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Artsopolis 4.0 (Project Gryphon) Update: 12.17.09

Artsopolis 4.0 (Project "Gryphon") is well on its way to becoming a reality. We are very excited about this upgrade as it will create new efficiencies in how we are able to implement new features and troubleshoot issues.

 While there are a number of new backend features and improvements, the overall goal was to try to maintain your existings designs as much as possible. For the most part, this has been acheived.

The most noticable change is that the top navigation has been pulled down to the area just above the events category bar, which you can see on this website:

http://www.artscalendar.com/

The modifications to the top area of the page were twofold:

1. To address a need by many members to have more ‘canvas’ for customized masthead graphics that aren’t disrupted by a top navigation drop menu system.
2. To address feedback we’ve collected over the past two years from members and many end users that there was a percieved disconnect between the top navigation drop menus and event category and search bars. The new navigation will bring these together to improve the user’s navigation experience.

The following is a 'nearly complete' list of the various features and enhancements of the upgrade. Additional features will be added to this list over the next 2-3 months:

1. We've removed the keyword search indexing process that updates every 24 hours. We now have a direct database search that means any edits or additions made to the calendar will show up on the site "immediately."
2. Image upload auto-resizing - this means that any images uploaded to the site will now be automatically reformatted to the correct size. This will help reduce the amount of work you might need to do editing images and will also allow the pages on the site to load more quickly.
3. The home page spotlight box is being converted to javascript, (instead of Flash), which means it will now display on mobile devices like iPhones.
4. Faster page loading based on updated javascript language implementation
5. Ability to change the number of featured events shown on the home page
6. A new 3-step event submission form that helps to significantly reduce the number of duplicate entries received
7. Event Category, Groups and Location modules have now all been merged into a single admin form allowing you to more easily manage what in the old system were “category” “group” and “location” pages.
8. Ability to easily create a "theme page (i.e. a page dedicated to holiday, historical or other events, like Halloween, Christmas, Martin Luther King Day, Dance week, etc.)
9. Ability to display themes on the home page featured events columns - Christmas, New Years, Halloween themes, etc.
10. One-click choice of having squared or rounded corners throughout the site’s boxes.
11. One-click choice of placing the main content page display on the left or right hand side of the page.
12. Predefined cities and zip codes to allow easier and faster filtering selection. Zip code search option will be added to the Advanced Search page.
13. Search results now have thumbnail graphics of their primary image on the results page.
14. Ability to set the number of search results per page before pagination (20 to 100, or more)
15. Top 10 events list for those most visited/clicked
16. RSS feeds for Top 10 Reviewed and Top 10 Clicked events that can be used to populate iGoogle or Facebook
17. RSS feeds for all event category and ‘theme’ pages (formerly referred to as ‘group’ pages)
18. Member organization ‘self-edit’ login access – allows organizations you choose to give login access to the ability to enter their own events, org profile and news links and to further edit those listings without your content manager having to intervene. First time event submissions will require content manager approval, but after that the member organization may edit their event listings as necessary.
19. Organization statistics “dash board” – you can view site activity of any registered organization, including page views, ticket link and official website clicks on the org’s event and organization directory profile pages. It will also display the number of user reviews each registered organization has received. Login access can be provided to any registered organization to view their activity themselves. A great member benefit.
20. User access controls to limit those to relatively specific sections of the admin control panel. For example, you can provide login access to interns or volunteers to JUST manage event approval and editing or JUST update your display management templates.
21. Polling system – for example, this feature allows you to run an ‘art contest’ where users can select their favorite art pieces. Results are tallied as percentages. Polls allow you to set an expiration date to become inactive.
22. “Use Org Image” default allows for any event missing a primary image to fall back on whatever associated organization’s primary image. This could save significant amounts of time attempting to seek out images for event missing a primary graphic.
23. 23) User account reporting – allows you to track the activity of admin account users. This may be helpful for staff managers in determining how many events an admin entered or updated.
24. Venue parent-child links on event and venue detail pages
25. Enhanced User/Visitor login function allowing them to post reviews, bookmark events, orgs and venues and add and update their profile (including artist profiles). For some Network members, this feature may also allow for display of discount ticket offers.
26. API key protected RSS/XML feeds allowing for multiple filtering criteria controlled from the admin control panel
27. Event “widget” tool allow you to offer placement of ‘micro calendars’ on their websites.
28. Dynamic event category bar will allow a certain number of event categories and then ‘spill over’ into a “More” drop menu that will house any additional event categories that couldn’t fit on the main bar. The order of events on the bar is configurable.
29. Event sub-categories – allows for easier set up of event sub-types such as “Music – Opera” “Dance – Ballet” etc.
30. Event category page opening and closing text fields – allows for adding custom text and image placement at the top and bottom of category pages. Example, if it’s National Dance Week you might include an opening paragraph of text on the Dance page talking about National Dance Week, or the space could be used for a sponsor graphic.
31. Event category pages will now allow you to post featured organizations and venues under the “More” events listings.
32. Map on the event detail page has been moved up to conserve page space.
33. Map is now larger on org and venue detail pages.
34. Detail pages have been simplified to rely more on the tab system and make them appear less 'cluttered'.

ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS:

• User review ratings now appear on event line listings on category pages.
• Can back-page to search results without error.
• Added a placeholder image to each site when neither an event nor an organization image is available. The system logic is as follows: First check to see if there’s an event image. If not, then check to see if there’s an org image to use. If not, then fall back to the site’s placeholder image. This will ensure that there are no “blank holes” on category or other pages. We will be installing our own placeholder image, but you are welcome to send us a custom graphic of your own to use. Our current placeholder can be viewed here: http://www.geneseefun.com/event/detail/4757/GLICA+33rd+Annual+Mid-Winter+Powwow
• For Search Engine Optimization purposes (SEO) we’ve done several modifications, all of which can be viewed on this example event: http://www.geneseefun.com/event/detail/4757/GLICA+33rd+Annual+Mid-Winter+Powwow

a. We’ve added the name of the event to the URL itself.

b. We’ve added enhanced the meta page titles to include category type | event name | org name | venue name
(example: )

c. We’ve enhanced the event breadcrumb to include the event title. (Example: Home > DANCE > GLICA 33rd Annual Mid-Winter Powwow)

Each of these improvements should have a significant and positive impact on SEO.

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