Split data file into sub files

[komarovb]

Reason for Change

• This issue: Split data file into sub-files by year #515

Changes

• Split the _data/conferences.yml into individual sub-files per year under _data/conferences/
• Added a liquid template prepare_conference_data.liquid to merge all .yml files within _data/conferences/
• Replaced conferences variable assignment with an include call to the new template
• Updated the verify_data task in the Rakefile to take into account the new file structure
• Updated the README.md file
• Tested that everything works as expected

Minor

I used the following code snippet to verify that the data split was performed correctly.

require 'yaml'
require 'date'

old_data = YAML.load(File.read("_data/conferences.yml"), permitted_classes: [Date])

new_data = Dir.glob("_data/conferences/*yml").reduce([]) do |all_data, file|
  all_data + YAML.load(File.read(file), permitted_classes: [Date])
end 

puts new_data == old_data

[marcoroth]

Thanks for giving this a short @komarovb!

Looking at this, I'm wondering if this doesn't make things more complicated.
Maybe we could also rethink about the way we show conferences.

Since we have the conferences split up per year now, maybe we should also have dedicated pages per year to look at past conferences. This would also simplify this part since we don't have to concatenate the conferences.

What do you think?

[komarovb]

Hey @marcoroth, thank you for looking at this.

I agree that the implementation is a bit trickier now, but the main idea, as far as I understand, is to make it easier for people to add their events to the website and avoid navigating through the 2.5k+ lines of the conferences file.

In terms of user experience, I personally like how the website feels at the moment. The home page is clear and concise, showing not only current conferences but also future ones. One simplification that comes to mind is to drop concatenating all the files and just use the current and next year's data for the home and CFP pages.

Regarding past conferences, it might be beneficial to show them grouped by year, perhaps using an accordion to simplify navigation to a particular year. Here is a primitive example:

I could prototype something to give it a feel, and we can see if it's useful.

Let me know what you think.