Model catalogue (repository ) revamp

A security update of the website software (Drupal) has left our ad-hoc model catalogue code broken. (The code originates from before our use of Drupal to manage the rest of the site.)

Our long term aim since starting to use Drupal has been to re-implement the model catalogue in Drupal itself and this has indeed been started ( Drupal-based repository ) but it does involve some work copying over material to the new Drupal-based repository. (In the long-term writing a script to do the work would be most efficient but the work has to fit around other projects). 

To make the material (models and descriptions, etc) available again as quickly as possible, I'm working on embedding the old ad-hoc code into the Drupal framework. This also has the possible advantage that the model catalogue looks more in keeping with the rest of the site.

The intention is still to move over to a fully Drupal-based implementation. Indeed, there is material in the original  catalogue that really should be updated and so we will put the updated material in new Drupal-based catalogue and remove superceded material from the old catalogue. The Drupal-based system has the huge advantage that it can (and does) use the overall web-site access permisions to enable registered users to comment on models and indeed to add models themselves.   Some users have already taken advantage of this benefit.