[JoPP-Public] JoPP website: some thoughts

Thu Jun 28 13:46:03 CEST 2018

Hello all,

here are some updates about the JoPP website. One year ago I had a call with Peter Troxler and we discussed several things regarding the website, apologies for the long delay.

Here’s a recap about the call and the main issues:

In order to avoid any hacking to the website, the back-end (WP) was separated from the public front-end (static html exported from WP); this however disables several functionalities, like the search bar and the pdf generation. This is done in order to avoid that any visitor can interact with the php code (so they cannot hack it)… but then they cannot use any php function at all (like pdf export).

Furthermore, it wouldn’t be savy to share the codebase, the configuration or part of them publicly over GitHub or in a similar repository, because we would make it even easier to hack it.
Remember that the link to the WP part can be found in the archives of this mailing list… so it’s still possible to find a way to it. It is important that at least we keep WP and the plugins always updated.

So, regarding the pdf generation: this of course can be solved in several ways, so for example pdf files can be generated manually and uploaded online, there’s no need for an automatic generation unless the articles changes through time. I’d say: let’s keep it simple. Printing and then saving the articles as pdf files is already a good way, the print css file is well done. See for example my article: https://www.academia.edu/33379609/Makers_as_a_new_work_condition_between_self-employment_and_community_peer-production._Insights_from_a_survey_on_Makers_in_Italy

Pdf files would be also needed for getting a DOI on Zenodo, this is simple & free to do. Zenodo is also free software (GPL), but there's no need to install it on our server, we can use the main service at CERN. On Zenodo a DOI can also be obtained for datasets and software. This will also make it possible to link each article to the EU projects (and mayne not only EU) that funded it. See for example how I organized the output of the MAKE-IT Horizon 2020 project: https://zenodo.org/communities/make-it/?page=1&size=20

The key question is whether to continue with WP as the back-end, or to move to a completely static site (here GitHub could be adopted) or to use another back-end, maybe one that is specific for journals. If I remember well we thought about keeping the current system for the moment, trying to improve it as much as possible.

One major upgrade would be to move to a responsive theme, right now the website is not responsive and reading it on a mobile is way too difficult (we could argue if reading on a mobile is relevant for an online journal, in any case now most of online users are with mobile devices, but having a responsive theme would just make it easier for any device). The key issue here is, if we move to a responsive theme, to minimise the work on its design by adopting existing themes and with little customization (my suggestion: use a Bootstrap-based theme), work on a completely new theme would be too much in terms of time.

Br,

Massimo

--
______________________________________________________________________________
Massimo Menichinelli

mobile: (ESP) +34 657341068
Skype: openp2pdesign.org
http://it.linkedin.com/in/massimomenichinelli
______________________________________________________________________________
openp2pdesign.org
Metadesign for Open Systems, Processes, Projects.
Studying and enabling Design for Open, Collaborative and Complex Systems since 2005.
http://www.openp2pdesign.org/
______________________________________________________________________________
Aalto University
School of Art & Design -Department of Media
Helsinki - Finland
http://www.taik.fi/en
______________________________________________________________________________