expoweb/handbook/update.htm

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<title>CUCC Expedition Handbook: Online system overview</title>
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<h2 id="tophead">CUCC Expedition Handbook - Online systems</h2>
<h1>Expo Online Systems Overview</h1>
<p>The online data system and webinterface is now large and complicated with a lot of aspects.
This handbook section contains info at various levels:
simple 'How to add stuff' information for the typical expoer,
more detailed info for cloning it onto your own machine for more significant edits,
and structural info on how it's all put together for people who want/need to change things.
<p>We have <a href="http://wookware.org/talks/expocomputer/#/">an Overview Presentation</a> (many parts out of date)
on how the cave data,
handbook and public website are constructed and managed.
It contains material which will be merged into this online systems manual.
<ul>
<li><a href="uploading.html">Uploading your photos</a></li>
<li><a href="logbooks.html">Uploading typed logbooks</a></li>
<li><a href="gpxupload.html">Uploading GPS tracks</a></li>
<li><a href="manual.html#update">Updating the guidebook descriptions and handbook</a></li>
<li><a href="manual.html#manual">Expo software and server maintenance manual</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><a id="update">Updating the online systems - overview</a></h2>
<h3>Experts short cut</h3>
<p>Short <a href="checkin.htm">command-line instructions</a> for updating the
data on the server
(using the <em>expo laptop</em>). This is a memory jog for experts, not beginners.</p>
<h3>Autogenerated pages</h3>
<p>Some key sections of the online webpages are autogenerated by
<a href="#troggle">troggle</a>, and are not static files,
so you have to edit the base data, not the generated file (e.g cave
pages, QM (question mark) lists, expo members list, prospecting pages). All
autogenerated files say 'This file is autogenerated - do not edit' at
the top - so check for that before wasting time on changes that will
just be overwritten</p>
<h3>Using "Edit this page"</h3>
<p>You can update the site via the troggle pages, by editing pages
online via a browser ("Edit this page" on the menu on the left), by
editing them on the server remotely, or by checking out the relevant part to
your computer and editing it there. Which is best depends on your
knowledge and what you want to do. For simple addition of cave or
survey data troggle ("edit this page") is recommended. (For other edits it's best if you
can edit the files directly but that means you either need to be on expo with the expo
computer, or be able to check out a local copy using the version control system -
see the <a href="manual.html#manual">Expo software and server maintenance manual</a>. If neither of these
apply then using the 'edit this page' button is fine.</p>
<p>It's important to understand that the pages you can edit by this method
are stored in a distributed version control system (see below). This stops us losing data and
makes it very hard for you to screw anything up permanently, so don't
worry about making changes - they can always be reverted if there is a
problem. It also means that several people can work on the site on
different computers at once and normally merge their changes
easily.
<p>After doing this, you need to ask a nerd to finish the process fairly soon as the "Edit this page"
mechanism does not tidy-up after itself properly.
See <a href="manual.html#editthispage">these instructions for this tidy-up</a>
<h3><a id="surveystatus">Maintaining the status of new surveys being drawn up</a></h3>
<p>This is managed in this years' folder in e.g.
<pre>
expofiles/surveyscans/2018/
</pre>
and is documented in the <a href="survey/newcave.html">New Cave survey data entry</a>
manual pages.
<h3 id="mercurial">DVCS - version control</a></h3>
<p>We use a distributed revision control system (DVCS) for all the important data.
On expo this means that many people can edit and merge their changes with the expo
server in the Tatty Hut even if there is no internet access. Also anyone who is up
to date with the Tatty Hut can take their laptop somewhere where there is internet
access and update expo.survex.com - which will then get all the updates done by everyone on expo.
</p>
<p>In principle, survey notes can be typed into a laptop up on the plateau which is
then synchronised with the Tatty Hut on returning to base.
</p>
<p>A DVCS is inefficient for scanned survey notes, which are large files that
do not get modified, so they are kept as a plain directory of files 'expofiles'.
The same goes for holiday photographs and GPS logs.</p>
<h3 id="troggle">Troggle - what it is</a></h3>
<p>
Troggle is the software collection (not really a "package") based on <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/">Django</a>
originally intended to manage all expo data in a logical and accessible way
and displaying it on the web.
<p>Only a small part of troggle's original plan was fully implemented and deployed: that bit which
re-formats HTML web pages (such as the Expo Handbook). Troggle creates the contents index on every page
and provides the
"Edit this page" capability and provides some help in creating online guidebook descriptions
for the caves. (You can see "Edit this page" in the left hand menu of this
page that you are reading if you are a logged-on user.)
<p> Once you have edited the page you need to
update the server's local repo copies, by ssh into the server and running hg update in the expoweb folder.
Otherwise nobody else can use your changes via the repo mechanism even though they are pubished by the webserver</p>
<p>See the outdated <a href="http://www.srcf.ucam.org/caving/wiki/Troggle">Troggle page
</a> for a snapshot of development some years ago.
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