[CLUE-Admin] Web Site Proposal

[Jed S. Baer]

Hi Folks.

I got a few spare moments, so here's a rough sketch of an idea running
through my head.

CLUE meeting announcements (North and DTC) exist on the web server as
individual files. The relevant pages (index.html, presentations.html)
include them. Various mechanisms could be invented for including the
proper meeting announcement file on the main page(s). The advantage I see
to this approach is that it seperates site code from site data. It also
means that the "pages" will rarely need to be edited via CVS, and would
for the most part eliminate the need to "publish" the site, as is
currently done.

The mechanism for creating announcement files could be very simple. Either
a standard template which the admin for that function uses to produce them
each month, or a web-based form. We would need to have some standard
upload capability, and HTML forms/CGI processing provides file upload
capability, for the case of the admin creating new file and uploading it
each month. But, the data is simple enough that a web-based data entry
form would work just as well, I think. Either way, either web-based data
entry, or an upload form, would collect date-stamping information, and
provide the capability to flag that announcement as current. Then, the
main page(s) would simply include the "current" file into the block where
it needs to show up.

Different mechanisms could accomplish identifying the announcement file as
current. I'd store the announcement files in their own directories. Either
a config file, which would get updated, or the creation of a symbolic
link, e.g.:

  in /north/meetings/
  ln -s 200307.html current.html

The PHP script for entering or uploading the file would make the link
based on a check box, or update the config file, again based on a check
box. We'd also need a mechanism for marking an existing announcement file
as current.

It would be useful, I think, if the files produced conformed to a parsable
syntax, such that perhaps automating the calendar update from them could
be done.

I suppose this mechanism would be best served by having a more secure
website admin logon. That would also enable change tracking.

The benefit I see is that volunteers who are maintaining a portion of the
site need to edit only small files, or use a data entry form, and don't
have to contend with editing index.html, or presentations.html.

If we wanted to get really fancy, we could even store the data as XML. We
have at least one XML designer in CLUE (Matt Gushee).

One downside is that the existing presentations.html file would need to be
split into seperate files for each presentation listed there. This could
be made easier by simply delegating a chunk of it to an archive file.

Along with this, I'd also suggest creating seperate files for navigation
blocks, i.e. modularize the site content. This will allow more flexibility
for future changes, but also mean that any seperate North pages can have
the standard CLUE nav block just by inclusion, and if it changes, their
pages won't need to be updated.

So, that's the gist of it. If we want to go ahead with an idea like this,
then lets move the discussion of the particulars over to CLUE-Dev, and
I'll try to get a better-worded framework done over the weekend.

I'm going to check if my ISP offers web-based e-mail access, otherwise I
probably will be offline until Saturday.

Later,
jed

-- 
I wouldn't even think about bribing a rottweiler with a steak that
didn't weigh more than I do. -- Jason Earl