HMA Guide E-Book – Technical Requirements
Goal:
HMA PTT would like to launch a fully online version of the HMA Guide, including dynamic date selection and full search capabilities by midyear 2024.end of calendar year 2024.
Dynamic date selection is the most critical functionality to meet the need of end users who have repeatedly requested an easier way to navigate policy changes across disaster declarations and NOFO cycles. We believe that other divisions and directorates (NFIP, PA, and IA) all are interested in this functionality as well. This is an addition I put in.
HMA is seeking decision from OEA by the beginning of November whether the technical requirements outlined below can be met in-house, including the desired launch date of calendar year 2024.
Technical Requirements for HMA Guide E-Book
Dynamic date selection:
View a specific HMA Guide version via a dynamic date selector based on disaster declaration / NOFO date
Export full PDF of document or section of document based on selected date
Export individual sections based on selected date
Compare one dated version to another dated version with redline/tracked changes
Full Search Capabilities
Search current version
Search within version of document “as of” selected date (back-dated versions)
Search across versions
Allows users to find when a new topic/term was first added (e.g. FFRMS, sea level rise)
Search results shows Part/Section Numbers with preview of text for easy navigation to the most relevant section
Update process:
FEMA users only have to update one master document (word version) v. parallel updates on word and web versions
An ongoing list of updates and changes will be available on the E-Book website.
Overview of changes: https://www.ecfr.gov/recent-changes
Technical edits: https://www.ecfr.gov/corrections/2023
Scan functionality to identify broken links
Footnotes auto-renumber after updates (and clickable)
Email subscription for updates:
Users can receive auto-email for any updates to text / website (including updated links)
FEMA can push out announcements when there are new standalone policies (nice to have)
Examples
eCFR
Municode
