redesigning lclark.edu

Morgan Grether

Thinking outside the blog

I am a huge cheerleader for switching the content management system from Trillium to a blog software for various long-term, strategic reasons.  That said, it is worth thinking a little “outside the blog” (if you forgive the bad pun) before next steps are taken and ponder what is out there besides blogware that could be used.  And I mean, beyond all the typical CMS pitches that colleges get…Two thoughts come to mind: Wiki: A college site could be based on wiki software, where each department could collaborate on their content (and lock others out).  For an example of wikiware, see MediaWiki at http://www.mediawiki.org.  I have not heard of a college doing this, but I have used it for many projects and it was easy to see how it could scale up fairly well.Design Software:  By having people enter content into locked templates, I could see using web design software to create and maintain a site like blogware would.  I am thinking of things like RapidWeaver (http://wwwrealmacsoftware.com) or Sandvox (http://www. karelia.com).  I would never use them to create a site myself, but the cookie-cutter approach they offer could be promising for a college.File all of this under snack food for thought. 

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Trillium & Web Novices

One thing great about Trillium that should be in everyone’s mind: People who are novices to webwork can actually get some fairly complex content online.   Each page is a separate html file that can be accessed via the “secret button,” which wonderfully takes them to a true WYSIWYG page for them to edit their content.  Content is split into blocks that are accessed individually right above the block itself; see the image below for a block containing a short unordered list: Trillium block Users know exactly what they are manipulating.  And they can remove [rmv], or add something new above it [ins], or change the order with other blocks [ ^ v ] , or of course edit it right there.  There is little chance of a user manipulating the wrong content. Furthermore this content can be headlines (with a choice of h-tags), text with autoformatted p-tags, text with autoformatted br-tags, objects like images or .pdfs inserted from Trillium’s Object Utility, autoformatted links, autoformatted lists, autoformatted tables, or even out-and-out HTML.  Additionally, users can repeat their blocks via the “Existing Content Block” feature. While this interface can be frustratingly simplistic  at times, it also can be quite convenient even for the most advanced users; more importantly, it enables users with little knowledge of HTML and other Web technologies to post and maintain their content.

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Trillium’s “fixed” width

I swear my next post will be praising Trillium, but this post is to complain about the fixed width of the central content table in the regular layout templates.  The center section is supposed to be 608 pixels wide, which is also the size of the “photostrip” that sits atop it.  Small version of photostripAdd anything bigger than 608 pixels, however, and you will stretch the table beyond the width of the photostrip, giving the page a decidedly unprofessional look:Page too wideThe above image is from http://graduate.lclark.edu/dept/gseadmit/inforequest.html, but there are many other examples I have found.  Many were just a pixel of two too wide and I could quickly fix, though some (like the one above) relate to a form which cannot be edited easily.Another example is the English department at http://www.lclark.edu/dept/english/, which has a wonderful main image stretching the page.  The site would lose a lot of charm by reducing the image size.Really the solution is a more fluid layout in which pages can stretch (within reasonable limits) without breaking.

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Trillium - CSS - Tables

This is the first of series of posts I hope to be making over the next few weeks about what does/does not work in Trillium and therefore what L&C should/should not try to carry over to the new site…

Today I want to mention a major shortcoming:  Trillium produces webpages based on tables, not cascading style sheets.  The difference in flexibility and usability is documented
ad nauseam online and so not worth repeating here.  (Trillium was of course created when table layouts were all we were doing, but things have changed for the far better.)

While we do use style sheets with Trillium to control small things like background and link colors, they could be used to control so much more.  So I lobby a point which seems a no-brainer to me, but still must be mentioned: the new site must be based on style sheets not tables!

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