We have just put online the implementation of our new web design and the refactored database schema.
Implementing the new design, developed by Jens Hoffmeister from underline webdesign, has kept us busy for the last three months. In addition to applying the new layout, we have used the opportunity to significantly clean up the structure of our html templates. The web design has already been very well received by some of our colleagues who gave their views on the new layout. The structure of the page remains more or less the same. However most links have changed and we are making now use of more explicit naming conventions to define our URLs.
Converting the old database structure into the new schema has been an even bigger challenge. While working with the first release, we realised that many of the table and variable names were not explicit enough. In addition, we had planned to redesign some of the table structures and revise table and variable names. There is an earlier news entry that gives the bigger perspective on the changes to the database. Please remember, most IDs, table names and variable names have changed in the new version.
The next release, ParlGov 10/11, will follow shortly. The plan is to have a beta version out tomorrow or the day after. We will test the beta version and the new development version for some days and plan to have a release of the new version at the beginning of next week.
