BALab-Web

This is the repository for the BALab web site. This system is used to create and maintain the website. The system manages information regarding:

• group members and alumni,
• research projects,
• publications,
• software.

This is a responsive website (mobile, tablets and computers), using HTML, CSS & Boostrap 3.3.7. The technologies that are used are Pelican, Markdown & BiBTeX. Text is written in Markdown, while publication data is kept in BiBTeX format Data are transformed into static HTML pages by Pelican.

Quick HOWTO

Step by step guide to changes

To contribute to the web site you need to follow these steps.

• Log into GitHub.
• Navigate to the BALab web site repository
• Click on the Fork button on the top right to create your personal copy
• Add or change the files you want.
  • You can easily create a file with the Create new file button.
  • You can edit a file you're viewing by pressing the Edit this file (pencil button) icon.
• Preview the change if it is Markdown text, to ensure it appears as you want it. (Ignore the formatting of the key: value entries.)
• Add a meaningful message in the Commit changes place.
• Select the Create a new branch for this commit and start a pull request option.
• Give a meaningful name to the branch you are creating.
• Press the Propose file change button.
• When you've finished all your related changes, press the Create pull request button.
• Navigate to the BALab web site repository again.
• Click on the New pull request button on the left.
• In the new page (Compare changes), press the compare accross forks link.
• From the head fork drop-down menu, choose the Head Repository (yourusername/web) and, then, the branch where you made the changes in the forked repository.
• Press the Create pull request button.

Making specific contributions

• All text is formatted using Markdown. See this guide for a quick introduction.
• Some pages have Key: Value lines at the beginning. Keep these in a separate line each.
• To add a new seminar, add a file under content/seminars, using this template.
• To add a new member, add a file under content/members, using this template.
• To add a new publication edit the file in content/pubs.bib.
  • Use a templete associated with your publication's type from this file.
  • You also can use a BibTeX entry exported from a digital library.
  • In all cases, you need to add the XEmember and XEcategory fields, and change the url field to XEurl field and the doi field to XEdoi.
  • Look at existing entries for examples.
  • Use only the following text in XEcategory:
    • 'Monographs and Edited Volumes'
    • 'Journal Articles'
    • 'Book Chapters'
    • 'Conference Publications'
    • 'Technical Reports'
    • 'White Papers'
    • 'Magazine Articles'
    • 'Working Papers'
    • 'PhD Theses'
• To add a new associate, add a file under content/members, using this template.
• To add a new project, add a file under content/projects, using this template.
• To add new software, add a file under content/software, using this template.
• To add a new email recipient add the name in the file content/mail-extra.
• To update a static page (ex. Member Achievements), go to pages, follow the existing structure and use class="img-responsive" for images.
• To modify an existing page, edit the corresponding file.
• To add a yearly report (e.g. Yearly Report 2020), create a file under content/yearly_reports.
• To make members alumni, move them to the alumni directory and change their category from members to alumni.

Technical details

The site is implemented using Pelican.

Project Structure

• content : MD and bibtex user data
  • members : Members' information (MD)
  • alumni : Alumni' information (MD)
  • projects : Project information (MD)
  • pubs.bib : publications - Bibliographic data (Bibtex)
  • pages : Rogue HTML pages, which are assigned to the site.
  • images : Put your image here
• plugins : bibtex plugin
• theme : templates and static files
  • templates :
  • static :
    • css :
    • images :
    • fonts :
• output :

Document Templates

• doc/templates/member-associate-example.md : Template for a group member or associate
• doc/templates/project-example.md : Template for a research project
• doc/templates/publication-schema.bib : Bibtex entries templates

Web site installation

The required pelican package and its dependencies are automatically installed in a virtual environment when the bin/update command is first run.

Creating the site

• Locally: bin/update/
• To update the web site on the server: git pull && sudo -u www-data bin/updat/
• GitHub update on commit is done by a GET on the web-deploy endpoint