Link to ChurchDatabase

A discussion about the use of the Wiki (ThePsalter) as the public face of the Rolls Database

Premises

  1. The Rolls database should be the prime repository for all information.
  2. Access to the Rolls database should be limited, but contact information needs to be more widely available.
  3. Wiki pages extracted from the Rolls database are the most appropriate way of providing this for those with electronic access.
  4. Paper contact lists will continue to be needed, and should also be sourced from the Rolls database as directly as possible.

Consequences

  1. Paper contact lists can be printed simply from the group lists in the database by the office. This runs into problems when the list of members is so long that it becomes a scroll box. Copying and pasting the scroll box contents into Word overcomes this.
  2. In order to minimise duplication of information, group lists on the Wiki should always be simply lists of wiki names, with all contact details in the associated home page. In practice, this means that group definition pages are the only lists of people. So for example, CouncilMembership should be replaced by CouncilGroup.

  3. Home pages should be automatically exported from the Rolls database for all persons in roster or other groups. The export of all group members from the database is now possible, and both David and John have mechanisms for generating home pages from this database export.

  4. Home pages are automatically set to have access control of <owner>:read,write,admin Known:read All: to limit access to church people only.

Questions

  1. Is it possible to change the scroll box behaviour in lists of group members to eliminate the extra step above?
  2. What should be included on a home page? Phone, email, and group memberships are there. Old paper lists often included spouse, for making phone calls. Is this possible? Is it desirable?
  3. Many groups have Wiki pages, but the wiki page names are not consistent. Can we add "Wiki page name" as a property of groups, and export it accordingly?

Responses

  1. JohnHurst Yes, I have altered in.gwuc.org.au:/Volumes/File\ Server/WWW/ChurchDB/GroupView.php to extend these scroll boxes to 5000px, which should be enough to avoid scrolling problems for most groups!

  2. JohnHurst Phone and email are essential. Groups not essential, but link in with intra-group access. Could do spouses, but I suspect many would not want this. Spouse names are a little hard to implement, and I question the value of its use. Open to further suggestions. Need more feedback before we do a lot of work on this.

  3. JohnHurst Need wiki page name nomenclature rules for groups. Shall think on't. Easy enough to add to database.

Implementation

  1. CouncilMembership was replaced by CouncilGroup. Feb 2012.

  2. GwucIgor was created describing David's method of extracting and processing data.

  3. The pseudo-user WikiUpdater has been created to give an audit trail of all automatic wiki page updates.

  4. Rolls database now has a person property r2p_pro_ID = 24 giving the Wiki page or Profile, which is exported to David's system, and is included in Home page generation


CategoryTechnical

DatabaseAndWiki (last edited 2017-02-26 05:45:57 by DavidMorgan)