Download CP - Why so many clicks to find it?

[wadestriebel]

I completely agree, there was an article released a couple of months ago (in French) that mentioned the same thing. That being said, I think this is a question for @james and @invisnet.

[omukiguy]

I stand to be corrected, There is a plan to make something of this. For your personal project I made a plugin to tackle this after encountering this issue. It’s on the WP repo and also on GitHub GitHub - bahiirwa/latest-github-release: Automatically add a download link to the latest Github repo release zips with a shortcode like [latest_github_release user="Github" repo="years-since"]

[invisnet]

@roald

1. To many clicks to find the zip or tar.gz files. Once the user click on the download link, he is taken to another download page. One more click takes him to Github. One more click on assets finally shows the two files. Why so many clicks needed?

Yes, that’s definitely something we should improve.

@roald

2. The download files should be hosted on ClassicPress server instead of Github. Many users are hesitant downloading files from another server and specifically if they never have heard of Github.com

GitHub provides a secure and reliable service - why reinvent the wheel? The release can be signed (which it is) to prove it’s an official release and to ensure it can’t be hijacked. The one thing we do need to do is to publish the public key somewhere on the CP site - @james and @wadestriebel I think that’s one for you.

We’d need to do a lot of infrastructure work before we could consider hosting the download, and I’m not entirely convinced it’s worth it.

[thewolf]

From my own usage of GitHub…it ain’t simple.
I am never sure what and where I am to download something.
I kept clicking on the ClassicPress 1.0.1 link at the top of the page and got nothing.

It took me 3 minutes to find the zip at the bottom.
Just my take on GitHub. I don’t care for it.
Give me 1 link to start the DL.

[BlueSkyPhoenix]

I think this is a valid question and I wonder if the current process may be keeping people from trying ClassicPress – either because there’s too many clicks, or because they don’t use GitHub or are frustrated by it. (and to @thewolf’s point, I just went over to the link he referenced and I can totally see how the download page can be confusing.)

How can we make this process easier for our potential users – including our less-technically-minded users?

[anon71687268]

@BlueSkyPhoenix

How can we make this process easier for our potential users – including our less-technically-minded users?

Make the download button a proper CTA everywhere it appears, instead of a link…and have it linked directly to the download – there’s no need for anyone to be redirected to GitHub. Those who are technical in nature will be savvy enough to look at the target URL and find the repo if they need it. I also think the download button should come before the migrate button on the homepage.

[fwolf]

Well … CTA for Download, and link to Github for “contribute” - which is kinda the standard nowadays.

Just my .02 euro cents
cu, w0lf.

[klein]

Another point to consider is this page:

When you click migrate, you go to a page all about the migration plugin. But when you click download on the homepage, you first get taken to this page that asks you if you want to really download or rather have the migration plugin. I think that’s a bit double? Youre asking them to choose twice between a clean download and the migration plugin.

[Simone]

@invisnet

GitHub provides a secure and reliable service - why reinvent the wheel?

I don’t know much about, but I think GitHub custom subdomains can be a solution.
Can be something like download.classicpress.net…

[roald]

@BlueSkyPhoenix

I think this is a valid question and I wonder if the current process may be keeping people from trying ClassicPress – either because there’s too many clicks, or because they don’t use GitHub or are frustrated by it.

That is what I thought also. Forgot to mention one thing - The “Assets” link at GitHub is smalI - in fact it is the smallest font size on the bottom of the page. Must be very hard for regular Joe or Jane to find the download files indeed.

[james]

GitHub is the best choice for us to host our downloads for the foreseeable future. There is another big reason for this which we haven’t covered yet in this thread: it helps us keep bandwidth costs down.

I also agree that GitHub is not intuitive to people who haven’t seen it before. I sometimes forget this, I’ve been using it for a long time and it’s a great solution for managing and developing code. This is why ClassicPress uses it for development.

@Simone

I think GitHub custom subdomains can be a solution.

This wouldn’t help us in this particular case, because we need a download backed by a chain of trust and a cryptographically verifiable process. git + GitHub gives us this, and GitHub custom domains are mostly for hosting static websites rather than full git repositories.

There are a few things we can do to improve the situation though:

1. Link directly to the zip file on GitHub, instead of requiring multiple clicks. We need a way to do this without requiring an update each time we release a new ClassicPress version, and as @omukiguy says above he has written code for this, we just haven’t integrated it into the site yet.
2. Publish the public key (I just did this). So far, all releases have been signed with key ID 79C0F7BD, details here: https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?search=releases%40classicpress.net&op=vindex
3. Make further progress on our implementation of automatic update signatures and verification.

Edit: the above key link seems to be down intermittently, here is another one: http://pool.sks-keyservers.net:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x79C0F7BD&op=vindex

[roald]

@fwolf

CTA for Download

CTA - where is this? tnx

[fwolf]

CTA = Call To Action.

[anon95694377]

@james

Link directly to the zip file on GitHub, instead of requiring multiple clicks.

Yes please! The github redirect is probably putting a lot of people off.

[raygulick]

These direct download URLs have version references:
https://github.com/ClassicPress/ClassicPress-Migration-Plugin/releases/download/1.0.1/switch-to-classicpress.zip
https://github.com/ClassicPress/ClassicPress-release/archive/1.0.1.zip
Is there a way to update direct links on the website automatically when a new release occurs? If not, are we counting on manual updates?

[james]

@raygulick

Is there a way to update direct links on the website automatically when a new release occurs? If not, are we counting on manual updates?

See above:

@james

We need a way to do this without requiring an update each time we release a new ClassicPress version, and as @omukiguy says above he has written code for this, we just haven’t integrated it into the site yet.

[roald]

I know that every one is busy with developer duties, but is anyone looking into the simple aspect as to creating a more user friendly download ?

The way I understand it is that the Git Platform is for developers and not for the end user.

[klein]

This issue will be addressed in the new version of the main website, that is coming up, with an one click download. It won’t be long now.

[roald]

Oh This is Great
Really want ClassicPress to go high, but the download is bad for non-tech people - they simply can’t find it.

This will fix it !

Thanks, Roald