propublica/staffers

Interactive and searchable House staffer directory, based on House disbursement data.

staffers's Issues

Fix it so requiring config/environment.rb is all that is necessary

Right now you have to require 'staffers' which also tries to run Sinatra.

"Report a Problem"

Through GetSatisfaction.

Link to state and district from office page for members

To see other members from that state, or from that district.

Set up production environment

sunlightfoundation.com/staffers somehow

Missing lines, beginning with blank name

The logic to display a line isn't quite correct, and the first result should show a name:
http://staffers.sunlightfoundation.com/staffers?quarter=&firstname=&lastname=&title=&state=AL&party=

Show each job for a legislator on the search results page

Each job for the given quarter, stacked above each other, without duplicating the staffer name.

Set up Bundler

For dependency management.

Split out titles with "and" into multiple positions

This means:

1. On the process of generating titles.csv, if a title has an "and" (with spaces around it), split it out into two titles and treat them separately, UNLESS it appears already in titles.csv (this would be because of manual intervention to assert that the use of "and" is part of one title).

2. In the process of loading in the data to the staffer directory, if a position's original title has an "and", split it up and load in a position for each constituent title.

And one-time:

3. Delete all titles from titles.csv that currently have an "and" in them, as otherwise they will be interpreted as correct.

Allow table to be sortable

Sort on viewable columns, even if the content itself is hidden in some cases. Might need to start duplicating the name in the HTML and marking it as display: none, so that the tablesorter plugin has a way of accessing the sortable attribute in each row.

Sort staffers secondarily by first name

If you're gonna sort by last name, sort secondarily by first.

Also, display "Last name, First name"

Duplicate titles for staff members

Could be a data issue. Regardless, make sure that if the standardized title name comes out to the same, that the position isn't duplicated.

Example:
http://staffers.sunlightfoundation.com/legislator/Y000033

Office pages

A page that lists all legislators, one for all committees, and one for all regular offices.

Unicode bug on JCT phone number

Probably a simple data fix.

http://staffers.sunlightfoundation.com/committee/JSTX

also:
http://staffers.sunlightfoundation.com/staffer/andrea-m-del-aguila

Some missing legislators

Example: Barbara Lee, L000551

Search by last name of member

Must match exactly, case-insensitively.

If only one result, bring right to it.

Search page

Revamp so it works roughly according to plan, and so that each search is scoped entirely to a quarter.

Remove firstname_search and lastname_search

Verify they aren't needed, and scrap them.

JSON API

For every view that has a CSV download, make a JSON endpoint.

Allow a user to select multiple states

Turn the select box into a multi-select, and use an $or clause or something on the backend to support it.

Set up for Capistrano deploys

For convenience.

Title search should use subset of common titles

Instead of all titles in the system.

FAQ page

Copy.

Change "---" to "All" in dropdowns

More clear.

Basic design

A basic design plan and styling for the search form and display of the daa.

Resolve staffers.sunlightfoundation.com

DNS issues.

Mislabeled employee?

Someone appears to have personal knowledge of a mistake:
http://getsatisfaction.com/sunlightfoundation/topics/house_staff_list_possible_bug_office_of_finance_vs_cao

If this is true, we ought to verify in some formal way before making a change.

Format quarters

e.g. "2009 4th Quarter"

Dropdown should start with "Most recent quarter (____)"

With the most recent quarter in parentheses. The rest can stay just the quarter.

Add 2010Q1 data

Bring it up to date.

CSV download links

From every search results page and on every office and staffer results page.

Show whether member is currently in office

On both the office list (highlighting perhaps) and on the landing page for that office.

Office page

Show, for each quarter, the staffers in their office and their titles, with links to each one.

Search by last name of staffer

Needs to match exactly, but case-insensitively.

Let user search by list of unique titles

Through a popup box or something.

Positions CSV should be indexed by standardized names, not original names

For human readability and sensibility, use standardized names to link everything together.

Look into why I can't find any shared employees

I think positions might be getting collapsed or overridden somewhere.

Search by title

Standardized title, in a dropdown.
Create a Titles collection.

Put site inside a Sunlight Foundation frame

Similar to Clearspending.

Load in new dataset from policy team

Latest canonical data.

Ensure column widths stay the same

Shorter staff titles in a quarter make for variable widths:
http://staffers.sunlightfoundation.com/office/rc-training-program-devel

Load in 2010Q3

New data release.

Switch to Mongoid

Might as well do it now.

Slugs for URLs

Use Mongoid::Slug after switching to Mongoid. Base it on each office's name, and assign during data load time.

All objects must end up with the same predictable URL on each data reload.

Display original titles

Of positions, on lists of staffers. Use some sort of hoverable question mark with a tooltip.

Rename "Staffer" to "Staff" in title

Copy change.

Staffer page

Show, for each quarter, the title and member they worked for.

Order quarters descending.

About page

Copy.

Set up Unicorn

For both deploy environments.

Make data loading less destructive

Wherever we can do an update in place, and not a #delete_all, do so.

Rewrite data loader to use new CSV formats

4 CSVs in different formats.