Questions and Answers about the migration to Squarespace

Q. When are we going to go live with Squarespace?
A. The site went live on 5th November 2023. It took a day or so for the SSL certificate to kick in for HTTPS connection but is ok now.

Q. Is the old site visible after go live?
A. No. However, you can see snapshots of the old site and even previous versions going back to the hand-crafted original site on The Wayback Machine, which is quiite fun.

Q. Does Squarespace have a blog like the old CraftCMS site for news and results?
A. Yes. It has a single blog and has news lists on individual pages that are filtered based on Categories that are assigned to news items.

Q. Is there be some training for web site contributors?
A. Yes. We have recorded some orientation videos . Click here to see the orientation videos for Squarespace contributors. There is also an extensive help centre from Squarespace. The orientation videos are fairly amateur but are specifically about our site.

Q. Does it have a mobile app?
A. Yes. Squarespace has a mobile app that should be useful to let web site contributors post news from events, make updates to pages on the go and add calendar entries.

Q: Why did WADAC changing its content management system?
A: We previously used a content management system called CraftCMS. CraftCMS is a very good content management system. However it needed expert support to maintain, update and change the page structure. We no longer had expert support for our instance of CraftCMS and it was on an out of date version, experiencing severe performance problems.

Q. Why didn’t we get someone else to upgrade and support CraftCMS?
A. We investigated getting new support for CraftCMS but the cost was too much to upgrade it to fix the performance issues, maintain it and to make any changes such as adding pages.

Q. Why did you choose Squarespace?
A. We determined that Software As A Service (SaaS) options would be preferable as the provider of the tool takes responsibility for keeping the software up to date including security patches, and we shortlisted several tools. We then ran an evaluation using Squarespace and Wordpress.com (the SaaS version of Wordpress), both of which are capable of meeting our needs. Replicating our web site was much easier in Squarespace and it was much less complicated in terms of add-in options. We aslo found that the web app was unreliable on Wordpress.com.

Q. Is Squarespace better than CraftCMS?
A. No. CraftCMS is an excellent tool if you have the expertise and time to maintain and manage it. We moved to Squarespace for the reasons identified above, not because it is better.

Q. I am a new contributor to the site but I can see that there are some news items already posted in my name. What is going on?
A. We have tried to replicate relevant news items from the old site. To give the right author we have used a role called a “basic author” so that the right person is credited with the role. Once you have signed up we will delete the basic author entry for you and move your posts so they are credited to you. To read more about basic authors see SquareSpace help here.

Q. What is going on with search?
A. The built in search in Squarespace is a bit limited so we are using a Google search option called Google Programmeable Search, in addition to the built-in search option.

Q. Why has the menu structure changed?
A. The menu structure has changed based on some of the feedback received in the web site survey conducted in 2022 and based on an analysis of the types of roles that are using the web site and tasks they want to do. The menu structure is not set in stone - it is very easy to amend navigation menu in SquareSpace.

Q. Are we stuck with SquareSpace now?
A. No. If it turns out that in the long term Squarespace does not meet our needs it does provide mechanisms to allow export and migration to other tools such as Wordpress.

Q. Is there anything else that’s new?
A. Yes. Rather than using the Squarespace photo gallery feature we have opted to use a separate system called SmugMug for our photo galleries. You can see the photo link in the Members menu. It is much easier to manage photos in SmugMug than Squarespace or Craftcms. SmugMug also allows people to upload their own photos to be added to the gallery. The link to that form is only available to members via the membership system. See the photo gallery here: https://www.photos.wadac.org.uk/

Q. Is WADAC using any of the Customer Relationship Management features of Squarespace?
A. No. Squarespace has marketing and other CRM features e.g. allowing users to register for newsletters or e-commerce etc. We are not using those features and have disabled activity logging features and Squarespace analytical cookies that would otherwise place non-essential cookies on users’ browsers. The only feature that we use that collectd user information is forms for new joiner enquiries. These send an email to the approprate volunteer. The information is not saved in Squarespace.

Q. Did you take a backup of the old site?
A. Yes. We have saved the pages from the old site and all the assets (pictures and docs). Blog posts have been migrated to the new site though images and author information from the blog posts did not come across.