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| Convert a stand-alone web application into a WordPress site with least complexity as possible, while maintaining the layout, flow, and functionality as much as possible. |
Stand-alone Application
(Link: http://k9-olympics.police.uconn.edu/)
Stand-alone Application
Technologies Used
- PHP (Server-side)
- JavaScript, HTML, and CSS (Client-side)
- 3rd Party Libraries
- jQuery v1.9.1
- jQuery UI v1.8.18 - Custom
- jQuery Fancybox v1.3.4
Aurora (WordPress) Site
(Pre-Go Live Link: http://draft.k9-olympics.police.uconn.edu/ Post-Go Live link: http://k9-olympics.police.uconn.edu/)
Technologies Used
- HTML, and (minimal) CSS
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In order to keep the maintenance of the site as simple as possible, the following two images were removed:
| Name | Image | Purpose | Reason for removal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anniversary |
| Signify the (number of) year the K-9 Olympics has entered | Original image is in PSD format; therefore, updating it requires a software that can that format. There is another format the the image has been converted to, XCF (eXperimental Computing Facility) which is specific to the GIMP image editor. |
| Event Calendar Date |
| Show date of the K-9 Olympics | Same as the above |
However, editing such files is not a challenge, the two images are attached to this page.
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As for placement, below is an example of adding them to the "Header Content" (WordPress Admin → Appearance → Widgets).
| W/o Anniversary / Event Calendar | W/ Note: Adding *something* to the header will make the search bar disappear! |
|---|---|
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Anniversary: Image Class: alignright |
Replacing Bing Maps
Yet another decision was to use Google Maps instead of Bing Maps, simply because Aurora does not support iframe from Bing.com. Example page created on May 5th, 2021 shows the iframe not rendering the map:
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Only years 2015 & 2013 are linked directly to Flickr; the rest of the years were non-existent even on the old stand-alone K-9 Olympics site, as shown below:
Three Badges
The stand-alone site had 3 badges (UConn Police Department, Connecticut Department of Correction, and Connecticut State Police). The approach taken was to utilize "Mega Footer" and the "Image" widget. The table below shows how the badges were shown on the stand-alone site vs. how they are shown on the new WordPress site:
| Old Stand-Alone Site | New WordPress Site |
|---|---|
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Mega footer can hold up to 6 widgets; whatever is added to Mega footer, appears at the bottom of every page in the site. Therefore, three of image widgets were added to Mega Footer and each of the badge was assigned per image widget:
There are pros and cons to this approach. The biggest downside is that the badges appear within the footer of the page template (also, the lack of control over the background/formatting etc.). The biggest upside of this approach is that in order to change the badges, only one place needs to be touched (as oppose to each and every page that exist on the site!)
Future Improvements
- Currently, the application is a PDF form which a prospective participant must fill-out and email Ofc. Rhodes with the form attached. This should be improved by leveraging Aurora's Gravity Forms!
- The entire K-9 Olympics team (organizers) make heavy use of Facebook for marketing, communicating, posting event photos etc. Aurora has Facebook Embed plugin which can be used to embed posts and videos. Working with the customer would be recommended to see what further additions to the site can / need to be made.