Regarding the Zotero OpenOffice.org and Word plugins/templates

To further comment on Peters Sefton's blog posting last week, (http://ptsefton.com/blog/2007/08/17/13-27-46.445348) you no longer need to use the developers version of Zotero as the plugins for Word and OpenOffice.org developed as part of the ICE project are now are available of the Zotero website at http://www.zotero.org.

Peter also mentioned the demo of the Zotero plugins I had made, I will be adding more soon and this time I will include audio (the quality was poor last time so I left it off). If you find them useful feedback would be appreciated.

The ICE toolbar and Zotero template available for download

The ICE toolbar

The ICE toolbar has been developed as an OpenOffice.org extension and a Microsoft Word add-in. The purpose of the toolbar is to apply the ICE styles quicker and easier, this has been achieved by the creation of a toolbar that not only uses identical icons in OpenOffice.org and Word but also uses the same short cuts on all operating systems and word processors. The functionality of toolbar also includes some "smarts" to assist with the creation of more structurally correct content.

The ICE toolbars are still being developed however, they are usable. Feel free to download and try them out, feedback is appreciated via the contact us page form or mailing list.

Try the ICE toolbar OpenOffice.org extension

Try the ICE toolbar MSWord Add-In

The Zotero template

A requirement of the ICE for Research and Scholarships is to identify the potential to enhance bibliographic software to complement ICE. Zotero was identified as having potential and is also an open source application. The main requirements identified were to develop an OpenOffice.org extension and Word add-on that uses an interoperable method of inserting citations and bibliographies.

"Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself."

Source: http://www.zotero.org

Installing the Zotero template

The Zotero templates developed by the ICE project are being considered for integration and are available from the Zotero.

Before you can use the Zotero templates you first need to install the developers version of the plugin, you can get it from http://www.zotero.org/download/zotero-devel.xpi

You can download the Zotero templates from https://www.zotero.org/trac/browser/integration/branches/ice

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-08-09

Summary

The previous cycle we finished off most of the tweaks required for the ICE word processor toolbar. We also installed the toolbar for two USQ EPS staff members and so far feedback has been very positive. There are still a few minor changes to make however, it is now ready for an Alpha release. There is also still some refactoring and more user testing to do before we can switch over to using the .ice folders and start on the server version. The half yearly DEST report was also completed last cycle.

This next cycle will start work on adding annotations and tagging, as well as a version of ICE for Apache. We will also be identifying requirements to improve the export from ICE for repository ingest. Preparation for the coming conferences and workshops a long with the toolbar v2 demo/release is to be carried out as well. The ICE team will also be moving offices this cycle (we hope), so it will be a rather busy cycle.

Note that this cycle meeting has been held on the 30th of July 2007 due to stakeholders not being available for the usual time.

Predicted work units: 100

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

• DEST Report

Application

• .ice folders

  • remove the need for the .cache folder

  • user testing

  • refactoring

Templates

• Style generation in OOo extension

• Tweaks and bug fixes

• User testing

Outstanding tasks

• Zotero Template Alpha release

• ICE Toolbar 2 Alpha release

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

• Zotero Template Alpha release

• ICE Toolbar 2 Alpha release

• IDEA 2007 Roadshow preparation

• IDEA 2007 Conference preparation

Application

• .ice folders

  • continue user testing

  • finish current refactoring

• Create a read only server version within Apache

• Add tagging

• Start on annotations

• Polish off the ICE Fedora module

• Spec out ICE export requirements for improved repository ingest

Templates

• Tweaks and bug fixes

• User testing

About the cycle notes

The cycle notes are used to summarize the outcomes of the completed cycle and provide stakeholders with an overview of the tasks for the next cycle. They are also used to raise any issues for discussion and provide other information for those who are unable to attend the meetings. Specific information on tasks to be completed are available in the ticketing system, see below.

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Jul 31, 2007

ICE-RS cycle notes for the cycle ending 2007-07-26

Summary

In the first half of the previous cycle we released ICE 1.2.2 containing numerous bug fixes. The second half we were going to hold the Digital Scholarship tools workshop, unfortunately Ian Barnes from APSR was not able to attend. We went ahead with a workshop and mainly worked on the templates and indexing in ICE. This cycle we will continue work on the requirements for the server version of ICE and hope to do an Alpha release of the ICE word processor toolbar 2 and the Zotero templates.

Predicted work units: 100

Overview of completed tasks

Components

Administration

• Preparation for the "Digital Scholarship Tools" workshop

• Build and release ICE version with improvements since last release

Templates

• ICE toolbar and cross referencing dialog box user testing

• ICE Zotero user testing

Results from Digital Scholarship Tools workshop

• ICE 1.3 branch

  • Assigns Ids to document

  • Functionality to index completed – What to be indexed needs to be worked out

• Zotero template was tested with the Sun odt Word plugin ok

• ICE word processor toolbar

  • Framework in place for building styles in the OOo extension

  • Now handles a single block of multiple selections

  • Added key capture to both Word and OOo toolbars (esc + key)

    Note: A short cut to capture the key pressed needs to be manually assigned for the OOo extension

  • Cross Referencing

    • Added Cross referencing to Word toolbar – tested on Windows (Word 2003) and Mac (Word 2004)

      Identified work required for linking between multiple documents.

      Doesn't work on Mac Word because of a problem assigning to a combo box

Outstanding tasks

• .ice folders

  • remove the need for the .cache folder

  • user testing

  • refactoring

• Build Book and proof PHD dissertation by A. Robins (UNE) – waiting on the .ice folder support

Overview of new tasks

Components

Administration

• DEST Report

• Zotero Template Alpha release

• ICE Toolbar 2 Alpha release

Application

• .ice folders

  • remove the need for the .cache folder

  • user testing

  • refactoring

Templates

• Style generation in OOo extension

• Teaks and bug fixes

• User testing

About the cycle notes

The cycle notes are used to summarize the outcomes of the completed cycle and provide stakeholders with an overview of the tasks for the next cycle. They are also used to raise any issues for discussion and provide other information for those who are unable to attend the meetings. Specific information on tasks to be completed are available in the ticketing system, see below.

More information

http://ice.usq.edu.au/trac/roadmap

View archived cycle notes

Modified: Jul 18, 2007

Minor update to ICE to resolve links on images released for Windows

We recently found that links on images anchored as a character don't render correctly. As this will break previously rendered content we decided to release the fix as an update.

To get the changes update your ICE via Start... All Programs... ICE... Setup... Update ICE. Setup ICE, go to http://localhost:8000/edit-config The version information at the bottom page needs to state it was built from ICE trunk number 7300.

Daniel.

How to tell what version of ICE you are running

A couple of people have asked how they tell what version of ICE they are running. In the past it was a little tricky and depended on you level of access however, with version 1.2.2 it has been made easy.

Start the ICE server and go to http://localhost:8000/edit-config#versionInfo at the bottom of the page you should see something like the following:

ICE version: 1.2.2<
Built from ICE trunk <Revision kind=number 7265>
SVN version (1, 4, 0, '')
pysvn version (1, 5, 0, 742)
Python: 2.4.4 (#71, Oct 18 2006, 08:34:43) [MSC v.1310 32 bit (Intel)]

If you don't see the text above then you are probably running an older version or your update hasn't worked and you may need to try re-installing.

Regards
Daniel

ICE 1.2.2 has been released

The next version of ICE has been made available with the following fixes and improvements. As this is a minor release changes include mostly bug fixes. You can download the latest version via the ICE website from http://ice.usq.edu.au/instructions/downloads.htm

Bugs fixes include:

• Incorrect numbered headings after BQ or definition lists.

• captions cause render to fail

• organizer properties has problem with % in the title

• bookmarks on text not converting in the HTML as anchors

• numbered headings following a bq or bqsource style are incorrectly numbered

• link target attribute missing from links on images/objects

• links using protocols other than http are reported as invalid links

• pre style on images/objects breaks render

• li#p contains bullets if not proceeding a li#n or li#b on the same level

• links don't render in footnotes

• document still sync'ing when render fails

• Error rendering document with unicode in a link

• linked text on the last paragraph of a chapter document causes the Book not to render

Changes/features include:

• display error messages when render fails in the file manager

• document indexes not to render in the HTML

• version information added to config editor

For more information see the full release notes at http://ice.usq.edu.au/releases/latest.htm