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Objective

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/)

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 


Design Decisions

Anniversary and Event Date Images

In order to keep the maintenance of the site as simple as possible, the following two images were removed:

NameImagePurposeReason 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 OlympicsSame as the above


However, editing such files is not a challenge, the two images are attached to this page. 


As for placement, below is an example of adding them to the "Header Content" (WordPress Admin → Appearance → Widgets).

W/o Anniversary / Event CalendarW/
Note: Adding *something* to the header will make the search bar disappear!


Anniversary: Image Class: alignright
Event Cal: URL: /event-general-information



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:


Photos Page

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. 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

  1.  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!

  2.  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.
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