Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections
Scholarly journal focused on the Egyptian region
Launched July2020
The Challenge
The Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections (JAEI) did not have its own website; its online presence was part of a larger system of journals deployed by the University of Arizona. That system was going to be shut down, so a new website was needed to provide a home for the journal and maintain its features. These included a complex information architecture and the ability to restrict access to paying subscribers for select content. The subscribers were mostly universities and other large institutions, so the site needed to grant them access by IP address rather than the more typical login system.
The Solution
I worked with the JAEI editors to create a new website from scratch using a highly customized installation of WordPress. I created a custom information architecture to reflect what was set up on the previous system, which entails volumes of articles with PDF files available as downloads.
I built a sophisticated system to enable some articles to be available to the public while others require the reader to be visiting from a white-listed IP address. The restricted content also has a built-in expiration date, after which it becomes publicly available. All this involved customized integration of systems including Restrict Content Pro, Download Monitor and Amazon S3 storage. I also built a custom system for managing hundreds of authors, each of whom has a page listing all relevant articles.
The Result
The custom-designed JAEI website enables editors to simply add downloadable files and publish articles, then it displays everything in a variety of ways to make everything easy to find and access. It includes screens to view everything by volumes, articles and authors. It also includes a custom search system that makes it easy to find any article using keywords for the author, title, or words from the abstract.
A simple subscription form is available for new subscribers, and subscribers can be granted access either by logging in or by visiting from a white-listed IP address. Managing downloads is easy, using a custom system that enables editors to choose which PDF files are restricted and which are publicly available. A custom interactive author management system makes it easy to keep track of authors and deeply integrates them into the site.
The academic journal I work for needed a new home — a website with some esoteric requirements. Besides having individual subscribers with logins, we also needed to give institutions access to restricted content without passwords. And we needed all of this (and more) presented in an attractive, professional-looking layout that’s easy to navigate. Chad was able to pull all of this together expertly! Subscribers love it, and so do we! And if we have any questions, Chad is extremely responsive. I am so glad that we went with Raven’s Eye Design, right here in Tucson! Chad is now a vital part of our team.
Noreen Doyle, JAEI assistant editor
