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Efficiency, navigation/redirect enhancements, and permission control

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@ssciolla ssciolla released this 23 Oct 19:19
· 25 commits to master since this release
2.6.0
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1. More Helpful Information for Users without Cohorts

Issues #139 #140 #165
The home/index (/) page for Student Explorer redirects a user to their "My Students" page with a list of all of their assigned students/cohorts. Historically, if a user did not have and had never had any assigned students/cohorts, the user would be redirected to the page "Advisors" (/advisors/) because the "My Students" page didn't exist until the user had assigned students. The "Advisors" page showed a list of all advisors who have "My Students" pages, primarily for administrative use. This was very confusing, particularly for new users, who didn't understand the purpose of the page, and had no need for it. With this release, all advisors will have a "My Students" page located at /advisors/[advisor uniqname]/. If they don't currently have any assigned students, they will see instructions on how to use Student Explorer without a cohort or how to create a cohort.

Thus, if you are used to seeing this page when you login and/or when you click "My Students":
image

You will now see this page when you login and/or when you click "My Students":
image

2. "About" Page

Issue #86
The existing "About" page (/about/) has been built out with more informational content about Student Explorer to help users learn about the purpose and history of the application. "About" is still accessible to users who are not logged in (anyone can see it).
image

3. Navigation Bar Redesign

Issue #151
The navigation bar at the top of the page has been redesigned.
image

  • The Student Explorer logo in the upper left now directs to the "About" page /about/ (it previously redirected to "My Students" /)
  • The search bar has been moved to the left so it is just to the right of the logo to draw more attention to it as a core function of the application
  • "Advisors" (/advisors/) has been removed from the navigation bar. The page is still accessible at the direct URL but is not frequently needed by end users so has been removed to avoid confusion about the purpose and use of the page. The page is being maintained primarily for administrators to be able to see each advisor's "My Students" page easily.
  • "About" (/about/) has been added to the navigation bar in between "My Students" and "Resources & Support"
  • "My Students", "About", and "Resources & Support" are now located on the right side of the navigation bar, just to the left of the user's uniqname--they previously were in the location now occupied by the search bar.

4. Page Load Speed Enhancements

Issues #122 #136 #153 #166 #175 #181
Enhancements to improve page load speed and application efficiency. Users will notice that all pages load slightly faster and subsequent loads will be faster than the first load for 6 hours. This change is being made in preparation for moving the application from an on-premise OpenShift environment to an OpenShift environment hosted on AWS.

5. Streamlined Access/Permission Control

Issue #121
Access to Student Explorer will now be controlled by membership in the Student Explorer Users M-Community group. People in the M-Community group can login to Student Explorer and people who are not in the M-Community group cannot. Previously, access was controlled by having a user account created directly in the application, but users had to be added separately to the M-Community group used for communication. This was duplicative and increased risk of error. The new process will also increase transparency of who has access to Student Explorer.

6. Non-User-Facing Changes

Non-user-facing changes including changes to the README (#150), making the app reloadable for easier development (#154), updating the Django Debug Toolbar (#158), updating mysqlclient (#170), and resolving a test bug (#162).

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