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Imperial College Canoe Club
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Digimeister

From ICCC

The 'digimeister' is responsible for the club website (this website).

Contents

How to be the Digimeister

The digimeister is ultimately responsible for ensuring the club website is up-to-date, and providing useful information, fixing/avoiding broken links.

However all club members should get a say in what goes on the website, and indeed they will need to provide (write) information for the site a lot of the time, so that the digimeister is more of a technical role, facilitating the publishing of information on the site.

pre 2003 the website was a simple static HTML site, and all content changes were carryed out by the digimeister (simple HTML changes and FTPing). Since then we've gone dynamic! All content was converted into php scripts, some dynamic features have been added by Theo. These include a photo gallery system, a messageboard, and other bespoke developments. In theory these scripted bits and bobs will allow everyone else to keep the site up to date, leaving the digimeister with very little to do. Anyone can now add photos for instance.

In practice it means the digimeister role becomes a whole lot more complicated. No longer does it only require HTML skills. Future digimeisters will need to be able to programme in PHP. Hopefully we will continue to have technically knowledgeable members who able to do this in years to come (see below).

This new approach means that the digimeister is responsible for fixing/avoiding bugs and security holes in the PHP code.

We might hope to acheive a content managment system which requires no further script changes (php skills), and can support the club's website needs indefinately. This wiki takes us a step closer to this, making it very easy for less techy people to chip-in with website contributions.

The way the site works

This will be of use to future digimeisters, and possibly of interst to anyone else who cares. It should help ensure that anyone can teach themselves PHP by just playing around with stuff on the site (Digimeisters only though - you need the password). I taught myself PHP like this, it really isnt that hard. However, backup the file your working on, and if possible play with the backup then replace the original with it when you're sure it works. For more info on how PHP works, and to look up bits of code you need, try PHP Manual. You get to the site edit system here. Goto RCC, then to Canoe. You are now at the root directory for our site. Many of the dynamic features on the site use a MySQL database backend to store information, like posts on the messageboard, news for the front page, and the location of pictures in the gallery. To access the MySQL interface go here. Another thing that will make it easier for future digimeisters to get used to PHP is well-labelled code. Ralph is making an effort to try and add explanations to the more general bits of the site, so that other people can understand and edit them. For example, one of the most important files is /code/subs.php, which includes all the .inc files in the same folder. These are functions used widely across the site, and Ralph has tried to explain what they are and vaguely what they do, so anyone adding code in future can use the same functions or update them as needed. As with everything else, this is work in progress, but will hopefully make life easier once everything is transferred to using the /code/ functions. If you have any questions about the server (inc. MySQL and PhpMyAdmin, but NOT SiteEdit) you can contact union.sysadmin@imperial.ac.uk.

Things to do regularly

  • Back up database and files
  • Categorise things in the wiki
  • Keep plugging away at the To-Do List for the site.

Interesting cockups

By Ralph:-

  • Accidentally letting people run php scripts in a homemade wiki, including letting RobT steal all the site passwords.
  • Making everyone Ralph on the messageboard while trying to combine wiki and messageboard login.
  • Somehow crashing php on the server so the entire site died. No idea how.

By Andy:-

  • Rewriting every message on the board to be from Mark Flower.

Previous Digimeisters

Retrieved from "http://www.union.ic.ac.uk/rcc/canoe/mediawiki/Digimeister"