Author Archives: Luca Macis

Release notes: 10 July 2012

An updated build of pantheon has been rolled on to the preview web-server oil.

This release includes a number of bug fixes to path resolution functions as well as fixing some minor snippet bugs. A few extra warnings have also been added to the publisher panel.

SVN Logs:
[Pantheon][legacy][core] Back-port further path resolution fixes
[pantheon][legacy][snippets][PageList] Remove PageList fix from castor branch as the readable check does not seem to function properly.
[Pantheon][core] Backport img tag fix to castor as it works well on webfarm
[Pantheon][snippets][carousel] Fix path resolution (Resolves 158742)
[Pantheon][snippets][summary][events] Add warning when events dont have a start date and ensure that the event is not used.
[Pantheon][snippets][PageList] PageList snippet will now throw a publisher warning rather than a developer error if a listed file does not exist. Additionally, multiple instances of this snippet may now be placed on a single page without the tab-switching issue.

Update on the University’s web server

Information Services (IS) are carrying out a programme of work to update and upgrade the University’s main web server infrastructure. The completion of the new “web farm” is designed to replace the current preview and live web servers (Oil and Castor). It will provide increased resilience, speed, flexibility, security and functionality for all University of Kent web sites.

Many central websites have already been migrated to the new platform, and the Web Solutions team will be contacting site owners to discuss the transfer of the school and departmental sites.

The migration process should not involve any work for schools/departments; however it does include a short freeze on content publishing, to ensure that content remains consistent.

An onsite familiarisation session will be arranged for all publishers in order to setup their site(s) in Dreamweaver and to provide training on publishing to the new web farm.

Regular updates and announcements on the migration, workshops, and other related news will be posted on the Kent on the Web website.

http://www.kent.ac.uk/web

If you have any queries please email helpdesk@kent.ac.uk, prefixing the message subject with “webfarm migration”.

Kent on the Web brand rollout and site launch

Dear Web Authors,

Kent on the Web brand rollout

We are pleased to announce that the Kent on the Web website has now been rolled out into the new University of Kent brand (Chronos).

As part of the launch we will be using some of the new snippets that Chronos has to offer providing publishers with more information and regular updates on the latest enhancements, features and bug fixes to Chronos and the web templating engine, including announcements of new website launches.

New Series of Web Workshops

 

We are also relaunching  our free workshop programme providing hands on, practical training sessions on Chronos and the template for both standard and advanced users. This programme will run for 10 weeks between the 20th June – 8th August.

For more information on any of our services, announcements or to book a place on the workshops please visit the new Kent on the Web site:

 

http://www.kent.ac.uk/web

Best Wishes

Part time work available at the Web Solutions team in IS

The University of Kent Web Team is looking to employ enthusiastic part-time web developers, web designers, and web content editors who enjoy using the latest technologies in IT, the web, and media. This is a great opportunity as it offers the chance to develop and support a range of central services, departmental websites and web applications.

Opportunities are available for advancement within the team to specialise in a particular area, supervise other staff, or learn how to become an IT consultant and project manager. Students who have worked on the team have on average achieved a first degree and have moved on to companies such as Sun, Siemens, Blackwell’s, Oracle, and IBM.

Employment: flexible hours 0-20 (will vary according to student workload)
Salary: £8-13 pounds per hour (approx)

To apply, submit a cover letter stating which position you are applying for and copy of your CV. Please include examples of websites you have designed or developed, links to, or DVDs of photography and video work, any technical documentation or code, as appropriate to the position you are applying for. If you have a physical art or photographic portfolio you can bring to an interview please mention this in your application to Scott Gavin S.L.Gavin@Kent.ac.uk

Developer duties:

  • Developing and maintaining new websites, services, tools and databases.
  • Providing support for web authors of the university.

Skills required:

  • Proficient in back end programming using PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS and Javascript. Java and Perl knowledge would also be an advantage.
  • Extensive knowledge of Windows, MS Office and of working with computers on a regular basis
  • Experience of testing and evaluating products (preferable)
  • Good knowledge of Dreamweaver (or other web publishing tools)

Designer Duties:

  • Providing support for web authors of the University, designing new websites, web graphics and snippet tools.
  • Applicants without experience or specific web skills but a background in art are encouraged to apply.

Skills required:

  • Skills with Photoshop (or another design suite such as in-design or illustrator)
  • Ability to work to deadlines
  • Skills with interface designs and ability to produce a variety of graphical concepts.
  • An interest in digital display and media planning and capabilities.

Editor Duties:

  • Providing support for web authors and departments of the University, maintaining websites, writing website copy and assisting in the build of websites.

Skills required:

  • Good English writing skills
  • An interest in web technologies and writing for the web
  • An eye for detail and a creative approach to content creation

General Skills needed for all positions:

  • Good command of English and the ability to express ideas and processes clearly
  • Experience of writing/editing documentation
  • Good knowledge of Dreamweaver (or other web publishing tools)

Release notes: 08 May 2012

An updated build of pantheon has been rolled on to the preview web-server oil.

This release includes a number of bugfixs related to caching and should improve the reliability of snippets (such as the twitter snippet) which are reliant of external content.

SVN Logs:
[Pantheon][legacy][snippets][twitter] Legacy twitter snippet gets its own personal version of the Cache::load method built in “cacheload”. This should resolve most cache based twitter display bugs.
[Pantheon][legacy] Backport “force IE to latest rendering mode” fix.
[Pantheon][legacy] Backport fix for twitter. Add ability to correctly parse entries with multiple lines.

Two new school films

We are pleased to announce the publication of two school films, a student focused tour of campus for Kent Law School and a promotional short for the Centre of Research and Education in Forensic Psychology.

The films can be seen here:

http://www.kent.ac.uk/law/videos.html

http://www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/core-fp/about-the-centre.html

If you’d like any information about potential filming or photographic work for any purpose please get in contact with Matt Wilson from the Digital Imaging team or by contacting websupport@kent.ac.uk

 

Site launch for SMSAS

Dear Web authors,

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new SMSAS (School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science) site.

As part of the rebrand to Chronos the site has also moved from “ims” to “smsas”. Could any web publishers please update any links that refer to the old location.

The website can be found here: http://www.kent.ac.uk/smsas

Best wishes,

Web Support

Release notes: 29th March 2012

A couple of minor tweaks to snippets in this release of pantheon:

Formmailer snippet – fixed a couple of minor output bugs
Summary snippet – character encoding issues fixed
Callout snippet – fixed incorrect colours in lists in callouts which appear in tabs

svn log

[Pantheon][backport fix] Fixed: lists in callouts within tabs do not pickup correct colour (story 472)
[Pantheon][backports][snippet][Summary] Play nice with special characters, even if they come from static content. (see bug 135879)
[Pantheon][Snippets][Formmailer] - fixed typo in select box

 

 

Release notes: 22nd March 2012

[New release – Gallery snippet]

[Bug fix – Scroller snippet]

  • A bug has been fixed with the scroller snippet where items were not scrolling correctly. Please update your snippet pack for the latest version.

SVN log

  •  [Pantheon][Snippets][Formmailer] – updated jquery.validate to 1.9 to fix IE issues
  • [Pantheon][CityandRegion] Fixed styling issue with FileList snippet.
  • [Pantheon][Twitter] Fix default snippet option
  • [Pantheon][Rendition] Fix to background not aligning with bottom of the page

Release notes: 8 March 2012

This morning, Pantheon was updated on Castor with some enhancements to the FormMailer.

For those interested, the SVN log is as follows:

  • [Pantheon][Snippets][FormMailer] – added relative link to submit button
  • [Pantheon][backport from simplification] Add correct resolve function call for resolving correct image paths.
  • [Pantheon][backport from simplification] Add return type param to util::resolveFilename in order to ensure we get webURL’s as a result.
  • [Pantheon][Snippets][FormMailer] – modified path to form submit button and allowed for https
  • [Pantheon][Snippets][FormMailer] – added a new submit button to assets
  • [Pantheon][Snippets][FormMailer] – moved existing php_central form functionality into pantheon codebase (ie added FMUtil and FormMailer files into pantheon) and corresponding changes to existing code to include those new files.
  • [Pantheon][HTML] – added a check to addJavascriptFile() which converts a hard-coded http url to https if needed
  • [Pantheon][Gallery2] Separate Flickr functionality with separate parameter table. Also remove image caching and add flickr xml caching.
  • [Pantheon][Gallery2] Separate Flickr functionality with separate parameter table. Also remove image caching and add flickr xml caching. part 2
  • [Pantheon][Gallery2] Simplify snippet descriptions
  • [Chronos Sample Site] Clean copy of the Chronos Sample Site with the most up to date versions of all snippets.
  • [Pantheon] Gallery Snippet, changed the way flickr photos are accessed. was file_get_contents, now curl. caching has also been changed to used the in-built caching mechanism