Here is the progress on work made in this proposal. In addition to tracking the work done, this document includes a to do list, a go live to do list, a bug list, and a list of things to consider with Rachel.
110129 : getting started
- add update notifier plugin
Found one that works for all web-based updates, but not XML-RPC. Tried to get it to work with XML-RPC or to find an alternative, no go so far.
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110201 : info@diglib.org
- move diglib.org mail to DreamHost and get info@diglib.org to forward to dlf@clir.org
Contacted DH after confirming that removal of MX was not working. They fixed it and I tested info@diglib.org, which seems to be working now.
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110203 : tutorial for rachel
- walkthrough of the site and its structure
- basic instructions on editing the site with the web back end and with MarsEdit
Prep time and time with Rachel, followed by a few small fixes to the site.
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110204 : clir logo and color
- add a version of the CLIR logo provided by CLIR staff to the homepage sidebar for consideration
Got the logo from Brian and implemented a text widget on the home sidebar to include this. Tweaked for Brian to get spacing more satisfactory.
Annoyed by the color mismatches, I figure out how to properly use color profiles to make the site look the same on all (properly behaving) browsers.
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110205 : social icons & menus
- add links and logos for listerv, twitter, facebook to home page sidebar
Looked at dozens of sets of free social icons and picked a few that could work. My favorite of these now on the site. This is done via another text widget.
- revise the main menu and the community submenu to include interest groups, collaborations, and notes
- news: jobs
Revised structure and page names extensively, but this needs more discussion. Here we are running into trouble because we didn't re-wireframe the site with CLIR staff involvement.
- The submenu changes while navigating the different new categories. These should all be just the news submenu.
Fixed this bug by changing the header function a bit to distinguish between blog pages and other pages.
- create five sample job stories from past DLF-A postings
Done.
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110206 : automatic lists
- install or create a plugin to provide a WordPress "shortcode" that would display recent stories from given categories on regular WP pages, should work from sidebar as well
Investigated plugins and chose to install List category posts. Worked up the Events and Publications pages as examples of what we can do with this.
- a tool to show all kids of mine on a given page
Investigated plugins and chose to install List pages shortcode. Worked up the Interest Groups page as an example.
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110207 : hiding features, vaultpress, and documentation
Made sure that the front page features do not show up if there are no features.
- implement VaultPress on the DLF site
Reset the dlfadm password at WordPress.com and installed the VaultPress plugin.
- description of site structure, parts of typical pages and posts, navigation, and the sidebar
- description of how content flows through the site keeping it current
- identification of maintenance tasks and how to edit stories and pages
Wrote a good chunk of the documentation for the site.
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110210 : squashing bugs
Found, resolved, and reported bugs with the sitemap and homepage rss feeds.
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110215 : mailing address
Worked on getting info address to work.
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110216 : lesson for the day
Composed a lesson to help DLF staff understand minimal editing.
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110218 : minor fixes
Responded to requests for minor fixes.
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110223 : discussion of changes and making changes
- gather feedback from testers and report it to CLIR staff
Phone conversation with Rachel about changes to be made in response to feedback.
Made the "social icons" more prominent on news and community pages, but avoid putting them on every single page.
Inverted the topics and recent news in the news sidebars.
Moved a limited set of newsfeeds from community sources to the community page sidebar and replaced the community page itself with a collection of community stories surfaced from the story stream.
Moved the list of DLF collaborations into the sidebar of collaboration pages and use the collaboration page itself to surface collaboration stories from the news stream.
Installed WordPress 3.1 and added admin bar.
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110224 : documentation
- basic instructions for managing regular WordPress updates
- description of how the diglib domain is set up including hosting and DNS
- notes on how the old DLF site interacts with the new site
- list of credentials required to manage the site
Worked on the documentation
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110228 : documentation
- notes on the diglib theme
Finished the documentation
(5)
110305 : small fixes
Responded to Rachel's requests for small fixes. Added Linkedin icon and link. Made a few other minor changes. Resisted moving stories to the sidebar one last time.
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110306 : go live
- make the www domain a mirror of the wp domain instead of the old domain
- change wp to www in WordPress
- change wp to www in old.diglib.org/errorpage.php
This took much longer than it should have because DreamHost didn't properly update the DNS entries when I made changes in the control panel. Then they didn't respond to my support request, it seems, until I directly emailed them about another issue.
After starting the process at 3pm, DreamHost support finally intervened at 7:30pm, and the new value for www seemed to propagate around midnight.
Then made changes to WP dashboard settings.
Then used the ~/bin/globalmysqlreplace.sh script to change all wp to www.
Then fixed errorpage.
- make sure backup is working properly
- ask Brian about places to which we could copy the backup file
Checked VaultPress, which seems to still be doing fine. Will recheck manual backup in AM, but since nothing changed at filesystem or database level, that should be doing fine.
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Still To Do
Completed by target date, 28 February 2011.
Go Live To Do
Completed by target date, 7 March 2011.
Ongoing Support
- implement any simple theme changes staff decides should be carried out
- describe level of effort required to carry out non-trivial changes to the site that have been requested
Bugs
- The change alerts don't include changes made by MarsEdit, even though the revision history does include these. Not a show-stopper, but annoying.
Consider
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Talk through menus. What is the role of community v. news? Why does some news rise to the main menu? what is the difference between events and calendar.
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What should be the "category base" in permalinks? I've put in "topics" but maybe "stories" or "category"? Should it match the word we use after the category on category pages? It cannot be "news" because that would conflict with kids of "news" pages.
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Don't ever share with users or publish on the web the dlfadm@gmail.com" address, that will just draw spam to the address. Keep it a secret and use the info@diglib.org address instead so that you can later change where mail is directed, if needed.
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Only paste plain text, pasting with Word or other formatting intact creates problems (span and style elements in the HTML).
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Should we switch nameservers to DH so that DH handles DLF DNS? This would simplify management of DLF sites, but might be a pain for whoever is managing the rest of CLIR at Network Solutions. Update: got the go-ahead from Brian on 12/15/10 and will make this happen before site goes live. This is now done.
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Keep an eye on Askimet, may need to upgrade to a $5/month plan. If CLIR later goes to WP, then the low-end Askimet multi-site plan (also $5/month) would also be the right way to go.
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Set up Facebook login in Janrain. Needs a DLF Facebook account, what should we use. I'd be happy to set this up.
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Do we want "Events" to be an Events category of stories, or a set of Events pages? I would encourage the "story" approach, simpler to maintain.
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Do we like the terms "Category" an "Tag" or do we want something else? Do we like the number scheme of each story, or would we rather have titles?
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Should we create an "ad" for the front page sidebar that directs visitors to sign up for the DLF mailing list?
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Should we look for a way to incorporate mailing list traffic on the site?
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Do we want to implement the WP "super cache" to speed up the site at the expense of some currency?