# feedback on structure of new site?

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766>\
**Category:** CSL Development\
**Created:** [September 13, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766 "2009-09-13T16:07:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/1 "2009-09-13T16:07:37Z")

</div>

So Rintze and I have been playing around with the new site (based on  
WordPress). Any feedback on the basic structure of the pages, the  
primary and secondary links, and the categories?

I’m not so sure we want a separate page and primary link for “CSL  
Schema” but will leave it for now.

Bruce

PS - Neither of us are designers, so we’re going to go with a simple  
"thematic" subtheme, and modify as we find designers willing to help  
😉

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/2 "2009-09-13T16:07:55Z")

</div>

Oops:

\<[http://dev.omeka.org/citationstyles/](http://dev.omeka.org/citationstyles/)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/3 "2009-09-13T16:10:51Z")

</div>

…

> I’m not so sure we want a separate page and primary link for “CSL  
> Schema” but will leave it for now.

To avoid confusion: Joe Wilson would probably accuse me of being a  
liar, as I deleted this page, and decided to simply the spec page to  
just “Citation Style Language”; we can link the schema from there.

Bruce

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Spaeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Spaeth](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Sebastian_Spaeth)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 7:05am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/4 "2009-09-14T07:05:08Z")

</div>

Bruce D’Arcus wrote:

> Oops:
> 
> [http://dev.omeka.org/citationstyles/](http://dev.omeka.org/citationstyles/)
> 
> > So Rintze and I have been playing around with the new site (based on  
> > WordPress). Any feedback on the basic structure of the pages, the  
> > primary and secondary links, and the categories?

Looks good… once it’s filled with content it will look even better. I  
would like a “How can I make use of it” section. Or/and a “apps that  
support this thing” part. It might just be part of a FAQ section…

Sebastian

[signature.asc](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/citationstyles/original/1X/2a03138e596d87271351e873519f844a3046b77d.asc) (260 Bytes)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/5 "2009-09-14T14:26:06Z")

</div>

> Bruce D’Arcus wrote:
> 
> > Oops:
> > 
> > [http://dev.omeka.org/citationstyles/](http://dev.omeka.org/citationstyles/)
> > 
> > > So Rintze and I have been playing around with the new site (based on  
> > > WordPress). Any feedback on the basic structure of the pages, the  
> > > primary and secondary links, and the categories?
> 
> Looks good… once it’s filled with content it will look even better. I  
> would like a “How can I make use of it” section.

Who is “I” in this context? A developer? A user?

> Or/and a “apps that support this thing” part. It might just be part of a FAQ section…

Sure.

Bruce

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Robert\_Knight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@Robert\_Knight](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Robert_Knight)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/6 "2009-09-14T14:57:03Z")

</div>

Hi Bruce,

Just to clarify - this site is for both end-users and developers  
working with CSL?

> PS - Neither of us are designers, so we’re going to go with a simple  
> “thematic” subtheme, and modify as we find designers willing to help

There is a lot to be said for simple. From a developer’s point of  
view the main thing missing on the XBiblio site which  
currently turns up at the top of a search engine query for ‘citation  
style language’ is a CSL tutorial which provides a gentle  
introduction - I think Rintze (or was it Frank) posted one on this  
mailing list a while back. In the new site design I’d  
ask that this be more prominent.

> From a user’s point of view it needs to be easy to search for styles.  
> The easiest way to do this is probably  
> to make a simple page per style and then let Google etc. take care of  
> indexing and search.

Regards,  
Robert.2009/9/14 Bruce D’Arcus \<@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1\>:

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:13pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/7 "2009-09-14T15:13:38Z")

</div>

Hi Robert,

> Hi Bruce,
> 
> Just to clarify - this site is for both end-users and developers  
> working with CSL?

Yes.

> > PS - Neither of us are designers, so we’re going to go with a simple  
> > “thematic” subtheme, and modify as we find designers willing to help
> 
> There is a lot to be said for simple. From a developer’s point of  
> view the main thing missing on the XBiblio site which  
> currently turns up at the top of a search engine query for ‘citation  
> style language’ is a CSL tutorial which provides a gentle  
> introduction - I think Rintze (or was it Frank) posted one on this  
> mailing list a while back. In the new site design I’d  
> ask that this be more prominent.

I agree. The intention is that it host the spec, the schema (or least  
link to it), a tutorial for style authors, a bunch of styles, and  
ultimately also the style creation wizard we’ve previously discussed  
(which would make the tutorial less critical).

> > From a user’s point of view it needs to be easy to search for styles.  
> > The easiest way to do this is probably  
> > to make a simple page per style and then let Google etc. take care of  
> > indexing and search.

That’s a really good point.

Any specific suggestions on how best to enable that? Is adding  
categories from the style to the HTML head enough? If that’s the case,  
it’d be easy enough to write a little script that generates the HTML  
from the styles.

Bruce

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/8 "2009-09-14T15:30:56Z")

</div>

I added the start of a “csl2html.xsl” XSLT to do this conversion once  
we figure out if this the best approach, and what HTML structure we  
actually want.

Right now, it just outputs the title.

Feel free to experiment if you like.

Bruce

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Spaeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Spaeth](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Sebastian_Spaeth)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 7:21am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/9 "2009-09-15T07:21:24Z")

</div>

Bruce D’Arcus wrote:

> > Looks good… once it’s filled with content it will look even better. I  
> > would like a “How can I make use of it” section.
> 
> Who is “I” in this context? A developer? A user?

Good question. We need probably 2 different parts. “I am a user, how can  
I make use of the citation styles provided”. and “I am a developer  
interested in making use of CSL”.

And I agree a citation style database, together with an easy way to  
search, request (and/or) post new styles would be good.

But sorry for blathering, you all know that anyway.  
spaetz

[signature.asc](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/citationstyles/original/1X/ec1110b3c9a7cce125d698ae22b1b645bcdb1f03.asc) (260 Bytes)

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**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:46pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/10 "2009-09-18T12:46:17Z")

</div>

I personally would like to see something like  
[http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx\_local/az](http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx_local/az)  
The current single page ([www.zotero.org/styles](http://www.zotero.org/styles)) is a bit slow to load. It  
would be nice to be able to have the option to search by title, category  
(`citation-format` and `field`, as set on cs:category) or ISSN, and to  
browse the styles via an alphabetical hierarchy.

BTW, we switched to [http://citationstyles.org/](http://citationstyles.org/), which already has some new  
content.

RintzeOn Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Sebastian Spaeth \<@Sebastian\_Spaeth\>wrote:

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 11:24am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/11 "2009-09-19T11:24:51Z")

</div>

IMHO, it would be nice to have a tabbed interface to find styles.

The first tab (“Browse by Title”) would list styles. Rather similar to the  
current style repository, the only difference would be that the total list  
of styles is subdivided in per-letter lists. See the “Title” tab of  
[http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx\_local/az](http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx_local/az) for an example.

The second tab (“Search”) would allow users to search by a number of  
relevant style properties (title, citation-format, field, ISSN, ISSN-L), and  
would be similar to the “Locate”-tab of  
[http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx\_local/az](http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx_local/az).

I was looking whether I could mash up something myself with jQuery (which  
supports XML-parsing:  
[http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Easy\_XML\_Consumption\_using\_jQuery?oldid=20032](http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Easy_XML_Consumption_using_jQuery?oldid=20032)),  
and I was wondering whether it would make sense to have a style commit hook  
that applies an XSLT sheet to all the hosted styles to produce a single XML  
file that contains all the necessary search data, e.g.:On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Rintze Zelle \<@Rintze\_Zelle\>wrote:

> On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Sebastian Spaeth \<@Sebastian\_Spaeth\>wrote:
> 
> > And I agree a citation style database, together with an easy way to  
> > search, request (and/or) post new styles would be good.
> 
> I personally would like to see something like  
> [http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx\_local/az](http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx_local/az)  
> The current single page ([Zotero Style Repository](http://www.zotero.org/styles)) is a bit slow to load. It  
> would be nice to be able to have the option to search by title, category  
> (`citation-format` and `field`, as set on cs:category) or ISSN, and to  
> browse the styles via an alphabetical hierarchy.
> 
> BTW, we switched to [http://citationstyles.org/](http://citationstyles.org/), which already has some new  
> content.
> 
> Rintze

* * *
\<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?\> http://www.zotero.org/styles/apa American Psychological Association author-date generic-base psychology http://www.zotero.org/styles/ama American Medical Association numeric generic-base medicine http://www.zotero.org/styles/biochemistry Biochemistry 0006-2960 numeric biology ---

That would make it easy to perform a client-side search. Does that make  
sense? If so, would JSON be preferred to save some bandwidth?

Rintze

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/12 "2009-09-19T15:06:14Z")

</div>

> > > And I agree a citation style database, together with an easy way to  
> > > search, request (and/or) post new styles would be good.
> > 
> > I personally would like to see something like  
> > [http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx\_local/az](http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx_local/az)  
> > The current single page ([Zotero Style Repository](http://www.zotero.org/styles)) is a bit slow to load. It  
> > would be nice to be able to have the option to search by title, category  
> > (`citation-format` and `field`, as set on cs:category) or ISSN, and to  
> > browse the styles via an alphabetical hierarchy.

Is this sort of “select letter, type string, press go” interface the  
best we can do today?

Why not just have a filter box where the content just narrows the list  
dynamically?

In any case, I like the basic idea, and this question is just about details.

…

> I was looking whether I could mash up something myself with jQuery (which  
> supports XML-parsing:  
> [Digital Marketing Guides, Software Reviews & Nearby Agencies | Web Monkey](http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/Easy_XML_Consumption_using_jQuery?oldid=20032)),  
> and I was wondering whether it would make sense to have a style commit hook  
> that applies an XSLT sheet to all the hosted styles to produce a single XML  
> file that contains all the necessary search data, e.g.:

I’m not sure that it’s that easy to input multiple files in XSLT, but  
whether we use that, or a simple Python script, it’s pretty easy to  
create these sorts of indices.

For example, here’s a little one that uses citeproc-py to list a  
directory of csl files:

from citeproc import \*  
import glob  
import os

styles = glob.glob(‘/home/darcusb/Code/z-csl/\*.csl’)

for style in styles:  
csl = Style(style)  
print csl.title

Would be easy to extend for this purpose.

> That would make it easy to perform a client-side search. Does that make  
> sense? If so, would JSON be preferred to save some bandwidth?

Not sure, but guess it doesn’t make a huge difference.

Bruce

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/13 "2009-09-19T17:00:39Z")

</div>

> > > > And I agree a citation style database, together with an easy way to  
> > > > search, request (and/or) post new styles would be good.
> > > 
> > > I personally would like to see something like  
> > > [http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx\_local/az](http://sfx.tudelft.nl:8888/sfx_local/az)  
> > > The current single page ([Zotero Style Repository](http://www.zotero.org/styles)) is a bit slow to load.  
> > > It  
> > > would be nice to be able to have the option to search by title, category  
> > > (`citation-format` and `field`, as set on cs:category) or ISSN, and to  
> > > browse the styles via an alphabetical hierarchy.
> 
> Is this sort of “select letter, type string, press go” interface the  
> best we can do today?
> 
> Why not just have a filter box where the content just narrows the list  
> dynamically?

We would need the ability to distribute results over multiple pages (e.g.  
10-20 styles per page), and to apply multiple filters. Maybe this solution  
would fit the bill:

tablesorter with the pager plugin:  
[http://tablesorter.com/docs/example-pager.html](http://tablesorter.com/docs/example-pager.html)

and the tablesorterFilter plugin:  
[http://www.compulsivoco.com/2008/08/tablesorter-filter-results-based-on-search-string/](http://www.compulsivoco.com/2008/08/tablesorter-filter-results-based-on-search-string/)

> For example, here’s a little one that uses citeproc-py to list a  
> directory of csl files:
> 
> from citeproc import \*  
> import glob  
> import os
> 
> styles = glob.glob(‘/home/darcusb/Code/z-csl/\*.csl’)
> 
> for style in styles:  
> csl = Style(style)  
> print csl.title

Does Python have XML support by default? Or do you need a library for that?

Rintze

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/14 "2009-09-19T17:05:56Z")

</div>

> We would need the ability to distribute results over multiple pages (e.g.  
> 10-20 styles per page), and to apply multiple filters. Maybe this solution  
> would fit the bill:
> 
> tablesorter with the pager plugin:  
> [http://tablesorter.com/docs/example-pager.html](http://tablesorter.com/docs/example-pager.html)
> 
> and the tablesorterFilter plugin:  
> [http://www.compulsivoco.com/2008/08/tablesorter-filter-results-based-on-search-string/](http://www.compulsivoco.com/2008/08/tablesorter-filter-results-based-on-search-string/)

Right.

> > For example, here’s a little one that uses citeproc-py to list a  
> > directory of csl files:
> > 
> > from citeproc import \*  
> > import glob  
> > import os
> > 
> > styles = glob.glob(‘/home/darcusb/Code/z-csl/\*.csl’)
> > 
> > for style in styles:  
> > csl = Style(style)  
> > print csl.title
> 
> Does Python have XML support by default? Or do you need a library for that?

Citeproc uses the standard library (element tree) for XML. By parsing  
as Style objects, you get easy access to the metadata and such.

Bruce

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dan\_Stillman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dan\_Stillman](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Dan_Stillman)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/15 "2009-09-19T22:43:32Z")

</div>

We don’t really have to pull the entire style list down and do this  
client-side. Our SVN post-commit hook already parses the CSL XML and  
adds the relevant info to the database (along with updating the title  
(displaying “(dev)” as necessary) and the timestamp (so authors don’t  
have to fiddle with it on every edit)). So we could provide a simple  
DB-backed search API that could be called from JS (or used externally as  
a style query service). If someone wanted to take a crack at that (in  
the style of the web-based citation processor API document on Google  
Docs that Bruce, Rintze, and Frank have access to—and we’re happy to  
give others access as requested), it would be fairly trivial to  
implement. It probably would make sense for it to speak Atom.

Alternatively, the post-commit hook could just generate a static  
JSON/XML file containing the full repo data that could be pulled down  
from JS. That would admittedly be easier for everyone, but initial loads  
of the style section would be slower. Even served with gzip compression,  
the full list would be pretty big.

- Dan

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Bruce_D_Arcus1)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/16 "2009-09-19T23:15:22Z")

</div>

> We don’t really have to pull the entire style list down and do this  
> client-side. Our SVN post-commit hook already parses the CSL XML and  
> adds the relevant info to the database (along with updating the title  
> (displaying “(dev)” as necessary) and the timestamp (so authors don’t  
> have to fiddle with it on every edit)). So we could provide a simple  
> DB-backed search API that could be called from JS (or used externally as  
> a style query service). If someone wanted to take a crack at that (in  
> the style of the web-based citation processor API document on Google  
> Docs that Bruce, Rintze, and Frank have access to—and we’re happy to  
> give others access as requested), it would be fairly trivial to  
> implement.

Here’s an empty Trac page if someone takes this up:

[https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/xbiblio/wiki/StyleSearchApi](https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/xbiblio/wiki/StyleSearchApi)

> It probably would make sense for it to speak Atom.

What do you mean; the Atom API (some subset?)?

> Alternatively, the post-commit hook could just generate a static  
> JSON/XML file containing the full repo data that could be pulled down  
> from JS. That would admittedly be easier for everyone, but initial loads  
> of the style section would be slower. Even served with gzip compression,  
> the full list would be pretty big.

I suppose it makes some sense to plan for success.

Bruce

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dan\_Stillman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dan\_Stillman](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Dan_Stillman)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/17 "2009-09-19T23:44:49Z")

</div>

No, I just meant the Atom Syndication Format. This isn’t particularly  
necessary. The main advantage (other than that the style metadata would,  
by design, fit pretty well) would be that you could get regular Atom  
feeds for new/updated styles. I’m not sure what the practical advantage  
of that would be, though, so if JSON would be easier for site  
integration, we could just use that.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 8:04am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/18 "2009-09-20T08:04:51Z")

</div>

> > > We would need the ability to distribute results over multiple pages  
> > > (e.g.  
> > > 10-20 styles per page), and to apply multiple filters. Maybe this  
> > > solution  
> > > would fit the bill:
> > > 
> > > tablesorter with the pager plugin:  
> > > [http://tablesorter.com/docs/example-pager.html](http://tablesorter.com/docs/example-pager.html)
> > > 
> > > and the tablesorterFilter plugin:
> 
> [http://www.compulsivoco.com/2008/08/tablesorter-filter-results-based-on-search-string/](http://www.compulsivoco.com/2008/08/tablesorter-filter-results-based-on-search-string/)
> 
> > > 
> > 
> > Right.
> 
> We don’t really have to pull the entire style list down and do this  
> client-side. Our SVN post-commit hook already parses the CSL XML and  
> adds the relevant info to the database (along with updating the title  
> (displaying “(dev)” as necessary) and the timestamp (so authors don’t  
> have to fiddle with it on every edit)). So we could provide a simple  
> DB-backed search API that could be called from JS (or used externally as  
> a style query service). If someone wanted to take a crack at that (in  
> the style of the web-based citation processor API document on Google  
> Docs that Bruce, Rintze, and Frank have access to—and we’re happy to  
> give others access as requested), it would be fairly trivial to  
> implement. It probably would make sense for it to speak Atom.

But in that case real-time filtering would be off the table, right?

Alternatively, the post-commit hook could just generate a static

> JSON/XML file containing the full repo data that could be pulled down  
> from JS. That would admittedly be easier for everyone, but initial loads  
> of the style section would be slower. Even served with gzip compression,  
> the full list would be pretty big.

Just zipping/rarring the dependent styles folder with WinRar already results  
in a 0.8-1.0 MB file (that said, the current Style Repository page is also  
quite big at 1.3 MB). But maybe we can slim that down a bit. E.g. a JSON  
file would only need to contain:

title, style-id/URI, categories (citation-format, field), issn, issn-l and  
the timestamp  
plus perhaps a preview of the style (but you could load that separately per  
selected style to save some bandwidth)

Rintze

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dan\_Stillman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dan\_Stillman](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Dan_Stillman)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 8:51am UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/19 "2009-09-20T08:51:03Z")

</div>

> ```
> We don't really have to pull the entire style list down and do this
> client-side. Our SVN post-commit hook already parses the CSL XML and
> adds the relevant info to the database (along with updating the title
> (displaying "(dev)" as necessary) and the timestamp (so authors don't
> have to fiddle with it on every edit)). So we could provide a simple
> DB-backed search API that could be called from JS (or used
> externally as
> a style query service). If someone wanted to take a crack at that (in
> the style of the web-based citation processor API document on Google
> Docs that Bruce, Rintze, and Frank have access to�and we're happy to
> give others access as requested), it would be fairly trivial to
> implement. It probably would make sense for it to speak Atom.
> 
> ```
> 
> But in that case real-time filtering would be off the table, right?

No. You’d just call the search API from JS with the specified search  
string, start/limit, sort field, and order, and you’d get the set of  
results to display. So you’re always just populating the table with the  
returned results�it’s just a question of building the right query URI.

> ```
> Alternatively, the post-commit hook could just generate a static
> JSON/XML file containing the full repo data that could be pulled down
> from JS. That would admittedly be easier for everyone, but initial
> loads
> of the style section would be slower. Even served with gzip
> compression,
> the full list would be pretty big.
> 
> ```
> 
> Just zipping/rarring the dependent styles folder with WinRar already  
> results in a 0.8-1.0 MB file (that said, the current Style Repository  
> page is also quite big at 1.3 MB). But maybe we can slim that down a  
> bit. E.g. a JSON file would only need to contain:
> 
> title, style-id/URI, categories (citation-format, field), issn, issn-l  
> and the timestamp  
> plus perhaps a preview of the style (but you could load that  
> separately per selected style to save some bandwidth)

Well, you certainly don’t need to include the styles themselves. But  
even the list itself may get too big. A table dump that’s fairly close  
to JSON puts the uncompressed data (not counting categories, which  
aren’t currently stored in the database, or previews, which I discuss  
below) at 261KB, and it gzips down to 30KB. That’s doable, but 1) that  
will get bigger, and potentially a lot bigger if we add more dependent  
styles, and 2) it would require not-insignificant processing time  
(unzipping, sorting, formatting) on the client. Of course, that becomes  
less of an issue as time goes on. But for now it might be a bit laggy.

For style previews, on the current page I decided against asynchronous  
fetching, since waiting for each preview was getting annoying. Instead I  
bundle unique previews indexed by hash and preview hashes indexed by  
style. This totals 767KB and gzips to 50KB. We’ll probably want more  
examples in each preview, however.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Rintze\_Zelle](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/rintze_zelle/32/175_2.png) [@Rintze\_Zelle](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Rintze_Zelle)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2009, 6:28pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/feedback-on-structure-of-new-site/766/20 "2009-09-29T18:28:11Z")

</div>

A short note for posterity: by default, all the tabs in the navigation menu  
of the thematic WordPress theme are clickable (clicking the tab will open  
the corresponding page). I recently used the Page Lists Plus plugin to  
unlink the “Citation Style Language”-tab, as this parent tab probably  
shouldn’t be a destination (unlike its children). Instructions can be found  
at [http://themeshaper.com/forums/topic/disabling-parent-menu-links](http://themeshaper.com/forums/topic/disabling-parent-menu-links), but are  
copied verbatim here for convenience:On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 6:07 PM, Bruce D’Arcus \<@Bruce\_D\_Arcus1\> wrote:

> So Rintze and I have been playing around with the new site (based on  
> WordPress). … so we’re going to go with a simple  
> “thematic” subtheme

* * *

To unlink a menu item using Page Lists Plus, install the plugin, then go to

> Page Lists Plus and check these boxes:

Under “Global Options”, check “Unlink using javascript” (this should  
preserve your menu styling).

Under Page-Specific Options", check “Link”.

## When editing a page, you should now see a “Page Lists Plus” section near the bottom. In that section uncheck “If this box is checked, then this Page will be linked in lists generated using wp\_list\_pages().” The menu item associated with this page should now be nonclickable.

Rintze