Association website..

[Andy Dingle]

In reply to Jonathon's post in my original 'Carsington Water' thread - thought it best to start a new thread.



Many thanks Jonathan. I must say that all this internet conjuring is most impressive - and you certainly seem to be a worshipful past master at it. I am still in awe that I can sit here in my pyjamas typing something that the whole world will see in seconds!

Please don't strike me down with a flying thunderbolt....but! I've had another idea for the Swallow Boats non-Association Association - Pennant Waving splinter group (non Pennant Wavers also very welcome) Website!

Seriously though, what do you (and other members) think of the possibiliity of having another section (if that is the right word?) within the site, where members can send in accounts of perhaps interesting tales of their Swallow Boat sailing adventures with photographs. A bit like a mini blog, but built into our website. I don't mean sequential entries like Ron Johnstones, Julians and Tony's very excellent blog sites - more a one off compressed version. Eg - an adventurous couple of days sailing at an unusual location, experiences of an incident where everything has gone terribly wrong (or right, for a change!), or just had a fantastic time that you would want to share with fellow enthusiasts. How you fared when taking part in a Raid or other event? First sail in your brand new Swallow Boat. Etc etc. You get the idea I am sure.
A one-off publication that could be posted by the member without involving you - obviously moderated by Clem or yourself (or I would be happy to volunteer if you showed me what to do).

Or do you, or others,  think it better if someone does want to share something they can either post it in the forum or create their own blog and link it as we currently do?

Just an idea... I am very conscious that you have already put an awful lot of work into this association website that gives us all such such a positive focal point - with that in mind I've chucked a fiver into both the British Legion and RNLI collecting boxes in yours and Swallow Boats name...

Now I'm going to go and hide from flying thunderbolts ,,,,


Cheers all

Andy and 'Psalter'
 

[Jonathan Stuart]

Andy,

Thank you for that! I think this is a good idea although it will live or die on whether people fancy contributing, but if they do then this could build up to a useful set of pages to accompany the forum.

We have two options. First, we already have a blog (News & Blog link above) and I can open access so that others can post to that. Alternatively, we can set this up so that people can write standalone pages on the site. I am currently working on that option so  we can do things like the boat register and sailing and accommodation venues that have been requested in other posts. Well, when I say "currently working", I haven't done anything with this for a couple of weeks because of work commitments and I'm hoping to get out on the water early next week, but as we move more in to winter and the boat is finally locked up I should get back on to this.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Stuart]

On a related point, would anyone be interested in a Gallery area on the website where members could create albums and upload pictures, etc?

[Andy Dingle]

Doesn't seem to be much input from anyone else regarding this Jonathon but yes I would like to see a gallery section where pictures could be posted - especially if there was a feature that could allow a brief sentence explaining what/who the picture was?
Boats are notoriously difficult to photograph at sea, and why is it the sea always looks a lot calmer and flatter than it really was?!

I like the idea of a more interactive site where members could publish (post?) their own articles, but like you say if no one does this then it would die a death ..

Thanks all the same


Andy

[Jonathan Stuart]

I'll add it to my list of web site tasks  ! Hopefully things will start appearing soon...

[Jonathan Stuart]

There is a test SBA web site at the following address and I have set it up so that users can add and edit pages. These pages automatically appear under the Library menu page.

http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/dev

It would be useful if someone could take a look at this and let me know if this is heading in the right direction for the functionality Andy and Peter have asked for. At the moment I have enabled Andy and Peter to create and edit pages but if anyone else wants to try this then let me know. The idea is that articles can be written, e.g. to get useful information out of the forum, and this could also be used for the boat register, sailing locations, etc. We may be able to categorise each page in future and have each page listed under the relevant category but I haven't looked at that yet.

What do you think?

I'm also working on a gallery. You'll see that on the test web site although more required is required to make that work the way I want.

Jonathan

[Jonathan Stuart]

By the way, I forgot to say that with this new setup you will see a black bar at the top of the browser window and you just need to select New->Page to create a new page. To change an existing page, open that page and there will be an Edit Page button in the top black bar and a grey Edit button on the actual page. Click either of those to edit.

When editing or creating a new page, you will be taken to the page editor. When you have finished, click the Update button (if editing) or Publish button (if creating a new page).

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

[Graham W]

Hi Jonathan,

Excellent ideas all.  I'd like to be able to post stuff now and then to the galleries and the technical side.

Graham

[Andy Dingle]

Gosh! Many thanks for this Jonathon. It is pretty well exactly what I was thinking of - to be honest I gleaned the idea off another class association I am a member of, but your's seems better than theirs.
I haven't the time at the moment to delve into this in detail but will have a good look around this weekend.

Re photo galleries - as I mentioned earlier, is it possible to add a feature to put an explanatory note on a picture to explain what the subject? Endless pictures of boats, even if they are Swallow Boats, tend to be a little monotonous.

So far though very impressive! Thanks ...


Jonathon - on an entirely different subject - I understand you might be interested in Morbihan next year? Could you please email me on ketchpsalter AT gmail.com - am registering my boat and crew this weekend..

Many thanks

Andy

[Jonathan Stuart]

Graham - OK, I will move this to the live site ASAP and hopefully some of that will be this weekend.

Andy - The current galley only displays the picture's comment or title when the full image is viewed but I agree that it should be visible under each thumbnail. I need to find out how to do this or customize the gallery software if it isn't a standard feature. Apart from that I will probably stick with the gallery I have been testing because although it isn't very feature rich it does the job, looks good and is fully integrated with the web site. I have emailed you as requested.

All - The way the Library is configured at the moment means I have to assign users to a special group so they can add and edit pages. Following a path of security via least privilege is always my instinct but perhaps for our web site this should be reversed and I will open this to anyone registered on the forum. If that causes problems then I can limit access such that only specified users can make changes and/or all changes have to be approved before they are visible.

[Jonathan Stuart]

Peter suggested to me that rather than having open rights to edit pages for all members, there should at least be a requirement for these changes to be reviewed before they are published. I think that's right but it caused me a few challenges. However, I think I've got this working now and am currently testing this setup. This in addition to have a group of known members who can make changes without further approval being required (that bit has been working for some time). Hopefully I can put this live this week.

[Jonathan Stuart]

The library is now live. Sorry for the delay but it became very complex to make this work while also maintaining security. See my other forum post for full details. Gallery to follow shortly.

[Jonathan Stuart]

The picture Gallery is now live too. Pls see the "sticky" topic at the top of this forum for full details.