Description
Statuses
[2024-09-03] [Michelle] This is on hold pending conversations with VEO
Problem to be solved
We launched the current version of Events with the site re-launch in 2018 using mostly out-of-the-box Drupal functionality. While this worked for the initial MVP, as the site has grown problems due to the nature of the site (decoupled) along with growth of how we use events calendars has limited the life-span of this content.
For events v3 we will:
- Enable a react-based application to be "bolted on" to existing and future facilities products to allow more events to be made available to Veterans thereby removing the artificial "hold" on too many events being published.
- Position the front-end to a react-based application to solve for known, existing pagination and filtration problems and allow for future filter growth
##Defiinition of done
We expect that this initial (MVP) work will have minimal-to-no visible Veteran-facing impact on the Front-End. The react application should use the existing design and only be updated to solve for accessibility problems and any design components that have been updated since v1 was launched.
Monthly updates:
- See sub tickets/comments on this epic for updates.
Headlines
VA stakeholders -
- Tim Hudak (VEO)
- Jenny Heiland-Leudtke (VHA DM)
- Jessica Scheiffer (Vet Centers)
- VBA
OCTO lead - Public Websites Team/Dave Conlon
Is this initiative tracked to an upcoming event or congressional deadline? - We are tracking toward end-of-Fiscal Year to enable Vet Centers in particular to publish relevant events.
Details
Which OCTO team should do this? When might they have time to do this? - Public Websites - Late Spring/early sumer 2024.
Which OCTO or portfolio priority does this work support? - Improve satisfaction of our Platform Users (high demand from editors)
What is the user impact and scale of impact? -
Veteran-facing: We anticipate the ability to raise awareness of Events by about 20-25% at-launch when capability is added to Vet Centers.
What's the long-term plan for managing this effort? - this product will be owned by Unauthenticated Experience.
What funding/contract support would this need? - Existing sitewide contract.
What else do we need to know in order to decide if/when we can do this work?
Reference links:
Events v3 entails:
Back-end
- Building an API for events content as a 1:1 of what we have now, and that will provide this data dynamically to the FE.
- Ensuring the data model accommodates lat/long for the future release of events near me.
- Providing syndicated content.
- Expectation is that only VA.gov, or things built on the VA.gov platform, will be using this API.
Front-end
- VA.gov: Events for all Facilities are published and visible to Veterans
- Editors: Editors are able to choose any facility when creating or editing events
- There is facilities work that needs to be finished: VA facilities need to be selectable for events scheduling, regardless of whether the facility is in Drupal. There is an existing ticket for the NCA work. We can expand this to include more facilities beyond NCA.
- Filtering: by audience, families, is this an online event, cemeteries, etc. Have a design that future proofs different filtering. (talk about with Matt and others)
- FE will have a singular react app that lives in each of these places, and can have discrete views for the different types of facilities: health system, vet center, regional office and centralized VA outreach calendar.
Out of Scope for MVP
- Create a forward lookup of lat/long so that Veterans and other users may utilize an “Events near me” feature.
- FE will have a singular react app that lives in each of these places, and can have discrete views for the different types of facilities: health system, vet center, regional office and centralized VA outreach calendar.
- Filtering: by audience, families, is this an online event, cemeteries, etc. Have a design that future proofs different filtering. (talk about with Matt and others)
Problems to Solve:
- Where are we going to store the data, and how can the FE (VA.gov) connect to it?
- What endpoints? Events List, Events Detail
- VA has events that aren't published on the web, in particular from Vet's Centers (support groups, etc.). This hasn't been done because of the issue around node counts and the time it takes for content to get to the front end.
- We want to position events so that sorting, filtering, etc. are built in for future growth.
- Veteran's are interested in Events near me (future phase); we need a data structure to accommodate this.
- Get more events on VA.gov published faster by Nov 11 (while not burdening or increasing the publishing process.)
Misc Notes:
- URLs will have node id and will be dynamically hitting the API.
- Don't publish to a page; dynamic query back to the client.
- For now, events will remain in Drupal, because that's the editorial interface we have for editors to input VA events. (they get to the FE now by using the content publishing system).
- Dave thinks FE should be a react app that connects to an API that retrieves the data.
- Third party solutions? Dave hasn't found any solutions yet that aren't able to be used the Federal Government.
- Long term solution will always have editor interface in Drupal.
Questions:
- What is and isn’t required from a Drupal perspective to make all facilities selectable? There may be migration work?
- Do we need to create a new one, or can we use Fast Publishing for this? Dave is leaning toward NOT using Fast Publishing.
- What's the right way for a future front end to get this data?
- Use the DB in Vets...?
Information & Research
- In Spring of 2022 Facilities did some work to create the filters, and Cindy has done some research. @FranECross to find the links and add them here.
Questions:
- Where do we want to integrate with the forward lookup first? Benefits Facilities, Vets Center Community Access Points, or Events?
- Talk to Michelle as to which to pilot first.
User Story or Problem Statement
As an editor who creates and publishes events, I need to be able to publish the events faster and more efficiently so I can get the event information in front of Veterans, their caregivers, families and survivors in a more timely fashion so that they can make appropriate plans to decide which to attend and actually attend.
Affected users and stakeholders
- CMS_editors_of_events scheduling/publishing
- Veterans, their caregivers, family members and survivors, as well as any other people who peruse and attend events listed on VA.gov.
Hypothesis
We believe that an Events API and endpoints will will achieve faster publishing of events to VA.gov, enabling Veterans to attend more events as they will have more time to plan attendance.. We'll know that to be true when we see an increase in people signing up to attend events, and/or by looking at Google Events for VA.gov Event click activity.
Outcomes:
Front-end:
- there are no VA events that can't be published to VA.gov
- there is no negative impact to publishing times on the VA.gov
- Editor: measurement of success will be via satisfaction scores from our editors
- Veterans: equal or better experience CSAT for Event Listing pages and Events Detail pages
Acceptance Criteria
- See individual Epics and Stories for AC
- Requires KB article update
Change management triage
The change represented by this user story will:
- Be a site-wide change to appearance or key functionality (such as log-in process)
- Be a specific change that requires more than 30 minutes of work by a user to meet a publishing requirement
- Remove a piece of functionality (such as restricting editing functions, or “hardening”)
- Require action by some or all users by a specific deadline
- Change the front end and be highly visible to the public
- Noticeable performance improvements (publishing speed, predictability)
If you selected an item above, use the Change Management Runbook to create a CM epic and associated tickets.
If you did not select an item above, update issues/PRs in GitHub but don’t plan for change management.
Design principles
Veteran-centered
-
Single source of truth: Increase reliability and consistency of content on VA.gov by providing a single source of truth. -
Accessible, plain language: Provide guardrails and guidelines to ensure content quality. -
Purposely structured content: Ensure Content API can deliver content whose meaning matches its structure. -
Content lifecycle governance: Produce tools, processes and policies to maintain content quality throughout its lifecycle.
Editor-centered
-
Purpose-driven: Create an opportunity to involve the editor community in VA’s mission and content strategy goals. -
Efficient: Remove distractions and create clear, straightforward paths to get the job done. -
Approachable: Offer friendly guidance over authoritative instruction. -
Consistent: Reduce user’s mental load by allowing them to fall back on pattern recognition to complete tasks. -
Empowering: Provide clear information to help editors make decisions about their work.
Activity