[tor-bugs] #3710 [TorStatus]: Extend TorStatus navigation to cover metrics website parts

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#3710: Extend TorStatus navigation to cover metrics website parts
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  karsten      |          Owner:     
     Type:  enhancement  |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |      Milestone:     
Component:  TorStatus    |        Version:     
 Keywords:               |         Parent:     
   Points:               |   Actualpoints:     
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
 I would like to merge the new TorStatus website with the metrics website.
 Both websites are based on the same information, but focusing on a) the
 most recent network status vs. b) aggregate statistics on the network
 status over time.  A single website would be much easier to maintain.

 Developers seem to prefer Python/Django over JSP, so I'm happy to move the
 metrics website parts to Django and give up the metrics website once we're
 done.  But we need a new navigation in TorStatus to cover everything.
 This ticket is for discussing this navigation and the possible migration.

 The current TorStatus navigation bar contains these links:

  * Current Result Set
  * Reset Search Filters
  * Tor Exit Node Query
  * Advanced Search
  * Display Options
  * Network Statistics
  * Download CSV of Current Result Set (only shows up on results page)

 Most of the functionality is arranged around searching for relays (Current
 Result Set, Reset Search Filters, Tor Exit Node Query, Advanced Search,
 Display Options, Download
 CSV of Current Result Set).  I wonder how we can arrange these pages in a
 way that they all belong to a "Relay Search" part of the navigation.  The
 current TorStatus landing page could also be the landing page for the
 combined TorStatus and metrics website.

 The graphs on the Network Statistics page should either be integrated into
 the [https://metrics.torproject.org/network.html Network] page on the
 metrics website, or be removed.  In general, I don't find bar graphs very
 useful, because they eat a lot of space while providing little
 information.  I think the only reason why they're on the new TorStatus
 website is that they were on the old TorStatus website.  But if people
 find them really really useful, I can still be convinced to keep them.

 The current [https://metrics.torproject.org/sitemap.html sitemap] of the
 metrics website contains the following links:

  * [https://metrics.torproject.org/index.html Home]
  * [https://metrics.torproject.org/graphs.html Graphs]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/network.html Network]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/users.html Users]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/packages.html Packages]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/performance.html Performance]
  * [https://metrics.torproject.org/research.html Research]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/papers.html Papers]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/data.html Data]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/tools.html Tools]
  * [https://metrics.torproject.org/status.html Status]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/networkstatus.html Network Status]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/exonerator.html ExoneraTor]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/relay-search.html Relay Search]
    * [https://metrics.torproject.org/consensus-health.html Consensus
 Health]

 From these pages, Home, Graphs, Research, and Status can go away.  They
 only explain what's on the subpages.  Well, Home contained some news of
 the Metrics page, but I don't think anyone read those.  Also, we have a
 blog and a Tor website for news.

 The pages Network, Users, Packages, and Performance should be integrated
 into the new TorStatus if possible.  This requires us to provide custom
 graphs and tables based on user input.  Of course, the interface can be
 different, but it would be good to keep the functionality.  For the
 moment, we could add links to the metrics website to the TorStatus
 navigation, and once we have the code in TorStatus, we can link to the new
 pages.

 The pages Papers, Data, and Tools contain mostly static content, except
 for the list of tarballs on the Data page.  But we might simply link to an
 Apache directory containing the tarballs.  I could imagine moving these
 pages to the Tor website.

 The pages ExoneraTor, Relay Search, and Consensus Health are what
 TorStatus could provide as part of its "Relay Search" functionality.
 These pages are all about searching relays and getting an idea of the
 network status.  In fact, these pages are only on the metrics website
 because we didn't have a useful TorStatus and because it was easy to
 extend the metrics website.

 There, that's my idea of how we could change the current navigations on
 TorStatus and the metrics website.  I'm not sure how exactly a combined
 navigation would look like.  Thoughts?

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/3710>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online