It’s been a very full life since my last updates. Hopefully I will be better in 2010 on my new webhost in the clouds (new cloud computing servers). More bang for my buck…I hope. 
I have been fairly happy with my use of master pages on my site (once I started using site root paths for the components, that is). But I came across this posting on a blog for master pages that uses a slightly different method that would allow me to have a master page effect by using components rather than a specific master page.
The blogger is Chris Weldon and here is the URL for the post that inspired my change: http://www.chrisweldon.net/2009/03/31/php-meet-master-pages. Of course it goes into much greater depth than is needed for my site coding, but the framework is perfect for my needs.
I’ll post the code and discussion in my next entry.
It’s been a very long time since my last post, I know. If you visit the main site you will see a snippet of what has taken me away from it for a bit. Work! life! work! health! work! the usual stuff. But it’s finally gotten to the point that I needed to do some updates. Partially to update my embarrassingly old posts (lol) and partially to do some experimenting.
I am trying a new method of PHP master pages. I’ll fill in with more detail on my next post.
Later.
I’ve never been one to be ‘thrilled’ about using third-party and hosted features for my personal site. So I downloaded my very own wordpress blog today.
And you’re looking at it! Got the rss feed working for the home page too. Took a little longer than the 5 minutes they mentioned, but I’m still pretty happy. Was able to export all of my previous posts on the hosted blog with all posting info intact.
I guess I do know what I’m doing sometimes, even if it takes me awhile. LOL
I have been threatening to do this post for at least 4-5 months. So I figured it’s finally time to put up or shut up!!!
I found DGS Search some years back as I was looking for search functionality for my website which back then had oodles of journal pages and galleries. Compared to some of the other searches I was looking at that used mysql databases, cgi scripting, and other madness, it was a godsend. The search is extremely easy to configure on its’ most basic level because of the EXTREMELY OBVIOUS config folder and config file. That’s pretty much a no-brainer.
Once you have those set up (to either search on your localhost or on your real server), there is a little digging you need to do in order to find the bits and pieces of code that will help style the search. But it’s pretty basic search/find.
The search works fine as an include, and the search results page adapted easily to my master pages. Moreover, I have used this search for the better part of almost 9-10 years, so I guess I like it a little. LOL
If you want to get started with DGS Search click this link. If you have any questions or thoughts, drop me a line. If you have a better search, send me a link and I’ll check it out. But it’s gotta be pretty good to beat this one.
Okay, not sure what I was smoking the other day. But I found a way to overcome some of my frustrations at using master pages for php. Part of the problem was that in using master pages I was also using links relative to the document for everything on the site. This is great because it allows you to see your work locally at any point, either in your localhost or not. And that makes development pretty easy.
Using site-relative links is not so quick and easy. Because I’m running many sites out of my php webroot folder I can’t use that link structure and see anything relevant while I’m developing. BUT it does allow me to finally get the maximum benefit from master pages.
Previously with master pages, I had to have a master page reference for each level of depth in my site. This was the only way to get all elements (css, images, includes) to correctly show. Now with one master page in the root of the directory using site-relative links with a nav include that also uses site-relative links, all pages referencing the root level file are showing correctly no matter if they are one, two, or even three levels deep.
So I’ll admit it – I was wrong, and too quick to abandon the master page idea. The ironic part is that because everything was correctly linked to master pages I just needed to change that link and all was fine. And using a renamed style sheet I was even able to stagger the change of site files over a two day period with no adverse broken files or f**ked up formatting. THAT was the best part.
Master pages again rule. :=)
I think it’s time for the master pages to go bye bye until a method can be constructed that allows for a single style sheet as opposed to styles and includes on all directory levels.
What do you think?
It’s been a really tough couple of months, and not because it was the holidays! I was working really hard on a new website that we were launching at work. Work on the site started the first week of November and we launched mid-January. Gotta tell ya it was the hardest I have had to work to launch a site in years.
I think it came off well, and I hope it accomplishes what it needs for my company (i.e. more sales so we can all keep our jobs in this uncertain economy). There were some hitches along the way though. Some hitches and LOTS of learning more about good and bad web design.
This isn’t going to be a long post because:
- it’s late in the evening and I need to get to bed
- and I don’t want to post too many specifics because it’s not really appropriate from a ‘work’ point of view.
But I will say that the biggest thing I learned was that it takes much more to be a good web designer than just having the ability to draw pretty pictures, because a pretty picture does NOT a good website make. Also, just because you have a pretty picture doesn’t mean that it can or should be built as a webpage. Beware large drop shadows over gradient backgrounds, overuse of transparent png’s, and lots of graphical containers with set heights for dynamic content.
And with that I’m out for now.
Been extremely busy at work these days as we build a new website. Unfortunately all of the UI building fell on my shoulders with almost no help. And to top it off the design is not one that could easily be built (yes I said it, BAD DESIGN). So I have no time, energy, or inclination to do much in the way of technical updates here or on my site. Sorry. But I am coming to a point where I’m not so overwhelmed these days, so I’ll post a bit about what I have learned from this build. It’s been an ordeal I tell ya.
Part 2 – This is me casting my Vote in SF. And I’d like to send a special shoutout to Jeff @ Digg and Walter @ Dogster/Catster. They are the two guys I was talking to in line while I was waiting to vote. And I have to say that they really renewed my faith in the younger generation and its’ ability to see a world where things like color and sexual orientation are kinda like ‘Whatever’. THAT is truly remarkable, and I kept saying to them what a monumental shift this represents. And as the election results showed (at least with respect to the Presidential election) it is a very real paradigm shift at that!