Tag Archives: WordPress

The system that runs sites.middlebury.edu

Video tutorial quick start

Joy and I created some short video tutorials on finding music CDs in MIDCAT, and since we posted them here we’ve been asked by various people within LIS to share what tools we used to create them. We were looking for a quick way to create screen capture videos with audio (aka screencasts). Here’s what we used: Continue reading →

WordPress Update

Earlier this week, we updated WordPress (the platform that powers sites.middlebury.edu).  Along with updating the WordPress codebase, we also updated all the Midd blog themes and a number of plugins.  There were many changes made to the backend of Midd blog themes to make them more flexible and easier to use.

Options have been added for what sidebars get displayed when viewing single post pages, as well as pages for categories, tags, authors and search.  Lots of small design refinements has been made to make make blogs easier to read.  For a full list of changes, see:

WordPress > Themes > Change Log

New blogs will now be created with the Translucence theme and a default set of sidebar widgets.  Documentation has been added for many of plugins, for example see: Geo-mashup

Faculty Innovators Tell Us What They Need

Our first priority with the Segue from Segue project is to make sure there are technology solutions available to meet the needs of as many faculty, students and staff as possible. That said, we would like to also be able to support innovative uses of technology, particularly those innovations that may eventually be useful to the broader community.

To this end, the Curricular Technology team invited a number of faculty who are innovators to show us how they have been using technology and tell us what they need.  Faculty who participated included Jeff Byers (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Hector Vila (CTLR), Enrique Garcia (Spanish), Hope Tucker (Film and Media Culture) and Roberto Veguez (Spanish).  A number of academic liaisons also participated in this session.  To learn more about what these faculty have been doing, see:

Segue from Segue » Presentations by Faculty Innovators

New WordPress Themes

New WordPress themes have been added to WordPress at Middlebury.  This blog has been updated to use Translucence, an interpretation of theme designs drafted by White Whale as part of the Web Redo project.

Translucence, like ShadowBox, is a theme series that includes a number of variations and options for layout.  This blog is currently configured to use a flexible width such that the width of the blog will vary with the size of your browser window.  As well, it is configured to include  2 right sidebars (instead of a single left and right sidebar).

Feedback/comments/suggestions welcome.

WordPress Single Sign-On and Assigning Roles to Groups

The integration of WordPress with Banner via CAS single sign-on is a significant improvement to the platform and greatly enhances it as a viable alternative to Segue.  WordPress doesn’t do everything that Segue does, but it does provide all the functionality needed for basic course sites.  What integration with Banner does is greatly simplify adding members to blogs.  Check out screencast to see how it works.

[middmedia achapin achapin wordpress-sso01.mp4]

WordPress Upgrade to Single Sign-On, scheduled for Sunday downtime on the 17th

WHAT

During Sunday morning downtime on the 17th, we will be adding WordPress, sites.middlebury.edu, to our list of platforms that use our single sign-on system.

WHY

We have been slowly been moving our web applications in this direction, allowing members of our community to have access to our online programs with only one login. Currently, MIDDMedia, Mediawiki, and the (soon to be) new college web site all use this single sign-on system.

WHY NOW

Normally we would wait until the time between the semesters. Some of our users have had problems logging onto their blogs however, and we believe this will clear up many of the issues they are experiencing.

WHAT TO EXPECT

We do not anticipate a change in experience for people who visit and read your blogs.

The biggest change will occur when you log into your blog. When you click on a link to log in, you will be brought to the single sign-on page. Those of you who have used MIDDMedia, Mediawiki and Drupal will be familiar with this page.

There will also be changes to the way you add Users to your blog. On the ADD USER page in your dashboard, you will be able to search for any individual by NAME or USERNAME. Start typing, and a list of options will appear for you to select from.

Also, you will be able to import groups of people into your blog by searching for the group name. This can be a class, email or web data group.

**NOTE – Using the group feature WILL NOT SYNC YOUR BLOG WITH THE GROUP MEMBERSHIP! Changing the membership of the class or web data group, for example, will not change the users in your blog. You must add new group members as individuals or by importing the group again.

Also, please be careful when importing large groups. There is no UNDO feature, you will have to remove people a few at a time.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and we look forward to assisting you with the upgraded WordPress platform.