Four Ways to Set up and Maintain Chapter Web Sites Paul Wesling, SFBA Council Communications Director and Webmaster SF Bay Area Council Officer Training Mountain View, CA January 25, 2014

Outline Content-Management System (CMS) –WordPress Websites: the Gold Standard –WordPress on IEEE’s EWH Servers –IEEE’s WordPress “Sites”: specialized WordPress Installations IEEE’s “Web in a Box”: Simple, well- documented HTML Editing (eg, with Dreamweaver) Ones NOT to use: MS WORD! 2

Why Do We Need a Website? Engineers need to find out about your meetings, seminars, events The e-GRID gives engineers a summary, but then it has a link to what your chapter has put on the Web Google/Bing/Yahoo can crawl your site and index it

History Old-fashioned websites were crafted in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) Problems of training, coordination Better: a system to manage the various content elements: a Content Management System (CMS) –Keeps the various “parts” in a database –Creates the web pages “on the fly” A Chapter needs the ability to allow several Editors to work independently to update certain pages

WordPress (CMS: Content-Mgmt System) Free, Open-Source, well supported Install on your own server, or use EWH Easy to get started; easy to manage Don’t need to know HTML (but it can help) It is editable by multiple authors: –No “single point of failure” or “bottleneck” IEEE Chapter Templates readily available –Jared can set up one for you on EWH –You can see what others have done –Pick/implement features you want

IEEE’s WordPress Some features of IEEE’s WordPress installations: Integrated web analytics (no need to sign up with Google Analytics) Official IEEE WordPress themes compliant with IEEE web presence guidelines (no need for complex HTML templates) Easy Integration with social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) Page and blog post version control Simple password protection Secure login for multiple editors Sitemap generation Spam protection Easy table creation and management Google Map integration Limitation: Can’t add your own plug-in’s.

Any WordPress Installation Download the great IEEE 85-page WordPress guide: sites.ieee.org/files/2011/04/WordPress -Editors-Guide-WL.pdf Good books for your Administrator: –WordPress: The Missing Manual (2012) –WordPress Web Design For Dummies (2013)

WordPress Administrator’s View (webmaster, chair, prgm chair, vice-chair) Your Home Page (actually, a Post) is here Add/edit static pages here Your sidebars, footers are here Select menu types, add page to menu, move page within menu

Add/Edit a Page (ie, not Home Page) Click here to start To start a NEW page To edit an existing page Set this once – may show more options Click, to sort by column See who started this Page

Editing a Page (WYSIWYG and HTML modes) Make the Permalink Shorter WYSIWYG View HTML Editing, touch-up Limited set of Formatting Choices

After an Edit Then: Click UPDATE to make change permanent Best to view finished page in several browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome) – hit REFRESH button

Menus Menu Structure: Drag-and-Drop to re-arrange To add a page: click here – then look for it at the foot of the Menu When finished, click SAVE Can also add custom links as Menu items – eg, link to GRID website

Getting Started If you already have an EWH WordPress site –Ask your Webmaster to add you, as editor –Download and print/use the Tutorial –Considering learning basic HTML To upgrade to WordPress –Either ask Jared to make a new instantiation –Or, get a “sites.ieee.org” instantiation, from the IEEE website (next demonstration)

sites.ieee.org A WordPress environment Best-looking solution; standard look/feel Painfully slow response times (3 to 5 sec.) Standard CMS features: –Same methods are used –multiple editors allowed

Post date confusing – should be suppressed Sidebar Navigation Main (blog) Column Social Networking Links

CS Website: Archives, About Us Good way to handle past meeetings

Left Sidebar Right Sidebar Main (blog) Column

Sites: Nanotechnology Chapter Left Sidebar Meetings and Other Announcements Typical blog Push-down mode Main (blog) Column Could use a better way to handle past Meetings …

(Some do it wrong) Use good web design: Make your most important info prominent Next meetings are hidden down here Visitor looks here, sees meeting is over or not listed Footer cuts off sidebar

vTools: “Web in a Box” CMS: multiple editors for chapter site Easy setup and administration Low amount of flexibility; good basic structure, not flashy Built-in Announcements/Meetings system Can coordinate with vTools Registration system; can accept credit cards Help: Tutorial: sites.ieee.org/vtools/webinabox-tutorials

Web in a Box: MTT Chapter no Sidebars Single Center Column Officers pulled From IEEE database

Web in a Box: MTT Chapter Good step-by-step Tutorial/Help files (PPT/PDF)

Good Ol’ HTML Your site can be hand-crafted Content can be distinct from format/ presentation using HTML5/CSS3/javascript Performance is excellent; fast page loads Doesn’t have a modern look Limited to only one Webmaster at a time –Difficult to coordinate multiple editors Not suggested, for Chapters –Upgrade (over the summer) to WordPress

CPMT Chapter Navigation Free-form multiple columns

The SFBA Council GRID all HTML - Special content/formatting needs Column of rotating banner ads Three columns of Chapter meetings Simple; light- weight; fast Updated in seconds from Dreamweaver

Next Steps See how your current website is being handled: –Is it working well for you? –Are changes needed? –New features? If it’s WordPress already, you now know can access the tools to making it better! If it’s old-fashioned HTML, this could be the time for a change.

For more information … Download one or more Tutorials, to study Check out some chapter sites in SCV: – –See what some others look like Contact that Chapter’s webmaster, to see if s/he can assist Ask me for a referral! Thanks for your attention … Paul Wesling,