Changes Mostly Complete

Site changes are mostly complete…. for now. If you notice any problems or have any comments, please leave word here. Input is appreciated. For more information, continue reading.

I feel like a Reid copycat with my site update posts, but what the heck. :) Besides, this is as much for me so I remember later, as for anyone else.

Site has gone through numerous changes, including the following:

  • 3 column format (finally, been planning on that forever.)
  • Whole new color scheme.
  • Added local weather via WeatherNWS plugin (mostly for novelty.)
  • Added plugin manager (behind the scenes addition.)
  • Put weblog list in BlogRoller.
  • Added Extended Entry javascript.
  • Added a rather basic logo.
  • Ditched comment popup window for full page.
  • Cleaned up CSS some.
  • Converted all pages to PHP, mostly for future use (only one PHP script in use so far.)
  • Some other minor format tweaks…

Still on my todo list in no particular order:

  • Add trackback entries to individual archives.
  • Redo categories from scratch and start utilizing them.
  • Futz with archive pages, particularly build a new master archive page.
  • Look into “painting” problem with my small fonts in Internet Explorer.
  • Add some links in from my queue.
  • Some more format cleanup.

And on my wishlist to try to build, but likely never will get to due to lack of anything remotely resembling a standard:

  • Blogrolling like functionality for my web comics list.

Anyway, probably going to take a break from changes for now to get to finishing my Italy photos which I have been putting off.

4 Responses to “Changes Mostly Complete”

  1. Love the new look. The navigation is very nice and the color scheme is great. I may even steal your idea for making the comment window full-screen. :)
    The only PHP scripts that has ever tempted me to convert extrasonic are: 1) skins, and 2) user preferences for whether or not links open in a new window or not. Now that you’ve gone through the conversion, you might want to check those out. The site does look really good by default so skins may not be a high priority, but I strongly prefer links opening in new windows. If I feel that way, maybe other do too, so if that one’s easy to install it might be a good one.

    Dan said this on November 30th, 2003 at 6:44 am

  2. I gotta agree on the color scheme. Looks fantastic. Heh… I had also looked at that very same ‘read more’ code but decided not to implement it this go around… I think it is a great addition.

    Another thing you can do with PHP (and the reason why all my pages are PHP) are server side includes. This lets you do all kinds of neat things, like including other web documents on your front page. This is how I do my ‘recommended articles’ weblog section and how I include my wife’s recent entries on my own front page. I’m sure there are also far more creative uses for server side includes.

    Anyway, again, fantastic job. :-)

    Reid said this on November 30th, 2003 at 7:43 am

  3. Thanks for the comments.

    For offsite links I’ve been using javascript from Dynamic Drive that’s been useful. I currently have the option to allow the user to select their preference turned off. Eventually I may convert this to a PHP version and allow the user to have more control (including skins… working on a second design inspired by the movie The Italian Job I watched this weekend.)

    The javascript can be found here [ http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex8/newwindow2.htm ].

    Mike said this on November 30th, 2003 at 3:17 pm

  4. I just use the Apache “include virtual” directives for server-side includes, since my host supports it. That’s how http://www.extrasonic.com/ manages most of its right-column content - the first three navboxes are actually separate HTML docs updated by hand when we get the time/interest.

    Thanks for the reference to the “new window” javascript - that’s pretty nice.

    Dan said this on December 1st, 2003 at 8:44 am