A discussion about the use of the Wiki (Tardis) 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.

Suggestions

  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 (person2group.txt file) is now possible, and both David and John have mechanisms for generating home pages from this export file.

Questions

  1. Are we happy to adopt the above suggestions?
  2. Is it possible to change the scroll box behaviour in lists of group members to eliminate the extra step above?
  3. What is the appropriate level of access for home pages? Note that wiki-savvy people can change this themselves. "All" may be too broad. "Known" limits it to logged in people. It could be further limited to members who share a group, but that may be considered too limited. Do we need to ask people individually?
  4. 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?
  5. 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 in the person2group.txt file?

Responses

  1. JohnHurst Yes

  2. 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!

  3. JohnHurst I was going for All:read in the short term, Known:read in the medium term, and Group membership for the longer term. Open to further suggestions.

  4. 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. Need more feedback before we do a lot of work on this.

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

Note that the person2group.txt file is obsolete, because it does not include all persons.

Implementation

  1. CouncilMembership was replaced by CouncilGroup. Feb 2012.

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

CategoryTechnical