Story Telling Last Updated: August 06, 2018; First Released: April 12, 2013 Author: Kevin Boyle, President, DevTreks (1*) Version: 2.1.4 A. Introduction All base element content in DevTreks should be linked to multimedia, explanatory stories, and metadata (author, summary). Farm machinery input data sets should be linked to pictures of the farm equipment. Crop operations should be linked to videos, or pictures, of the production stages. Monitoring and evaluation analyses should be linked to stories explaining the progress being achieved in a project or program. Stories are completed using the following four steps (2*). 1. Manage Multimedia Multimedia is stored in a Resources service using a four level hierarchy. The first level is a Service, the second is a Resource Group, the third is a Resource Pack, and the fourth level is the Resource. The multimedia itself is uploaded into the fourth level, or Resource level. Multimedia content can consist of images, videos, documents, style sheets, and a variety of other data formats. DevTreks imposes a size limit (i.e. 60 MB), explained in the Social Budgeting reference, on any individual multimedia file. A typical hierarchy appears as follows: Resource Packs can be linked to individual pages in a story, or separate calculators and analyzers. The Resources in a Resource Pack support the requirements of the story, calculator, or analyzer. In almost all instances, at least one of the resources will be a style sheet that can convert the story, calculator, or analyzer, into HTML. In other instances, Resources might be images used to illustrate a story, data lists that are used in calculators, or videos used as stand-alone tutorials. A typical resource appears as follows: The following image demonstrates that all calculators and analyzers include a MediaURL property which allows Resources to be tied directly to calculators and analyzers. When a URL to a Resource is added to the MediaURL property, the Media view, found on the Views panel for all calculators and Analyzers, will display the multimedia. This view is convenient for displaying graphics or tables that highlight the most important points contained in raw calculated results. It also offers a convenient alternative to building complete stories –the displayed image can be a simple list of URLs to further explanatory media. Further information about this property can be found in the Calculators and Analyzers tutorial. 2. Build Stories Stories are built and edited using an interactive paragraph editor. Stories are stored in a Linked Views service using a five level hierarchy. The first level is a Service, the second is a Linked View Group, the third is a Linked View Pack, the fourth level is a Linked View, and the fifth level is a Resource Pack. The story itself, which will be a blank xml story to begin with, is uploaded into the fourth level, or Linked View level. This is the same workflow used to build calculators and analyzers. A typical hierarchy appears as follows: The initial, blank, xml story is used to store the full content of the story. An initial, blank, story (Story1.xml) can be obtained at: https://www.devtreks.org/agtreks/preview/crops/resourcegroup/Story Support Group/60/none/ The fifth level, or Resource Pack, contains the style sheet needed to display and edit the story, as well as any multimedia needed to support the story. These Resource Packs are selected by using the standard “Select and Search” work flow used throughout DevTreks and explained in the Calculators and Analyzers tutorial. The default xml story’s stylesheet (Stylesheet1.xslt) can be found as a sibling Resource Pack in this Resource Group. Stories can be opened for editing by 1) Search for Linked Views and open the Linked View holding the story in the Preview panel, 2) Use the “Views” command buttons on the Preview panel to open the story in the standard Linked Views panel, 3) Use the “Open in Edits Panel” command button shown in the following image to open the Story in the Edits panel for editing. Stories are edited by adding new paragraphs, also known as Content Nodes, to the initial blank xml document and then adding multimedia, data lists, or HTML links, to each paragraph. The following image displays the story editing interface. The following interface demonstrates that multimedia content is linked to stories by adding the name of the multimedia (found in a child Resource Pack) to a File Name property in a Media Node: This version of DevTreks contains one type of story and one style for displaying the story. If more sophisticated stories are needed, put the story (i.e. pdf file) in one of the Resource Packs linked to the story, and use the story’s multimedia links to provide access to the files. The following image displays how the links appear. DevTreks may provide custom story telling as a fee-based service. For example, a scientific organization may prefer to use the ISO xml schema for scientific articles instead of the default DevTreks xml schema. 3. Link Stories to Base Element Content Stories can be linked to any base element content in DevTreks by using the standard “Linked Views” interface explained in the Calculators and Analyzers tutorial. This interface allows any type of Linked View to be linked to any base element. Linked views can be calculators, analyzers, and stories. The interface appears as follows: Stories can be opened from economic content by loading the content in the Views panel. The Views panel will put all stories into one drop down list at the top of the panel, and all calculators and analyzers into a separate drop down list. The following image displays the two drop down lists. The two lists can be kept synchronized by making selections from both lists at the same time; otherwise they act independently. 4. Complete Metadata (Optional) Metadata is data that describes other data. DevTreks uses 15 metadata elements recommended by the Dublin Core metadata initiative. These elements include: Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Publisher, Contributor, Date, Type, Format, Identifier, Source, Language, Relation, Coverage, and Rights. An Internet search of the term “Dublin Core Metadata” will link to a site that describes each of these elements. Each metadata element can be completed in DevTreks using Steps 2 and 3, but instead of filling out a blank “Story1.xml” document, a blank “Meta1.xml” document is filled out. The metadata document and stylesheet can be found as part of a Metadata Resource Pack (use the search term, metadata). The metadata describes both the story and the raw data results (3*). The following image shows what a metadata document looks like. Summary Clubs using DevTreks can easily link multimedia and stories to all base element content. All content can be described using metadata documents. Multimedia and stories can help people use social budgeting content to reach decisions that help them to improve their lives and livelihoods. Footnotes 1. DevTreks is a small ngo that cannot afford to, and does not, host Internet content for free. Our current business plan, involving subscription-based software services or strictly educational DevTreks tutorials, is explained in the Deployment tutorial. That tutorial also explains that Version 2.0.0 is underwent a major software refactor. 2. This story telling application is admittedly “different” than most on line story editing applications. However, it employs the standard workflows used throughout DevTreks to build content. The 4 step process used to complete a story, while more burdensome than some alternative applications, should not be a major barrier to people with a serious interest in building social budgeting content. If it is, use the alternative shortcut mentioned in Step 1 –add a MediaURL that lists relevant links to further explanatory content. This story telling application will evolve in future releases (i.e. by adding a default “Add Story” button to the standard Linked Views user interface). 3. The content shown in this image reflects DevTreks software development, rather than content development, role. The fact that 2 bugs were discovered during the Version 2.0.0 refactor reflects DevTreks status as a small, imperfect, ngo. References No references were used with this tutorial Improvements, Errors, and New Features Please notify DevTreks (devtrekkers@gmail.com) if you find errors or can recommend improvements. A video tutorial explaining this reference can be found at: https://www.devtreks.org/commontreks/preview/commons/resourcepack/Story Telling 1 Tutorial/491/none/ DevTreks –social budgeting that improves lives and livelihoods 1