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Archive database

The goal of the archive database is to keep all files “locally” on a Google Drive folder and yet make them available on the web and especially available to Coda (of course).
megaphone

Why local?

The original idea was to keep the files on a local folder in order to make it accessible by Obsidian. I had a vault called Hoagland that was supposed to be for my freelance work, but I am decommissioning it. The archives are now in a folder called “The Morgue” in my “Alexandria” Obsidian vault. That folder is being mirrored to Google Drive

Reminders

Sources of data

The Archives Files table is created using the Google Drive pack in Coda. The pack creates a row for all files placed in the directory:
My Drive › Hoagland IJE > Hoagland Vault > Channels > Jack Beaudoin > Clips
My Drive › My Computers > Mac Mini 2024 > The Morgue > Clips
The files should be the full text markdown files of your clips. So each row represents one clip. The pack refreshes the table daily — if you create a new markdown file in the Clips folder, you will automatically (but not immediately) create a new row in the database.
The Morgue folder contains:
Clips - the full text markdown files of your clips
Images - any images (jpgs, gif, etc) you are using to illustrate the clips, including:
photos (original or Unsplash)
publisher logos
website page screenshots or scans of articles
PDFs - scans of articles
Note that images and pdf files are prepended with an underscore like _this because a web service I’ve used called
Blot.im
⁠
will ignore these as posts using this convention.

Data elements

As of May 13, 2024, here is a brief description of the data elements in the Archive Files database
Name
Description
Example
File
The file object in Google Drive with link and summary information

Title
The full file slug in Google Drive
3 key questions for pop health success FT.md
Full text
The file’s URL
Created
The file’s creation date in Google Drive
3/22/2024, 5:12 PM
Published Date
The content’s original publication date
May 31, 2018
File Type
From Google Drive (should be “unknown” since file is markdown)
Unknown
Added
Checkbox - when checked, it means I have populated all row fields
Checked
Embed image
Deprecated - An embedded image to be used as a feature image

Summary
A text field, usually the subtitle, byline and introduction to the piece, about 100 words

HOW ENTERPRISE IT MODERNIZATION ENABLES PROVIDERS TO FOCUS ON IMPROVING OUTCOMES

By Jack Beaudoin
Jonathan Scholl, president of Leidos Health, has seen many organizations struggle with their PHM initiatives. The problem, he suggests, isn’t with data tools and technology. Instead, it is that too many hospitals race to “improve” outcomes before they fully understand the challenges they face. In order to derive ROI from pop health, organizations need to clearly define their objectives.
Link
A URL to the published content if available
Archived Version
A one-page image capture of the content as it appeared online, usually a jpg stored in Channels > Jack Beaudoin > Images
_3pophealth.jpg
PDF
A one-page PDF capture of the content as it appeared online, stored in Channels > Jack Beaudoin > PDFs
_3pophealth.pdf
Files Locked
A toggle column - set to true if Link column contains a value (is not blank), otherwise false. See ISSUE: Sharing below for details.
true
Tags
A multi-select field that includes tags for the content
healthIT
Publisher
A relation field that connects the article to the original publisher (a row in the Organizations table)
Healthcare IT News
Publisher Logo
An image field that automatically pulls the publisher logo from the selected row (Publisher) above
<image>
About Publisher
A canvas field that automatically pulls the publisher description from the selected row (Publisher) above
Healthcare IT News was founded in 2003 by Neil Rouda and Jack Beaudoin. Today, it is the industry’s authoritative source covering the people, policy and technology driving next-generation healthcare in the U.S. and throughout the world. With hundreds of thousands of visitors each month, it is the place healthcare decision-makers go for timely, actionable news and analysis on the ever-changing health and healthcare landscape.
Publisher Link
A url field that automatically pulls the publisher URL from the selected row (Publisher) above
Client
A relation field that connects the article to the original client (a row in the Organizations table)
Leidos
Client Logo
An image field that automatically pulls the client logo from the selected row (Client) above
<image>
About Client
A canvas field that automatically pulls the client description from the selected row (Client) above
Leidos is a Fortune 500 science and technology solutions and services leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company’s 32,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $7.04 billion for the fiscal year ended December 30, 2016.
Client Link
A url field that automatically pulls the client URL from the selected row (Client) above
www.leidos.com
Year
Year of publication (extracted from Published Date)
2018
Month
Month of publication (extracted from Published Date)
May
Google Image
an Image URL field that holds a link to the “featured image” located in Channels > Jack Beaudoin > Images
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x7_fN4Z1jBWboaj9CQ1YvkAydxQ0mQoW/view?usp=sharing
Image UID
A text field that extracts the Image ID from the Google Image column
1x7_fN4Z1jBWboaj9CQ1YvkAydxQ0mQoW
Featured Image
A URL field that concatenates “https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/” plus the Image UID column - this enables the use of the Image() formula to size and style the content’s featured image. See ISSUE below
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1x7_fN4Z1jBWboaj9CQ1YvkAydxQ0mQoW
Precis
This is a canvas field that creates the modal text for each row, specifying the row’s featured image, title, published date, tags, summary, and information about publication and client
See the database for an example
Hidden Google Drive Pack columns
These columns are generated by the Google Drive Pack and are hidden from the database view: Id, Mime type, Modified, Owners, Parents, Sync account, Synced, Thumbnail, Version

There are no rows in this table
⁠

ISSUE: Sharing

One question I have not resolved is whether to make the archived image and pdf versions available to visitors. My inclination is NOT to share these unless the public link is no longer available. This requires manually sharing the jpg and pdf files.
If I have a public link, I will NOT share the archive jpg and pdf. (See Original | 🔒 Archive | 🔒 PDF | 🔒 Full Text Markdown)
If I do not have a public link, I will share the archive jpg and pdf (See Original | Archive | PDF | 🔒 Full Text Markdown)

ISSUE: Sizing featured images

Problem: Embedded photos can’t be specified for a particular size;
only images referenced by a URL
⁠
. The embedded photo is so large in the “precis” canvas that a viewer might not even know there is text below the image.
Solution: The obvious solution is to host the image and reference it by URL. I tried to do this with Coda itself, but if the hosted document isn’t public, the image won’t be visible on the website version of the doc. Next I tried just pointing the image() formula at a photo in Google Drive, but Coda doesn’t see the file as an image. I found a number of sites that propose the solution I adopted, and for posterity I enclose the steps below:
To host images using Google Drive:
1. Log in your Google Drive account.
2. From the menu pane, select +New, then select File upload.
3. Locate your image file, then select Open to upload your image to Google Drive.
4. Find your image file in Google Drive. Open the vertical ellipsis menu by selecting the icon, then select Share.This opens the Share window.
5. Under General access, select Anyone with the link from the dropdown.
6. Select Copy link. The image link is copied to the clipboard. Select Done.
7. Paste the link into any Text program, such as Notepad.
8. Identify the image ID section of the link. This can be found between the final two forward slash symbols in the link.For example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SDbKsxMh7KNYpbWsSZrrZHt1nMJE-03t/view?usp=drive_link
9. Copy this ID section of the link.
10. Create a URL of the form: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/1SDbKsxMh7KNYpbWsSZrrZHt1nMJE-03t
Instead of the cutting and pasting here, this is how I add a featured photo using the following columns:
an Image URL field called “Google Image” - copy the Sharing link from the image in your Google Drive folder and paste it here
A formula in the “Image UID” column extracts the image ID from the URL in the Google Image column
The “Featured Image” column then builds the use URL by concatenating “https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d/” plus the Image UID column

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.