Hello, we are doing an application documentation sprint. The recent documentation survey indicated that 71% of respondents needed application documentation. A quick review of the documentation available in 60 of the core and contributed applications revealed the following.
23 out of 60 applications did not have an administration interface. (12/31 core)
27 out of 60 applications did not have administration help documentation. (14/31 core)
There were few direct links from administration help documentation to the relevant handbook pages.
There were no links from the administration help documentation to the application administration interfaces.
How you can help improve the usability and documentation.
We need volunteers to research and write one or two paragraphs on how to use each of the 60 modules. We have researched all the links to application administration interfaces and application help documentation so you do not have to. In many cases we have also linked directly to the package for applications which may include valuable information in install, readme, and upgrade documentation. We have also set up a test site where you can work with an application to help write documentation for it. We have created customization and configuration handbook pages for each of the 60 applications and provided you with those links.
We will work with the docs team to review your paragraphs for documentation style and consistency. We also work with developers to get them to accept documentation patches to their applications, so you don't have to learn CVS or argue with developers. If there is existing documentation we will work with the docs team to move it to the handbook where appropriate.
If you are interested in helping please contact me to volunteer. With thirty minutes of your time you can quickly research and write a few sentences to describe an application and provide useful links. Zack Rosen, Andrew Hoppin, and I will be working on this full-time tomorrow.
Cheers,
Kieran