Site updates for January 2011
By Ed Mitchell 7th January 2011
We work on the website in phases. Phase 1 was all about building the site. Phase 2 was all about shoring up issues we found, working on the Community Microsites, the Patterns and other bits and bobs. Phase 2.5 was when we moved the website to new servers in Sheffield, UK. We are now very nearly at the end of Phase 3.
Phase 3 has been about upgrading the resources section, adding new Initiative events, adding location-specific searches, fixing bugs and responding to feature requests, and a lot of work under the bonnet for the Sharing Engine.
The technologists have been busy over December and produced yet another astounding list of site enhancements. Well done Jim and Laura and Chris! Here is a (not complete) list:
Tech changes in phase 3:
Easily see-able exciting stuff
- Resources section: overhauled and upgraded, new types added, new phases added, opened up to users to add their own with editorial approval process (handy illustrated guide here)
- Transition Nearby: search all of Transition activities by location without logging in
- Community News: now collecting news from initiatives’ websites with the Sharing Engine (handy illustrated guide here)
- Initiative events: add Transition Initiative events via the main site (handy illustrated guide here)
- Transition widgets: new widgets to add to websites: for news, events, projects
- Old Transitiontowns Wiki archived
- Transition Mobile application: not strictly phase 3 as it’s a volunteer project but it’s great
- Community Microsites: sites for Transition Initiatives: working nicely: bugs fixed, being used,
- Transition Themes: view content on the site by Transition Theme: news, people, initiatives: done. Events to come.
- Diversity and Inclusion added as Theme
- Heart and Soul theme changed to Inner Transition
- Design: whole site design enhancements in line with feedback:
- Tidier text
- Clearer navigation
- Clearer ‘blocks’ on sides and bottoms
- ‘Theme’ pages tidy up
- Individual profile pages tidy up to include panels and design improvements
- Directory pages tidy up
- Transition near me tidy up
Deeper work – harder, weirder, almost invisible
- ‘Services’ service: share data with other sites across the web: early use cases identified, module installed, configuration done with a view to the mobile app. JSON framework used for exchanges.
- Single Sign on: started looking at oath service – modelled identified, use cases sorted, chose CAS. Still a bit fizzy, but ongoing.
- Sharing Engine: share initiative news via our site from your own website: design ironed out, R&D ongoing, using drupal 6, all done
- Blogs and voices work: updated, upgraded, ironed out for ‘voices’ blogger, Ed to contact bloggers
- Domain moving: all domains and DNS services moved from various locations to gandi.net
- 1GB of memory added to Live webservers to support extra traffic from old wiki archiving and Sharing Engine changes
General bugs and issues
- Location issue: not showing correct regions – drupal module issue – all regions updated, particularly France
- Partner event naming convention sorted
- Irritating RH user navigation removed from editing panes
- Logos not uploading bug sorted
- Login box appearing on same page as login request – https and modules having a punch up – might have to back away from this
- Markers using same lat/long/postcode being indistinguishable a drupal issue, may not be able to resolve
- Mailing list address field in Initiative profiles set to mailto: not http
- Event timezone issue in CMSs sorted
- Editing issues in CMSs understood, WYSIWYG editor simplified
- etc. etc. etc.
Thanks for all your patience, it’s all good 🙂