1 TeraGrid Documentation 2006 TeraGrid Documentation 2006 and Beyond Diana Diehl 3/09/2006 San Diego Supercomputer Center Documentation Group

1 TeraGrid Documentation 2006

TeraGrid Documentation2006 and Beyond

Diana Diehl 3/09/2006

San Diego Supercomputer Center

Documentation Group


Topics in this presentation

• Motivation for change• Growth of www.teragrid.org• Ultimate objectives• Specific goals• TeraGrid documentation family• Focus aAreas• User Info• User Info section re-org• User Info new features

• Knowledge base • Portal• TeraGrid User News• Ongoing maintenance & growth• New TeraGrid site design• Future development• Challenges• Solutions

http://www.teragrid.org/


Motivation for Change

• Outreach to new communities – New compute and data resource users– Greater range of preferences in information retrieval

• Growth of the TeraGrid infrastructure– Increased complexity, heterogeneity– More RP sites and resources– Changes in functionality, more options

• New focus on customer service– Emphasis on faster drill-down– Need for more contemporary information delivery


Motivation specifics

• User Survey– Difficulty with finding info– Call for new features– Frustration with contradictory info on RP and central site

• NSF recommendations—we’re on the same page!– A distinct Getting Started Guide/primer – More online training material to augment meetings– Providing ways for users to help each other – Substantial improvements and enhancements to existing docs– Copious online examples – Equivalent quality, structure and content across components of TeraGrid– Centralized, cohesive documentation with centralization of both version and URL

control, which is essential to ensure the usability of the documentation


Growth of www.teragrid.org/userinfo

• Sept. FY04: 4292 unique visitors

• Sept. FY05: 11,200 unique visitors

(entire www.teragrid.org site); does not include news.teragrid.org; accounts.teragrid.org; software

repository; stats exclude bots and search engines

70,000703000Oct-05

20,00016500Jan-04

6000170Aug-03

wordspages KBDate

The old one-page Getting Started Guide Model just doesn’t fit any

more

http://www.teragrid.org/userinfo

http://www.teragrid.org/


Ultimate objectives

1. Improve customer service for all users

2. Lower the barrier of entry for new communities

3. Improve ease of information management for staff


Specific Goals

Each project or task should accomplish one of these:

• Expose most used features

• Make detailed information easier to find

• Improve accuracy• Expand user choices• Simplify/clarify complexity

• Reduce redundancy• Optimize the site

infrastructure• Add new information• Make maintenance easier• Strengthen the reputation of

TG


TeraGrid User Documentation FamilySites that contain related or duplicated information

www.teragrid.org/userinfo

• Resources• Access• Jobs• Data

Sub-domain Web sites

• User news• Accounting• Monitor pages• Software

database• Knowledge

base• TG Portal

RP site Web sites

• User Guides• Other tools

Related sites• POPS/CI-

Partnership


Example of duplication: Compute resources

• www.teragrid.org/userinfo• Knowledge base• TG Portal• POPS• CI-Partnership• RP site Web sites

http://www.teragrid.org/userinfo


Focus areas for 2006

• External– User Info upgrade– Interaction with knowledge

base– Interaction with portal– TeraGrid news– New logo and style– Interaction with RP sites– Ongoing maintenance

• Internal:– User Services tools– TeraGrid conference


Make existing content more usableAdd new content & better delivery

= overhaul!


Tasks: Section Re-org

Rethink all sections• Make overview pages more informative

• Consolidate site-based code/script examples

• Improve navigation mechanism to better accommodate the rapidly expanding volume of content on the site

• Highlight preferred methods


New/Improved Features

1. True Getting Started Guide: “pocket guide to TG” for new users

2. Customizable resource pages: users choose views easier comparisons & filtered views

3. New top User Info page: expose most needed info quicker drill down.

4. Printable, customizable guides: DB delivery of site content

5. Expanded Tutorials section


Top User Info Page a useful tool

Expose most needed info—quicker drill-down TG Portal User news

Tutorials Help Desk

Add User Form Reservations

Machine status Knowledge base

Software library Links to RP sites

Acknowledgement boilerplate Community software requests

From text-based site map to featured content


Ongoing maintenance & growth

Continue to add new documentation as required

– Universal Remote?– Global gxmap– tgcp– Globus 4/Web services– Updated RP site specs


New method for documentation

• Quick drill-down

• Selected subject matter

• Succinct, specific articles

Free text search of select content

vs.

Hierarchical page search of *all* content

Free text search of select content

vs.

Hierarchical page search of *all* content


User Info Integration Tasks

• Contribute content: break knowledgeinto short, specific articles based on user questions and existing documentation

• Review KB articles • Hyperlink KB articles back to detailed User Info • Make KB accessible from every User Info page• Create complementary style to clearly brand KB and let users

know where they are at all times• Define workflow to keep KB and UI in sync


User Info integration tasks

• Share common info—not duplicate: Integration of content and forms

• Document recommended use of portal• Refer new users to portal at top level of site• Document bugs and idiosyncrasies as portal evolves• Make portal accessible from every page• Promote portal within appropriate sections of site

(access, DN propagation, batch jobs, checking resource loads and queues)


Application Redesign

• New application program with robust database backend

• New display front end

• New categories to improve service to user communities

• Integration with Inca

• Enhanced delivery features


New program—new DB backend

• Increase functionality & improve display

• Populate new user subscribers from source database

• Improve reliability; fewer points of failure

• Add record-based locking no more corruption and overwriting of the subscription flat files

• Enable dynamic display of select news from home page, EOT page, and others


New front end display

• Better category sorting

• Display by event date (i.e., more sensible announcement order)

• No more archive page user-customizable filters

• Calendar-based event and news display


Enhancements & Increased Functionality

• New downtime events feature to integrate with Inca• New categories to improve service to user communities

– Separate out networking– Integrate media news with user news– Management-controlled critical news category (users can’t

unsubscribe to this—security events)– Education category

• Filterable tags in email subject lines – Allow email client filtering by users receiving User News by email

• RSS Feeds – Increase choices for users for method of delivery


Look , Feel, and Usability

Work with ER and new Web coordinator to implement site-wide changes– New logo and colors– New navigation– New layout– TeraGrid site standards– Resolve navigation conflicts


Future Development• External

– Move general content to DB– Incorporate Cyberinfrastructure glossary application

• New users can find any term or acronym– Universal Feedback

• All users can provide input from any User Info page– Digests of detailed info

• Known issues• Tips• Code samples

– User Forum (in works at forums.teragrid.org)

• Internal– Web stats for quick reference– Enhancements to User Services log application – Integration of PI/ASTA log with TGCDB (populate automatically after XRAC meeting)


Challenges

• Platform heterogeneity exception-driven docs complicates Getting Started Guide

• Complexity of system high barrier of entry for new user communities

• Unclear communication pipeline outdated content

• Multiple information delivery vehicles (portal, KB, User Info, RP sites) difficult synchronization

• Distributed documentation user confusion


Solutions

• Cycle of accountability– Point-of-contact at each RP site responsible for regular review of

docs & approval of content– Mailing list/group where changes to RP info are distributed on a

schedule

• Time/More FTE• ER/Web coordinator (in the works!)• Plan/Agreement to pull reusable content from database• Break down complex info into digestible pieces through KB &

rewriting User Info content


Current Priorities

• User Info top page• Software overview re-design• Hardware resources section DB • Getting Started Guide• User News• Maintenance: Portal, CTSS 3/Globus 4/Web services• TeraGrid Conference & ER portion of site until Web

coordinator named• Knowledge Base

Documents

1 TeraGrid Documentation 2006 TeraGrid Documentation 2006 and Beyond Diana Diehl 3/09/2006 San Diego Supercomputer Center Documentation Group