Story CHM Portal Tool Kit is available

The EC CHM Portal has been built using a reusable package for portal web sites. This package, called CHM Portal Tool Kit (PTK) is now available for also other CHM nodes to use.
Release date 15/05/2002
Contributor saarenmaa

CHM Portal Tool Kit available for European nodes

The European Community Clearing-House Mechanism Portal has been built using a reusable package for portal web sites. This package, called CHM Portal Tool Kit (PTK) is now available for also other CHM nodes to use.

Funds are available on a first-come-first-served basis to assist a limited number of European CHM sites, with or without existing web site, to install and get started with the CHM PTK. The package is based on open source tools, and will also later be available for any interested CHM node also elsewhere to download and use. Development and deployment of the CHM PTK is done in cooperation with under the guidance of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The package supports the following functions:

  • Uniform fully customisable style through all pages of the portal
  • Hierarchical directory of links
  • Short announcements and news
  • Longer multimedia articles
  • Calendar of events with announcements
  • Event management of registrations, agendas, minutes, etc.
  • News channels for several PTK-based sites to share announcements
  • Full-text search
  • For users, simple forms for content submissions
  • For webmasters, workflow for approvals and editing of submitted content
  • Personalisation of portal page for users (MyCHM)
  • Optional closed groupwork areas for working material, including e-mailing lists and discussions
Except for the last optional package, which is based on CIRCA, the above is served dynamically by a Zope application server -- check EC CHM for technical details.

Sharing of content between European sites of CHM is also being worked on. The sites that use CHM PTK will have the possibility to automatically exchange information with the EC CHM in the following areas:

  • Biodiversity news channel
  • On-line red lists
  • Project directory
  • Country biodiversity indicators
The package will be presented in detail in an EC CHM Workshop in October 2002. Already now interested CHM sites can get started with installation and testing. Contact European Environment Agency at below address.

Version 0.1, 3 May 2002, hannu.saarenmaa@eea.eu.int