LostCases

Owned by Nathan Irwin
Last updated: Jan 29, 2023 by Katherine Huynh
2 min read

https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/law/nzlostcases/

Client: Geoff McClay 

Document: Upgrade of NZ Lost Cases site Sept 2017.

https://victoriauniversity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/TD/pages/377716770

Management meeting file notes from 2018

In 2018, Digital Sotuions scoped a potential project to upgrade the Lost Cases database but accessible through the Faculty of Law website. They are factoring in estimates of work to be carried out by the DE team but this is very difficult to quantify - Nathan thinks this could be 20 days + of effort. The conundrum is that the law site is a Tier 1 site so we would end up supporting it; the Law Foundation which is very keen on this project is a key stakeholder of the university but the Lost Cases initiative is not core business for the DE team.

Do we consider other options, either lessor featured (cheaper upfront but DE shoulders more ongoing support), or fully out-sourced even on another platform (Wordpress?) In this case, Geoff McLay (project owner) would need to submit a business case to the Law Foundation for funding, something more likely if the work would extend the functionality (e.g. link to the original source documents, maybe stored in the library's instance of Rosetta Stone).

Our recommendations/findings

  • Update database 

    • Create 'views' across the tables

    • Can run SQL queries

    • Is on supported ITS DB version 

  • Build an API (Application programming interface)

    • Creates a service to deliver the data to a web site

    • Search and retrieve results across defined field

    • Create filters and pagination across data results

    • Extensible 

  • Build Web site in a CMS

    • Easy to maintain and update basic content

    • More developer support for improvements

    • Security patches actively maintained 



Example of a site using a built for purpose API with a Web site in a CMS

http://www.legalmaori.net/