Navigation for a site with thousands of potential links

Navigation on traditional old-school "static" websites is done "by hand". Each time a new page is created, navigation for that page is coded manually. Since one of the core missions of the Ananda Resource Site is to automate as many processes as possible, "hand coding" of navigation is to be avoided, particularly when one contemplates the sheer scope of managing thousands of documents. Our goal is when a document is added to the "catalog" or site, links to that document are created "automagically". This is because we want just about anyone to be able to post documents to the site, not just "Web Goobers".

Scott Roberts, a 12 year resident of Ananda Village and a teacher at the Living Wisdom school has volunteered to help build this dynamic navigation module for the site. Scott, seen here helping paint a community center roof on a March 2006 school trip service project in Costa Rica, is fast closing in on getting the coveted and hard to achieve Microsoft Certification as a .Net Developer.

Here is one example of a "dynamic XML" driven menu structure.

This shot shows a page from an extranet. The large white space in the "body" is to emulate a "clean desktop" uncluttered and ready for work. The viewer is not "overwhelmed" with a multiplicity of links and choices. Hopefully, calmness and not panic, is what this design communicates!

When the user is ready for work, they (metaphorically speaking) open up a drawer and click on a menu choice. With "flyover layers" complex, drill down navigation paths can be displayed and easily understood.

See in the image to the left, a flyover menu appears, allowing the user to "drill-down" through content. ASP.NET 2.0 provides several controls to make creating this easier for the developer: the SiteMapPath Server control, TreeView Control, Menu Server Control and the SiteMap Data Provider.

Here is the XML Code that generated this menu flyover:

'<'SiteMap'>'
'<'item Text="IT" LookId="TopItemLook"'>'
'<'item Text="Assets" Look-RightIconUrl="arrow_menu.gif" Look-RightIconWidth="15"'>'
'<'item Text="Hardware Entry" NavigateUrl="Assets.aspx"/'>'
'<'item Text="Browse, edit Hardware Assets" NavigateUrl="AssetsList.aspx"/'>'
'<'item Text="Software Entry" NavigateUrl="SoftwareAssets.aspx"/'>'
'<'item Text="Browse, edit Software Assets" NavigateUrl="SoftwareAssetsList.aspx"/'>'
'<'item Text="Service Support Contract Entry" /'>'
'<'item Text="Browse, edit Service Support Contracts Assets" /'>'
'<'/item'>'
'<'item Text="HelpDesk Tickets" NavigateUrl="SLXWebTicketLookUp.aspx"'>''<'/item'>'
'<'item Text="SQL DTS" Look-RightIconUrl="arrow_menu.gif" Look-RightIconWidth="15"'>'
'<'item Text="SQL DTS Entry" NavigateUrl="DTS_Edit.aspx"/'>'
'<'item Text="Browse, edit SQL DTS" NavigateUrl="DTS.aspx"/'>'
'<'/item'>'
'<'/item'>'
'<'/SiteMap'>'


Scott's task is to architect and develop a solution where individual pages can be added to the site and the navigation that will lead the user to that new page will be "automagically" created. It will be exciting to see just how he figures out to do this. (I am confident he will!).

Genesis of the Ananda Resource Web project

At the annual Ananda Minister's Retreat, in January 2006 , at the Ananda Meditation Retreat in California, the Minister's Bookshelf (MB) offering was brought up and discussed. A successor and/or assistant to the original and esteemed author of the MB, Satyaki, was sought. Comments from the audience included Macintosh users who felt "left out" and others wondering where they could get the CD. In addition, many praised the MB as being an integral part of their ministerial efforts.

ACSR IT services, led by Kent Williams, stepped in to head up the effort to come up with the next version of the MB. Skillman offered to assist with some technical issues. A small group met with Jyotish on 1/31/06 and it was decided that the next full step is to redo the bookshelf as a web-based application that which will:

1) eliminate the dependence on an "expert" that is a person who would need to compile,etc

2) Offer total cross platform capabilities

3) eliminate the physical distribution system

In other words reduce the "friction" by enabling sevaka members world-wide access this vital spiritual tool via a web interface.

Ananda Sangha is about to launch its own Windows Webserver 2003 co-located in Sacramento area that will host the Ananda Resource Web Application . In addition, a "Google-Mini" (http://www.google.com/enterprise/mini/index.html) will be acquired. The "Google-Mini" will be located at Ananda Bell with public IP and provide the engine for indexing what will be thousands of files and objects .

This "state of the art" architecture will enable Ananda to:

a) Have Savitri (and/or others) be the person who puts up new material after it is edited (simple as saving an attachment to a folder which is then automatically FTP'd to the webserver (aka "Mukunda"). Then the Google engine, once per day, will spider these specific folders and update its catalog.

b) A development team is forming to create an ASP.NET 2.0 authentication front end which will tie to a SQL database which will be updated daily from our Sales Logix Database with information on Sevaka order members, etc. We will set up userID's and passwords which will periodically be changed and use SSL for access to the Google search engine by authenticated users.

c) Then Sevaka order members and other interested Ananda "family" members with Internet access anywhere in the world can have up to date information at their fingertips in a safe and secure website. All they need is Internet access!

Expanded Vision
Since that initial meeting held in late January, the vision of providing a web based version of the MB has expanded greatly to include an authenticated "Portal" for Ananda devotees worldwide that provides easy access to a variety of resources including photos, Minister teaching resources, meditiation group support, the History of Ananda, threaded discussion forums moderated by a team of ministers ,the MB and much, much more!

Jyotish becomes a Web Goober/Designer
Jyotish has expressed enthusiasm for this expanded vision and is actively guiding the development of what is now being called the "Ananda Resource" website as well as acting as the lead designer! (His painting skills and knowledge of color and composition are being "digitized"!)

If Swami designed a website

During the recent Mahasamadhi celebration, Swami mentioned in one of his talks that he "knew nothing of the Internet." Well, we are not taking this as the last word! In any case, a useful exercise would be to imagine, "If Swami designed a website..." or "If Master designed a website.." What would be the result?

The first step was to find out what Swami likes in colors. Nirmala, who has worked closely with Swami in design issues for many years, answered our inquiry with the following: "Swami likes clear, un-muddy colors. Here’s a blue for you: 16 – 10 – 241.I think you will do great with any clear, pure shade. Keep out the blacks, browns, etc. Here is a quick sampling, but by no means definitive. This is just to give you an idea of what I mean by pure shades. There are lots of other ones that will do fine. red 204 – 43 – 0, orange 243 – 126 – 0, yellow 244 – 239 – 97, green 122 – 216 – 4, blue 38 – 71 - 235, indigo 38 – 42 – 199, violet 143 – 46 - 204 as far as fonts go, he like serif fonts."

Jyotish, Kent, Nabha and I have been meeting to discuss and plan this project and have addressed,particularly, the "UI" or user interface. The current Ananda Web "Brand" with logo and look will provide a base point.

Priyanath Online!

Priyanath, our SQL Server backend, successfully passed the data connection test. In otherwords, the web application that is running locally on my laptop, connects over the internet to Priyanath.

There is something magical about entering data on a webform and seeing it stored in a database located on a different computer via the internet.

In the past, I created "from scratch" login, authentication and personalization logic (LA&P). Because i am so impressed with asp.net 2.0 built-in LA&P services, I am going to leverage them as much as I can. This will also help as others jump into the project as "owners" - ie developers - such as Nabha, Kent and, perhaps, Scott. Above is a screen shot.

All this is quite exciting because the foundation is being laid that will provide very sophisticated LA&P "high-end" features with very little coding or "hand-work".

Next step: adapting default tables for our specific needs.