Thanks, Josh, I'll pass this on! I'm familiar with Drupal and Wordpress
for menus and plugins--I have a WP site of my own (augh, don't look, it
sorely need updating, and I don't really write anymore), and EKU uses
Drupal as its web platform (the discussion about adding databases via CCK
was an interesting one).
For putting content boxes on pages--sounds like you got it. Give us a
shout at [log in to unmask] if you run into trouble. Thanks!
On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 1:26 PM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Cindi,
>
> Thanks for hearing our feedback. As I've said before, I have always been
> impressed by Springshare's service. Now I am getting help without even
> having to ask. :)
>
> Regarding 3, that sounds great. I have just been confused by the
> documentation. It states that if my template uses {{content}} keyword, I
> can't use the individual {{content_x}} keywords. But I thought the
> {{content}} keyword had to be used to get page-specific boxes to appear. So
> I need to remove {{content}} and replace it with {{content_col_1}} and
> {{content_col_2}} etc? I will give that a try. I imagine it could solve a
> lot of woes.
>
> Regarding 2, the remote scripts box would indeed be useful for a lot of use
> cases, and I will certainly be using it once it is implemented. However, it
> isn't a solution for libraries who want to use LG as their only website, as
> it requires that you have access to another website with server-side
> scripting capabilities.
>
> I still think a curated plugin ecosystem of some sort would be extremely
> useful for a lot of things most libraries want on their website:
> -a navigation menu builder like what is built into Wordpress and Drupal
> (site-wide, not for a specific guide)
> -a news feed that can show news in a slideshow format or in a blog-like
> list
> format
> -a new books feed that pulls books automatically from something like an ILS
> or discovery service
>
> I maintain websites for two libraries, and in both cases LG is used as a
> secondary site alongside another web application platform (Wordpress for
> one, Rails for another). These three features I think are making the
> difference between using LG as the primary website and using LG as the
> secondary website.
>
> Josh Welker
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Cindi Blyberg
> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 11:47 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
>
> Hey all, a few comments from the Springys. :) Thanks for this amazing
> feedback on the tools that you need to make your jobs easier. We are
> discussing internally and plan to come up with and add viable solutions to
> the roadmap for v2--some of them will be CMS-only, be aware, when they
> involve groups and such. Our goal with this product is to make it as
> tech-friendly as possible and your feedback is extremely helpful. Keep it
> coming!
>
> On to Josh's post, with specific answers to a couple of things:
>
> On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 10:27 AM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > 2. Lack of a plugin ecosystem and any sort of server-side scripting.
> > This is a major one for me. This limits the site to mostly static,
> > manually-added content. Yes, you can embed RSS feeds and iframes and
> > javascript widgets from third-party sites, but if you want to do
> > anything more complicated than that, you are out of luck.
> >
>
> We do plan to reinstate the "remote scripts" capability that v1 had. It's
> not plugins, but would this help with this issue?
>
>
> > 3. Lots of tedious copy/paste work is required. Okay, not copy/paste
> > per se, but if I want to change the boxes that appear in the sidebar
> > column in a large group of guides, I am going to have to manually add
> > and remove boxes on every single page.
> >
>
> Not so! :) You can create a template that has permanent boxes by calling
> those individual content IDs. Go to Help > Guide Templates > Customize
> Guide Templates > Fine Tuning Content for more. Or
>
> http://support.springshare.com/libguides/guidetemplates/customizeguidetemplates#s-lg-box-3819
> (requires login--it's not a secret per se, but we can add more detailed
> documentation up if we're not giving it away to competitors. ;) ).
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
> > Of Alex Armstrong
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 4:50 AM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
> >
> > Brad,
> >
> > Sure, it's feasible. And it's much easier to do with LibGuides v2 than
> > with v1. Whether it's a good idea or not depends on why you're
> > considering building your site on LibGuides. Springshare provides
> > amazing support, but the platform itself is limited.
> >
> > There's a trade-off to make regarding flexibility, complexity, etc.
> > There's no efficient workflow that I've found. (There's no SSH/SFTP,
> > no ability to tweak the CMS, etc. I'm currently drafting a description
> > of my workflow, in the hopes of receiving suggestions for
> > improvement.) A lot of what we do on LibGuides is a pretty stylesheet,
> > precise content guidelines, and a lot of copy-pasting.
> >
> > I'm not trying to dissuade you. LibGuides has been incredible for us.
> > I shudder to think where we would be without it. But we decided to
> > build our site on LibGuides due to (ahem) local operational constraints.
> >
> > AFAICT, it seems that the bulk of your website is already on LibGuides.
> > If you're reasonably happy with it, maybe take the plunge and see if
> > it works for you :)
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> > Alex
> >
> > On 2014-09-22 23:56, Brad Coffield wrote:
> > > Alex,
> > >
> > > Thanks so much for sharing your new site built in LG2. I love it.
> > > Simple, attactive, but very useable. It's very interesting to see an
> > > honest-to-goodness "this actually looks like a real website and not
> > > like just some libguide" library website built using lg. More and
> > > more I'm seriously considering LG2 as a feasible option for our library
> > > site.
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > > Brad
> > >
> > > On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 3:29 PM, Joshua Welker <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> > >
> > >> I was just curious in general. I'm always interested in data on web
> > >> usability.
> > >>
> > >> Josh Welker
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> -----Original Message-----
> > >> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > >> Behalf Of Alex Armstrong
> > >> Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2014 12:34 PM
> > >> To: [log in to unmask]
> > >> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
> > >>
> > >> I was actually a bit coy in my previous post. Our old site was
> > >> reasonably battle-hardened for usability. It's not like we
> > >> transitioned from three-column layouts and guides with three rows
> > >> of
> > tabs
> > >> or anything.
> > >>
> > >> I'm still trying to come up with tasks for testing. I suspect a lot
> > >> of the big stuff will be OK while a lot of the small stuff will be
> off.
> > >> It's been really hard to test the latter. (And there is a glitches
> > >> in our analytics so I'm also flying a bit blind.)
> > >>
> > >> Is there something in particular you're wondering about?
> > >>
> > >> Alex
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On 09/19/2014 07:50 PM, Joshua Welker wrote:
> > >>> Nice job. I like the simplicity. Let me know how the usability
> > >>> testing goes.
> > >>>
> > >>> Josh Welker
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> -----Original Message-----
> > >>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > >>> Behalf Of Alex Armstrong
> > >>> Sent: Friday, September 19, 2014 10:28 AM
> > >>> To: [log in to unmask]
> > >>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
> > >>>
> > >>> Long time lurker, second time poster (if memory serves).
> > >>>
> > >>> We launched our new library website yesterday, which is entirely
> > >>> built on LibGuides 2. You can see it here: http://library.acg.edu/
> > >>>
> > >>> For simplicity’s sake we used only two templates:
> > >>>
> > >>> a full width template for single page guides (e.g., our
> > >>> home page).
> > >>> a content template that uses ~2/3 of the page for the
> > >>> content and
> > >>> ~1/3 for guide navigation.
> > >>>
> > >>> There are no dropdown menus anywhere, for the reasons people
> > >>> mentioned, nor do we use two columns for content. (Some of the
> > >>> landing pages use a small grid, but that’s about it.)
> > >>>
> > >>> We use LG’s built-in second column wrapped around an `<aside>` and
> > >>> placed at the bottom of the main content for related info. Scroll
> > >>> to the bottom of this page to see what I mean:
> > >>> http://library.acg.edu/citations/apa
> > >>>
> > >>> I decided to keep the navigation menu on the right to emphasize
> > >>> the main content. My guess is that this won’t work very well for
> > >>> sections with more narrative. My inspiration (GOV.uk) uses wizard
> > >>> navigation, which
> > >>> LG2 supports. That may be a way of handling this issue.
> > >>>
> > >>> I put the site together with almost no usability testing. I’ll
> > >>> have to grab some students in the coming weeks and find out how
> > >>> bad things really are :)
> > >>>
> > >>> You can see a slightly abstracted version of the content template,
> > >>> as well as other useful LG2 thingies in this gist:
> > >>> https://gist.github.com/alehandrof/9f083aa03c287931d9f0
> > >>>
> > >>> The design was written in Sass on top of an imported and
> > >>> customized Bootstrap 3.2. There's an option in the LG admin to
> > >>> disable the default Bootstrap and I only had to write a few
> > >>> hundred lines to override aspects of the default LG stylesheets.
> > >>> Because I built the design on top of Bootstrap there was very
> > >>> little tweaking necessary for the admin side to work properly.
> > >>>
> > >>> Hope this helps,
> > >>> Alex
> > >>>
> > >>> --
> > >>> Alex Armstrong
> > >>> E-Resource/Reference Assistant
> > >>> The American College of Greece Libraries, John S. Bailey Library
> > >>> 6 Gravias Street | GR 153 42 Agia Paraskevi | Athens, Greece
> > >>> Phone: +30 210 600 9800 ext. 1274, 1267 | Fax: +30 210 601 7795
> > >>> Email: [log in to unmask]
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> On 2014-09-19 12:31 AM, Joshua Welker wrote:
> > >>>> That's a good idea. I changed the template using Bootstrap
> > >>>> classes so that the sidebar will appear below the main column on
> > >>>> small screens (< 1024px roughly). But I might consider hiding the
> > >>>> side completely.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Josh Welker
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> -----Original Message-----
> > >>>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > >>>> Behalf Of Michael Schofield
> > >>>> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 1:55 PM
> > >>>> To: [log in to unmask]
> > >>>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I love your minimal template. We're experimenting with similar
> > >>>> minimalism.
> > >>>> If you all can't agree on the existence of the right column, you
> > >>>> might compromise and use media queries to display: none; until
> > >>>> the screen is sufficiently wide. E.g., 1140px so it will only pop
> > >>>> on widescreen monitors and avoid almost all tablet orientations.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Good work.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> -----Original Message-----
> > >>>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > >>>> Behalf Of Joshua Welker
> > >>>> Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2014 2:43 PM
> > >>>> To: [log in to unmask]
> > >>>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I am in the middle of building a very minimalist LibGuides 2.0
> > >>>> template to go with our new website. Here's the current status:
> > >>>> http://ucmo.beta.libguides.com/test-guide.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> We are still torn on whether to have any side columns. We
> > >>>> currently have a right column just for important site-wide
> > >>>> information. We used the right rather than left with the
> > >>>> rationale that it is not an essential navigation menu and that we
> > >>>> didn't want it to be the first thing users notice. Content should
> > >>>> come first. The fact that users will not focus heavily on the
> > >>>> right-hand content is actually a good thing in this instance.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I go back and forth on whether to scrap the side column. I am
> > >>>> pretty adamant that there should only be one column for page
> > >>>> content, although I am prepared to suffer the slings and arrows
> > >>>> of outrageous fortune.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Josh Welker
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> -----Original Message-----
> > >>>> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > >>>> Behalf Of Brad Coffield
> > >>>> Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 5:24 PM
> > >>>> To: [log in to unmask]
> > >>>> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] LibGuides v2 - Templates and Nav
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Benjamin: "Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns
> > >>>> plus left-nav..." LOL
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Margaret: Love the floating nav on that page. It's exciting that
> > >>>> we'll be able to leverage Bootstrap with our guides now. Moving
> > >>>> the entire library website to libguides CMS is looking more and
> > >>>> more promising.
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Some more thoughts:
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I'm no UX expert but is it generally agreed that left-nav is the
> > >>>> much better choice? It seems like it to me. Given current web
> > >>>> wide conventions etc.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> One big issue to switching to left-nav in v2 is the amount of
> > >>>> work it's going to take everyone to convert all guides to the new
> > >>>> layout.
> > >>>> Which is one of those things that both shouldn't matter (when
> > >>>> looking at it in a principledness way - that is, "Whatever is
> > >>>> best for the patrons! No matter
> > >>>> what!) but also does matter (in a practical way - that is, "OMG
> > >>>> we are all so busy being awesome").
> > >>>>
> > >>>> But part of me, when looking at other people's guides and my own,
> > >>>> wonders if three columns isn't just a little TOO much for the user.
> > >>>> How is one supposed to scan the page? What's the prioritized
> > >>>> information? For a couple years now I've been eschewing three
> > >>>> columns whenever possible. Do others agree that three columns can
> > >>>> be info overload?
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Brad
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 4:32 PM, Benjamin Florin
> > >>>> <[log in to unmask]>
> > >>>> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> We've been tinkering with our LibGuides template in preparation
> > >>>>> for an eventual redesign of our site and guides, e.g.:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> http://libguides.bc.edu/libraries/babst/staff
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Some of our guide authors weren't happy with the LibGuides
> > >>>>> side-navigation's single-column limitation, so we made our own
> > >>>>> template, moved {{guide_nav}} off to a left column, and wrote
> > >>>>> our own styles to make the default top-nav display as left-nav.
> > >>>>> We've found that a 50/50 or 75/25 split next to the left nav
> > >>>>> looks pretty good.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Unfortunately we have authors who want *three* columns plus
> > >>>>> left-nav...
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> In general the LibGuides templating has felt modern and easy to
> > >>>>> work with.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Ben
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Brad Coffield <
> > >>>>> [log in to unmask]>
> > >>>>> wrote:
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>> Hi all,
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> I'm finally diving into our Libguides v2 migration and I'm
> > >>>>>> wondering if anyone would be willing to share their
> > >>>>>> experience/choices regarding templating. (Or even some code!)
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> I'm thinking left-nav is the way to go. Has anyone split the
> > >>>>>> main content column into two smaller columns? Done that with a
> > >>>>>> column-width-spanning
> > >>>>> box
> > >>>>>> atop the main content area? Any other neato templates ideas?
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> We are in the process of building a "style guide" for all
> > >>>>>> libguides
> > >>>>> authors
> > >>>>>> to use. And also some sort of peer-review process to help
> > >>>>>> enforce the
> > >>>>> style
> > >>>>>> guide. I'm thinking we are going to want to restrict all
> > >>>>>> authors to left-nav templates but perhaps the ideal solution
> > >>>>>> would be to require left-nav of all but to have a variety of
> > >>>>>> custom left-nav templates to choose from.
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Any thoughts are much appreciated!
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Warm regards,
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> Brad
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>>>> --
> > >>>>>> Brad Coffield, MLIS
> > >>>>>> Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis
> > >>>>>> University
> > >>>>>> 814-472-3315
> > >>>>>> [log in to unmask]
> > >>>>>>
> > >>>> --
> > >>>> Brad Coffield, MLIS
> > >>>> Assistant Information and Web Services Librarian Saint Francis
> > >>>> University
> > >>>> 814-472-3315
> > >>>> [log in to unmask]
> > >
> > >
> >
>
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