We recently launched a publication site for case studies and articles generated our of our theater management department, the Theater Management Knowledge Base. In our initial discussion on how to deliver the site, WordPress seemed like the perfect tool, and it has served us very well. There were a couple of tricky requirements, but as it turns out nothing that we couldn’t address.
One requirement was to restrict access to full content to members of the site. As the articles/cases can be fairly long we’d already decided that they’d be provided as a PDF download, with an abstract posted to the site itself. The member-only restriction isn’t super strict, mostly there to encourage people to register. So a really tight security system wasn’t needed, and the Wordpress Download Monitor plug-in met our needs nicely. I also wanted to have the login process follow the overall public theme, and keep users out of the admin interface as much as possible. After playing with a couple of plug-ins I settled on the SideBar Login. I set the login to run in the sidebar, and also on its own custom login page. Combined with the coding in the sidebar it lets us present the login when it is needed, and keep it out of the way where it is not. Both plug-ins are by Mike Jolley, a fact I only realized while writing this up — thanks Mike! If users want to change their password, email address or other bio information they go into a stripped down version of the user-admin page. This is in the admin look, which I know I could change but didn’t think was worth the trouble.
The WordPress interface makes it easy for students and faculty to post their content as needed. They are all thrilled, which make me, and the designer (Sarah Stevens-Morling) happy as well.
Theater Management Knowledge Base
The Knowledge Base is a private (password protected) library of articles, case studies, interviews, and practical tools intended for use by students, faculty, and other members of the Yale Theater Management learning community. It is a free source of ideas and perspectives for practicing theater leaders who face the challenges of an increasingly complex theater landscape.
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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!
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