Web Advisory Committee Minutes - June 2017

3:00p.m., June 21, 2017. NH 3118

Attendance

Present:

Donald Duff-McCracken (Chair), Darren Bondy (Secretary), Herbert Balagtas, Anna Beard, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Graham Faulkner, Laurel Forbes, Chris Francis, Tasha Glover, Tom Graham, Danielle Jeanneault, Andrea Jennings, Joe Kwan, Martin LeBlanc, Andrew McAlorum, Amy Meredith, Isaac Morland, Liam Morland, Kevin Paxman, Trevor Ridgway, Elizabeth Rogers, Melanie Scott, Susan Shifflett, Kayla Snyder, Lori Suess, Chao Yang, Melissa Holst, Mirko Vucicevich (guest), Heather Wey

Regrets:

Janice Cooke, Beth Cotter, Marlon Griffith, Sarah Forgrave, Alison Hitchens, Stephenie Koerne, Andrew Smith, Claire Taylor, Michael Tjendra

Absent:

Marta Bailey, Jim Johnston, Carlos Saavedra, Andrea Sweet

Approval of the minutes of May meeting

The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted as distributed.

Business Arising

None.

Scinage demonstration (Mirko Vucicevich)

Mirko Vucicevich provided a demonstration of the Scinage tool he developed in Science.

  • Science Computing does quite a bit of developing, most of which is done by Mirko and co-op students.
  • Some recent examples of systems they have developed include:
    • eValuate
    • Markbox
    • Safely – a Lab safety checklist
  • Scinage was created because of a need for a digital signage solution on campus.
  • Each instance of Scinage has admin tools built in.
  • It is currently accessible to anyone with a WatIAM.
  • All slides are fully editable within Scinage.
  • You can share slides you have created publicly to everyone using it or just keep it for your own group.
  • Contact Mirko if you are interested in looking at Scinage.

Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) updates

WCMS Outages

  • We continue to have infrastructure issues with the WCMS due to a bug in the MariaDB database server.
  • The plan is to migrate back to mySQL server (the 2.5.0 release put on hold until the migration takes place).
  • Test sites are now being moved; will look to schedule migration of pilot sites in the next week.
  • Will then be migrating a select number of high traffic/profile sites to a dedicated database structure, with the rest of production sites to eventually follow.
    • Communications will be sent regarding each stage of the migration.
    • Important information regarding disabling forms on sites during migration will be distributed prior to your sites being migrated.

Technical update (Kevin Paxman)

Since last meeting:

  • Open Scholar 1.2 was released, featuring minor changes and giving librarians access to create Scholar sites. Release notes.
  • WCMS 2.5.0 has been delayed as we work to improve the stability of our database structure. A revised 2.5.0 will be released at a later date.

Other news:

  • Notifications will go out as database restructuring affects sites; we are expecting to move pilots sites and UWaterloo main next week. For production sites, we are going to be recommending that you disable forms on your sites on the night when it is being updated, as we will be copying databases and upgrading before switching, in order to limit downtime to a fraction of a second.
  • Focus points in our current sprint include single page events improvements, non-English Responsive, repeating date appearance and Drupal 8.
  • Drupal core release expected today, not announced if it’s for 7 or 8 or both; will be keeping an eye out and reviewing ASAP if it affects us

Training and support (Andrea Jennings)

Migrations and training – by the numbers

Since May 17, 2017:

  • 724 sites live
    • 439 websites in responsive design
      • 502 total responsive sites live in WCMS
  • 50 in progress on pilots (50 are responsive)
  • Clients to Drop-in lab: 21 clients
  • WCMS training courses: 45 attendees

What’s happening with the WCMS?

  • WCMS migration to responsive cut-off date – August 31, 2017 – Two months to go!
    • The point of contact (POC) for each site should submit an RT to set up a scheduled migration as soon as possible in advance of this date.Additional details.

New to Web Resources

  • Web courses: All SEW courses offered throughout July and August will be posted soon!
  • UWaterloo how-to docs: How-to docs updated. Feedback?
  • Drop-in lab
    • Drop-in lab will be closed July 11.
    • WCMS Drop-in lab will only be open Thursdays throughout the month of August.

If you require special arrangements outside of the regular drop-in hours please contact Andrea, ajenning@uwaterloo.ca. Regularly scheduled WCMS Drop-in lab hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays - 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm in MC 2060.

Job opportunity!

Aliya is leaving our team to pursue an editorial role outside of the University.

We’ll be hiring for a contract WCMS Client Support Specialist position, ideally to begin this summer. Know someone who would be a good fit? Let us know! Email Andrea, ajenning@uwateroo.ca.

UWScholar (Andrew McAlorum)

Guidelines are present on the UWaterloo Scholar homepage for people to inform the WCMS support team if they are leaving the University or if there site is no longer required.

  • There are no plans to delete sites at this point without further discussion.

Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) update

  • Private Right of Action (consumers being able to bring civil litigation against a company) has been postponed indefinitely and will not be part of the July 1 changes. Litigation against companies will continue to come from the government until further notice.

Other business

Publication theme updates:

  • Built a demo site based on an actual publications site; deadline for feedback on this site has been extended and Joe Kwan will redistribute the link.

Meeting adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 4:10 p.m.