Monthly Archives: December 2010

Version 1.2.0 Home Page Released

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Central Web Services and University Relations and Marketing Web Communications Team, in partnership, is pleased to announce Version 1.2.0 of the OSU Homepage has been released on the evening of December 22nd.  The main feature that this release brings is the ability for inclusion of an alerts region to prominently display alerts, whether it is from the Emergency Response Alerts, or to other alert aspects, such as University closures due to inclement weather.

The full list of items performed in this release are highlighted below.

What’s Next? We’ll be performing some close out tasks on Version 1.2.0, and then per our Home Page Release Schedule (at the bottom of this note), we’ll be starting the next cycle.  Feature input for the next cycle, version 1.3.0 is open, from now through January 15, 2011.   Please note:  Any minor fixes will continue to be performed in maintenance releases, such as 1.2.1 or 1.2.2, etc, between minor/major release cycles.

Version 1.2.0 Release Items:


Emergency & Alerts Functions: These functions allow for displaying alerts prominently on the main oregonstate.edu page, and allowing for University Relations and Marketing management of alerts to the main page.  In the event of high traffic, there is the availability to create a light version of the home page, that does not bring in the numerous images from the full home page, but allows for alerts to be displayed.  In addition, this release allows for sharing of the alerts data for the mobile platform, at m.oregonstate.edu to be able to receive alerts.

alert image feature for homepage

  • alerts creation
  • alert region pushing
  • alerts editing
  • light version management
  • light version creation
  • Footer “light” setting
  • Home Page JSON data sharing (for mobile apps and alert updates)
  • Other Features:  Allow for individual site campaign settings in the Make a Gift link in the top hat that is included on other sites.
  • Make a Gift additional setting

Bug fixes: As with all software, ours is no different.  Every piece of software has bugs, so we continue to look for and fix bugs in every release.

  • main content cookie default tab resets on deletion
  • Many minor bug and css fixes across all regions (Home Page Related)

Code Improvements: Code improvements are based on re-architecting code to improve re-use, performance, readability, and usability.

  • top hat refactor
  • Centralize cache code and other region functions
  • Clean up management interface internals
  • Implement “output” functions for greater site management flexibility
  • Enhanced region sharing docs

The Software Development Life Cycle

When we first went on this journey of recreating the home page this past year, I set forward a strategy to look at the home page like any other piece of software that is developed by those big commercial companies, ie. to bring it into a software development life cycle.  As part of the software development life cycle, we have released several versions to date, including many small dot releases, those 1.0.1 and 1.1.1 type of releases.  Without the notion of a software development life cycle, it is hard to plan in a software development organization.  For all the other Universities that don’t do this, I would have you consider taking the same approach.  So now on to the next set of items that we can bring to the home page.  We look forward to hearing any ideas, so please share your ideas.

Home Page Release Schedule:

1.0.0  May 17th, 2010          (initial launch)
1.1.0  September 1st, 2010        (Actual: September 17th)
1.2.0  December 1st, 2010        (Actual:  December 22nd)
1.3.0  April 1st, 2011

2.0.0*  September 1st, 2011
2.1.0  December 1st, 2011
2.2.0  April 1st, 2012

3.0.0*  September 1st, 2012
3.1.0  December 1st, 2012
3.2.0  April 1st, 2013

* Major versions may be substituted with minor versions if no major feature release is included.

Feature Input cutoff dates (ideal):
These dates are when feature input for the upcoming releases are cut-off to proceed to release management of the next release.

x.0.0   May 15th  (May release meeting, June/July/August develop, August test/qa)
x.1.0  September 15th (September release meeting, October/November develop, November test/qa)
x.2.0  January 15th (January release meeting, February/March develop, March test/qa)

Faster Search results – OSU Search v0.4.2 released

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I’m glad to be writing about some exciting updates to OSU Search. In version 0.4.2, you will find an updated look and feel and some usability features. Among the new things you will find are:

  • The links to different types of search (collections) are located on a left sidebar instead of above the search box.
  • Filter by url – Users can now filter by urls by clicking the domains that we currently crawl located in the left sidebar.
  • Header and footer updates – they now include the same content as the homepage
  • The search box has moved down closer to the results area
  • Faster results!

We think these additions to OSU Search will make finding what you’re looking for easier. We will keep bringing new features to OSU Search to help users explore more advanced search features they may not be aware of. Some of the future improvements will include: people search, location search and speed improvements. Our goal is to let people just type what they are looking for without having to worry about what filters to use or what options they need to select. OSU Search should be doing all the heavy lifting for users.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post below.

Tour Some Trees – an iPhone App

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The good people at Oregon State University Ag Communications, part of OSU Extension, have brought an app to the OSU community, currently available for those with an ONID id.  If you are not familiar with ONID, then you probably won’t be able to access the app.

It took several months of development as part of their goal to look at what it takes to develop an app.  For those developing an app, the development is only one part of it.  There are many more things to consider which I’ll go into in another post.  What they turned out was a nice tour app, though for some it may be too much green to see.  🙂  Don’t worry though, it’s about trees, and we like our trees green, right?  Although the Autumn season is nice as well, especially those orange colors.

The OSU Tree Tour App was distributed as part of Oregon State University’s Enterprise Distribution for iOS apps.  If you don’t know what that is, we promise one day soon we will get to writing a good description of that and sharing with the OSU community what it is all about.  So check out the app, but know there are a few specifics to use the app.  So do read the specs and requirements.

Lastly, if you download it, I want to leave you with a thought on the power of an app like this.  Take out Tree Tour, and replace it with any other set of information you want a tour around, maybe donor benches, sculpture art around campus, buildings, or just about anything else you can build a tour around.  Imagine it.

OSU Tree Tour App Screen Shot

Application Specifications

Cost: Free
Category: Tour
iOS Enterprise Released: December 3, 2010
Version: 1.0.0
1.0.0 (iOS 4.2.1 Tested)
Language: English
2.5 MB
Seller: Oregon State University Ag Communications
© Oregon State University

Pre-requisites:

Minimum Requirements: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch at iOS 4.2.1.