This was my first week back after my Easter holidays and I returned to discover that one of my oldest sites had been flagged with security issues.  I created the Emblems sites (https://emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/french/ and https://emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/alciato/) more than twenty years ago and the way they connected to their database sources was obsolete and could be exploited.  This wasn’t a huge issue as no personal or private data was stored in the database anyway, but it still wasn’t ideal and needed sorting.  It would be good to completely overhaul these resources as they are still actively used as research tools but their interfaces are somewhat creaky now.  I don’t have time to do this at the moment, unfortunately, so instead I focussed on replacing all database calls with a more modern solution and ensuring all user submitted content is fully sanitised.  This in itself took two full and pretty intense days to sort out.  I tackled the French site first and when that was sorted I’d hope I’d be able to replicate these updates on the Alciato site, which I could do to a certain extent.  However, the latter site has several additions to its data and functionality so it was not possible to simply replace the entire code, and each script needed to be checked and manually updated.  Thankfully it’s all done now and both sites should be useable and safe for the foreseeable future, even if they still look a bit ancient.

I then spent a couple of days continuing to work on the Burns Supper map, working through my list of ‘to do’ items for the project.  I started off with processing a spreadsheet to update supper venue titles and delete certain suppers that had been flagged as no longer needed (usually duplicates).  I then wrote a further script to reassign images from one supper to another, which involved renaming images and updating database records to process the reassignment.  I then updated the advanced filters in the front-end to enable suppers with images and videos to be filtered independently.  Previously there was one filter for displaying suppers that featured (or didn’t feature) media files but I reckoned it would be useful for people to find and display just those suppers that feature videos.  Now there are options for selecting suppers with images, suppers with videos or suppers with no media, and it’s also possible to combine these (e.g. showing all suppers that have either images or videos).

I also removed the ‘Download CSV’ option from the map as it was decided that we would not offer such a facility, and I added in a copyright statement that appears underneath the media carousel.  I updated the ‘Share’ options to add in LinkedIn and BlueSky and remove X, and added in the welcome message on the ‘Home’ tab.

With these updates in place I then focussed on updating the user interface.  At our last meeting we’d agreed that we’d mostly use elements from the first test interface I created (as shown in my post from a couple of weeks ago) but that we’d use the font I’d selected for the second test interface.  It took several hours of implementing and testing to get the new interface working, but it’s now in place, as you can see in the following screenshot:

I then created the image slideshow, which appears as a button on the ‘Home’ menu.  The slideshow picks a random selection of up to 20 images from the suppers that are currently displayed on the map (i.e. it takes any filters into consideration) and displays them in a slideshow that automatically scrolls (but pauses when your cursor is over the image).  An image caption consisting of the venue and country of the supper plus a link through to the full record for the supper also appears, as the following screenshot demonstrates:

Each time you load the slideshow a different selection of images is pulled in, and I think it’s quite a nice feature to use.  Note that there are often black bars visible as the images are all different dimensions and have to fit in the same overall space.  I think it looks ok, though.

Other than adding help and about text and attribution text the only thing left to tackle now is the facts and figures popup, which I’m hoping to look into next week.

Also this week I spent a little bit of time working for the Dictionaries of the Scots language, updating the user survey popup based on requests for updates I’d been sent.  I also set up a new subdomain for the Mapping Metaphor project, which I’ll use for the redevelopment of the site, which I’m hoping to start work on next week.

I spent more of Friday beginning to work on Joanna Kopacyk-McPherson’s DOST Auld Laws project.  This project has around 500 pages of handwritten and printed text that has been transcribed using the Transkribus tool, and I need to create a front-end to allow this to be browsed, searched and viewed.  My first task was to export the Transkribus text as TEI XML, something that I thankfully managed to achieve.  I then spent some time familiarising myself with the texts and thinking about what technical solutions should be used to create the front-end.  We are going to need to display images and text and highlight sections of text in the images (and vice-versa), which is not something I’ve ever tackled before, so it’s going to take some time to get my head around.