Warning: The Instructions Below Are Not Currently in Use

In September 2024, the LLIR Board approved a request from the Registrar that any member of the Registration Committee be able to open and close the waitlist using their preferred interface to the database, FrameMaker Pro. Therefore the LLIR Webmaster no longer performs this task from WordPress by using a conditional element and following the instructions below. The associated pages remain in these Developer Notes to describe the process approved by the Website Renovation Committee of 2023, in case the decision above is reversed in the foreseeable future.

The reason for the change is to remove any possible delay between when a member of the Registration Committee decides to open or close the waitlist and when a website administrator can set the switch in WordPress. The consensus is that this factor is important when the waitlist fills so quickly that even a small delay increases the chance of more the specified number of applicants, currently set to 100, be added to the waitlist.

  • The author of these notes disagrees for the following reasons.
  • With good communication between committees, the time required to pass a message from Registration to Communications/Website committees should not be a factor.
  • Previously, all content of the Waitlist Process page was editable in WordPress. Now, the content that came from the conditional element is now replaced by raw HTML code that is difficult to modify.
  • From an Website Architecture point of view, this decision muddies the separation of front-end and back-end processing.

The Previously Approved Process Begins here

To read this page while you follow the instructions, switch between the browser tab containing this page and the tab showing the dashboard.
You can also jump directly to the Instructions below.

A Kadence conditional element called Waitlist Open controls whether the heading The Waitlist is Open followed by some text and the Join our Waitlist button appears on the Waitlist Process page. The condition that sets the open/close switch is the expiry date of the element. If the expiry date is in the future, the waitlist is open. If the expiry date is in the past, the waitlist is closed. If the waitlist is open when the expiry date occurs, it closes automatically. Therefore, the expiry date doubles as a default or backup mechanism for closing the waitlist.

The Waitlist Open element has other four other settings that you can ignore unless a need to change them arises:

  • Placement: The content of the element is displays at the bottom of the page, before the footer.
  • Display Settings: The element appears only on the Waitlist Process page.
  • User Settings: The element is visible only to users who are not logged in.
  • Device Settings: The element appears on large screens, mobile devices and smart phones.

Unless you want to change the text within the element, do not edit the content of the element. You can edit a conditional element just like you edit any page. Do not change the link on the the Join our Waitlist button.

Instructions

  1. From the WordPress Dashboard, open the Appearance menu and select Elements.
  2. Locate the element Waitlist Open. Select Edit from the options under the element name.
  3. When the element opens for editing, click the Element Settings icon to the immediate right of the Update button.
  4. A the bottom of the Element Setting panel, click the down arrowhead to the right of Expires Settings  to expand the Expiry settings. The Settings panel should look similar to the image on the right.
  5. To open the Waitlist, enter an an Expires date and time in the future.
    The Waitlist closes by by default at the new date and time.
    To close the Waitlist, enter the date and time before the current date and time.
  6. Click the Update button above the words Element Settings to save the new expiry date.
  7. Test: The recommended way to to test is to open a different browser and enter the website as a user who is not logged in.
    • Navigate to the Waitlist Process page.
    • Reload the page to pick up the update by clicking the circular arrow to the right of the browser BACK button.
    • Check whether you see the heading The Waitlist is Open and the button labelled Join our Waitlist on the bottom of the page.
Reminder:

When you open the Waitlist, also add a bulletin to the Home page informing users that the waitlist is open.
When you close the Waitlist — or it closes by default — also remove the bulletin on the Home page.

The settings view of a Conditional Element