redirect the old upload/preview link

[stevieflow]

On a call (the data use task force) with @amy-silcock the other day we noted that the old "super secret link" to d-portal preview is now dead

It might be an idea to redirect that to d-preview: http://d-preview.codeforiati.org/

I created a ticket for this at notshi/d-preview#23 - but I think this is actually a decision for DI!

No problem whatsoever to redirect this to the d-preview service. One thing to be minded of is that d-preview doesn't include any of the static About / FAQ content that d-portal has - which is one point of difference from the old "super secret link"/

Anyway - if someone at DI can consider this, it'd be great

[amy-silcock]

@notshi just to check, is your plan to no longer support the previous link? Currently checking with the team of the best way to let existing users of the link know there's a new alternative.

[notshi]

Hi @amy-silcock

It's never been supported and has slowly been suffering from bitrot.
It also uses the old SQLite database so is out of sync with the main site; this is where most of the bitrot comes from.

It was hacked together as an internal way to help us set up a test site quickly for one particular publisher who kept asking to preview their data in d-portal before looking into publishing to IATI. Conversations to create the tool began from #180

After we had to do it manually a few times, we tried to automate as much as the process as possible but it was never intended to be front facing or maintained, which is why it has suffered from bitrot. It was also never meant to be kept on the same server as the main d-portal site as there could be problems caused by people uploading preview data that could break the main site. It has never been linked to from the front of d-portal or appeared on the d-portal site; hence it was always referred to as a 'secret link'.

We've only kept it there as a courtesy but it seems the tool has been used quite extensively by many organisations since it was first created in 2015.

The d-preview is a new and improved version of this tool running on a separate server, uses the PostgreSQL database, is in sync with the main code and does not suffer from the problems we mention above.

A redirect would be easy but we are unsure if you want to automatically point people away from the main d-portal site to another service.

[notshi]

Hi @amy-silcock are there any updates regarding this?

[amy-silcock]

Hi @notshi apologies for the slow response.

First off, thank you for keeping the old link going for so long. It's been truly useful! Def makes sense not to maintain it any more.

Is it possible to get the previous URL, and associated page to display: "This functionality is no longer supported. If you have any questions, please email support@iatistandard.org"

The team would like us to refer users to the new ODSC tool, rather than having a redirect.

Best,

Amy

[stevieflow]

"This functionality is no longer supported. If you have any questions, please email support@iatistandard.org"

... and no mention that the service they are looking for now exists at http://d-preview.codeforiati.org @amy-silcock ?

That seems rather counter-intuitive. A user would need to email support, for support to them email them about a link. Is there a compelling reason to do this?

[stevieflow]

d-preview is linked to from the footer of d-portal now

I'll close this as it's three years old and doesn't seem compelling or relevant any longer