A better presentation for download links

Hi

There is a very recurrent problem with all projects of JogAmp, people hardly find where to download its libraries. The following page is empty... which does not help a lot:
http://jogamp.org/wiki/index.php/Release_2.0-rc3

I suggest some changes to allow people to find download links more easily:
- the "Builds" section should remain unchanged
- each sub-project should have a "download" link. Currently, the user must click on "Home"...
- this "download" link should lead to a page with 2 links (one for the latest release or release candidate and one for the latest nightly builds)
- it should be possible to download JOGL / JOAL / JOCL with GlueGen at the same time (not in 2 separate archives) or the download page should mention that GlueGen is required to run JOGL / JOAL / JOCL
- the main page should have a download section above the "Builds" section leading to a page with 2 links etc... but allowing to download JOGL, JOAL, JOCL and GlueGen at the same time

Currently a lot of people are confused and search for the JARs for hours. I have never had such problems but we have to take into account that some newbies don't even know what the word "Builds" mean (especially non native speakers). A lot of people complained about the difficulty of finding the JARs for example on Stackoverflow.

Yeah it's quite painfull to download jogl. It's better with the jogamp-*.7z, but I remember before that to have lost hours and just failed to get jogl.

"Signed Candidate": not sure of the version or build number (so I'm not using it). I need all platforms lib so "Devbuilds" seems unusable for me (there's too many files). "master branch" (and "Signed Release") is better but still 7 different files and I have the impression all the big files are just the same with only platforms libs which differs (libs are quite small): would have been much better to have a one file with everything.

Hope my comment will be usefull to improve jogl download.

On Monday, December 19, 2011 10:17:58 PM jouvieje [via jogamp] wrote:
Yup, I remember and have not forgotten it :)
I will add this to the next release, ie -all_platforms.7z file.

Nevertheless, I guess the Build/Downloads is quite visible right now
and the direct wikipedia link to the latest 'release' as well.

I agree .. all the mumbo jumbo about 'Signed Candidate' .. etc
needs to be reduced.

Question: Is the path to the latest release download, ie v2.0-rc5
clear and easy right now ?

And if offering the -all_platforms.7z file, is it ok then ?

Hint: You can also clone our jogamp.org git repository and
offer a better solution - if you like doing it directly.

~Sven

About the build nomenclature, I think there is two use case:
 1) Release/Stable builds: for people new to jogl or who wish to get lastest stable and tested build
 2) Dev builds: for people who want/need to get the latest fix or enhancements but without building it from git !
Not sure if it's really needed to expose more than that (simpler is better).

For these two cases, having the "ie -all_platforms.7z file." would be perfect :)


About the visibility, may be "Builds/Downloads" would be better than "Builds" reading the comment of gouessej.
Not sure if "Signed" is really needed in the sub category.

On Monday, December 19, 2011 10:51:48 PM jouvieje [via jogamp] wrote:
Yup. Somehow we have it (planned) this way already.

- current
- next

- specific releases
- the autobuilds for the 'curious' :)

Ok.

>
>
> About the visibility, may be "Builds/Downloads" would be better than
> "Builds" reading the comment of gouessej.
> Not sure if "Signed" is really needed in the sub category.

Yup, named it this way in JOGL/JOCL, will do this on the main page as well.

Thx.

~Sven