Refresh website for 2025

[garrett]

We should probably update the website's content and perhaps style a little bit too.

[Mash707]

Hi @garrett can I help in this? I am not a good designer but maybe with some guidance I could help . Are you guys looking for contributions? Thank you.

[garrett]

@Mash707: Sure, finding information that's out of date and updating it to be current would be great. We've also added features that aren't talked about yet on the website, like Cockpit Files.

Also, when looking through the website, if you find anything confusing, anything that could be improved, or anything that's missing, please bring it to our attention. You can either provide some suggestions or even just bringing it to our attention and asking for clarification would help. This can be done through either PRs or even just issues.

(The screenshots are also way out of date, but they need to follow certain guidelines, so that's a bit tricky. And I'd have to do design related tasks.)

You can also look through the issues at https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit-project.github.io/issues and see if there's anything that looks interesting.

Thanks!

[Mash707]

Thanks @garrett for the information. I just wanted to ask is it possible to build the website in windows using wsl or something? If no then probably I will setup a VM which could be slow. Also where can I find new information about cockpit project since I haven't used it or heard about it much(I am new to this project).
Also do you guys have a slack or something on which I can communicate with you all or I should discuss them under issues in github?

[garrett]

We're on Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#cockpit:fedoraproject.org (It's linked on the website in a few places. But I guess this means it needs to be more prominent, so it's easier to find. This link opens a page which lets you either connect in your browser or a Matrix app, like Element.)

We have a script that sets up and runs a container for you, using podman. But you need to run it in a Linux distribution, and I'm pretty sure it would work with any distribution inside of WSL2 as long as you have podman installed in that distribution.

Once you have podman up and running on your system, you can run _scripts/container-create and it'll automatically create a container for you to test the website and tell you what to do next when it successfully completes. (It'll say that you should run _scripts/container-jekyll next... you can also pass arguments to it, like _scripts/container-jekyll -Ilo to have instant reload on.)

The official docs for podman use a different method, where podman or podman-desktop run on Windows and use a VM inside of WSL2 for podman. What I'm recommending above is different; it's to use WSL2 for a distribution and running podman inside of that, so you can use our scripts (intended for Linux) from within a Linux distribution inside of WSL2.

[Mash707]

I'll start by building the site and let you know once I get the setup done.

[Mash707]

Hi @garrett, I was able to get the site running locally with all things working properly.

Wanted to ask if you guys have anything on priority to work on or could you assign me any section of the website that I can start working upon? I am finding it bit confusing from where can I start (something beginner friendly).

[garrett]

@Mash707: Great to see that it's working for you!

There's nothing that's urgent, but you have a fresh viewpoint on the website and project, so you might be able to tell what the rough spots are a bit better than those of us who have been involved quite some time. If you see anything that needs improvement or if you think something is missing, then please open some issues and send some PRs! We appreciate all contributions. Thanks!

And we're all more used to Linux, so having someone with a different point of view (with more of a Windows background) will help too, I think!

[Mash707]

@garrett I think a great starting point would be redesigning the top nav bar. This way we can ensure that new things like cockpit files and cockpit client can be highlighted. Could you tell more about the tech stack that have used been to build the website. I am familiar with react, so it might take some time to understand project structure.

[garrett]

The website is written in HTML, with CSS, and uses Jekyll to transform content from Markdown to HTML. React only really makes sense for apps, like Cockpit, which need interactivity — not for websites, which are for content.

The navigation is fine enough for now; having hover interactions are problematic for multiple accessibility reasons, and we shouldn't depend on JavaScript to show content. There are other ways to highlight things like Cockpit Client and Cockpit Files than having some hard to use hover cards in navigation.

[Mash707]

Got it. We should keep things static in the website. I'll see what other ways can we work around to highlight things. Thanks