Re: [CODE4LIB] statistics for image sharing sites?
On May 13, 2014, at 10:16 PM, Stuart Yeates wrote: On 05/14/2014 01:39 PM, Joe Hourcle wrote: On May 13, 2014, at 9:04 PM, Stuart Yeates wrote: We have been using google analytics since October 2008 and by and large we're pretty happy with it. Recently I noticed that we're getting 100 hits a day from the Pinterest/0.1 +http://pinterest.com/; bot which I understand is a reasonably reliable indicator of activity from that site. Much of this activity is pure-jpeg, so there is no HTML and no opportunity to execute javascript, so google analytics doesn't see it. pinterest.com is absent from our referrer logs. My main question is whether anyone has an easy tool to report on this kind of use of our collections? Set your webserver logs to include user agent (I use 'combined' logs), then use: grep Pinterest /path/to/access/logs You could also use any analytic tools that work directly off of your log files. It might not have all of the info that the javascript analytics tools pull (window size, extensions installed, etc.), but it'll work for anything, not just HTML files. When I visit http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=nzetc I see a whole lot of our images, but absolutely zero traffic in my log files, because those images are cached by pinterest. You could also go the opposite route, and deny Pinterest your images, so they can't cache them. You could either use robots.txt rules, or matching rules w/in Apache to deny their agents absolutely. I have no idea if they'd then link straight to your images (so that you could get useful stats), or if they'd just not allow it to be used on their site at all. -Joe
[CODE4LIB] CFP: 2nd Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE2); November 2014; New Orleans, LA, USA
2nd Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE2) http://wssspe.researchcomputing.org.uk/wssspe2/ (to be held in conjunction with SC14, Sunday, 16 November 2014, New Orleans, LA, USA) Progress in scientific research is dependent on the quality and accessibility of software at all levels and it is critical to address challenges related to the development, deployment, and maintenance of reusable software as well as education around software practices. These challenges can be technological, policy based, organizational, and educational, and are of interest to developers (the software community), users (science disciplines), and researchers studying the conduct of science (science of team science, science of organizations, science of science and innovation policy, and social science communities). The WSSSPE1 workshop (http://wssspe.researchcomputing.org.uk/WSSSPE1) engaged the broad scientific community to identify challenges and best practices in areas of interest for sustainable scientific software. At WSSSPE2, we invite the community to propose and discuss specific mechanisms to move towards an imagined future practice of software development and usage in science and engineering. The workshop will include multiple mechanisms for participation, encourage team building around solutions, and identify risky solutions with potentially transformative outcomes. Participation by early career students and postdoctoral researchers is strongly encouraged. We invite short (4-page) actionable papers that will lead to improvements for sustainable software science. These papers could be a call to action, or could provide position or experience reports on sustainable software activities. The papers will be used by the organizing committee to design sessions that will be highly interactive and targeted towards facilitating action. Submitted papers should be archived by a third-party service that provides DOIs. We encourage submitters to license their papers under a Creative Commons license that encourages sharing and remixing, as we will combine ideas (with attribution) into the outcomes of the workshop. The organizers will invite one or more submitters of provocative papers to start the workshop by presenting highlights of their papers in a keynote presentation to initiate active discussion that will continue throughout the day. Areas of interest for WSSSPE2, include, but are not limited to: • defining software sustainability in the context of science and engineering software • how to evaluate software sustainability • improving the development process that leads to new software • methods to develop sustainable software from the outset • effective approaches to reusable software created as a by-product of research • impact of computer science research on the development of scientific software • recommendations for the support and maintenance of existing software • software engineering best practices • governance, business, and sustainability models • the role of community software repositories, their operation and sustainability • reproducibility, transparency needs that may be unique to science • successful open source software implementations • incentives for using and contributing to open source software • transitioning users into contributing developers • building large and engaged user communities • developing strong advocates • measurement of usage and impact • encouraging industry’s role in sustainability • engagement of industry with volunteer communities • incentives for industry • incentives for community to contribute to industry-driven projects • recommending policy changes • software credit, attribution, incentive, and reward • issues related to multiple organizations and multiple countries, such as intellectual property, licensing, etc. • mechanisms and venues for publishing software, and the role of publishers • improving education and training • best practices for providing graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in domain communities with sufficient training in software development • novel uses of sustainable software in education (K-20) • case studies from students on issues around software development in the undergraduate or graduate curricula • careers and profession • successful examples of career paths for developers • institutional changes to support sustainable software such as promotion and tenure metrics, job categories, etc. Submissions: Submissions of up to four pages should be formatted to be easily readable and submitted to an open access repository that provides unique identifiers (e.g., DOIs) that can be cited, for example http://arXiv.orghttp://arxiv.org/ or http://figshare.comhttp://figshare.com/. Once you have received an identifier for your self-published paper from a repository, submit it to WSSSPE2 by creating a new submission at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wssspe2, and entering:
[CODE4LIB] HeritagePreserve - A two day technical foray into preserving digital heritage materials (New Zealand)
NZ C4L'ers, or other C4L'ers who fancy a day trip…. I'm delighted to announce that the National Library of New Zealand will be running a 2 day un-conference / Code Jam type event that will provide technical specialists controlled access to Library collections to help us to explore long-term preservation issues that surround this invaluable content. We will be running the event on Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th of June at the National Library building in Wellington (70 Molesworth Street). The event is generously sponsored by Catalyst IT, and Revera, who are providing technical bits and victuals for the event. We will be giving access to some considerable resources, including our NZ web archives, and even to a copy of GeoCities (a very early web community - 1994 - which we know New Zealanders were active in). There will be other collections available, and a shopping list of preservation challenges that we're facing ranging from tools to do specific preservation functions, a pile of formats to derive technical descriptors for, to understanding arcane digital objects to ensure we can maintain meaningful access to donated items. We also have a collection of older bits of technology that could use some TLC, so if you're interested in older computers, and like coaxing them to play nicely, we've got a job for you… The event details are here: https://heritagepreserve.eventbrite.co.nz The event mailing list is here: http://lists.vuw.ac.nz/mailman/private/heritagepreserve/ Any questions can be directed at me, or to the mailing list I hope to see you there! Jay Jay Gattuso | Digital Preservation Analyst | Preservation, Research and Consultancy National Library of New Zealand | Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa PO Box 1467 Wellington 6140 New Zealand | +64 (0)4 474 3064 jay.gatt...@dia.govt.nzmailto:jay.gatt...@natlib.govt.nz
[CODE4LIB] Very frustrated with Drupal
Warning: incoming wall of text. I've been working for the past several months on building a library website with Drupal. This is my second try building a website with Drupal. I chose Drupal for two main reasons: CCK/content types, and its ubiquity in the library community. Theme development was going relatively well, if a little overly complicated. But once I started trying to do anything beyond developing static pages, I have become more and more frustrated with Drupal. Drupal supports custom content types out-of-the-box, which is great, but if you want to actually do anything with that custom content other than have it function as a plain page, you have to use the Views module. Views is great, but views can easily become very complicated, with custom rewrites, grouping, relations, contextual filters, etc. Plus, a lot of functionality in Views requires more modules (for instance, basic data manipulation). This is to build rather run-of-the-mill list features like a database list or a list of events. And a lot of the advanced features in Views require a solid understanding of SQL (groups, distinct, joins, etc), which kind of defeats the notion that it is easy for non-developers to administer. Now, at this point, I have modules extending my modules. And those modules have multiple dependencies on other modules. I am getting worried now. It feels like my website is a house of cards. I've run into several instances already where one of these plugins is updated and breaks compatibility with the whole stack, and there is nothing to do in this case but open an issue on the project tracker and pray for the best. I have looked into building my own modules, but the umpteen APIs and hooks required to do something simple as perform some regex on field data completely overwhelmed me (and I am fairly experience with web app development). It's not just Views, either. Anything more complicated than static pages and navigation menus requires relying on the module ecosystem. Not only is the whole thing quite precarious, but it defeats one of the two main purposes of a CMS: ease of administration. I want to know that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, someone will be able to come in and take over without too much difficulty. But when I go back and look at my views, I can sometimes barely understand the work I did a week ago. It is very difficult to keep straight which functions are coming from which modules, and all those modules have separate (often poor) documentation. At this point, I am seriously contemplating dumping Drupal and moving to a full-fledged framework like Django, Flask, or Laravel and adding some WYSIWYG CRUD controls for pseudo-CMS functionality. ActiveRecord-like systems are much easier to use IMO than fiddling for hours with Views, and I have full control of what is happening. I honestly think it would be just as easy for someone to inherit a custom-built framework app as it would be to inherit my already-convoluted Drupal site. At least the framework is well-documented and should allow my app to be understandable to anyone with some programming experience. Does anyone want to talk me off the ledge here? I know a lot of you are using Drupal for your websites. What are the killer features that keep you using Drupal? If any of you have experience building websites using frameworks, what are your experiences? I really want to like Drupal, but it seems to be more trouble than it's worth. -- Josh Welker Information Technology Librarian James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 JCKL 2260 660.543.8022
Re: [CODE4LIB] Very frustrated with Drupal
I am sure others have opinions: You just described WordPress as far as the bus scenario goes, and for ease of use WordPress gets a tick there, I don't know much about drupal, but WordPress has solved most of my issues (I hope Michael Scofield steps in on this one, he know a LOT more then me). My recommendation: Take WordPress for a spin. Especially if you are prone to bus accidents ;-). BTW: Something that works best for me, might not be best for others, and vise versa. Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes From: Joshua Welkermailto:wel...@ucmo.edu Sent: 5/14/2014 9:34 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDUmailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Very frustrated with Drupal Warning: incoming wall of text. I've been working for the past several months on building a library website with Drupal. This is my second try building a website with Drupal. I chose Drupal for two main reasons: CCK/content types, and its ubiquity in the library community. Theme development was going relatively well, if a little overly complicated. But once I started trying to do anything beyond developing static pages, I have become more and more frustrated with Drupal. Drupal supports custom content types out-of-the-box, which is great, but if you want to actually do anything with that custom content other than have it function as a plain page, you have to use the Views module. Views is great, but views can easily become very complicated, with custom rewrites, grouping, relations, contextual filters, etc. Plus, a lot of functionality in Views requires more modules (for instance, basic data manipulation). This is to build rather run-of-the-mill list features like a database list or a list of events. And a lot of the advanced features in Views require a solid understanding of SQL (groups, distinct, joins, etc), which kind of defeats the notion that it is easy for non-developers to administer. Now, at this point, I have modules extending my modules. And those modules have multiple dependencies on other modules. I am getting worried now. It feels like my website is a house of cards. I've run into several instances already where one of these plugins is updated and breaks compatibility with the whole stack, and there is nothing to do in this case but open an issue on the project tracker and pray for the best. I have looked into building my own modules, but the umpteen APIs and hooks required to do something simple as perform some regex on field data completely overwhelmed me (and I am fairly experience with web app development). It's not just Views, either. Anything more complicated than static pages and navigation menus requires relying on the module ecosystem. Not only is the whole thing quite precarious, but it defeats one of the two main purposes of a CMS: ease of administration. I want to know that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, someone will be able to come in and take over without too much difficulty. But when I go back and look at my views, I can sometimes barely understand the work I did a week ago. It is very difficult to keep straight which functions are coming from which modules, and all those modules have separate (often poor) documentation. At this point, I am seriously contemplating dumping Drupal and moving to a full-fledged framework like Django, Flask, or Laravel and adding some WYSIWYG CRUD controls for pseudo-CMS functionality. ActiveRecord-like systems are much easier to use IMO than fiddling for hours with Views, and I have full control of what is happening. I honestly think it would be just as easy for someone to inherit a custom-built framework app as it would be to inherit my already-convoluted Drupal site. At least the framework is well-documented and should allow my app to be understandable to anyone with some programming experience. Does anyone want to talk me off the ledge here? I know a lot of you are using Drupal for your websites. What are the killer features that keep you using Drupal? If any of you have experience building websites using frameworks, what are your experiences? I really want to like Drupal, but it seems to be more trouble than it's worth. -- Josh Welker Information Technology Librarian James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 JCKL 2260 660.543.8022
Re: [CODE4LIB] Very frustrated with Drupal
Ah, yep. I've never done a full rant about Drupal because it would take days and run into many virtual pages. I gave it a good go, almost full time, for a couple of years, even went to a regional conference. It's a train wreck beyond that first easy 80% – especially if you care about detail – but unfortunately also one of the best CMSs around. It's a while since I've resurveyed though. By far the worst ones in my experience are also the most expensive of the enterprise variety. Your revolution is over, Mr Lebowski. Condolences! The bums lost. – for some reason that came to mind (Context: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw_nJJrSg3s ) I suspect frameworks are where it's at if you are technically competent, but choose carefully. I like Rails but don’t accept many of its choices, and it sucks to administer if on anything but Ubuntu or Mac. I used to like web.py and am keen to test out Flask, Sinatra and other lightweight choices. Cheers Hugh -Original Message- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Joshua Welker Sent: Thursday, 15 May 2014 1:35 p.m. To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Very frustrated with Drupal Warning: incoming wall of text. I've been working for the past several months on building a library website with Drupal. This is my second try building a website with Drupal. I chose Drupal for two main reasons: CCK/content types, and its ubiquity in the library community. Theme development was going relatively well, if a little overly complicated. But once I started trying to do anything beyond developing static pages, I have become more and more frustrated with Drupal. Drupal supports custom content types out-of-the-box, which is great, but if you want to actually do anything with that custom content other than have it function as a plain page, you have to use the Views module. Views is great, but views can easily become very complicated, with custom rewrites, grouping, relations, contextual filters, etc. Plus, a lot of functionality in Views requires more modules (for instance, basic data manipulation). This is to build rather run-of-the-mill list features like a database list or a list of events. And a lot of the advanced features in Views require a solid understanding of SQL (groups, distinct, joins, etc), which kind of defeats the notion that it is easy for non-developers to administer. Now, at this point, I have modules extending my modules. And those modules have multiple dependencies on other modules. I am getting worried now. It feels like my website is a house of cards. I've run into several instances already where one of these plugins is updated and breaks compatibility with the whole stack, and there is nothing to do in this case but open an issue on the project tracker and pray for the best. I have looked into building my own modules, but the umpteen APIs and hooks required to do something simple as perform some regex on field data completely overwhelmed me (and I am fairly experience with web app development). It's not just Views, either. Anything more complicated than static pages and navigation menus requires relying on the module ecosystem. Not only is the whole thing quite precarious, but it defeats one of the two main purposes of a CMS: ease of administration. I want to know that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, someone will be able to come in and take over without too much difficulty. But when I go back and look at my views, I can sometimes barely understand the work I did a week ago. It is very difficult to keep straight which functions are coming from which modules, and all those modules have separate (often poor) documentation. At this point, I am seriously contemplating dumping Drupal and moving to a full-fledged framework like Django, Flask, or Laravel and adding some WYSIWYG CRUD controls for pseudo-CMS functionality. ActiveRecord-like systems are much easier to use IMO than fiddling for hours with Views, and I have full control of what is happening. I honestly think it would be just as easy for someone to inherit a custom-built framework app as it would be to inherit my already-convoluted Drupal site. At least the framework is well-documented and should allow my app to be understandable to anyone with some programming experience. Does anyone want to talk me off the ledge here? I know a lot of you are using Drupal for your websites. What are the killer features that keep you using Drupal? If any of you have experience building websites using frameworks, what are your experiences? I really want to like Drupal, but it seems to be more trouble than it's worth. -- Josh Welker Information Technology Librarian James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 JCKL 2260 660.543.8022 P Please consider the environment before you print this email. The contents of this e-mail (including any attachments)
Re: [CODE4LIB] Very frustrated with Drupal
I do have quite a bit of experience with Wordpress, and I generally like it more than Drupal for its simplicity. The reason I am wary of it is that it is heavily plugin-dependent in general and specifically with regards to custom content types. I want to avoid having to use third-party plugins for basic site functionality. The litmus test for me is if I can make a dynamic database list page using out-of-the-box functionality. Neither Drupal nor Wordpress can do this as far as I can tell. On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 8:43 PM, Riley Childs rchi...@cucawarriors.comwrote: I am sure others have opinions: You just described WordPress as far as the bus scenario goes, and for ease of use WordPress gets a tick there, I don't know much about drupal, but WordPress has solved most of my issues (I hope Michael Scofield steps in on this one, he know a LOT more then me). My recommendation: Take WordPress for a spin. Especially if you are prone to bus accidents ;-). BTW: Something that works best for me, might not be best for others, and vise versa. Riley Childs Student Asst. Head of IT Services Charlotte United Christian Academy (704) 497-2086 RileyChilds.net Sent from my Windows Phone, please excuse mistakes From: Joshua Welkermailto:wel...@ucmo.edu Sent: 5/14/2014 9:34 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDUmailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU Subject: [CODE4LIB] Very frustrated with Drupal Warning: incoming wall of text. I've been working for the past several months on building a library website with Drupal. This is my second try building a website with Drupal. I chose Drupal for two main reasons: CCK/content types, and its ubiquity in the library community. Theme development was going relatively well, if a little overly complicated. But once I started trying to do anything beyond developing static pages, I have become more and more frustrated with Drupal. Drupal supports custom content types out-of-the-box, which is great, but if you want to actually do anything with that custom content other than have it function as a plain page, you have to use the Views module. Views is great, but views can easily become very complicated, with custom rewrites, grouping, relations, contextual filters, etc. Plus, a lot of functionality in Views requires more modules (for instance, basic data manipulation). This is to build rather run-of-the-mill list features like a database list or a list of events. And a lot of the advanced features in Views require a solid understanding of SQL (groups, distinct, joins, etc), which kind of defeats the notion that it is easy for non-developers to administer. Now, at this point, I have modules extending my modules. And those modules have multiple dependencies on other modules. I am getting worried now. It feels like my website is a house of cards. I've run into several instances already where one of these plugins is updated and breaks compatibility with the whole stack, and there is nothing to do in this case but open an issue on the project tracker and pray for the best. I have looked into building my own modules, but the umpteen APIs and hooks required to do something simple as perform some regex on field data completely overwhelmed me (and I am fairly experience with web app development). It's not just Views, either. Anything more complicated than static pages and navigation menus requires relying on the module ecosystem. Not only is the whole thing quite precarious, but it defeats one of the two main purposes of a CMS: ease of administration. I want to know that if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, someone will be able to come in and take over without too much difficulty. But when I go back and look at my views, I can sometimes barely understand the work I did a week ago. It is very difficult to keep straight which functions are coming from which modules, and all those modules have separate (often poor) documentation. At this point, I am seriously contemplating dumping Drupal and moving to a full-fledged framework like Django, Flask, or Laravel and adding some WYSIWYG CRUD controls for pseudo-CMS functionality. ActiveRecord-like systems are much easier to use IMO than fiddling for hours with Views, and I have full control of what is happening. I honestly think it would be just as easy for someone to inherit a custom-built framework app as it would be to inherit my already-convoluted Drupal site. At least the framework is well-documented and should allow my app to be understandable to anyone with some programming experience. Does anyone want to talk me off the ledge here? I know a lot of you are using Drupal for your websites. What are the killer features that keep you using Drupal? If any of you have experience building websites using frameworks, what are your experiences? I really want to like Drupal, but it seems to be more trouble than it's worth. -- Josh Welker Information Technology
