Web Task Force (WTF)

3/12/2002 Meeting Notes

(These are not comprehensive notes.)

Review the 3/12/2002 Agenda

ASOC Student Member Replacement

Ricky Sun (ricky_maple@yahoo.com) replaced Anastassia Dolgova for today's meeting. There is a group of 3 ASOC students who may be attending WTF meetings, depending on who is available.

Brief Update About Back-End Technology Topics

• Cheryl, Shirley, Tj and Doug will be meeting Thursday 3/14
• Tj talked with the NT Admin person in IS Department:
  • Scripts need to be written or replace with other mechanisms before move to Linux server (examples: Business Card directory, email form data script)
• Also: Publisher's Workbench is a custom script for which there is no source code. The database used by PWB is a custom solution that does not provide a way of exporting permissions data, so we have no way of generating a report of who has what level permissions to which directories on the website. The permissions data would be useful when setting up permissions to directories on the Linux server.
  • Cheryl: This is a positive in that it allows us to establish new permissions on directories for people who really should have access to certain sections of the website, instead of bringing over legacy information.
  • Cheryl: We will need to request from Divisions/Departments/other groups the name of the one person who is responsible for those sections of the website. A backup person is recommended too, but not required.
  • (Followup note added by Cheryl 3/13/2002: Formal roles and permissions in Zope need to be worked out by Cheryl and Tj when it is decided that we will be using Zope as our web content management system.)
• Cheryl: Discussed the basic steps required to move the website from the NT server to the Linux server. The project requires a complete and detailed project management plan by the IS Department person assigned to manage the project. The basic steps are:
  1. Freeze changes to the website on the NT server (the Ohlone website will be available for viewing, just not for updating during the "freeze" period)
  2. Copy the website to the Linux development server
  3. cleanup the HTML pages on the development server as may be required to run them on the Linux server
     • change http://www.ohlone.cc.ca.us to http://www.ohlone.edu (Followup note: Both domain names will be active on the Linux-based website so it may ultimately be decided that people can change the domain names as their sites are updated)
     • change all references to NT server CGI scripts to Linux server CGI scripts (the scripts will be created and tested prior to the "freeze"); this step will ensure that existing HTML forms work with the scripts
     • convert any NT server databases to some as-yet-undefined database on the Linux server (the expection is that there are few of these)
  4. Other things not thought about yet
  5. Test, test, test the site on the development server
  6. Copy the website from the development server to the production ("live") Linux server
  7. Other steps regarding Zope and user access and training not defined

Possible Additional Level to the Ohlone Website

Previous discussions of "levels" of the website (home page, portal pages (see below), Divisions, Departments, Committees, Faculty) did not include possible "Staff" websites being included on the website. Currently, all employees have the ability by default when their network user account is created to have a website. After creating their pages using whatever method they choose, they use Publisher's Workbench to upload the pages to the website. This ability is not taken advantage of by a majority of Staff personnel so those "sites" lead to broken links or "Under Construction" pages (they can be found through the Business Card directory (which will be replaced ). In addition, many Staff sites are of a personal nature, unrelated to their position at the college, duplicative of the Business Card function, or outdated.

Cheryl and Tj want to not allow Staff websites on the new web server, unless specifically approved by the Staff member's Dean. This will save administrative efforts to create unnecessary user accounts, backup unnecessary directories and files, and make the process of moving the website to the Linux server less complex.

Possibly Remove the "Public Organizations in Instruction" Level

With the rationale that these "Public Organizations" are actually a part of a Division or Department, it was approved that reference to Public Organizations as a separate level would be removed from website planning documents.

Discuss Addition of Another Student to the WTF

Paula Cassano contacted Cheryl about joining the WTF. Paula has created or worked on few websites on the Ohlone domain. She is a student in the Multimedia department.

Adding Paula to the WTF was approved.

Alternative to Requiring Divisions to Adopt the Main Site Design

An alternative to requiring Divisions to adopt the main site design was discussed by Shirley and Cheryl a week or so ago. It was then introduced at the Educational Services Deans meeting on 3/6. The alternative to is adopt the site organization used on the UC San Diego (http://www.ucsd.edu) website: The home page navigation elements link to "portal pages" for different audience members and different sections of the site. These pages use the same site design.

Some sections of the UC San Diego website have adopted the top-level site design with some minor modifications. Other sections have a unique look and feel, but a majority of pages in those sections have "UCSD" branding (library and "UCSD" logo that, for a majority of pages, links to the UC San Diego home page).

Approved by the WTF and replaces the first idea listed in Proposals #1 and #2 that Divisions must adopt the main site design.

Review Draft #1 of the Web Page Guidelines

Cheryl will revise the Web Page Guidelines document as a result of comments and suggestions made in this meeting. Draft #2 will be emailed to the WTF for review. The Web Page Guidelines will be presented at the 3/29 TACO meeting. (At least a full day before the meeting, TACO members will be emailed the document to review.)

Review of First Few Design Drafts for Main Site Design

The WTF reviewed four similar draft designs Cheryl has initially created. (Screen shots are below.) Designs will continue to evolve.

Additional Audience Type

Corinne: "Business & Industry" should be added to the list of audience types on the website.

Approved by the WTF.

Site Design Screen Shots

These designs were also slightly modified in the review to demonstrate different design possibilities, including a variety of photographs.

Design 1

White circle is possible graphic logo image. However, using it creates a stair-step effect with the navigation bar which isn't good.

Design 1b

Same as Design 1 but without the graphic next to the logo.

Design 2

Comments: The dark green bar across the top gets lost in the titlebar of the window.

Design 3

Comments: A few people liked the geometric nature of this design; others didn't.