cream on the cake.

[Ervin Jakab]

Wonderful idea, Paul!

Still my point is to make the docs available with the distro; when I download a 330 MB software, I expect the 6 MB of docs to be included (what does 6 MB mean related to the 330?).

Added to this, the rsync feature would be the cream on the cake.

[Dan York]

Ervin,

Greetings! We have talked about doing this in the past, but it basically comes down to an issue of keeping the manual up-to-date. Anytime we change **anything** in the ISO image, including the manual, we need to have a new release and a new
release number.  So either the manual stays static (and
out of date) on the CD, or we have to keep rolling new versions of the software - which is both more work on our end (because we MUST quality-test any ISO image extensively) and also creates confusion for end-users. ("Why are you issuing 4.1.3? Simply
because the manual needs updating?")

Also, if we were to do this, we would have to modify the installation code to install the manual locally and change the web manager and console code to point to the local (and probably out of date) copy of the manual.  On a minor note, it *would*
increase the ISO image size... not by much, but it would be a bit more that our users and partners would have to download and burn.

Instead of all of this, we would really prefer to continue to point people to the online manual, which *is* always up-to-date and is also available in several different downloadable formats.
I know it is one extra step for those people who want the manual, but I think in the long run it will ensure that you have the best information and also ease any confusion that might be out there
for users of our software.

If you'd like to talk about this more, please feel free to contact me directly (dyork@e-smith.com).

Thanks,
Dan

[Dan York]

I should have perhaps noted that on http://www.e-smith.org/docs/manual/ you current do have the ability to download the entire manual (and images) as either a GZIPped tarball or as a ZIP file so that it can be installed and read locally.

Dan