The main code for a seminar page located at /seminars/[SEMINAR_NAME]/[SEMINAR_NAME].html (example on GitHub) looks quite simple. Here is an example (in the actual page there are more links to archives):
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---
layout: seminar
permalink: /seminars/colloq/
nav_parent: Seminars
events: false
sem_page: true
title: University of Virginia Mathematics Colloquium #override the default title in <h1> on the page
# title: CAN OVERRIDE the title in <h1> on the page; the title of the page itself is hardcoded from seminars.yml
---
{% include seminar_page.html
content=""
contacts=""
archives="[2016-17](/seminars/colloq/2016-17/) \|
[2015-16](/seminars/colloq/2015-16/) \|
[2014-15](/seminars/colloq/2014-15/) \|
[2013-14](/seminars/colloq/2013-14/) \|
...
"
%}
The main day-to-day content in the seminar pages is taken from google calendars. Each seminar has its own google calendar, and a javascript code on the page pulls the seminar entries and displays them in a nice format on a seminar page. The seminar organizers continue to update their seminar’s google calendars as usual.
The fields content="" and contacts="" allow to add some extra content into specific places on the automatically generated seminar page: the first field adds before UPCOMING TALKS list, and the second field - before the Contact: information at the bottom of the page.
The unified list of talks is displayed on the main page. Note: only 180 days of seminars are displayed on the main page and on the “all seminars” page https://math.virginia.edu/calendar/. Seminars further in the future can be found at the individual seminars pages.
The recent archives using google calendars are displayed year by year, semi-automatically: one simply needs to create archive pages each year - these can be copied from a previous example like at this GitHub link.
Note: Links from google calendar entries displayed on seminar pages can be broken over time (i.e. when the linked external URL becomes unavailable). There is currently no way implemented to control this because these links are grabbed by javascript. This issue does not affect the displaying of more recent seminar talks, and will likely not be fixed.
Older archives not using google calendar were moved manually from the old seminar pages.
The key to how this works is in the field permalink: /seminars/colloq/ which tells the builder that this page corresponds to the Colloquium. Similarly, for the seminar archive pages the key field is something like permalink: /seminars/colloq/2015-16/ which tells the builder to look at the Colloquium. The title: field in both cases is not essential and can be changed.
The main information on seminars is contained in _data/seminars.yml (this file on GitHub). Its structure is explained below.
The javascript code which generates talks lists is in the files _includes/cal_main.js (for the main page the unified list of talks is displayed; file on GitHub) and _includes/cal_single.js (for individual seminar pages and archives; file on GitHub).
_data/seminars.yml (file on GitHub) is the main file which contains all information about seminars. An example of a seminar entry is below:
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- cal_number: '7'
name: Probability Seminar
shortname: probability
image: __SITE_URL__/img/seminars/tiling_v.png
webpage: 'http://faculty.virginia.edu/Probability/'
google_cal_id: 'f0un05c36pdv08n0m90bi99jmk@group.calendar.google.com'
seminar_weight: 9
regular_times: Wednesdays at 4:35
information: |
The Probability Seminar is the place to see talks on active research topics in probability theory, as well as informal discussions of basic notions of probability. We typically have invited speakers every 2-3 weeks presenting a wide array of research in probability. Most other weeks are informal discussions led by local participants, often graduate students discussing recently studied topics. The seminar is open to all. Feel free to attend regularly or occasionally.
contact:
- UVA_id: hcg3m
- UVA_id: tam7b
- UVA_id: lap5r
- UVA_id: ais6a
Some configuration fields are self-evident. Here are explanations for the rest:
cal_number
Do not touch this entry, it is needed for correct identification of the seminar in the list of upcoming talks on the main page.
shortname
This is the main seminar identifier which is used in permalinks is seminar pages.
image
Put the image file (jpg or png, any size/dimensions, but square and up to 600x600 preferred) into the folder /img/seminars/ in the source code, and link it in a configuration field as above.
Important! keep the __SITE_URL__ prefix as is, this is needed for correct automatic generation of the website.
published_in_nav
Smaller and less regular seminars can be excluded from the navigation bar
by setting published_in_nav to false.
webpage
This is a link to the old seminar webpage, if needed. Once all archives are moved, this field can be eliminated which will eliminate the link from the seminar page
google_cal_id
Identifier of the goolge calendar associated with the seminar, for display on the website.
seminar_weight
The bigger this parameter the lower is the seminar in the list of seminars (in the navigation bar and on the seminar pages).
information
Under information: | field, put a paragraph’s description of the seminar. This is displayed on the seminar page and on the page listing all seminars.
To change information of an existing seminar, edit _data/seminars.yml. To add additional information to the seminar page, add it to content="" or contacts="" in the /seminars/[SEMINAR_NAME]/[SEMINAR_NAME].html corresponding to the seminar.
Advanced. To make even more changes to the page of a seminar you can copy the template in /_includes/seminar_page.html into the content section (below second ---) of the seminar page /seminars/[SEMINAR_NAME]/[SEMINAR_NAME].html, and make deeper edits there.
To ensure that the seminar information renders properly the following conditions must be met:
_data/seminars.yml file/seminars/[SEMINAR_NAME]/[SEMINAR_NAME].html. The permalink configuration field of that .html file should match the seminar shortname._includes/cal_main.js for display on the main page. This requires adding the corresponding google\_cal\_id to the list of google calendar id’s in the beginning of the script, and also adding a corresponding line to the function function getSeminar(num)If removing a seminar, consider keeping the archives. One can link them maybe on the all seminars page, or create a special archive page for a no longer existing seminar.
The google calendar feature allows to create pages with event lists displayed from google calendar,
but not linked to the “all seminars” page on the unifying calendar on the main page.
This might be suitable for a reading or a graduate seminar. To do this, one should imitate
/_includes/seminar_page.html and hardcode the values in a standalone page. The key
line of code displaying google calendar events is
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{% include cal_single.js google_cal_id = [YOUR_GOOGLE_CALENDAR_ID] current = "true" max_sem = 50 %}