Frequently Asked Question

We performed our analysis and made our strategy decision in February 2024. At that time, there was no automated process to assist migration. Nor were there any migration training materials to provide guidance.

Since every one of our 400 pages had lots of embedded documents and images, and lots of references to other pages and/or outside websites, the effort to move them manually would have been enormous. We realized, however, that for the great majority of our pages, there was no future need to modify them. They were static.

For static pages, we decided that the best format to preserve them was PDF. PDF is supported by all browsers and lots of file viewers. A PDF of a website captures all the embedded content, such as images, and preserves all links - both internal and external. We determined that if we could come up with a new site structure that mirrored Encompass, we could convert the Encompass URL to a new PDF URL that would preserve all navigation.

In fact, we could convert the entire Encompass website into a new domain, and preserve all navigation and content, without needing to build a single HiveBrite page. Let me say that a different way: an Encompass website may be migrated to a new domain on a standard web server, using a PDF file for each existing page. As long as frequent changes to content are not required, this site will preserve all of the Encompass content at a very low cost of conversion.

I also need to make another point: HiveBrite is not a suitable host for such a site. There are a number of technical reasons for this, which we may cover in a future FAQ; but it was our conclusion that in order for an Encompass user to migrate their site via PDF, they must have a domain on a web server they can fully control. For that reason, we established MIT1964.org and hosted it on Hostmonster.

We would have preferred an MIT.edu domain, and as of 5-7-2024 we have just been offered AFS space at class1964.mit.edu. We plan to move mit1964.org over there when all the details are worked out. [DES 5-7-24].

The mirror website can be explored beginning at mit1964.org/1964/gid55/pgid00001

After having a live mirror website on PDF, the only remaining requirement was to integrate the PDF site into the HiveBrite site established by the Alumni Association, and to transform the relative handful of pages that required ongoing modification into native HiveBrite pages. This process will be discussed in another FAQ, but our strategy succeeded in reducing the transformation workload from 400+ pages to about a dozen, by using PDF copies instead of web pages.

[DES 5-3-2024]