The XWHO directory retires
On 11 May a new web-based phonebook will take over from the 16-year old XWHO directory. It will provide access to basic contact information for people and services at CERN. A user-friendly interface will allow you to look for people and services using criteria such as first or last name, organisational unit and phone number. All requests submitted to the retired XWHO directory will be redirected to the new phonebook.
The new CERN Phonebook's user interface.
CERN’s first electronic phonebook was created in 1995. The XWHO directory was first presented in July that year in a CERN Computer Newsletter (CNL) article entitled “Migrating the access to central directory services” by Miguel Marquina and Bernd Pollermann. Since then, it has been used by thousands of people at CERN and around the world looking for contact details of other members of the Organization. The XWHO directory is now retiring and is to be replaced by the new web-based CERN Phonebook.
For several months now, the XWHO pages have displayed a message indicating that it is no longer being maintained and that the data for a small number of cases might be incorrect. “The XWHO pages are being run on an old machine which still runs on SLC3 (CERN Scientific Linux version 3), while version 6 of SLC is about to be rolled out right now,” explains Nick Ziogas, Section Leader of IT-UDS-HUS. “Due to the dependency on SLC3 legacy features required by XWHO and the considerable effort that would be required to port these to newer SLC versions, it has been decided to replace XWHO with a more maintainable new solution.” Other phonebooks available at CERN (e.g. NICE phonebook and the ‘People’ directory) will remain available and will be reviewed later once the new phonebook has proven itself.
The new CERN Phonebook has been designed by the Advanced Information Systems (GS-AIS) group and has been developed in collaboration with the IT-UDS group, which has been responsible for running the XWHO service. “The work started in autumn 2010 and after two beta test phases in January/February and April this year, we are ready for the final release. During the two beta test phases we received a lot of user feedback for which we are very grateful and which is either already incorporated in the new version of the CERN Phonebook or will be considered in upcoming follow-up releases,” says Jan Janke from GS-AIS.
The CERN Phonebook was designed to be as easy as possible to use. It therefore offers a very simple user interface consisting of a search field and a ‘Search’ button. As with modern Internet search engines, typing a few characters is enough to launch a search. For services, a link to the CERN Service Portal giving access to additional information like contact details and opening hours etc. will also be provided. In future versions, additional information will gradually become available through the Phonebook and, while the basic data will remain accessible to everyone, some of the more specific additions may only be visible to authenticated users.
Many users have hard-coded links to XWHO in their pages. These links will be preserved for a limited amount of time and any user trying to access XWHO will be automatically redirected to the new CERN Phonebook.
“We will keep improving the phonebook, and new versions will be released regularly after the initial production roll-out,” confirms Jan Janke. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have helped us by testing the beta versions and sending us their feedback!”
As from 11 May, the new phonebook will be accessible here.
Please send any requests for new features or information about problems you may encounter to the CERN Service Desk.
