Goal
I was tasked with updating the VIP Lab’s website so that the members would not need to update their profiles with new papers, upload copies of the new papers, and maintain a list of their students. I was also given various smaller goals like new features, pages, and automation.
Method
Upon investigation into the problem, I determined it was only possible to achieve all the goals if I created an entirely new site from the ground up. This was because the University did not allow any of the necessary programming on its existing pages.
I used Wordpress, CSS, HTML, PHP, and JavaScript to create the site. I implemented all the basic information and pages manually. Then, I used the built in functionality of Wordpress to allow for linking students to professors and other members. Next, using PHP and JavaScript in conjunction with a Scopus API provided to me, I was able to automatically update all scholarly information on each members page. I wrote code that queried the API daily for all publication information and updated the pages accordingly. To automatically link the articles and papers, I used the Open Access Button API, which provides PDFs of most papers.
I retroactively made changes to the site as requested. I tested edge cases and created solutions to problems like missing pages, no API data, or missing papers.
Results
- See the site in action here!
- To this day, the site is fully functioning with little maintenance required. Almost all maintenance has been done by people who only had access to my simple site guide.
- Fully autonomous publication updates to profiles.
- Automatic linking of papers without need for uploads.
- Full linking of site between pages, profiles, students, professors, etc.
- Significantly reduced upkeep for lab by completely eliminating need for paper uploads, linking authors, manual changes, and more.