Request for Proposals

Request for Proposals (RFP)

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Release Date: January 9, 2023

Proposals Due: January 30, 2023

The Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area (HCWHA) seeks proposals to update the "Crossroads of War: Maryland and the Border in the Civil War" website. The project will result in the technological upgrading of the "Crossroads" website, including greater accessibility for all users and the reconfiguration of the website and its preexisting databases to highlight new content. Ultimately, the overarching project will highlight new research about African American experiences during the Civil War era in mid-Maryland and the surrounding region, as well as making the website more accessible to the public.

HCWHA seeks contractors with demonstrated expertise in website design and development as well as database creation and management.

Questions and answers - 

Additional database information: 

  • The current database is MySQL 5.5 or earlier.
  • The schema is unchanged since 2011 or even launch. The schema currently in use is here.
  • The admin panel interface is inspired by, and derivative of, WordPress 3.2's native interface. You can see a basic screenshot of the Add Article form here.
  • The front-end consists of several WordPress templates which use helper methods to generate native SQL search queries, and display/link-to results.
  • The custom integration has no API, nor import/export utility. At the time it was not required, due to the limited number of records to be added. We believe it never exceeded 20,000 entries across all tables.
  • The bulk-imports were done by hand, and leveraged some Ruby scripts I had written to transform CSV exports into SQL insert/update statements. Data correction happened prior to executing the SQL in phpMyAdmin on the production site. Uploads were bulk-uploaded via FTP using a predictable naming scheme.
  • Search was predominantly done with FULLTEXT (MyISAM) on fields such as title/content, basic string matching (LIKE), etc. Basic SQL stuff including JOINs are also used when required.

Clarification on "the data could live in the site if the proper management features were available to mention it":

The original/current site was written on WP 3.2, which was just shortly after custom post types were introduced. Back when this schema was introduced by WordPress, searching across multiple values in wp_postmeta was wasteful. So a more traditional DB schema was designed instead. This allowed the resulting search to be orders of magnitude faster than the WordPress equivalent would have been.

Regarding licensing, we do not have licensing in mind for the content and images. We want the content we control to be public domain.

1. Are all the databases contained within the WordPress site, or is there another collection management system involved?
The databases were developed outside of WordPress by the original maker and they then feed the data to the site. Basically, the data “lives” outside WordPress, and the original vendor integrated content management for it with WP. It could be ported to another platform, if the management features were also ported.

2. Do you know which WordPress search and filter plugin is currently being used, or is the search interface using custom code?
The search is all using custom code. It was built so long ago there was no other choice at the time, but it's probably possible to find a WordPress solution now.

3. How much new visual redesign is expected in this project, other than making the current design accessible and mobile responsive, and making layout adjustments for new/deleted content?
The anticipated visual redesign is modification, rather than reconceptualization. We do not expect drastic visual changes.

4. If the overall look and feel is to be mostly retained, do you have access to any of the original design assets (Photoshop layouts, typographic images, background images, etc.)?
We do have the Photoshop files and other design assets, but since the site is so old, a new design in the proper resolution with responsive design (Mobile) would be needed.

5. Since the audio, video, and animations were built using Flash, will the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area be providing all replacement media?
We don't expect to replace all of that media. As stated in the rfp: "Several links on the website are now obsolete and broken, we expect to remove rather than replace most of these broken links. Videos on the site are no longer viewable because of the site’s age. In the future we plan to use the capability to embed YouTube videos on the site." Any new video content would be created by HCWHA.

6. Is the one year of hosting and support to be included in the fixed quote? If so can you provide details about current or expected traffic volume and disk space requirements?
We believe base level hosting is all that will be needed. Please include the one year of hosting and support in the fixed quote.
We have the following estimated requirements:
RAM 2GB
Processor 1 Core
Storage 50GB
Bandwidth 2TB

7. Do you have a budgetary range that you can share?
We are interested in seeing the vendor assessment of what the cost will be, we do not have a budget number in mind to share.

8. Who will be the stakeholders that will interface with our team for the Strategy, Design, Development?
The vendor team will be in direct communication with Emily Huebner as the project manager, Elizabeth Shatto, the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area director, and in a more limited capacity, Dean Herrin, a project collaborator and the professor (now retired) who originated the project. As noted in the RFP there will be a small advisory committee, they will be tasked mostly with the content side of the project and Emily will act as a liaison for any necessary communication between the committee and the vendor when needed.

9. It seems that your stakeholders have knowledge as long-time WordPress content creators. Do you have anyone with more technical knowledge that assists you, or do you rely on your outside developers for this type of support?
We generally rely on outside developers for technical knowledge.

10. What is meant by custom research databases? Is this just Custom post types and taxonomies?
I believe this question may be addressed in questions 1 and 2 posted to the RFP page. The databases were developed outside of WordPress by the original maker and they then feed the data to the site. Basically, the data “lives” outside WordPress, and the original vendor integrated content management for it with WP. It could be ported to another platform, if the management features were also ported. The search uses custom code. It was built so long ago there was no other choice at the time, but it's probably possible to find a WordPress solution now.

11. Having a robust search is key to your site’s success. Is there a specific type of search that is required such as Algolia search, or are you open to options.
We are open to options.

12. To formulate an accurate importation of content. Is there a date of a content freeze that has been decided?
There has not been a date identified.

13. On the sections that have been slated for deletion, should their media (images, PDFs, videos, etc.) be retained?
When possible to retain, they should be saved; however, many of the sections slated for deletion have broken links and that content has been lost.

14. The timeline is very very long. What happens between now and development kickoff in January - July 2024? What would our involvement be? A lot can change in a year and a half.
We are identifying a vendor early in this process to ensure the feasibility of the project. We understand that a lot can happen over the period of the proposed work; we hope that responses to the RFP factor in this period of time.