May 14, 2023

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.
- Content Types used on web site (may not be complete list)
- HTML pages
- text
- Markdown and Multimarkdown
- JPG and other graphics
- NOT .rtf or other formatted files such as Word
- Updates to Web Site
- Any Administrator can login and change pages. ANRL has multiple Administrators.
- The master source content (text, graphic, audio etc) is on the ANRL computer network and/or Dropbox.
- 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.
- 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.
- How updates are made to Web Site
- Updates to basic pages
- Markdown files or html files are displayed in a text editor, then copied to a clipboard.
- The web page is displayed and edited (user must be logged in to web site)
- The old content in the web site editor is selected and deleted.
- The new content is pasted into the web site editor.
- The updated page is saved.
- Note: The page source is not to be edited on-line in the web page.
- Updates to binary files (.pdf, .jpg, .mp3 etc)
- Binary files are uploaded to the web site with a ftp program (like CyberDuck)
- Web Page source is edited with a text editor to point to the new uploaded binary file.
- Updates to basic pages
- Platform
- As of today, we use Drupal 9, a Content Management System (CMS)
- Any similar CMS could be used
- The choice of Drupal was made ~2012 after comparing several CMS options
- Drupal is open source and it’s free
- Learning
- Use of lynda.com (not called LinkedInLearning and owned by LinkedIn) has been an invaluable aid in understanding and working with the Drupal web site
- Supporting tools
- ftp (Cyberduck is a suitable program)
- markdown (Byword on MAC is a suitable program)
- Tools provided by siteground.com ISP has been very valuable. Tools is a large suite of web development tools
- Internet Service Provider
- ANRL uses Siteground.com
- Our internet plan is ‘Grow Big"
- Skills needed for maintenance of web site content
- Basic computer skills
- Technical writing skills
- computer file management (knowing where files are and how they relate to each other)
- Text editing
- ftp
- ssh
- Skills needed for maintenance and support of the web site platform
- Depends on platform being used…
- Content of ANRL’s web site
- Home
- A front page with recent articles on top
- About
- General information
- News
- 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.
- Collection
- Links and a few words on each of the various media types in ANRL’s archive.
- Reports listing titles and information for each media type
- Donate
- Write-ups on ways to donate items and volunteer for many of the positions available at ANRL
- Membership
- Info on now to become a member plus a write-up on benefits of membership
- Link to minutes of Board Meetings
- Consortium
- This page is for topics of interest to members of the nudist libraries of the Consortium
- Research
- Status of research activities at ANRL
- Staff Only (this area is for members who have been authorized to view or edit content)
- Material for ANRL’s staff including SOP and guidelines
- Training material including procedures for common tasks
- Help with web file development
- Help and Technical info
- Home
- Issues that need to be addressed
- Security updates for Drupal 9 need to be applied to the site
- There have been “denial of Service” attacks to the web site in the past. Better security is needed.
Purpose of the ANRL Web Site
- To provide info about ANRL to the general public
- To provide info and training for use by ANRL volunteers in the Staff Only area
- 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.
- It is a parking spot for documents that float in and out of the library. When placed on the Website they are less likely to be lost.
- It is the policy of ANRL not to post nude photos.
