Tibetan and Himalayan Library - THL

THL Toolbox > Developers' Zone > Web Development

Web Development: The THL Staff Web Production Manual

This documentation is intended for THL staff working on creating THL Web pages, including the use of templates for creating THL Portal and Project home pages. Some of these links go out to areas that are not subsumed under this Production Manual, so remember that this is the core home page for site production documentation. If are you new to this work, you should follow the manual sequentially from start to finish. Each sections builds upon and presumes the previous sections. Subsequently, you can utilize these as a reference resource to access sections as you need.

Getting Started

1. THL Web Production at a Glace
2. Obtain a User Account for Subversion
3. Deploying Files to the Three Server Environments
4. Code Editing Tools: oXygen, etc
5. Test Edit on an Existing Page

Templates

1. Creating a New Page - Global vs Template Files Explained
2. The Anatomy of Your New Page, Part 2, Top to Bottom
3. General Guidelines for Design of Portal Page
4. Creating a New Portal or Project
5. side-column-X-links.php File
6. Creating a THL Template Page for Off-Site Use With Ruby On Rails
7. Troubleshooting Right-Hand Secondary Navigation Menu
8. Maintaining Banner Consistency in a Portal

Wikis

1. Creating a THL Page with All Wiki Content
2. Creating Teaser Boxes that Use Wiki Content
3. Linking to Wiki Pages used as THL Content
4. Formatting for Wiki Pages used as THL Content - this includes how to link to external resources using "explore" from a wiki-filled teaser box.
5. Wiki Breadcrumbs

Nodes (e.g. places.thl.org, mms.thl.org, etc.) & Static Resources

1. Introduction to THL Nodes Beyond the WWW
2. Nodes for thlib.org and their Respective Subversion Repositories
3. Linking To THL Nodes With Their Own Domain
4. Mount points for static resources on blue.unix.virginia.edu

XML

1. THL Essays In Cocoon
2. XML Books
3. Transforming an Old XML Essay
4. XML Markup in THL
5. Setting Up Cocoon 2.2

Styles and Scripts

1. CSS Issues
2. Encrypted Email Links (For THL Staff Only!)
3. Javascript in THL
4. Various Useful Code

GIT: Code for RoR Apps

Code for RoR Apps in GIT

Other Topics

1. Directories and File Names for TIFF and JPG Files: note: the vast majority of images should come from the MMS
2. Web Page Size and Web Site Speed
3. Running THL from Your Local Server (localhost)
4. Creating Short URLs and Digital Signatures

THL Web Production at a Glance

Please read THL Web Production at a Glace before going any further. It provides a quick introduction.

Getting Started

You won't get far if you have not taken care of all of these preliminary tasks. We presume you have a UVa userid - if not, please inquire with your supervisor about this.

• Obtain a User Account for Subversion, so you can access the repository that contains all of the THL web site files.
• Read and follow all of the instructions in the Subversion User Guide, which will walk you through the download, installation and configuration of necessary Subversion software, show you how to "check out" the main THL web files repository, and all other necessaries.
• Deploying Files to the Server, and learn how to use this tool that deploys files to the web servers.
• Make sure you have at least one of several good code editing tools we use.
• Finally, make a test edit on an existing page to make sure that all systems are go.

After you have accomplished all of the above, then you can move on to:

Creating a New Page - Global vs Template Files Explained

So, now you have the THL repository on your hard drive, you have all the tools at hand, you have the publishing powers, and you know how to use them. Time to learn about the way we separated and now use fundamental code elements, and get to work making something new. This is an extensive area, so we'll send you off to the Creating a New Page - Global vs Template Files Explained page for the full explanation.

Creating a New Portal or Project

This is a step up from making just a new page. This series of steps walks you through the process of creating an entirely new section of the THL site, one that has its own banner, menu and other features that distinguish it from a run of the mill THL page under the standard design and interface. This also is rather a lot to document, so we've made a separate Creating a New Portal or Project page to manage all that.

Workflow Process and Release to Production (R2P) Procedure

The meticulous process by which we develop, test, and then finally release our content to production

• Workflow Process

Mount Points for Static Resources on blue.unix.virginia.edu

Some content is just too big to push around in Subversion. For such, the Library/ITC provided mount points for static resources on blue.unix.virginia.edu. This section of the manual explains how to gain access to put content up there, and how to call the content via Web. The files kept on blue.unix include:

• Image Database Files
• Audio-Video Database Files
• Unidentified Audio Files
• Reprints of Journals

Further

There are many kinds of content to manage on the THL aside from our standard www pages. These will be listed here with links to respective manual pages as time goes on.

• Introduction to THL Nodes Beyond the WWW
• Nodes for thlib.org and their Respective Subversion Repositories

General Reference

At the moment, this is a grab bag of important information awaiting proper placement in the Manual.

• File Naming and Storage Conventions for THL

Resources for Creating XML Documents

The following are general resources for creating XML documents in THL:

1. Introduction to XML: this provides a general introduction to XML and its use to markup textual documents for display on the Web.
2. Creating an XML Document: a brief overview of the practical steps involves in creating XML documents, and points to various THL Manuals and resources useful in this process.
3. Creating an XML Essay for THL: these are more detailed instructions on creating an XML document for a standard essay.
4. XML Markup Manual for THL: these is an exhaustive documentation of the various elements and attributes used in THL's TEI-based XML markup scheme for essays.
5. THL Essay Term Glossary Table Creation Manual.doc (Version control - checked in)
6. XML Editors: this provides manuals and tips for using various XML Editors in editing XML documents.
7. XML Resources: these are various downloads for use in XML editing within THL.

The following are resources for using Microsoft Word to create word processing documents as an intermediary step that can then be easily converted into XML once the composition and editing is completed:

• Using Microsoft Word Styles
• Using Word Styles for THL Markup

The following documents are specifically designed to help marking up XML documents with Tibetan language content:

• Creating an XML Document in Tibetan
• Guidelines for Using Tibetan Styles in Word
• Making Web Pages in Tibetan Unicode

The following are more specialized resources for THL Staff to use in maintaining THL XML pages:

• About XML Transformation
• Creating Secondary Navigation Links in THL Pages
• THL XML Home Page
• THL Toolbox Markup
• XSLT Stylesheets
• XML and Unicode Introduction

The following are other issues to be organized better at a later date:

• Searching Issues in THL
• Searching Other Websites
• Handling Cross-browser min-width/max-width/and height issues
• AJAX Issues: Customize Animated Loading Image
• Right-Hand / Left-Hand Menu Research Paper
• Integrate XForms with the Google Web Toolkit, Part 1: Introducing GWT's JavaScript Native Interface

Oscar's File Renaming Tool

http://www.mediachance.com/free/renamer.htm

Some benefits:

• Fast Editing of long list of file names - exactly like in a text editor
• All changes to files themselves are done at the very end when you press Apply Changes, not during editing.
• During Editing you can use Undo/Redo, and various tools like Upper Case/Lower Case or numbering.
• All changed lines are visibly marked
• It doesn't let you enter wrong characters
• A File List shows the original names on the disk.
• You can record a keyboard macro and apply to the file names.
• You can undo changes even after you write to disk
• It can integrate into windows Shell.

Provided for unrestricted use by the Tibetan and Himalayan Library