Release Notes: 2017 Q4

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New Features

New Features

Improved Features

Bugfixes

Styling of text element

This is a new styling of text elements. It will give the element a white background, a coloured side bar, and a slightly smaller font. It can be useful to visually distinguish content.

In the element properties, under Appearance, select 'Wit met Zijlijn' and choose one of the TU Delft theme colours:

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Dynamic content overview - Card Layout

News and Agenda items are usually displayed in what is called a Dynamic Content Overview. The news / agenda feed on your page is one as well. There are several overview templates available, but there was great demand for a template that displayed the search results in a card layout. This has now been introduced, an example can be seen on the right.

Also, check out more Card Layout display options!

Styling is determined by the available content of the result pages, as well as custom settings in the overview element. All card variations (normal, half height, horizontal, and horizontal half height) are available to choose from, as well as the number of results per row.

Because the overviews are difficult to set up properly, changing from your current template to this new template is not done by editors. Please contact your local content manager to apply for this overview template.

Programme TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam

The Campus Rotterdam programme team has had a busy few months. We would like to give you a brief update on how things stand and invite you to join us in discussing and thinking about what we need to do next to land successfully in Rotterdam. How? Scroll down to find out more... Where are we now: Before the summer, the Campus Rotterdam Programme Team presented a first draft Development Plan to the Executive Board (EB). The same team then fleshed out the Development Plan during the summer months and in its current form, the plan provides concrete insights into our envisaged growth strategy where possible. Following this strategy, the campus in Rotterdam will incrementally and gradually grow into a fully-fledged campus by 2040. The university, however, cannot accomplish this on its own. Since TU Delft has expressed its ambition to eventually establish a presence in Rotterdam as well, it has teamed up with the city of Rotterdam, the city of Delft and various parties in Rotterdam and the region. We are currently working on fleshing out our shared growth ambition together. After a period of probing, surveying and mapping out wishes and opportunities, a letter of intent was signed in the summer (8 July), in which the city of Rotterdam and TU Delft committed themselves to developing plans for the expansion to Rotterdam over the next year. Together, we will examine the feasibility of our growth ambition and, step by step, we will explore funding avenues. In today’s new political reality and faced by the government’s recent cuts in education and science, this will be challenging. Our ambitions, however, will remain unchanged. Along with our faculties and services, as well as partners in Delft and Rotterdam, we are working on a proposition and joint case that we will soon present to various potential stakeholders to discuss whether they too wish to lend their financial backing to solving this social challenge. Step by step The expansion to Rotterdam is a logical and important step. To meet the challenges of the future, we will need both more and different engineers. The planned gradual expansion to Rotterdam will make a significant contribution to sourcing these engineers. At the same time, the move calls for new mission-driven degree programmes in addition to the existing programmes in natural sciences, construction and design engineering. Moreover, we will need research and innovations that will further prepare our future engineers for the challenges arising from major transitions such as energy, health, digitalisation, raw materials and climate adaptation. Rotterdam is the ideal location for such growth. Together, we can make an impact and lead the way in changing society for the better. An important first step we are taking now is developing new degree programmes. Together with the faculties, we are working on three new degree programmes with the following working titles: 'Health & Tech', Climate & Energy Systems Engineering' and 'Resilient Living Environment'. As things stand, the first Delft degree programmes in Rotterdam will start in 2027, and ideally we will start advertising these new programmes to prospective students a year earlier (in 2026). This will give us the time and space needed to make the necessary preparations. At the same time, we are exploring potential sites in Rotterdam for these new degree programmes. The aim is to start small. To this end, we are exploring a number of possible sites that may be available at or near our Rotterdam partners in the short term. Discussions are under way with several educational institutions and other property owners in the city about our options for the first phase. This alleviates our urgent need for investment and gives us time to continue exploring sites for a full-fledged campus by 2040. After all, it is certainly possible that TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam will be based in various locations across the city rather than becoming a single, large campus. In addition to setting up new degree programmes in Rotterdam, we are currently taking a close look at which existing activities will eventually move, in whole or in part, from Delft to Rotterdam. It is too early now to go into specifics, other than stressing that we are working on various scenarios, in which we would also like to closely involve you - our TU Delft community. Taking the next step together Together with the TU Delft community - and that includes you - we would like to take a closer look at what steps we need to take to shape the future of TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam. Do you have thoughts or suggestions on how best to realise our ambitions, or do you have questions or concerns about the expansion to Rotterdam? Please feel free to share any thoughts, suggestions, questions or concerns. In the autumn and beyond, we will organise several meetings, for which you will soon receive an invitation. During these sessions, we will give you a complete update, but we would also like to hear your views on the planned expansion to Rotterdam. We will also keep you updated on progress in the interim. To find out more, you can download a glimpse into the developments of the new campus via the link . You also find here a link to a recent letter from the Rotterdam Municipal Executive to the Rotterdam City Council (only available in Dutch). Both documents provide more information on where we stand together now and how we continue to shape our shared ambition. Please note: The Development Plan was submitted to the EB before the summer. The draft Development Plan is currently being reviewed by the participation council. It is a living document that will be updated and amended going forward. The original document, for example, is yet to be amended to reflect today’s new political reality, as it does not yet include the impact of possible budget cuts, although funds have already been earmarked for the TU Delft | Campus Rotterdam programme for this and next year. In conclusion, the development of Campus Rotterdam is not an everyday task. There is still a lot of exploratory work to be done and decisions will have to be made going forward. Charting the unknown waters of this new development is a daunting yet immensely fulfilling challenge. Any questions? If so, do not hesitate to contact the Campus Rotterdam project team by sending an email to campusrotterdam@tudelft.nl .

IDE in the media (Week 43 2024)

Curious about which of our researchers, educators, students, and alumni have been featured in the media recently? Then be sure to check out this week's "In the Media" article.

3 days left to explore Dutch Design Week 2024

As expected, this year’s Dutch Design Week (19 – 27 October) has been filled to the brim with creativity, knowledge-sharing, and inspiration. A lot has happened over the last seven day, and there’s still more to come with three days left. Are you still planning to go? Then here’s what you should know and how you can see what IDE staff and students are up to at this year’s edition of DDW.

Delft Lectures in Design wraps up cycle 2: what have we learned?

Two newsletters ago, we shared a story on the new master course Delft Lectures in Design by Virginia Tassinari, Gert Pasman, and Pieter Jan Stappers. The cross-programme course unites students and IDE researchers to discuss and design for IDE’s newest, most relevant research areas. Our communication team is following along to report on how it’s going. Read our article on cycle 2: ‘Systemic & Empathic’ to see the new batch of ‘provotypes’ (provocative prototypes) and read how Virginia and Pieter Jan reflect on their course.

New startup Foamlab to revolutionise the plastics industry

The new startup Foamlab, grown from IDE’s Biodesign Lab, aims to revolutionise the plastics industry with a compostable bacterial cellulose foam. It offers a sustainable alternative to conventional oil-based plastics like polystyrene. Elvin Karana: “The new product is extremely lightweight and the mechanical performance is very similar to existing foams.”

TU Delft Library’s Collection Wall levels up with sound-light-haptic sculptures

On 15 October, the TU Delft Library unveiled two new additions to its Collection Wall. In collaboration with the TU Delft Library team, students from the IDE BSc elective course, Form & Senses, created multisensory reinterpretations of artworks from the TU Delft Academic Heritage collection. Visitors can experience the works on the upper floor of the Collection Wall until January 2025

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Tabs as Grid Elements

What changed?

Tabs were difficult to manage, especially when you wanted to re-use and swap content from other pages. Therefore, the tab element has been redesigned for a more user-friendly interface, a better overview of the embedded content, and the added possibility to cut/paste and reference elements in it.

The old Tab element still exists and is not automatically replaced, but will be phased out. For this purpose, the old version has been disabled for editing. In the following weeks, we'll be changing all existing Tab Elements to Tabs Grids. Should you however come across an old Tab Element and you find yourself unable to edit it, please contact your local content manager.

How can I create a new Tabs Grid?

Tabs Grids are created like all other grids. When creating a new element, under Grid Elements, select Tabs grid. This will place a grid on your page with 5 rows, each row representing one of the tabs.

  • The Header in the first element of each tab will also be the title of that tab. So for instance, in this case, the Header of this text element ('How can I create ...') is adapted as Tab title.
  • You can select a colour theme by editing the Tabs Grid properties; under Appearance, select a theme (see fig.)
  • If you don't put any content in a tab, it will be invisible.

 

Any tips and tricks?

When you don't want to start a tab with a header (for instance, when it's an image), you still need to tell Typo3 which title to use for this tab. You can do so by creating a 'Header Only' element, and under Type, select 'Hidden'. This will not show the header inside your tab, but it will be adopted as Tab title.

 

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Youtube video in Header Slider

It is now possible to put a video in the Header Slider on top of any page. 

If you want to add a Youtube video to your header-slider, just paste the youtube URL in the link field of a slide; a play button will be shown on your slide, and a pop-up style video will play when the button is pushed.

Like all slides, this feature also requires you to upload an image.

View an example!

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Full Width page template

This page combines the regular Content page with the Homepage. Its features are identical to the Homepage format in many ways, but it adds the bread crumb on top, so visitors can easily find their way back.

This layout was frequently created with a workaround (Content Page with Left Column, combined with specific element settings), which is why an official option has been included instead. 

To create this layout, go to the page properties, under Appearance, select the Backend Layout 'Content page that is full width'.
(feature renaming can hopefully be included in our next release)

This page is actually an example of this layout. Click 'To Top' to view the breadcrumb.

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Special Page template

This is another new page template (see: Full Width page template). This layout is designed for a long-read format, by dividing the screen in two halves; the left one is designated for images, the right one for all content. There is also a special connection between picture and content, enabling a nice scrolling experience.
Try it out!

This layout is particularly useful for magazine-style pages.

To create this layout:

  • go to the page properties; under Appearance, select the Backend Layout 'Special Page' (see fig.).

  • On this new page, create a new element; under Grid Elements, select Special Container (see fig.). This grid consists of two columns.

  • In the left column, you place a 'Special Image' element.
    This is the image that is displayed stationary alongside the scrolling content on the right; when the visitor is at the end of the content in this Special Container, the image will scroll up, and display the next Special Container.

  • In the right column, you place a normal 100% Grid element.

  • In the element properties of this Grid Element, under Appearance, select 'Used for content on special pages..' (see fig.).

  • Inside this 100% grid, you can place all elements to your liking.

The last steps, creating a 100% grid, are necessary to create the Special layout as it was designed. This element layout compresses the width of the elements within - otherwise, the text would run the entire width of the column.

 

View the new Special Template

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Facts and Figures element

This is a new element to display, for instance, facts and figures.

To create this, add a new Fact element inside a grid. Under Theme, select the header colour.
Then, edit the grid properties, go to the tab Appearance, and choose a background colour under 'Theme'.

Please note: the fact element only properly works in combination with this coloured grid background.

What is the coolest new feature?
Fact Element
How many features are in this new release?
40
Number of new features
11

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Coloured grid background

The background colour feature for grids can also be used without a fact element. It may for instance be useful for magazine-type pages, to highlight a specific text.

Two layout guidelines:

  • Dont overdo it! These coloured grids are very dominant. Don't create an abstract piece of art.
  • See if you should add top and bottom margins (under Appearance), to prevent the grid from overlapping with other elements. 

To create this, edit the grid properties, go to the tab Appearance, and choose a background colour under 'Theme':

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Notification element

This element can be used to draw attention to a certain part of your website, or a call-to-action (for instance, when an application deadline is approaching). You can add one or two buttons. The element is available in all TU Delft theme colours.

To create this, add a new Notification element. Enter a header, text, and theme, and, optionally, one or two buttons. The buttons can either be white or transparent.

Notification element

These are not the only release notes; they are only the new elements. Check out our improvements and bug fixes!

Improvements Bug fixes

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Read More-toggle

This option allows you, in a Text element, to hide paragraphs under a 'read more'-line (as seen below).

To create this, in the Rich Text Editor (RTF) of the Text element, stand in the text on the desired location. Click on 'Insert Custom Element', then 'Tudelft', then 'Insert Readmore'. An orange marker will appear in your text.

To demonstrate this, a piece of literary history:

Alice

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. ‘Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,’ thought Alice; ‘only, as it’s asleep, I suppose it doesn’t mind.’Read more

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it: ‘No room! No room!’ they cried out when they saw Alice coming. ‘There’s plenty of room!’ said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

‘Have some wine,’ the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it but tea. ‘I don’t see any wine,’ she remarked.

‘There isn’t any,’ said the March Hare.

‘Then it wasn’t very civil of you to offer it,’ said Alice angrily.

‘It wasn’t very civil of you to sit down without being invited,’ said the March Hare.

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Image side caption

An option has been added to display a caption next to an image. This was a feature in the original design, and works well in storytelling articles.

To create this, go the the element properties, under Appearance, and choose 'Image fullwidth with caption'.
On the General tab, under Description, fill in the caption text.

The caption can now be placed next to the image.

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