If you have used any of the Wisconsin Legislature infobases lately, you’ve probably seen the following screen.
In essence, it explains that the legislature is moving to a new infobase software platform called “Nxt.” Currently, when you link into one of the infobases, you get the intermediary screen above which gives you the option to use either the old version (“Folio SiteDirector”) or the new one (“Nxt”). Starting in fall, links will go directly to the “Nxt” version.
See the guide to using the Wisconsin Legislature Nxt Site for more information.
Things that won’t change:
- The look and feel of the documents remains largely unchanged. Fonts, font size, text color, reference lines, general appearance and, the text itself, of course, are nearly unchanged.
- All links within documents and to other documents will continue to work exactly the same.
- Links to the infobases themselves should also stay the same, so you probably won’t need to change your bookmarks. If you do notice a change, see the instructions for figuring out the new URLs.
What’s different:
- With Nxt, each document (whether it is a statute section, administrative code section, act section, a history of an individual bill, or index subject head) is displayed as a distinct unit. Documents will no longer be divided into separate screens as in Folio SiteDirector.
- There are no “More” and “Back” buttons at the end of each screen. In Nxt, you will use the “Next Doc” and “Prev Doc” buttons in the tool bar a the top of the document window.
- Nxt offers many search and retrieval options. For more information, see the guide to using the Wisconsin Legislature Nxt Site
- In Nxt, links to data from previous sessions appears underneath the tool bar at the top right.