terminalfour t44u 2009 - university of york case study

BEYOND .HTML – BEYOND .HTML – MULTIPLE FILE MULTIPLE FILE

EXTENSIONS IN SITE EXTENSIONS IN SITE MANAGERMANAGERDan Wiggle, Paul Kelly(dw538 / pak500 @york.ac.uk)

Overview

Why we needed multiple file extensions

Developing the new feature

Using multiple file extensions

The way things were

Single extension per channelPick a default filename for a channelNo exceptions

RSS on a separate channel Separate RSS channel Top content navigation objects retrieve

content and a formatter outputs in RSS format Publishes to same filestore as main channel

Empty feeds, everywhere

Thousands of errors

More channels = longer publish

iCal abandoned

http://www.flickr.com/photos/keso/2262459574/

Coldfusion Serving everything

as .cfm unrealistic Another whole channel

not realistic ‘Wrapping’ possible, but

not scalable

So… left out of the CMS altogether

http://flickr.com/photos/oguz/3771024673/

“Maybe in version 7…”

Into v6.2

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35588958@N07/3491438500/

Developed a specification

Development

Committed to work late March

Initial remote demo early June

First test build installed at York late June

Testing

Release

Rebuilding our feeds

Fewer files

Fewer errors

Quicker publish

Simpler configuration

How we rebuilt the feeds

New configuration options

RSS style

Re-used top content navigation objects

iCal

Style vs. template extension choice

RSS and iCal have file extensions set by the section style

Other uses set the file extension based on a content item’s template…

Integrating dynamic content - before

Static HTML

Integrating dynamic content - before

Dynamic ContentWidget

(eg .cfm)

= new channel

Integrating dynamic content - now

Integrating dynamic content - now

Section containing content that requires CFM extension will be published as index.cfm

Future uses

Training courses database integration Authenticated streaming video Same-page form validation PHP for Computer Science Integration of legacy cfm apps

Still on the wishlist… Parameter-ised content would allow us

to:Add an ‘rss feed’ content itemFill in fields for branch and number of itemsHave a template formatter pass field values

to a generic RSS navigation object which retrieves content based on those parameters

Coming soon…? ;)

Any questions?