Web Publishers’ Community – May update
This month’s WPC session focused on how to create forms in EdWeb and case studies on sites using Drupal to self-generate content.
EdWeb Project Update – Bruce Darby
Migration Phase Three has just finished with no major set-backs in the project. Another 170 sites are set to migrate in Phase Four, which will start in June.
While we haven’t experienced major delays, we have been experiencing some performance issues with the EdWeb system, so we’ve employed an outside consultancy to investigate these.
As mentioned at the last WPC session, future developments in EdWeb are set to include a bulk publish button, page viewing restrictions, and colour themes. There will also be the option to create a unique sub-site footer and sub-site branding in the banner.
Forms – Duncan MacGruer
Duncan gave a talk on how to create forms using EdWeb. Polopoly forms were limited in functionality, such as the inability to create grids or scale questions unless built manually, and no conditional logic for users to skip irrelevant questions.
We’re happy to report that EdWeb allows these features and more, including optional track progress bars, help text, and sophisticated anti-spam measures.
As EdWeb hosts many features for creating forms, we’ll be creating templates for popular form types, including registering interest, mailing list sign-up, and booking appointments. EdWeb users will be able to clone and edit these templates to fit their purposes.
Sites built using Drupal – Aileen Robertson and Arthur Wilson
Aileen and Arthur from Learning, Teaching and Web Services Division presented the last talk, which focused on case studies on sites they build in Drupal for research groups and cross institutional projects.
These sites are primarily created with off-the-shelf Drupal modules, and use Drupal to self-generate site content, with no complicated coding involved.
One of the case studies Aileen and Arthur showed was the Innovative Learning Week site. The site drew its event details from the MyEd event booking XML feed, and used complex taxonomies that allow users to filter events by various categories. For example, users could narrow events by day, area of interest, and eligibility.
June WPC
Join us at our next Web Publishers’ Community session on Tuesday, 30 June.
