Overview of ANRL's Web Site

Jul 15, 2022

Overview of ANRL’s Web Site

This report is an outline of ideas that are not in any particular order. It’s a start to understand what we’re dealing with today.

  1. Content Types used on web site (may not be complete list)
    1. HTML pages
    2. text
    3. Markdown and Multimarkdown
    4. PDF
    5. JPG and other graphics
    6. NOT .rtf or other formatted files such as Word
  2. Updates to Web Site
    1. Any Administrator can login and change pages. ANRL has multiple Administrators.
    2. The master source content (text, graphic, audio etc) is on the ANRL computer network and/or Dropbox.
    3. The page source files are NOT to be edited on-line. It is important to keep master files in a local file or in Dropbox. The source file for any page could be edited in-place but this is dangerous because the source could be lost if the web site goes down.
    4. Some web design software keeps the source files on a local computer then publishes the site to an ISP. This model didn’t fit ANRL’s needs as we needed source files available for multiple developers and not on a single personal computer in somebody’s house.
  3. How updates are made to Web Site
    1. Updates to basic pages
      1. Markdown files or html files are displayed in a text editor, then copied to a clipboard.
      2. The web page is displayed and edited (user must be logged in to web site)
      3. The old content in the web site editor is selected and deleted.
      4. The new content is pasted into the web site editor.
      5. The updated page is saved.
      6. Note: The page source is not to be edited on-like in the web page.
    2. Updates to binary files (.pdf, .jpg, .mp3 etc)
      1. Binary files are uploaded to the web site with a ftp program (like CyberDuck)
      2. Web Page source is edited with a text editor to point to the new uploaded binary file.
  4. Platform
    1. As of today, we use Drupal 7, a Content Management System (CMS)
    2. Any similar CMS could be used
    3. The choice of Drupal was made ~2012 after comparing several CMS options
    4. Drupal is open source and it’s free
  5. Learning
    1. Use of lynda.com has been an invaluable aid in understanding and working with the Drupal web site
  6. Supporting tools
    1. ftp (Cyberduck is a suitable program)
    2. markdown (Byword on MAC is a suitable program)
    3. cTools provided by siteground.com ISP has been very valuable. cTools is a large suite of web development tools
  7. Internet Service Provider
    1. ANRL uses Siteground.com
    2. Our internet plan is ‘Grow Big"
  8. Skills needed for maintenance of web site content
    1. Basic computer skills
    2. Technical writing skills
    3. computer file management (knowing where files are and how they relate to each other)
    4. Text editing
    5. ftp
    6. ssh
  9. Skills needed for maintenance and support of the web site platform
    1. Depends on platform being used…
  10. Content of ANRL’s web site
    1. Home
      1. A front page with recent articles on top
    2. About
      1. General information
    3. News
      1. Little clips and headlines for a running dialog of happenings at ANRL This page needs to be updated promptly when anything noteworthy happens at ANRL.
    4. Collection
      1. Links and a few words on each of the various media types in ANRL’s archive.
      2. Reports listing titles and information for each media type
    5. Donate
      1. Write-ups on ways to donate items and volunteer for many of the positions available at ANRL
    6. Membership
      1. Info on now to become a member plus a write-up on benefits of membership
      2. Link to minutes of Board Meetings
    7. Collaboration
      1. Report of collaborative work with other naturist libraries
    8. Consortium
      1. This page is for topics of interest to members of the nudist libraries of the Consortium
    9. Research
      1. Status of research activities at ANRL
    10. Staff Only (this area is for members who have been authorized to view or edit content)
      1. Material for ANRL’s staff including SOP and guidelines
      2. Training material including procedures for common tasks
      3. Help with web file development
      4. Help and Technical info
  11. Issues that need to be addressed
    1. Security updates dor Drupal 9 need to be applied to the site
    2. There have been “denial of Service” attacks to the web site in the past. Better security is needed.

Purpose of the ANRL Web Site

  1. To provide info about ANRL to the general public
  2. To provide info for use by ANRL volunteers in the Staff Only area
  3. Having a pretty web site with jazzy graphics would be nice but is less important than having a web site that provides information about the library.
  4. It is the policy of ANRL not to post nude photos.