DSG DRS Project Toolkit Spec Meeting Minutes

DRS Project Toolkit Spec

Draft in Google Docs (Edit powers limited to DSG Staff)

Spec in Google Docs

Meeting Minutes

October 21, 2015

Which PID to use for Latin American Jewish Artists? Collection level and inserting monographs as individual PIDs. Implication of using faculty member as main PID -- if we even can -- is that a few extra items will be in search/browse.

Faculty/employee PID not work, must be collection or set.

Can we ask Eli to meet with Toolkit team to talk about page builder and side navigation, document quite well so that Eli doesn't have to repeat? Eli will send bullet points on turning on side nav, and after Vancouver will help team out with page builder. Team will document page builder process for subsequent users.

September 30, 2015

Possible crash issue on tablet w/ Chrome: likely javascript call forming breadcrumbs, which is a long-running javascript call that might be freezing chrome on older iPads. Does load breadcrumbs and browse.

Eli is still getting the settings right, balancing where giving control versus locking down is appropriate.

Will meet with Archives: what will your first project be? What's the concept, URL, etc.? Who will be the lead? Do you want a totally new site? We suggest a credits page. We'll try to have that meeting within the next two weeks.

New team is content side versus development team.

New team will be on Toolkit slack. Abbie and Dave's team will meet once a week, maybe half hour in Slack, then Abbie and Dave will bring necessary issues to larger group.

Toolkit team will report issues to Abbie to start, after a while may allow direct ticket entry into GitHub.

Assign project coordinators? Sarah is Catskills and Sadow, Amanda is Arader. Need to determine that for each project.

Other tasks for team: re-do documentation for new theme. Best way to learn something: write about it and teach others!

11am Toolkit developers meeting should let David Cliff know ahead of time if there are DRS-y issues and he should attend.

September 23, 2015

IF there is a URL change (which we hope there isn't), that happens much easier when people use relative links. There will be a small training issue there: need to use WP's internal linking feature, rather than regular copy-paste methods.
Have wonderful additional labor coming! Will require more management -- now we are a distributed team. Process for questions: go to Abbie and Dave DeCamp first, then escalated to Eli as necessary.

September 9, 2015

We are going to move forward with changing the theme so that we can offer more customizability to users, instead of building more tools for that later.
Using Aubrey's feedback, we're going to add new options to the gallery options.
There was a meeting with branding. They want Northeastern lock -up on all sights, but whether it also gets the library lock-up will be on a case-to-case basis. We'll present things to Marketing before they are rolled out.
A credit and home page will be rolled out with every new install.

September 2, 2015

Bugs

Caption in gallery
Pinterest layout doesn't work with tile gallery -- if try to use two different layouts on one page Pinterest displays as single column
If click on single item, not brought to full page with full metadata
Comment box -- turned off
Resize gallery slider to use next size down image in DRS.

Feature requests

Add images to gallery without recreating gallery. Eli will investigate.
Add max height option to gallery slider
PDF reader: add a button to make it flippable
Long-term philosophy: We (Eli) will provide sample CSS in overrides, then will become setting in Toolkit.
Font -- Eli will look into whether theme has and it's just hidden, and then will look into adding it to settings.

Followup with Aubrey

Clarification under How do I use my DRS?: Media Library. Why media library preferred? Doesn't slow program down, wants more editing features. Slowness might be because on test server, not because of media gallery.

August 12, 2015 (Branding)

MarComm guidelines for clearly owned university sites.

Toolkit is something where we can control branding and design.

Other DSG projects who have sprung up: we can suggest, but do not have standing to supervise.

Our proposal: line at the bottom of the home page, required about/credits page that gives info about the DSG. About/credits lives in nav bar.

August 12, 2015

Alpha testing with Archives:

Basic customization: home page, About page. Not too much, since just a test!

Test search and browse with your content.

Avoid the media library for now. Do not add outside content for now.

Create tests with videos, if there are any that have been ingested.

Google Analytics:

Someone with library analytics admin privileges (Eli, possibly Amanda) will need to create a new code for them. Then Wp admin (Eli) add that code to their site setup. DSG can provide yearly reports, additional access to projects that want it. Analytics are only for site usage, not for usage of items in the DRS.

WP setup: I designated person from each project team is the Admin, they can add users they want. Projects need to choose their Admin and slug before we can get started.

If want custom URL / domain: contact their project manager who will contact Karl.

August 6, 2015

Abbie will likely finish draft documentation by August 15, Eli feels that the site will be alpha testable by then. Therefore, tentative plan to ask Archives folks to try to make one exhibit on test site in late August, as some preliminary user testing.
For future awesome development: Eli mentions he could build a very similar suite of WP tools running off the DPLA API.

July 22, 2015

Management issues to discuss

How will we install Google Analytics code into each site? Give projects access, or is that a bad idea?
For DSG branding footer: About the DSG, DSG Projects, DSG on Twitter. However, wondering if each WP site would then expect to see themselves listed on DSG projects page -- would we?
Who takes care of URL choice? Will there be a set URL pattern? What if projects want to redirect from their own domain? Will Karl handle all this, and does he know that?

Testing issues

Logo points to northeastern.edu not library.northeastern.edu (could not find where to change this in the header section)

Notes from meeting

Zoom-on-hover doesn't like tiffs. JPG to tiff doesn't seem to work, PNGs do though. Eli will look for different zoom tool that will allow JPG to TIFF. Eli will also try seeing if he can substitute a thumbnail for the tiff, and see how that works.
Hidden modal content now really hidden.
Created show/hide on facets for smaller screens.
Search: when no DRS results are returned, but WP "related content" results are returned, might be confusing for the user. We will work on null results messaging for DRS pane.
Search: If exhibit contains relevant content and user does a search, they will get results from both DRS and WP. If they click on DRS item, they will NOT be taken to the exhibit, but rather the DRS object. However, it's likely that a user, doing a search for a specific term, would want to see that digital object where it sits in the exhibit, rather than in the DRS. WP does not seem to see any metadata coming through on the shortcode, so even when an object is included on a page, WP cannot search and find the title of that object -- unless the title is used in WP text. Eli will look into creating a hidden field on each page that receives DRS metadata as a dump, and therefore becomes searchable.
In shortcode, Eli may be able to give users the ability to check off which DRS metadata they want included.
Eli has made an amazing Add DRS Item button for each page! It mimics experience that users have if they use regular "add media", and is right next to the Add Media page, so will make user education burden much less. This is an amazing button that everyone should experience.
If users change site PID, the shortcode exhibits won't break! Since they use PIDs themselves, they will stay, even if site changes main PID for search/browse.
Also for user education: changing DRS collections is possible, but takes a lot of work by hand. So as people think of their collections as being related to WP, want to make sure they know it's possible but not super-easy to move things from one bucket to another.
Insert individual item function grabs the largest thumbnail for the DRS item.
If insert a metadata (say, publisher), then decide you want to delete later, how does that work? Remove single item and re-insert? Eli will work towards method where shortcode includes simple text of each field (say, "publisher") and user can just go into shortcode and delete the word "publisher".
Eli will work towards same metadata check box on tiled and slider view.
Eli is using Freewall.js for tiled options, will expose layout options to Toolkit so projects can choose. Might need to think about "lazy load" (endless scroll) for phase two, if we have many projects trying to create 100-item tiled galleries.
Fixed facets so that modal shows all, rather than all minus the ones already exposed on facet. Ordering things by count will require either extra development on Eli's part, or maybe some (small?) API development.
We need to send Eli DSG footer and what should be there.
Too many themes already installed on the version. Eli's changes are customized for our DSG Minimaze theme. If you activate another theme, it will not look pretty. So either delete all other themes in the Wordpress theme folder (server), or apply customizations to the other themes. Either way, we need to inform users to use our theme

July 15, 2015

How will we install Google Analytics code into each site, giving projects access?
For DSG branding footer: About the DSG, DSG Projects, DSG on Twitter. However, wondering if each WP site would then expect to see themselves listed on DSG projects page -- would we?

Reminder of the importance of Admin role for people tied to project who want to edit the site / do more than just add pages.
Enable Search should be checked
Workflow: Karl gives us an install, Eli adds the plugin and the theme, enables them, makes modifications (like turning on the Search box, changing the def
Eli is on board to get rid of the Media Library and use shortcodes, but sets are not ready for this function yet. Sets are only tied to particular users at this stage in the DRS, so it won't be functional for teams who are trying to, for example, add items to the same set. Sets need to be worked on from the DRS side before they can be exposed by the API. Sarah and Eli's solution was to get the test site up and running with the Media Library and the one shortcode for the video playlist, and then before next week, the other shortcodes we discussed will be done, but they won't be based on sets; they'll be based on collections (gallery slider, gallery tiled view, and single item shortcode). It makes sense to keep the Media Library import feature (for example, Archives may want to integrate non-DRS content, so they'll need the Media Library). Also, every time someone wants a new layout, we need to make a new shortcode: eventually we'll need to think about the scalability of that (how to manage frequent / regular requests for shortcodes: work done by the additional DSG developer?). Eli hasn't really looked into the single-item shortcode option yet, but there may a way to limit the number of shortcodes required by considering the functionality of this shortcode / its implementation in WordPress.
Eli brought up the fact that we'll need to discuss the communication line / workflow for projects reporting problems / the DSG responding to problems. We could use the Issue Tracking in GitHub? We'll discuss this when Sarah is back.
Facets will not filter WordPress search, only the actual search terms (so we want to "un-facet" the WordPress search).
On Facets, change "More" to "All Subjects" so that all options are displayed; Eli will modify so that the results will be organized by number of hits vs. alphabetical.
List of things to test: performing a search, adding/removing facets, using the "more" facet value modals, changing number of items per page, changing "Sort By," changing pagination, adding static content page, changing PID and effects, browsing is essentially the same as searching so there's not much need to test, is the collections functionality working when you change the PID
Should we ship the Toolkit with the sub-collections or wait and see if projects have sub-collections and add that functionality later?
To create a nice collections icon in WordPress, you have to have added an icon in the DRS.

July 8, 2015

Working notes:

Eli added Libraries line to the footer (branding); Patrick seemed to think it was sufficient. Discussion of double footer instilling the DSG.
Eli added the logic for ISSUU to see if there is an ISSUU link; if there is, the image will be replaced with the actual embedded reader. Patrick noted that there may be a license key that makes the "Open publication: Free publishing" line go away; Eli will ask Hillary about that.
Eli removed the
Eli is working on adding the Creator to the Search view (he doesn't think it will take long).
We discussed what should be configurable or editable on the back-end of the page. Should users be able to change search / browse. In terms of what it relates to the DRS content
Discussion of how sets will be exposed. If you wanted your entire site to be based just off a set and not an entire collection, the PID numbers could be used; Patrick stressed the need to attend to sets. Putting in another option where you can input a set. For example, if you have eighteen items you want to highlight in July, you can create that set in the DRS. Search and Solr won't work with sets.
Important question about searching content: making distinctions between collections and sets
Revised way of handling sets. Result will be different (search will work different). Projects will be limited to collection or sets.
Eli is almost at a point where he can bring test sites up on a server.
Discussion of NIEC content and the particular challenges / nuances of its content.
There's a need to hash out the way that galleries work. Defining what a "gallery" is, how it is distinguished from an "exhibit."The word "gallery" suggests curation.
Discussion of creating shortcodes to generate Playlists, Sliding gallery, tiled gallery, etc. We have three now: the tiled gallery and the image carousel, and the video playlist. Specific challenge of embedding an object
Version 3.0 or 4.0 plan: option to send set directly to Toolkit page (Patrick idea)
We don't begin a WordPress instance with anything but a collection.
The less you bring over into WordPress, the better.
Shortcodes are taking over for the Media Library.
I can bring in a collection, or I can bring in a set.
There is an item-level API call A shortcode to embed a specific item; or a way of creating an "annotated page"

-something that displays an item (thumbnail), selected metadata records (a caption of sorts), quadrants that allow people to display image and text in particular ways.

"If WordPress goes away, the cat dies."
Clean up the discussion of why we're avoiding the Media Library, what the consequences of using the Media Library are, etc.

July 1, 2015

Eli has disabled comments on attachment pages. Unless requested, we don't really want comments on anything
Discussion of searching: solution to have the DRS search be the main search, and then have a "Related Content" search bar in the sidebar. Eli has come up with a "Related Content" sidebar (the name can be easily changed later, and most likely should be, given that "content" is a term broadly applied to all content on the site)
The "Browse" page doesn't currently show "Related Content," and we're going to keep that off that page for now, given the desire to make distinctions between "Search" and "Browse.'
Facets aren't in conversation with the related search: Eli will make sure that Related Content will update when users modify search results using facets so that relevant content will also materialize.
Jim has also updated the content on facets in the spec to discuss the modeling of the DRS when it comes to displaying more than 5 facets
We've modified the spec to finalize the "Sort By" parameters on Search and Browse pages to: Relevance, Date (earliest to latest), Date (latest to earliest), Title A-Z, Title Z-A, Creator A-Z, Creator Z-A. We're scrubbing references to "Date Uploaded."
We've decided to display the Date and Creator info in "Search" results pages but not on "Browse" results pages (which are more designed to function as a mosaic).
We're going to create a section of the spec that briefly discussed branding: where to put "Northeastern University Library" and where to put "Digital Scholarship Group" documentation, etc.
Discussion of Image download options: we're going to remove the current option for "Thumbnail Images."
Discussion of "Zoom" function on images in items: works on items, doesn't work on exhibits (i.e., images taken from the WordPress Media Library and added to exhibit pages). We discussed the fact that exhibit-builders could have the option of zoom functionality via Shortcodes.
Eli has used code to create video playlists on video items.
Future discussions at meetings: what do we want to be configurable (by project managers) on the WordPress pages? More on Exhibits / sample exhibits for new Toolkit projects. User testing. Page-turning functionality and how that impacts discussions of page-turning availability during project development (ideally a discussion that happens at the DRS ingest stage).

June 19, 2015

We decided to meet weekly to discuss necessary revisions to the spec draft and to help answer questions and brainstorm the development of the DRS Project Toolkit pages for projects.
We agreed that Minamaze was an ideal WordPress theme for the pilot phase.
We discussed the desire / need users will have to be able to search both items and content elsewhere on a project site (exhibit pages, "About" pages, etc.). We are still discussing the best interface / solution to this issue: a search box that can search everything on the site? A search of DRS items and an "expanded" search that searches pages?
We also discussed the need to do user testing on the search functionality, and whether it makes sense to do "A/B" testing of two kinds of searches.
Item views: if not an item from the DRS, WP will create attachment page and item view will be that WP-native page. IF item from DRS, code will override WP route to attachment page and show dynamically retrieved DRS item.
Option: make uploaded file PID editable so that even images uploaded by hand can automatically link to DRS.
Who will do the work of creating Arader and Sadow websites? Also need to test the “make an exhibit” scenario.