August has come and with that, comes the dog days of summer. Its good for a freelancer like me because I can acquire a couple gigs at this time. I have been spending alot of time at home cleaning my workspace and getting ready for the fall season. Rosettes and CSS shall be done by the end of the year, but hopefully sooner.
Joomla was originally going to be my choice for R&C given some of the rich extensions offered for portfolio sites. In addition, I felt it would let me get acquainted with a CMF that I have been feeling very touch and go about. Each CMF is its own beast. Each has its own motivation for its inception and each has its navigation setup for particular website types and from the creator's ideas on how layout might be best optimized.
Due to the latter, I think that is why Joomla continues to confuse me so. I have been open to learning it, as I know there will be a client who desires a Joomla site some day and I want to at least have some facts I can advise them on. Joomla has a method of its madness that I still to this day do not understand. I suppose to many people I speak to, "categories" and "sections" seem to feel like they are the same thing. This forum post shows a good example on how it confuses many not familiar with Joomla's "older cousin", Mambo. I was patient and found myself toiling over it in the last month trying to learn the interface. I cant lie and say that I wont get a client who insists on having a Joomla based website.
That said, I kept an open mind but overall found much disappointment in one of the few well written and opensource portfolio extensions. For some of you who have worried that Joomla is not the most secure CMF, you might be further convinced when I say that I found this portfolio extension to have been taken over by a spam Viagra/Cialis site. At that point, I just simply gave up and searched some more. Sorry, Joomla.
Enter ImpressCMS. It doesnt have nearly the headway that its more known counterparts have, but it is a very promising CMS. Rosettes and CSS does take the mentality of its creator, with the desire to research new solutions and support those creating a road less traveled. A small community develops around it and I am hoping to contribute whatever I can in the near future. Despite its evolution (and seperation) from Xoops in 2007, ImpressCMS has garnered some awards.
A new graphic arts assignment starts this week. A bit of extra pocket money to say the least but Im already finding some fun in the work. Hoping to post more in this blog soon. When I am ready to migrate this blog, I will surely up my blog content quality.
Showing posts with label functionality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label functionality. Show all posts
This Template Arrives Fashionably Late
While having a part time job has been fun, it has been a bit more part time than I would have wanted. I suppose that gives me more time to do the kinds of projects that *I* want to do, if not for the running back and forth to doctors office and various degrees of administration run-around.
At least now, I have something to show for my Drupal ponderings and discoveries. This project was fun and let me look into functionality as well as design, allowing me to add more versatility to my overall web design portfolio. It may look like the design kind of lacks pizzaz but a simple modification of the Nista theme was what David wished for.
Submissions begin towards the middle of this year, so dont hesitate to submit one of your best stories, prose, or poetry. You know you want to.
Here is the finished product for my first overall Drupal learning project:
At least now, I have something to show for my Drupal ponderings and discoveries. This project was fun and let me look into functionality as well as design, allowing me to add more versatility to my overall web design portfolio. It may look like the design kind of lacks pizzaz but a simple modification of the Nista theme was what David wished for.
Submissions begin towards the middle of this year, so dont hesitate to submit one of your best stories, prose, or poetry. You know you want to.
Here is the finished product for my first overall Drupal learning project:
Cra.sh: Ready For New Submissions
Now, onto the theming portion of the website. While the live site greets new authors and submissions, Ill be theming Nista to something slightly more suited to this website's desired look and feel. So far, I have gained lots of experience on managing the back end functions of the site though. I'm also getting more familiar with errors pertaining to Drupal having a conflict with the server's php.ini settings. In fact, after 3 or so migrations, I'm getting better at doing live>staging>live server migrations. In fact, I didn't grit my teeth this morning when I took the live site and cloned it back onto my staging server.
In other news, I did get a part time job at a local confectionery wholesaler. Ill be working as an independent contractor in giving some new looks to the company's packaging. There is a diverse amount of candy that comes through there so that means lots of label design and templates. I cant wait to start work there but for now, I'm channeling new designs according to my boss' references of designs he likes.
As the winter snow comes my way, I get ready to hunker down. I dream of a snow day where I can actually get my workaholic self to break away and just study Drupal all day with the 2 books I purchased this last summer. Today I shall be wrapping presents for my family and friends. Next week, is backup time, which I must plan my work schedule around. Holiday celebrations in the 2009 Recession is getting off to a slow but fantastic start.
In other news, I did get a part time job at a local confectionery wholesaler. Ill be working as an independent contractor in giving some new looks to the company's packaging. There is a diverse amount of candy that comes through there so that means lots of label design and templates. I cant wait to start work there but for now, I'm channeling new designs according to my boss' references of designs he likes.
As the winter snow comes my way, I get ready to hunker down. I dream of a snow day where I can actually get my workaholic self to break away and just study Drupal all day with the 2 books I purchased this last summer. Today I shall be wrapping presents for my family and friends. Next week, is backup time, which I must plan my work schedule around. Holiday celebrations in the 2009 Recession is getting off to a slow but fantastic start.