ReadMeFirst_Deployment

Read me first: before deploying pgn4web on a server

pgn4web can be easily deployed on your server and a variety of packages and plugins is available for popular web platforms. The easier option is to deploy pgn4web without any modification to the provided code.

For the integration with complex websites, you might be tempted to customize the provided code (javascript, HTML, CSS, php, ...).

Before customizing the pgn4web code in any way, please read this page.

Customizing pgn4web code

Please find below some remarks from previous chess events that used pgn4web for their sites.

These notes are from the pgn4web project and show how the pgn4web project perceived those implementations; as such they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the tournament sites developers.

How to do it right: the 2011 Max Euwe memorial tournament

The 2011 Max Euwe memorial tournament took place in Amsterdam (Netherlands) from November 13th 2011 till November 20th.

pgn4web was used both for game archives and for the live broadcast of games.

The keys to a successful implementation:

• contacting the pgn4web project several weeks before the tournament
• asking questions to the pgn4web project when in doubt
• keeping the code modifications to a minimum: for instance, they adapted the HTML pages for automatically switching to a vertical layout on mobile devices
• testing extensively every modification and asking the pgn4web project for feedback
• after the event, some of the suggestions from the tournament site developers ultimately influenced the pgn4web development, namely the ability of the dynamic frame and the live fullscreen view to adapt to the screen orientation

How things might go wrong

How things went wrong with other chess events:

• no interaction with the pgn4web project before the event
• heavy customization of the pgn4web javascript and HTML code: some of the pgn4web sample pages are fairly complex (even more so the live pages) and any modification might have unexpected side effects
• insufficient testing: for example testing with different web browsers and operating systems, testing of error conditions with the PGN files, testing under heavy server usage
• changing the PGN data refresh rate from the recommended 1 minutes to a faster rate: while completely unnecessary, such a modification also generates higher network traffic and side effects might remain unnoticed by the site developers because of proximity to the server and/or because of low number of users during testing
• no attempt to contact the pgn4web project for help, even when issues appeared during the event