Credits
Content
Content for this website has been provided by the staff and students of the museum. The technical development (design and implemented) was carried out by Elizabeth Bruton, with a launch in July 2009. Over Summer 2010, a new design was created by Richard Rowley, which was subsequently implemented by Paul Trafford. The revised site was launched in January 2011.
WordPress Components
This site makes use of many free software packages contributed by developers around the world. In particular, this page is part of a WordPress installation, which has a number of extra modules called plug-ins. The plug-ins we are currently using are:
- µAudio Player – Much of the audio content, including podcasts is delivered via mp3 files. This tool provides a small flash player and a link to the audio file itself.
- AddToAny – the little button appearing to the top right enables quick bookmarks/references etc in many social media tools.
- Akismet – A spam prevention tool, to keep comments appropriate.
- Contact Form 7 – a multi-purpose form-generator, which we use for contact forms, image ordering, feedback etc.
- Dynamic Content Gallery – provides the rotating banner images on our front page.
- Events – we use this tool for managing event listings at the museum.
- Flash Video Player – a convenient way to embed Flash videos.
- Flexi Pages Widget – makes it easy to manage the which items to display in left-hand menus.
- Google XML Sitemaps – as it’s name suggests, it helps search engines like Google to index our site.
- Limit Login Attempts – a security measure.
- List category posts – allows the listing of posts from a category into a post/page via a shortcode.
- Maintenance Mode – when we need to make changes, install updates etc., this provides gives a holding notice.
- MCE Table Buttons – a visual interface that makes it easier for staff to author tabular content.
- My Page Order – this tool works nicely in conjunction with FlexiPages widget to display a page menu in a specific order.
- NextGEN Gallery – a sophisticated tool for the management and arrangement of image galleries.
- Obfuscate – to help prevent spam relating to the display of email addresses.
- PS Disable Auto Formatting – an aid to content authoring, able to prevent some auto formatting functions of WordPress.
- Really Simple CAPTCHA – for use in our contact forms to help prevent spam.
- Redirection – this helps us to manage the situation where content is moved to a new address.
- Shortcode Exec PHP – enables convenient use of PHP code snippets (avoiding the need to edit theme files).
- SlideDeck – a space-saving interface for attractive displays of layers of content.
- W3 Total Cache – a powerful suite of performance tools to help serve pages faster.
- WordPress.com Stats – for monitoring how our site is used in terms of views, referrers, etc.
- WordPress Automatic Upgrade – a facility to aid upgrades to WordPress.
- WordPress Database Backup – for use before upgrades.
- WordPress Importer – this is convenient for migrating content between different deployments (e.g. test and live servers).
- WP-prettyPhoto – pop-up images on our site are usually rendered with this plug-in.
- WP-Print – clicking on the print icon (top right) generates a simplified page in black and white that’s handy for the printer.
- Yoast Breadcrumbs – generates our row of breadcrumbs (hierarchy of links).
Other
A number of additional tools have been used for the preparation of content, including:
- Soundslides – for the production of slideshows with accompanying audio.
Further specific credits appear in relevant sections of the site. Information on content ownership can be found on the museum’s copyright page.
