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]
> >
> >
>