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143 lines
7.0 KiB
HTML
143 lines
7.0 KiB
HTML
<html>
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<title>CUCC Expedition Handbook: Online system overview</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../css/main2.css" />
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</head>
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<body>
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<h2 id="tophead">CUCC Expedition Handbook - Online systems</h2>
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<h1>Expo Online Systems Overview</h1>
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<p>The online data and web publishing system (i.e. "the website") is now large and complicated with a lot of aspects.
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This handbook section contains info at various levels:
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simple 'How to add stuff' information for the typical expoer,
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more detailed info for cloning it onto your own machine for more significant edits,
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and structural info on how it's all put together for people who want/need to change things.
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<p>We have <a href="http://wookware.org/talks/expocomputer/#/">an Overview Presentation</a> (many parts out of date)
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on how the cave data,
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handbook and public website are constructed and managed.
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It contains material which will be merged into this online systems manual.
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<p>These pages listed below have been reviewed recently (2018), and a
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fuller list of "How do I..." instruction pages are on <a href="index.htm">the handbook opening page</a>.
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<ul>
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<li><a href="uploading.html">Uploading your photos</a></li>
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<li><a href="logbooks.html">Uploading typed logbooks</a></li>
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<li><a href="gpxupload.html">Uploading GPS tracks</a></li>
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<li><a href="survey/newcave.html">Recording a new cave discovery</a></li>
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<li><a href="survey/status.html">Monitoring the status cave survey workflow during and after expo</a></li>
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</ul>
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<p>But the systems Manual is still being actively edited to extract and simplify documentation. At the moment
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it is the only documentation we have for:
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<ul>
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<li><a href="manual.html#update">Manual: Creating a new 'year' in the system</a></li>
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<li><a href="manual.html#update">Manual: Updating the cave guidebook descriptions</a></li>
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<li><a href="manual.html#manual">Manual: Expo software and server maintenance manual</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a id="update">Updating the online systems - overview</a></h2>
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<h3>Autogenerated pages</h3>
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<p>Some key sections of the online webpages are autogenerated by scripts or by
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<a href="#troggle">troggle</a>, and are not static files,
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so you have to edit the base data, not the generated file (e.g cave
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pages, QM (question mark) lists, expo members list, prospecting pages). All
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autogenerated files say 'This file is autogenerated - do not edit' at
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the top - so check for that before wasting time on changes that will
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just be overwritten</p>
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<h3 id="edithandbook">Editing this handbook and historic expo documentation</h3>
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<p>The primary and recommended way of editing this handbook (and the website generally) is to use
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a laptop which has the <a href="#mercurial">Distributed Version Control System</a> software installed. The
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person editing needs to know how to use this software, and also needs to know how to edit raw HTML files
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using a text editor.
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<p>The <em>Expo laptop</em> has the software installed, so it is best to learn how to do this
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when sitting at that laptop.
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<p>It's important to understand that the pages you can edit by this method
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are stored in a distributed version control system (see below). This stops us losing data and
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makes it very hard for you to screw anything up permanently, so don't
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worry about making changes - they can always be reverted if there is a
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problem. It also means that several people can work on the site on
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different computers at once and normally merge their changes
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easily.
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<p>The recommended editing workflow is to (a) use the DVCM to synchronise your local laptop copy of the
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website files with that on the server; (b) edit a set of .html files on your laptop so that all links between them are consistent,
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save the files locally, and "commit" them locally;
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(c) "push" the collection of changes to the expo online server as a single action.
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<p>See the <a href="manual.html#manual">Expo data management systems manual</a> for a fuller description of the DVCM
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repositories and how to install and use the software.
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<h3 id="editthispage">Using "Edit this page"</h3>
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<p>You can update a single webpage
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online via a browser. This is best used for urgent edits to a single page, e.g.
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if the emergency phone at top-camp has to use a new SIM with a different phone number.
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If you are a logged-on user you will see "Edit this page" on the menu on the left of this page. It appears on
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nearly all pages in this website. If you click on it you will be able to edit the raw HTML of the page - so you need
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to know how to do that.
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<p>After doing the page editing and saving your work, you need to ask a nerd to finish the process fairly soon as the "Edit this page"
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mechanism does not tidy-up after itself properly.
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See <a href="manual.html#editthispage">these instructions for this tidy-up</a>
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<h3 id="mercurial">DVCS - version control</a></h3>
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<p>We use a distributed revision control system (DVCS) for all the important data.
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This means that many people can edit and merge their changes with the expo
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server in Cambridge at the same time: inlcuding people still on expo in the Tatty Hut
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and those who have returned to the UK. Also anyone who is up
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to date can take their laptop somewhere and enter data even if they have no internet access,
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and the updates will be merged when they get back to civilization.
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</p>
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<p>In principle, survey notes can be typed into a laptop up on the plateau which would
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then get synchronised when it next gets internet access.
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</p>
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<p>A DVCS is inefficient for scanned survey notes, which are large files that
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do not get modified, so they are kept as a plain directory of files 'expofiles'.
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The same goes for holiday photographs and GPS logs.</p>
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<h3 id="troggle">Troggle - what it is</a></h3>
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<p>
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Troggle is the software collection (not really a "package") based on <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/">Django</a>
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originally intended to manage all expo data in a logical and accessible way
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and publish it on the web.
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<p>Only a small part of troggle's original plan was fully implemented and deployed.
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Many of the things it was intended to replace are still operating as a motley collection written by many different people in
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several languages (but mostly perl and python; we won't talk about the person who likes to use OCamL).
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Today troggle is used for only three things:
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<ol>
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<li>Reformatting all the visible webpages such that they have a coherent style and have a contents list at the top-left
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hand corner. This is particularly true of the handbook you are reading now and the historic records of past expeditions.
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<li>Publishing the "guidebook descriptions" of caves. The user who is creating a new guidebook description
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can do this by filling-in some online forms.
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<li>Providing a secondary way of editing individual pages of the handbook and historic records pages
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for very quick and urgent changes.
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This is the "Edit this page" capability; see <a href="#editthispage">above for
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how to use it</a> and how to tidy up afterwards.
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</ol>
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<p>See the <a href="troggle-ish.html">notes on troggle</a> page
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for how and why it was developed and what needs to be done.
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<hr />
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</body>
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</html>
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