How to add your items to the Stanislaus Archive

February 09, 2023

Have slides, videos, documents, or other materials you want to add to StanislausRiver.org?  Here’s what you have to do, based on the revised site (February 2023) which has a slightly different process than the prior version of the site.

It’s easy to become a contributor:

1. Sign up using the online form on the site  home page – you’ll be emailed a user name (best approach is “firstlastname” and password (be sure to save this!).
2. Use your username and password to log onto the website (see upper right on the home or any site page;  when you’re logged in, you’ll see “Log Out” there).

Once you have your account, follow these guidelines to upload items. If you want to EDIT an existing item, log in and open the Detail page for that item – in the lower left, you’ll see a “Published/Edit” button which you can click to enter the following add document/edit screen:

1. On the Explore page (once you’re logged in), you’ll see “My Collection” in the upper right – click and you’ll see the Explore view with just your items (if any uploaded).
2. Click “Add Items” in the upper right to start uploading. This will take you to a Word Press “Add a New Document” page (note this is a major change from the prior site, which used a custom form, but that created programming issues).
3. Add the photo or document
4. Fill out the “Document” entry, going through all fields.  Follow these guidelines:
   • TITLE:  Keep titles short but make them meaningful (about 5-7 words, if possible) – save details for the Description field which can be long if needed (Search looks at all text in Titles and Descriptions)
   • DESCRIPTION:  These can be extended and it’s good practice to identify people associated with the photo or document, so that search can find their names. Feel free to explain why this image/document is significant in your own experience. You can add hyperlinks to other items on this site or to other sites (use the link icon in the editing bar).
   • DOCUMENT TYPE:   Choose – File (means image or PDF document), YouTube or SoundCloud link,  or Web Site.  Based on what you choose, you’ll have different items to fill out or to link to below Document Type.
   • Sound/Video:  Be sure to review these guidelines before adding these item types.
   • DATE:  For Date, try to use “Exact” (must be in dd/mm/yyyy format) – it’s best to guess a day if you don’t know the precise month or day); or choose “Year” and just estimate the year (yyyy);
   • DATE TYPE:  Match the date you’ve chosen.
   • Choose the item format (photo, document, etc.) – If you are loading video or audio read these guidelines.
   • COPYRIGHT:  Enter how you’d like the Copyright information to read (“Copyright name year”, or you can also use Creative Commons terms)
   • AUTHOR:  Enter the name of the person or organization who created the item.

On the right side of the screen, you’ll see a series of checkboxes to fill out:

• • FORMAT:  choose the appropriate format category of the item.
  • STATUS:  If the photo/item was taken before the river was flooded past Parrott’s Ferry, mark it “Live River” (after 1984, most items should be “Dead (flooded) River”) – this helps people quickly choose to look at the river alive vs. flooded (photos of runs when reservoir was down after the flooding are still tagged “Dead River” and often “Denuded” if they show the bathtub ring.
  • KEYWORDS – limit to 1-5 choices (only in rare cases should you need more). “Special Portfolio” is mainly for Administrators but if you have something that is truly critical or iconic, add that tag – it might be reviewed later by Administrators.
  • COLLECTIONS:  Collections should be checked with your name – if it isn’t or should be in someone else’s collection, go ahead and check those.
  • LOCATION:  If the item is about a specific location, choose the closest point from the Location drop down list (don’t choose more than one location).

Finally:  In the upper right, use the PUBLISH box to save a draft for later editing, to preview what you have so far, or to Publish Immediately.  Items will show up on the live site approximately 24 hours after you upload them (has to do with caching).

Tip:  If you are loading photos that are a sequence, here are best practices:  a) Load the last first (system displays by date uploaded, most recent first);  b) Name them the same, but consider adding “1”, “2”, etc.) to the end of each title (in real time order, 1,2, 3, etc.) so that Sort by Title can show your items in order.  Here are some examples of that approach.