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8. Additional Improvement Strategies
There are many additional areas of the website and its operations that may benefit from further development. Solutions for some topics listed below may depend on the selection of a content management system, or may themselves be components of such a system.
8.1 Online Databases and Dynamic Content
Content such as news items and meetings are updated regularly and is quite standardised in format, without the need for sophisticated graphical additions. As such, it is suggested that this content be provided dynamically from a database. The information would be entered into a web-based form. Scripts such as PHP or Perl/CGI could then be used to retrieve the information for display on dynamically updated web pages. This information could be tailored to user needs, if required.
Other examples for online databases are the collection of administrative data or applications for the use of facilities. Information is collected from the user through a web form and then stored in the database. Notifications can be automatically sent to the relevant people, if required. User-submitted information could be stored in the database pending approval for release by the authorised staff member. Data could also be extracted from the online database and into existing single-machine databases by the use of ODBC.
For the usage expected of the online database, it is likely that free solutions such as MySQL or PostgreSQL will be sufficient for our needs.
8.2 Search Facilities
To assist users in locating information on the website an improved search engine should be set up on the server. The current facility uses a Perl script to search parts of the site, but this is inefficient.
For information contained in databases, separate search facilities would be used. It may also be useful to periodically dump certain data from the databases into web pages that could then be searched by external search engines.
8.3 Image Access
Astronomical and observatory images are some of the most popular items on the website. There is a great need for the images to be centrally located and properly catalogued to enable professional and popular searches to be made. We may wish to develop our own image application using a combination of the online database and a thumbnailing program (such as ImageMagick) or use an existing solution. It is likely that the image creator would upload their image via a web page that would trigger a script to process the image.
8.4 Content
The key features of the ATNF websites are their enormous range of content. The stated federal government policy is to place all public documents produced by an organization online. In addition to this we need to produce more content aimed at non-technical users, especially explanations of how the observatories work and of the research we perform.
Ideally, the websites would act as knowledge bases for the operations and research performed at the ATNF. In order to achieve this, publishing to the website must be simple. The publishing techniques must also be able to handle the output of a range of software, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, LaTeX and HTML.
8.5 Security
A number of areas on the website contain sensitive information that is generally available only to ATNF staff. While these areas are currently password protected, the passwords themselves are transmitted without encryption. A better method would be to use SSL to encrypt transmitted details. This could also be used to permit credit card details to be sent with applications for events such as workshops.
8.6 Administration and Monitoring
The website should be monitored for such problems as broken links, poor quality HTML and overloading of the server. Notification can then be given to the Webmaster or owner of any offending pages. It is also very useful to compile statistics for visitors to the sites in order to best serve their needs. This includes collecting information such as the browser types and operating systems used, the countries of origin and the most and least popular pages. This also gives us solid statistics to report on the success of the website.
A system to collect feedback for site users, both within and outside of the ATNF, should be set up to assist us in serving their needs. Apart from standard feedback forms and email addresses, occasional online surveys may prove useful for obtaining user suggestions.
8.7 Education and Assistance
There are major changes proposed to the ATNF website. In order for these changes to succeed it will be necessary to assist ATNF staff to adapt to new web technologies and standards. This assistance will include the provision of templates, style guides and online tutorial material to guide them in preparation of pages. We may also run seminars on the use of software tools and good design.