Improve the look and feel of the download pages

[Martyn Gigg]

The download pages are looking a little dated. It's probably one of the first things new users see so it would be nice if they looked a little better.

The archive releases could move to a separate page and we could then have the vates stuff on the same page?

All just thought really but I thought it was worth raising.

[Nick Draper]

Moved to iteration 33 at iteration 32 code freeze

[Nick Draper]

Moved at end of release 2.1

[Nick Draper]

http://www.mantidproject.org/Release_Notes_2_2_Full_List

[Nick Draper]

Moved to release 2.4

[Nick Draper]

Moved at the code freeze for release 2.4

[Nick Draper]

Moved to r2.6 at the end of r2.5

[Nick Draper]

Moved to the Backlog after the code freeze for R2.6

[Nick Draper]

bulk move to assigned at the into of the triage step

[Jay Rainey]

I have re-designed the frontend & backend for the downloads page using Sphinx and custom Python scripts. The ​source is available on github, and the output can be viewed ​here.

To test

Review the design changes, ensuring I have met the requirements of the ​design proposal.

Notes

1. A custom script will be written by Martyn that will update the nightly download URLS.
2. The source will be hosted on our server (unlike the design doc says) to allow for easily inclusion of other Jinja templates (e.g. our custom header & footer)

[Russell Taylor]

If I visit the page on my RHEL6 box it offers me the Ubuntu download.

[Jay Rainey]

Replying to Russell Taylor:

If I visit the page on my RHEL6 box it offers me the Ubuntu download.

As it's not possible to detect which distro a user is using, I have two options:

1. Output the .deb by default onto the download button as the Red Hat (.rpm) can be obtained in 'Alternative downloads'. In other words, the download button would say: Download Mantid for Linux (.deb) Then in the 'Alternative downloads' list Red Hat would be updated to say Red Hat (.rpm).

2. Use an approach similar to ​Google, by creating an additional dialog, which is displayed once the button is clicked. The dialog will contain a list of radio-buttons to allow the user to select the .deb or .rpm distro.

I have opted (for now) to use Option 1 due to simplicity. Option 2 would also mean that the user has to click download, select their version, then click another download button. Whereas in option 1 the user can download a .deb or .rpm in one click.

[Jay Rainey]

This has been updated as per comment:15. The change(s) can be viewed on the ​development site and the source can be reviewed on ​github.

To test

1. Ensure the changes made address the RHEL6 issue noted in comment:15.
2. A review of the updated ​installation instructions for each operating system would be appreciated.

[Russell Taylor]

Right, that'll be why SourceForge offers you the source download for Linux, which isn't a bad choice actually. Either way, Linux users are giving themselves a whole bunch of extra work if they download mantid from here rather than a package repo.

One other comment, the Mac download should say "OS X" not "Mountain Lion" as that package is just fine for Mavericks well. Probably qualify it with 10.8+, or "Mountain Lion/Mavericks", and do the same kind of thing where it says "Snow Leopard" also.

[Jay Rainey]

Replying to Russell Taylor:

One other comment, the Mac download should say "OS X" not "Mountain Lion" as that package is just fine for Mavericks well. Probably qualify it with 10.8+, or "Mountain Lion/Mavericks", and do the same kind of thing where it says "Snow Leopard" also.

I have opted to to use version numbers for simplicity. The source changes can be viewed in ​here & ​here. The development site has been updated. The version numbers can be viewed on the ​downloads page & ​archives page.

[Owen Arnold]

Nightly build needs to give the indication that it is not a stable as the official release. I suggest:

• Changing the button from "Download Mantid for {Platform}" to "Unstable Download for {Platform}"
• Adding some text, or a link to somewhere that describes what unstable means
• Changing the button background from solid green to a fine, alternate, green, white lined texture to make it look - well less green and stable.

[Martyn Gigg]

I'm not as a keen on calling the nightly build "unstable" as it doesn't really set the right tone. Given that tickets have gone through testing before they get to master and nightly is a build of master then things should be in a reasonably good state, but I do see the point about warning users.

How about we just include some text in italics underneath the "Nightly build ..." title that says something like: Nightly Development Build - Minimally tested, only recommended for testing bleeding edge features

[Martyn Gigg]

As a minor point can we change the title from "Mantid downloads" to "Download Mantid"?

[Russell Taylor]

Also, "unstable" is already taken as a description of the clean builds of the develop branch that are deployed at the SNS. The package is known as mantidunstable vs mantidnightly for the latest master branch build.

[Jay Rainey]

I have updated the ​site in regards to the feedback from Owen, Martyn, and Russell above. I recommend this be tested on Red Hat before passing.

[Owen Arnold]

Things to do before passing:

• Change "Nightly development build – minimally tested and only recommended for testing the latest features." to "Nightly development build – minimally tested and NOT recommended for general use."
• Change the background colour of the corresponding button from green to something else. The yellow you had before seemed good.
• Reduce vertical padding to reduce vertical spacing (already discussed)

[Jay Rainey]

@Owen in comment:26

I have changed the text and colour as suggested. The site can be viewed ​here and on various screen resolutions ​here. (Not that people will download Mantid on their phones/tablets, but they are likely to visit it on those devices regardless).

[Stuart Campbell]

This ticket has been transferred to github issue ​4940