Help Wanted! [Documentation]

[emre]

If you can help us on creating SambaPOS documentation you can create an account on our Wiki based documentation website and edit / create pages as you want...

Here is the account creation link
http://doc.sambapos.org/doku.php/en/samba?do=register

Thanks...

[jenem]

Hi Emre,

Have created account.

Will edit when I have time. Have corrected 1 spelling error.

Edgar

[JohnS]

Emre,

As soon as I get some free time I will help out - its the least I can do for you.

Just finishing off some major projects.

[emre]

That's great! Thank you!

If anyone wants to create documentation for other languages I can add support for more languages...

[JohnS]

I have just been thru the Turkish documents and there is a lot of info there.

Is it possible to get the text translated to English, and we can update the pictures and format the text as needed. Web based Turkish to English translators are really bad 

[jenem]

I know, I tried!!

[JohnS]

Emre,

With V3 on the way  how much of the documentation will change?

I thought I would be cunning and get my wife up to speed on SambaPOS for client training and system setup, and hinted she could help with the documentation.

Her comeback was 'What's the point, Isn't V3 going to have substantial improvements and changes? How much of the V2 documentation will become redundant?'

 

Edgar, you can stop laughing now!

So my question is, do you have an idea of what topics/sections of the wiki will be relevant to V3? Is V2 going to continue as an alternative to V3 or will it become end of life once V3 is out of Beta?

[emre]

Well... That's why men should get ideas from women before proceeding something like that. Hmm.. That's true. There will be lots of changes. For example modifiers, customers, ticket tags, department configuration, table configuration will change. Maybe menus, rules, events will stay same but there is no guarantee. On the other hand new users can find information about basic V2 configuration on our forum. We also answer questions too..

So waiting until V3 seems the best choice.

We may keep V2 as a stable alternative. It works fine in most cases and might be a good choice for people searching a simple solution.

[JohnS]

I think if we at least document the common stuff like

Cash drawers
Pole displays
Printer templates
A few promo setups
Modifiers
Product pictures and layouts
Ticket tags
Inventory

The rest as you said can be gotten from the forum. Its more about getting an understanding and then you start to realize the potential of SambaPOS.

I was actually thinking about starting a sticky post to link to some of the info in the forum for quick reference - like an index.
And I still like my idea about a version release topic to outline the changes in each version which in turn can be linked to the posts that prompted the updates.

[emre]

John I've upgraded your account for enabling your stick, move, merge, delete, etc.., permissions.

Don't ban me

[emre]

And... about the version history thing.
If fact for a software like ours such information is essential. The real thing we are missing is the issue tracking. First of all we should create issues for every feature requests and bug reports on our development website. Secondly developers should stick to the issue tracker and mark them as done as they complete tasks. So anyone can track new features or solved issues by version numbers. For every open source project issue tracker is the main entry point for new developers. When they want to develop something they search for open issues and try to find something they can implement. Maybe the most important use of the issue tracker is showing the direction where software goes because we also use it as a road map plan by milestone tracking.

We started this project in Turkish language and all that kind of development stuff was in Turkish. There are not so many open source projects exists led by Turkish speaking developers. When I first started SambaPOS I advertised it on software development forums for getting some attention to open source development. So I decided keeping issues in Turkish for communicating with other developers easily..

Since I couldn't get enough attention from Turkish speaking developers I think we can continue tracking issues in English. That will make everything easier for me too..

[CafeCuppio]

Hi

I do understand how important a good active community is but it is just as essential to have good, simple to understand, and detailed documentation. This all will help to draw attention to this project, not just from programming gurus like yourself (Emre) but also end-users that are looking for a great solution.

To be honest, when I looked for a POS solution 6 months back I tried SambaPOS, but I was under a lot more pressure to get a solution fast. So I had a quick look at it and lost my self within all the settings and all the option and when looking for documentation to at least explain what each option/setting means and found that there were not a lot I had to pass on to the next option since I needed something that did the job and fast!

Now I have a lot more time and less pressure to play around, figure it out and then only implement it, but the truth is, not all have the luxury of time.

So I would like to help out where possible since I also started with no knowledge about SambaPOS and slowly working my way through it. Well, thanks to the great community I now know a little more, lol.

The question is, what is the ETA for a stable release of V3? - If V3 Stable is only a couple of months away then yes wait.
Will it completely replace V2? - If V2 will still be maintained then more documentation will be needed.

Unfortunately I do not understand Turkish, otherwise I would have help with the translation, but the only Turkish I know is the Turkish Delight ....   

Point is that good documentation is need to insure that end users are not overwhelmed when facing simple issues or question when trying SambaPOS. I will also help for experts like you to spend less time answering question that could be avoided with simple documentation thus giving you more time to spend on programing .... not saying that you should go all quiet now, lol

Well that is just my 2cents....

Thanks!
GK

[emre]

I do understand how important a good active community is but it is just as essential to have good, simple to understand, and detailed documentation. This all will help to draw attention to this project, not just from programming gurus like yourself (Emre) but also end-users that are looking for a great solution.

Yes I agree that. For this reason we created lots of Turkish content in the beginning but we couldn't do the same for English because we decided making some important changes on V3 just after releasing SambaPOS in English.

To be honest, when I looked for a POS solution 6 months back I tried SambaPOS, but I was under a lot more pressure to get a solution fast. So I had a quick look at it and lost my self within all the settings and all the option and when looking for documentation to at least explain what each option/setting means and found that there were not a lot I had to pass on to the next option since I needed something that did the job and fast!

It is very near but we didn't even celebrated our first anniversary 6 months ago SambaPOS was just 6 months old project and compared to mature projects yes documentation is still an issue for us.

The question is, what is the ETA for a stable release of V3? - If V3 Stable is only a couple of months away then yes wait.
Will it completely replace V2? - If V2 will still be maintained then more documentation will be needed.

Since we still develop V2 and V3 together it is impossible to give an ETA for V3. Today I'm working for V3 but tomorrow we can find a new great idea and start implementing that for V2. That might seem like a bad idea for most people but I never create long term plans. When I feel a big benefit that instantly becomes my first priority.

Unfortunately I do not understand Turkish, otherwise I would have help with the translation, but the only Turkish I know is the Turkish Delight ....   

No, you know one more Turkish thing (Hint: The red apple)

Point is that good documentation is need to insure that end users are not overwhelmed when facing simple issues or question when trying SambaPOS. I will also help for experts like you to spend less time answering question that could be avoided with simple documentation thus giving you more time to spend on programing .... not saying that you should go all quiet now, lol

Compared to commercial projects community projects have lots of advantages but of course there are disadvantages too. For supporting new users community is good on answering questions or helping each other but when it comes to collaborating for creating help content it changes. Creating "good" help content (documentation, videos, other training stuff) is something different. It needs dedication but like you said time is precious.

Creating content, application development, supporting newcomers, expanding userbase are all strongly tied to each other. Without one we can't improve others. When I look at the requests section what people wants from SambaPOS really amazes me.. We have big potential. But is everything possible without resources? In fact keeping up SambaPOS project is not different from keeping up a restaurant business. For this reason one of my high priority objective is creating commercial opportunities for people who makes money from SambaPOS project and using these resources for community benefits. This won't be easy but I strongly believe success of SambaPOS application and community support is the key...

[Marsel]

please help me with this problem
http://forum2.sambapos.org/index.php/topic,309.0/topicseen.html

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Please don't double post. I have responded to your other post.
JohnS
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