翻译《当网志已经不够用……》
When Blogging Isn't Enough...
当网志已经不够用……
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This story was originally published in the Apple Digital Campus Exchange gallery on Sept. 13, 2005 by Jonathan Maybaum, University of Michigan (maybaum@umich.edu)
本文最初由密歇根大学美宝乔森于西元两千零五年九月十三日发表于苹果数码校园交流杂志。
When Blogging Isn't Enough...
当网志已经不够用……
What happens when your need for an interactive web application doesn't fit into the mold of a blog? At the University of Michigan, you can build it yourself, with UM.SiteMaker.
当网志已经不适应你所需要的交互式网络应用程序，会发生什么？在密歇根大学，你可以使用UM.SiteMaker自己构建一个。
What's in your toolbox?
你的工具箱里有些什么？
The emergence of weblogs has made people aware of the how powerful an interactive website can be. However, when I see countless discussions about how to do all sorts of things with blogs, I think about the old saying: "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail".
网志的出现，让人们意识到交互式网站有多么强大。然而，当我看到在各个网志上无数次讨论怎么做某件事情，我想起一句老话：“网志是个筐，什么都往里面放。”
Of course, the great thing about a blog is that allows you to maintain a highly functional, interactive web application without having to know anything technical. But the fundamental structure of a blog is dedicated towards one category of task, i.e., publishing a journal. While there are certainly lots of interesting and creative twists to apply to blogs, in the end, you are bound by many constraints put in place by the programmers who built your blogging software. So what do you do when you need a different tool?
当然，网志只有在允许你在不需要知道任何技术的情况下，维持一个很高机能的、交互式网络应用程序，才算是一样好东西。但是网志的基本结构是专注于某一类任务，比如，发表日记。虽然肯定有大量有趣的、富有创意的改造可用于网志，但最终，你还是会受制于构建网志软件的程序员设置的系统参数的制约。那么，当你需要一个不同的工具时，你该怎么办？
Helping those who want to help themselves
帮助那些想帮助自己的人
What are your options when you need a unique interactive website? You could hire a programmer to do the project for you, if you have the money and the time, and can find the right person. Needless to say, few people in the academic world have the resources to go this route. And even those who can fund such a project will soon face an unpleasant truth: it won't be right the first time. Or, probably, the second or third time, either, because the more creative the project, the more likely it is that it will evolve and be refined substantially over time.
当你需要一个独一无二的交互式网站的时候，你的选择是什么？你可以雇用一名程序员为你做这个项目，如果你有钱有时间，你还可以找到合适的人。不用说，学术界的少数人具有这样做的资本。并且这些人会发现这个项目很快就要面对这样不愉快的现实：第一版不能正常运行。甚至，有可能是第二版第三版，因为这个项目越有创造性，就越有可能需要随着时间的推移而不断发展和完善。
Many academic IT projects run into difficulty because the scholars who initiate them often start out with a fuzzy vision of what is needed. On top of that, there are usually things that get lost or distorted when conveying that vision to the programmer charged with implementing it. Inevitably, this kind of development is an iterative process, and the more directly that the scholar can translate ideas into action, the better it will go. So, the logical answer is to do it yourself, right?
许多学术界的信息技术项目运行困难，是因为学者们最初启动的是一个他们所需要的模糊的设想。最重要的是，在传达这一设想给程序员实施的时候，通常都会有丢失或者扭曲。不可避免的是，这种发展是一种逐级放大的过程。学者可以将思路直接转换成行动，这样会更好。那么，合乎逻辑的答案是，自己做，对不对？
Well, not if means that you have to become a hard-core programmer. Most of us are not able or willing to do that. On the other hand, many scholars can do a bit more than point and click. So, how much should a person need to know, to make a web database? We thought carefully about that question when designing UM.SiteMaker, and decided that if you feel comfortable with Excel spreadsheets, then you should be able to make a simple web database. This defined our target audience.
嗯，这并不意味着你需要成为一名核心程序员。我们大多数人没有这个能力也不打算这样做。另一方面，许多学者能做的远不止点击鼠标。那么，为了制作一份网页数据库，一个人应该知道多少东西呢？在设计UM.SiteMaker 的时候我们很谨慎的思考过这个问题，然后决定，如果你使用Excel电子表格的时候觉得很舒服，那么你应该能制作一份简单的网页数据库。这定义了我们的目标观受众。
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Key elements for a do-it-yourself web database system
自己动手制作网页数据库系统所需要的关键元素
Although it is impractical to give a detailed explanation of what we did, within this short article, here are few key elements and concepts that underpin UM.SiteMaker:
虽然要为我们所做的事情，在这样一篇短文中，给出一份详细说明，是不切实际的，但是这里有一些支撑UM.SiteMaker 的关键元素和概念：
Start with sound fundamentals
从最稳健的原理开始
It is important to remember that a web database needs to have all of the attributes of any good website, plain or fancy, including:
记住一个网页数据库需要有任何优秀网站——无论是朴素的还是花哨的——的全部属性，这很重要，包括：
- Professional and attractive appearance
- Effective organization and navigation
- Appropriate access controls, where needed
- 专业而吸引人的外观
- 有效的结构和导航
- 适当的访问控制出现在适当的地方
在为网页数据库增加功能之前，UM.SiteMaker 最初是为帮助非技术用户建立基本网站而设计。事实上，现在利用UM.SiteMaker发布的大部分网站都相对比较简单，虽然他们在目的和内容上都有很大不同。即使不考虑用户定义的网页数据库，这种简单（但是灵活）的网页发布能力成为一项很重要的资产，尤其是在对比其他绝大部分机构（比如，提供传统网页空间的机构，可能会有一些网页设计的模板和类别，但也不会很多）在发布的人网页上的所作所为之后。UM.SiteMaker的网页数据库工具就是建立在这样一个基础之上。
Break the job down into manageable pieces.
将工作分解到可管理的片段中去
Making any web database, even a very simple one, can seem like a daunting project because of all of the things that need to be done, such as creating the database itself, making all of the forms for entering, editing and viewing the data, and sorting out who can see or edit which data, on which forms. The most significant aspect of our implementation is how we broke this problem down into pieces that non-technical users have been able to understand easily.
制作人和网页数据库，即使是最简单的，似乎也是一项艰巨任务，因为所有事情都需要做，比如创建一个数据库文件，制作所有的输入表单，编辑并查看这些数据，决定谁可以用哪一个表单，查看或者编辑这些数据。我们工作的最重要方面，就是分解这些问题，使得非技术用户也能很容易理解。
The first step is to create a structure to hold the data (a "Data Table"). Then, you connect the Data Table to one or more "Data Access sections", each of which is configured to serve as the interface to the data, for the particular audience that is given permission to enter it. For example, the general public might be one audience, a class or research group might be a second audience, and the faculty member in charge of the project might be a third audience. Each Data Access section has built-in forms for viewing, editing, adding and searching for data, and can be set to show or edit only selected records or fields. Finally, if you know some HTML you can completely customize how the forms look (although this part is optional).
第一步是创建一个可以容纳这些数据的结构（数据表）。接下来，你将数据表连接到一或多个“数据访问零件”，每一个都已经配置好可以充当数据的接口，给予特定用户以访问权限。举个例子，一般公共用户可能是一个用户，一个班级或者研究小组是第二个用户，负责该项目的教师可能是第三个用户。每个数据访问零件都内置有查看、编辑、添加和搜索数据的表单，并且可以被设置成只能显示或编辑指定的记录或者字段。最后，如果你了解一点HTML，你可以完全定制这些表单的外观（虽然这是可选的）。
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Play nicely with other systems.
与其他系统良好集成
Because we know that people use many different tools in their academic lives, we placed high value on making sure that anything created in UM.SiteMaker, whether a simple website or an interactive site with Data Tables, would be able to fit in smoothly with the other things around it.
由于我们知道，人们在其学术生涯中使用许多不同的工具，我们高度重视，确保UM.SiteMaker创建的所有软件，不管是一个简单网站，还是一个具有数据表的交互式网站，都能与其周围的其他软件平滑集成。
Ideally, interoperability should be a two-way street. In one direction, UM.SiteMaker is a client of institutional services, where it uses our campus-wide web authentication service (called Cosign) to log people in, and our university directory service as a place where site owners can maintain access lists to control who is able to view their materials.
最理想的是，互操作性应该是双向的。在一个方向上，UM.SiteMaker 是已知服务的客户端，它可以使用我们学校的网页授权服务（称之为协同认证）帮助用户登录，并且我们的大学目录服务作为一个网站服务器，可以操作访问列表，来控制某人可以查看他们的资源。
In the other direction, information that is created within UM.SiteMaker can be served to other applications transparently. This makes it quite easy to build a web database in UM.SiteMaker and then have it be used within our CTools/Sakai course management system, for example.
在另一个方向上，很明显，UM.SiteMaker 创建的信息可以为其他应用程序服务。这使得很容易在UM.SiteMaker 中建立一个网页数据库，然后将其用于我们的CTool/Sakai课程管理系统，诸如此类。
The payoff
回报
It is a startling concept to most people that non-technical faculty and students can create their own unique interactive websites, without raising bucket loads of money and waiting months for a programmer to do the work for them. However, once that idea settles in, amazing things can happen:
对于大多数非技术性的教师和学生，能够创建他们自己的独一无二的交互式网站，而不用承担金钱的压力，以及用数月的时间等待程序员为其工作，这是一个惊人的概念。然而，一旦产生这种念头，就会发生很多充满惊喜的事情：
- Professor Mark Clague, a musicologist, made a web database for his Living Music project, to capture and organize interviews of musical figures that were obtained by his students.
- 马克教授，一位音乐学者，为其生活音乐项目制作了一个网页数据库，捕捉和组织他学生获得的音乐灵感。
- Pamela Bogart, a faculty member in the English Language Institute, created a website to help teaching assistants who need to improve their language skills, enabling each student to create a customized workplan, turn in assignments, and receive personalized feedback.
- 帕米拉，英语语言学院的一位教师，创建了一个网站，帮助需要提高语言技能的助教，允许每个学生创建一个定制工作计划、上交作业，以及获得各自的反馈。
- Professor George Garcia used a simple Data Table application to organize the Medical Chemistry seminar series, in the College of Pharmacy
- 加西亚教授，用一个简单的数据表程序，在药学院组织医药化学系列研讨班。
- Kelsey Hanson, an undergraduate Engineering student, used Data Tables to fulfill a class assignment in problem-solving by building a working prototype of a roommate matching service in a few days, despite the fact the neither she nor the other members of her group had ever made a web database before
- 韩森，一名工科本科学生，在很短的几天内，用数据表建立一个室友配对服务的工作原型，完成解决问题型班级作业，尽管他或者其他小组成员之前都未曾建立过网页数据库。
Perhaps the most interesting and unexpected outcome of implementing UM.SiteMaker Data Tables is the way that it has empowered local staff members to support the academic missions of their units. These people are often knowledgeable in a broad range of computing topics, but are typically not programmers. Many have found that Data Tables can allow them to solve problems that were otherwise intractable.
也许，执行UM.SiteMaker 数据表最有趣最不可思议的结果，就是它允许本地工作人员支持他们自己单位的学术任务。这些人往往在相关课题上知识渊博，但通常情况下都不是程序员。许多人发现数据表可以允许他们解决以其它方式很难解决的问题。
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Summary
综述
UM.SiteMaker (also known as GVC.SiteMaker) is a WebObjects application that provides a highly flexible and locally autonomous web publishing environment to thousands of users at the University of Michigan (as well as the Ann Arbor Public Schools and Holland (Michigan) Christian Schools, with many features that are tailored to the academic setting. The Data Tables capability is a unique aspect of the system that permits non-technical users to create their own highly customized interactive websites.
UM.SiteMaker（也称为GVC.SiteMaker）是一个网页控件式应用程序，为密歇根大学，以及安阿伯公立学校和密歇根州荷兰基督教中学的数千用户，提供高度灵活性以及本地自主的网页发行环境，许多功能都是针对学术环境定制。数据表能力是该系统一个特有功能，允许非技术用户创建他们自己的高定制交互式网站。
In June, 2005, UM.SiteMaker/GVC.SiteMaker was released as an open source project under the Educational Community License. Support, hosting and customization services can be obtained from Global Village Consulting (Vancouver, BC). For more information, please write to sitemaker@umich.edu.
西元两千零五年六月，UM.SiteMaker/GVC.SiteMaker 作为开源项目依照教育共同体许可证发行。可以从全球村咨询公司（加拿大温哥华）获得支持、存放以及定制服务。欲了解更多信息，请致函这里。
Links
相关链接
- UM.SiteMaker home (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/)
- UM.SiteMaker support topics database(http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sitemaker.resources/support_and_training)
- Gallery of UM.SiteMaker sites (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sm.gallery)
- Data Tables tutorial(http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sitemaker.resources/files/datatablesintro.pdf)
- UM.SiteMaker/GVC.SiteMaker project site at SourceForge(http://sourceforge.net/projects/gvcsitemaker/)
- GVC.SiteMaker home (Global Village Consulting)(http://www.gvcsitemaker.com/)
- UM.SiteMaker 首页 (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/ )
- UM.SiteMaker 支持课题数据库 (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sitemaker.resources/support_and_training )
- UM.SiteMaker 网站集合 (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sm.gallery )
- 数据表教程 (http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sitemaker.resources/files/datatablesintro.pdf )
- UM.SiteMaker/GVC.SiteMaker SourceForge 项目网站(http://sourceforge.net/projects/gvcsitemaker/ )
- GVC.SiteMaker 首页 (全球村咨询)(http://www.gvcsitemaker.com/ )
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/sitemaker.resources/files/when-blogging-is-not-enough.pdf
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