Final Countdown

I met with the server admin and the network admin and we've decided to launch on or around September 13. The server admin is going to put IIS and the current website on the same server as the new website running Apache. That way we hope to be able to run both websites simultaneously using the same domain name.

I also met with the Website Team and developed a marketing plan involving me sending lots of emails to staff, a promo and tutorial video, posters, and web ads.

Optimization

I'm starting the Drupal optimization process and have come across a very handy checklist:

http://www.drupal-check.org/

I also installed the Boost module.

I meet with the server and network admins tomorrow to make a launch plan.

Recommended Websites Update

I've added all the Vocabularies to the Recommended Websites taxonomy terms so the category and subcategory show up on the subcategory pages. Sound confusing? I know, I just can't think of a better way to explain it.

I've also added all the tabbed menus to the Subject Guide subcategories. Yay!

Now we just have to finish the data entry. We have 1600+ entries, but I think there are 4500+ total to be entered. Sigh.

And They're Off!!

Data entry has officially started on Recommended Websites. This is quite a large task and I'm grateful for the awesome librarians helping me out.

I've created all the Taxonomy and Menus for the Subject Guides, I believe, but I'm still assigning tabbed menus to the subcategory pages.

An interesting aside, according to my timeline, as of June 15 we've been working on this website for two years. Make it stop!!

Fun with Recommended Websites

So yesterday I was entering categories from our Web Picks into Drupal's taxonomy and noticed that Vocabularies with heirarchical values don't display child terms in the Taxonomy Navigator module. Seriously folks...

Anyways, that is a deal-breaker for me so we are not using Taxonomy Navigator. Instead we are doing the following:

1. Create Vocabularies for Recommended Websites categories


2. Hand-make menus for categories containing subcategories (there are quite a few of these)


3. Theme the menus if necessary


4. Add the menus to their corresponding pages


5. Add Subject Guide Tabs to corresponding pages


6. Go over all Subject Guides and cross-reference as necessary


7. Configure Recommended Websites View to display page title as "Vocabulary: Term: SubCategory

Oooof.

Setting Up Recommended Websites Categories

Thanks to Acquia support, I'm using URL Aliases to link Taxonomy Navigation in my Subject Guides for Recommended Websites subcategories.

For any Web Picks category that has subcategories, do the following:

1. Create a vocabulary in taxonomy for that category and populate it with subcategories


2. In blocks, assign the taxonomy navigation block for that vocabulary to the page View for the Recommended Websites category. Put the block in the Content Nav region.


3. In URL Aliases, Create new aliases for each taxonomy term in the vocabulary.




• Existing system path is the Page view URL (ie: research/by-subject/websites/386)


• Path alias is the Taxonomy term URL (ie: taxonomy/term/386)




4. In Blocks, add the Subject Guide tabbed menu to the subcategory pages

I think that's it.

I think it's going to work

I tested the Taxonomy idea I had on Literature and I think it will work. I'll just need to theme the taxonomy display, install and configure Taxonomy Menu module, and make sure Krista is okay with the subject guide just showing the categories, not listing out the websites below. I could still list out the websites, but it would be a lot more work.

I'm cautiously optimistic...

Web Picks craziness

Right now I'm trying to determine the best way to organize Recommended Websites. There are a TON of categories and subcategories and I'm thinking I'll try to make each category with subcategories its own vocabulary and then use Taxonomy menu to list them out. I'm not sure it'll work so I'm going to test it on Literature.

Wish me luck!

Mustard

Once again I neglected to keep up with my progress here. Since the last entry I've done the following:

• Adult Literacy and ESL pages, including a new Tutors section


• Worked with Overdrive and our Network Administrator to change the eBranch to CyberShelf




• Changed all eBranch graphics


• Changed domain name to cybershelf.ppld.org


• Overdrive will update the look and feel of page


• Sirsi administrator will update it in Workflows and replace the URL in the MARC records




• Replaced the word "Branch" with "Library" throughout the new website

Next on the list is the Web Picks conversion. Wish me luck!

Ketchup

It's been awhile since I posted. I can only say I forgot to keep track of my progress here. Blame it on being a new mother...

Anyways, since I last wrote, we've done the following:

• Fixed the authentication on our location-specific databases via EZProxy. Documentation for this is in my email, for future reference. Thanks to BPL!


• Finished the Genealogy and Regional History pages


• Launched new.ppld.org alongside our current website!

So far feedback has been very positive. I just have a handful of things left to do, then hopefully soon we'll do the final launch!

Blog feature on new.ppld.org

I made a new Content Type called "What's New" that will be our blog feature on the new website. Entries can be promoted to the front page and show up in a block on the left Nav Bar. Comments only show up on the full record, but I'm okay with that. I hope the patrons are...

Literature Recommended Websites and Web Picks in general

I finished adding the Literature recommended websites to the subject guide, but as I'm entering these websites I'm realizing that importing the Web Picks databases is not very feasible. It's too big and complicated. I think we're going to have to enter these by hand.

Ooof.

Find a Good Book

Find a Good Book is finished! I'm still waiting for approval from Adult Services, but we're getting closer!

Find a Good Book

Views Rotator

I just changed the home page slideshow on new.ppld.org from a Views Slideshow (which wouldn't link to nodes) to Views Rotator. I'm very happy with the result!

There's an excellent Views Rotator tutorial available here

Updates updates updates

I swear, I'm gone for 8 weeks and there are a ton of updates to be done on new.ppld.org. Of course I did them and now Views Slideshow doesn't work again and I'm not sure why. I hate that module! We need a different slideshow solution...

2/18/10 Update: I added a carriage return to beginning of the code in the Views Slideshow block and it started working again. Go figure...

Views Carousel Fun

I ran all these Drupal updates a few days ago and as a result my book carousel started displaying incorrectly. Apparently our custom theme needs to be manually added into the viewscarousel.module script in the actual Views Carousel directory. This means each time we upgrade Views Carousel, that script gets written over and we have to add it again.

Here's the documentation for future reference:

Creating Your Own Views Carousel Skin

new.ppld.org Demo

We demonstrated the new website to the Drupal Southern Colorado Users Group (DSCUG) last Thursday, November 5. I think we got a very positive response and some good suggestions, including using GMap module and Location module for our Google Maps

We appreciate everyone taking the time to look at the site!

Jobs and Volunteers

We've finished our Jobs and Volunteers pages for the new website. HR can now enter job vacancy descriptions into Drupal for indexing and can easily change their status. Also, we've added a Benefits section and an FAQ section that should answer some of the questions that applicants generally ask.

The Volunteers page works in the same manner, with opportunities entered into Drupal and either unpublished by hand when filled, or automatically unpublished when expired. The only problem I'm having here is when you view this page in IE the space between entries is larger than it should be. It's a CSS thing, but I can't find the source of the problem. It's not a deal-breaker, just annoying.

Home Page Slideshow

We're using JWImageRotator for our home page slideshow. It makes a lovely slideshow BUT you can't link the slides to specific nodes or websites. At least, not that we've been able to figure out. So we need another solution.

We really like Acquia's slideshow on their home page, but apparently that's a custom module that they aren't releasing to the Drupal community at this time.

We'll keep looking around...

Front Page Carousel

Today I altered our Front Page Carousel to access a new Content Type.

Basically, we wanted to be able to enter titles and book jackets from NextReads and have them appear on the Carousel, linking to the Catalog record.

Here's how we accomplished this:

Create a Content Type called NextReads, with a Title field and an Image field that links to the Catalog.

The problem here was the Image type in CCK doesn't link to external websites without downloading and enabling a module called LinkImageField. Once I did that and configured the Image type properly, everything worked well except the default URL wouldn't show up.

Create a View that uses Nodequeue and View Carousel to display Content Type

In this case, I cloned the existing Front Page Carousel View that was accessing just an image and altered it for the new content type. The only trouble I see in the future is I'm not sure if I can delete the old view without deleting the cloned view.

Add a new Queue in Nodequeue that points to the NextReads content type

Be sure to reference the correct queue in your View. Also, be sure to add an "add" and "remove" link for the content type.

Populate the content type with NextReads content

Right now I will likely have users upload a Book Jacket from the Catalog by saving it to their computer first. We may then need to go in by hand and edit the image to provide a drop shadow and make sure it looks nice. This will be part of the Workflow for that content type.

Users will also need to copy the URL in the URL Description and paste it into the URL field and add the ISBN at the end of it, until I can figure out why the default URL isn't showing up in the form.

We'll need to create a NextReads role and test user to make sure this all goes smoothly. I'll also need to officially document the procedure for users.

BUT, at least it works! Except the View Carousel doesn't really scroll...