PLAN Lab Website

This folder is a standalone static site. Team members, publications, and news are rendered from JSON in assets/data/.

Update content

Adding a news item

• Edit assets/data/news.json and add an entry at the top of the news array:

    {
      "id": "YYYY-short-slug",                # permanent anchor on news.html (news.html#news-YYYY-short-slug)
      "date": "YYYY-MM-DD",                   # also accepts "YYYY-MM" or "YYYY"; items are sorted by this
      "title": "2 papers at X 2026!",
      "description": "One or two sentences shown on the card.",
      "image": "assets/images/publications/xyz.webp", # optional; use the publication cover images
      "banner": "assets/images/news/xyz.webp",# optional; homepage-only image (conference banner/logo art, cropped to fill)
      "imageFit": "cover",                    # optional; images render like publications (contained, white box); cover crops photos to fill
      "icon": "fa-solid fa-trophy",           # optional Font Awesome class, used when there is no image
      "link": "publications.html",            # optional; used as the More target only when the item has no papers/body
      "linkLabel": "More",                    # optional; custom label for that link
      "body": ["Optional longer paragraph shown on the item's detail page."],
      "papers": [                             # optional; gives the item a detail page listing these papers
        { "pubId": "2026-LastName-paper-slug" },        # reference into publications.json (rendered from there)
        {                                                # OR an inline paper that is NOT on the publications list
          "title": "Full Paper Title",
          "authors": ["Firstname Lastname"],             # lab members are auto-linked to their profiles
          "venueAbbr": "ECCV 2026", "year": 2026,
          "cover": "assets/images/news/xyz.webp",        # optional
          "links": { "paper": "https://...", "code": "https://..." },
        }
      ]
    }

• Remove the comments before saving; JSON does not support comments.
• The homepage shows the 4 most recent items. news.html lists everything, grouped by year.
• The More button routing: link always wins when set; otherwise the item's detail page (news.html?id=<id>).
• On news.html, items whose papers resolve to 2+ publication covers rotate through them as a small carousel; the homepage card stays static (banner first, then image).
• To link a news item to a filtered publications view instead, use "link": "publications.html?q=ECCV 2026" (the publications search supports ?q= prefill).

Adding a publication

• Edit assets/data/publications.json and add images under assets/images/publications/.

    {
      "id": "2025-LastName-paper-title-2-3-words",
      "title": "Title",
      "projectName": "Project Abbreviation",
      "authors": [
        "Firstname Lastname",
        "Firstname Lastname", # important to use this format for lab members to link to their profile
      ],
      "jointFirstAuthors": [
        "Firstname Lastname" # optional; members listed here are prioritized like first authors on profile pages
      ],
      "year": YYYY,
      "date": "YYYY-MM-DD",
      "venue": "venue",
      "type": "paper",
      "cover": "assets/images/publications/file_name",
      "doi": "", # this or paper link is mandatory
      "links": {
        "website": "/projects/Abbreviation/",
        "paper": "https://paper-url", # link to paper pdf
        "code": "https://github.com/PLAN-Lab/project-name", 
        "video": "",
        "data": "",
      },
      "cardCover": "assets/images/cards/filename" # only for papers on home page
      "venueAbbr": "" # venue Abbreviation such as CVPR, NeurIPS, or arXiv, etc.
    }

• Make sure to remove the comments from above block after the edits, comments are not supported in json.
• Add publication cover image under assets/images/publications/ (ideally use a 4:3 aspect ratio)
• For papers on home page, add card cover image under assets/images/cards/
• Send a pull request

Adding a member

• Edit assets/data/team.json

    {
      "id": "firstname-lastname", # permanent URL slug; never include member status
      "group": "pi/phd/masters/undergrad/alumni",
      "name": "Firstname Lastename", # don't add aliases here, add them in the aliases field
      "displayName": "Firstname (Alias) Lastname", # optional custom display formatting
      "aliases": [
        "alias1"
      ]
      "role": "PhD Student", # PhD Student/Masters Student/Undergraduate/Alumni
      "title": [
        "PhD Student" # PhD Student/Masters Student/Undergraduate/Former Masters Student/Former PhD Student/Former Undergraduate
      ],
      "currently": "", # current position, if alumni
      "avatar": "assets/images/team/firstname-lastname.jpg",
      "email": "id@illinois.edu",
      "github": "https://github.com/username",
      "website": "https://website-url",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/username/",
      "googleScholar": "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xxxx",
      "twitter": "https://twitter.com/username",
      "bio": "" # Take a look at other bios with same role/title for reference,
    },

• Add profile picture under assets/images/team/ as firstname-lastname.jpg
• Link project-page authors with /team/firstname-lastname; assets/js/project-pages.js resolves it to the member profile.
• To change a member's status, update group, role, title, and currently as needed. Do not change id or project links.
• Send a pull request

Projects

To create a new project page:

• Copy simple-site/projects/template/ to simple-site/projects/<slug>/
• Edit simple-site/projects/<slug>/index.html

Images

Use WebP for all images (cwebp or Pillow). Card covers up to 1600px wide, publication thumbnails up to 960px, team avatars up to 640px. Animated GIFs should be converted to animated WebP. Anything over ~300 KB on a card or thumbnail is too big.

Short links (plan-lab.github.io/)

Short links redirect through 404.html. A slug map at the top of that file redirects known projects before the page paints. When adding a project, add its folder name to the SLUGS map in 404.html (or leave it: unknown slugs are probed automatically with a short delay before redirecting).