Question about the website source

Hi. To avoid spam at the Babylon.js Website Github repository I’ll ask my question here.

I was wondering is there a hidden, build process to add a new button for the website in the community section?

For instance when I type in “forum” at the Github repository that hosts the shared source for the website: Search · forum · GitHub

It shows a lot of files in the build folders, but also some in the src folders, and I don’t see any instructions on how to build the source though? Fyi I know some of the search results aren’t even related to the community section and I’m not referring to them.

there is no hidden process (or not one that we are aware of :-))

The website is still being built using gulp (and will be updated in the future), but until then - the documentation here is the right one to get started - BabylonJS/Website: Main babylon.js website (github.com)

Is there any change you want to make to the website that we can help with?

In most setups where they have repetitive content e.g. Header/Navigation content, there is usually a template webpage or document where code; like Nodejs, injects the code in each non-Header/Navigation webpage. This relatively allows the needing to only manually update one webpage/document and then build/run the code script to inject the changes into the other webpages.

For example this script (sorry if this comes across as cross-advertising):
https://github.com/armory3d/armory_web/blob/main/templates/make.js

I’ve seen the same setup using React as well.

As we are revamping our website with new content now, it will probably not be the right time to restructure the code :slight_smile:

The website’s structure hasn’t been changed in a long time. It’s not a project we invest too much time in, but if you are willing to give it a bit of your time, we will obviously be happy to improve things there. Adding @PatrickRyan to the mix, but again - for the next 2-3 days no changes will be merged to the website other than content changes for the release.

@RPaladin from a time and money point of view it would obviously best to go with one of the leading frameworks if and when they do upgrade. No offense , its simply a case of working smart :wink:

@RPaladin, the file you are looking for that creates the navigation is src > content > site.json . And @RaananW is right in that we are only making content changes this week to get ready for the 5.0 release announcement.

That said, this site was created several years ago and we are due for an overhaul. We will look at a redesign in the next release cycle and would make any determinations about the framework needs at that point.

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I believe so, but how does one metaphorically “build” to other files after making changes to site.json?

Does gulp run do this automatically? Confused.

Does this include PRs as well as core development?

Yes, gulp run from the main website directory will build the whole site. I’m not sure what you mean by core development in this context. In terms of the website, we are in our last day before pushing the 5.0 content live so any changes to the site beyond that content are out of scope for the communication plan. If you mean can you push PRs for the engine, then yes. This only applies to changes to the website for this week so we can get everything proofed and buttoned up.

I realize that tomorrow is the big day, so I’ll wait until tomorrow before creating a PR. I was curious to know whether PRs are acceptable if from non-team members in the long term - non-team members by the way, is what I meant by core development earlier. Sorry, should have clarified more.

Yes, as an open-source repository we accept PRs for the engine. However, we usually like to have a discussion about what the PR entails on the forum so we all know what we are trying to implement as the core team will usually need to support things going forward.

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