Move website to it's own repo

[privatemaker]

As I have been updating the documentation it comes to my mind- why does the website exist in this already very dense repo containing all the application logic? In recent years there was this "trend" towards monorepos, and with code projects including multiple related modules a monorepo makes sense vs. git sub-modules.

But why include a whole website which contains documentation and should be regularly updated and maintained? The one argument i've heard (from other projects) is this helps keep the documentation more up-to-date. Nice theory, but in practice (especially that of Decap CMS and my recent efforts to update Beta Features) just having the docs pages in the same repo does not help enforce such updating.

The very obvious benefits I see of a separate website repo are:

• Smaller repo sizes
• More granular ACL of contributors and maintainers
• Less clutter in the issue tracker and notifications
• Less effort to maintain branch sync with HEAD re: to entirely unrelated updates done to the code

Apologies if this is a not-up-for-discussion topic due to history, but it seems like maybe under new leadership this is worth revisting.

[martinjagodic]

We've had this discussion internally and it's a valid point. But while it solves the problems that you describe, it also creates new ones.

I believe that at this point the project is still manageable under one repository. It's easier to manage issues, discussions, PRs, and projects under one repo.

I converted this into a discussion because I would like to hear more opinions and experiences from similar projects.

[privatemaker]

Ah I see. Care to share what new problems it creates?

[martinjagodic]

Mainly it's the confusion of having 2 repos with their own issues system. As much as this is a solution for a large project with many contributors, it's a hassle for projects with small teams. If this project gains more long-term collaborators, it will start to make sense.

It's easier to update docs in the same PR than having to do 2 on 2 repos. You would have to clone both, make PRS, review twice, etc.

It's easier to search locally on one repo. If I want to know about editorial workflow, the docs are up there in my results pane. This is useful for fresh contributors.

It would take some work (not a lot though), but I would rather focus on delivering updates to the core project right now.

There could be more but these come from the top of my mind.

[martinjagodic]

@privatemaker you were right: we need a separate repo for the website. We were just releasing a new CMS version and publishing a blog post and it did not go well haha. I will set it up and migrate docs issues there.

[privatemaker]

@martinjagodic sorry to hear about the clusterduck 💥 🦆 but glad to hear the website will live independently. In the case you don't know about the trick to maintain history of one directory, I will link it here

[martinjagodic]

I didn't know about this, thanks!

[privatemaker]

This has been resolved as the site now lives in the repo: decap-website 🥳 🎈