It's great to see that the dataentry templates are available. But the harder work is creating the Device Pages that give all the wisdom that people have garnered about a particular device, including:
- full hardware details
- finding proper firmware image
- flashing
- unbricking
- hardware oddities
- photos
- bootlogs
- tips and tricks
- etc...
We could automatically import all the Device Pages from OpenWrt. We could, but that would have big ramifications:
- We would import everything that's correct, but also everything that's incorrect.
- We wouldn't provide any improvement to the quality of information, nor any indication that the data has been checked recently.
- We wouldn't take advantage of some of the power available with the data plugin, especially the ability to create "tabbed tables" for information drawn from the dataentry (See the example at the top of https://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/mqmaker/witi)
- We lose an opportunity to give a formal structure/look to all Device Pages, with a recommendation for "best practices"
Instead, I would prefer to come up with a workflow for creating LEDE Device Pages that rewards people for combing through the info on the OpenWrt page to find the relevant stuff.
I am hoping we can make a Device Page template that gives the best practice for displaying information about a device. It should include the info in the list above. It might have the format below.
We can automatically create an initial page for each device that contains the Device Name, the Tabbed Table, and a note that says, "See information on the OpenWrt Wiki, https:$OpenWrtDevicePage" with the remaining headers as placeholders.
It's easy to generate this automatically, and delivers immediate value. (The tabbed table is a good way to organize the hardware information.) As people update the Device Page, (even if they simply copy-paste info), it becomes clear that the LEDE page has been updated/vetted.
Thoughts?
sample Device Page template
Header giving Vendor & Device Name
Hardware Information (with the Tabbed Table of hardware info)
Automatically generated "See OpenWrt Device Page at https:..." A person who updates this page would remove this link to the OpenWrt page
Getting and Flashing Firmware (empty to start, but should contain narrative to tell how to do it)
Hardware Information (empty to start, but should contain memory layouts, pinouts for RS-232/JTAG, etc.)
Photos (empty to start)
Troubleshooting/Unbricking (empty to start)
Boot Logs (empty to start)
Tags (empty to start?)