This is a phrase I seem to use more often than not. They say that time flies fast when we are having fun. I suppose that still applies to my "work" of a web and graphic artist. The real work for me is just getting myself started on modifying this theme amidst much change which has happened, both in the Wordpress world and in the world of my home office.
About 60% of my SHM theme was complete before Wordpress 3 released just a few weeks ago. Heck, I even manage to get the hang of jQuery with a few of my jQuery-savvy friends online. It truly is becoming the "write less, do more" solution for me. I see much potential for future projects. Overall its going to be useful for any site that might need content manageable beyond simple pages and blogs. It is true that Wordpress 3 does have new content types that can be added via functions.php but it still cant replace good ol' PodsCMS. I found this video quite useful in getting an idea of the direction that Matt Mullenweg wants to take his creation.
This past week, one of my young laptop hard drives gave out. Just 6 months old, the thing already served me an IO error. With a Linux operating system, the headache was not as great since I didn't need to take out 3 million software CDs to reinstall things on the new drive. My only shortcoming is that the copy of Maya that I have is not compatible with a 64-bit OS so I had to do a bit of finagling on it.
Overall, all is well. In the end, it was a nice reset to get me back on track. Before the crash, I was too caught up in designing The Perfect Checklist for an ever-changing CMS like Wordpress is. It I figured if I could just get an idea of all the Default CSS and CSS that should be included in any Wordpress Template, than I could streamline the process with use of a checklist. While this was written for the version 2.9.2 days, I do like DigWP's Default CSS Checklist that they made. It sort of was helpful but Im still finding myself wanting to start fresh with Thelonious serving as an example.
I still have yet to touch the widgetized sections of my site. One advantage of a pro-bono project is that (at least, usually) no deadline exists. Its about creation "when you can". Most of my pro-bono clients are attracted to me not only out of the idea of getting free work, but because I have a perchance for learning new things if faced with needing to do something a different way than what I have been in the past.
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ideas. Show all posts
Choosing A CMS For My Professional Site: Decisions...decisions....
While Im not short on projects to speak of, I want to still get myself into working on something related to the website that this blog is named after. Rosettes and CSS shouldnt be stuck on Blogspot forever. Since my hosting (when I have the $$ for it) is going to have database capabilities, I want to use a CMS.
....but which one??
Wordpress seems to be the easy choice these days. For sites that are just about blogging and posting a few pages here and there, why wouldnt you use such an easy CMS? However, I am always having desire to step outside the box and go with something else.
Joomla is another CMS installed on my computer after seeing a few friends who used it for thier company website. Since Rosettes and CSS is the company/professional website (between another domain that I own), that seems perfect. On the other hand, some might say that Joomla is overkill for something as simple as a portfolio website.
Showing a big change in skillset by using Joomla or keeping a portfolio site simple with Wordpres (a simple CMS)....
Of course, I have both installed on my localhost so I suppose I could do both and find out from there. Feedback is encouraged.
....but which one??
Wordpress seems to be the easy choice these days. For sites that are just about blogging and posting a few pages here and there, why wouldnt you use such an easy CMS? However, I am always having desire to step outside the box and go with something else.
Joomla is another CMS installed on my computer after seeing a few friends who used it for thier company website. Since Rosettes and CSS is the company/professional website (between another domain that I own), that seems perfect. On the other hand, some might say that Joomla is overkill for something as simple as a portfolio website.
Showing a big change in skillset by using Joomla or keeping a portfolio site simple with Wordpres (a simple CMS)....
Of course, I have both installed on my localhost so I suppose I could do both and find out from there. Feedback is encouraged.
Dropping Stones into the Path
Been on vacation for close to a week and a half. Motivation to do much work has been hard with the concept of play is in a new context than what I am accustomed to in SoCal as of late. No worries. I did take my work with me and I got a few other unrelated projects out of the way.
So, as you know, the live site is up and so Im trying to go through processes all over again, learning them a second time and further drilling important keynotes into my repretoire. Also am keeping the few modules updated on the live site (about 9 less modules than on my localhost version). Admittedly part of my procrastination has been just the diverse learning experience that Drupal can afford since, well, Drupal can make all sorts of website types out there.
Im also going to use this "second time round" to get a good idea of how my workflow adapts to the Drupal environment. There are common methods and sequences no matter if Im doing an html/css site or doing something such as wordpress. Still, depending on your framework, it may differ. This might be the first time that I fully write down my methods to madness. Maybe this is a good way of taking my own advice since I tell people to write things down all the time. Does writing something out make it more significant than being part of the trains that chug about in your head? Hmmm.....
Step one was to make a site map on paper. I did about 2 revisions, the first one just taking what sections/pages that this site had in its old incarnation and recreating them. Then the elimination came, producing Version 2 which condenses defunct pages and elaborates on the section linking hierarchy will be.
Assessing your site's needs will determine modules you might need now or in the long run. Its important to work through things step by step. You can always add, change and remove modules as needed so dont get too caught up by this. Drupal's many options are what enhance your learning experience but can also deter you by overwhelming the part of your mind which innovates.
Now comes section-specific brainstorm time! Focus on the main aspects of the site, starting with the most important one. In this case, my site's number one purpose is to display products in a catalog form. With Drupal letting one create content types with any type of field (with any kind of display type), it is probably best to brainstorm all the fields you will need.
While most would suggest some of the ecommerce modules (Ubercart is a very popular choice), simple taxonomy is the method i am using for splitting my products into categories. I need to get an idea of that category hierarchy and then create a product vocabulary. Categories and subcategories will go under that vocabulary as a term.
With the brainstorm sheet(s) in hand and taxonomy created, start adding those fields. At this point, one might want to install any further field display related modules. ImageField is one of the most popular ones for product driven content such as mine. For me, some fields are going to be hidden to annonymous/guest users and others might be hidden to particular roles that authenticated users could be assigned. So, for "step 5b", I'll create those roles and set up permissions accordingly, including specifying fields which only certain role types should be able to see. Another optional step will leave me defining field groups for the product content type since I want to use fieldgroup tabs.
Once content types are set up with fields and/or respective taxonomy applied, you are nearing the end of the functionality part of things (but dont quote me on this, kiddies.). Now you can get closer to the theming aspect of things. This includes determining layout aspects such as your menu's hierarchy and placement, colors, and overall placement of body content as well as dynamic blocks of content. Ill leave it up in the air as I figure that part out myself.
So, as you know, the live site is up and so Im trying to go through processes all over again, learning them a second time and further drilling important keynotes into my repretoire. Also am keeping the few modules updated on the live site (about 9 less modules than on my localhost version). Admittedly part of my procrastination has been just the diverse learning experience that Drupal can afford since, well, Drupal can make all sorts of website types out there.
Im also going to use this "second time round" to get a good idea of how my workflow adapts to the Drupal environment. There are common methods and sequences no matter if Im doing an html/css site or doing something such as wordpress. Still, depending on your framework, it may differ. This might be the first time that I fully write down my methods to madness. Maybe this is a good way of taking my own advice since I tell people to write things down all the time. Does writing something out make it more significant than being part of the trains that chug about in your head? Hmmm.....
Step one was to make a site map on paper. I did about 2 revisions, the first one just taking what sections/pages that this site had in its old incarnation and recreating them. Then the elimination came, producing Version 2 which condenses defunct pages and elaborates on the section linking hierarchy will be.
Assessing your site's needs will determine modules you might need now or in the long run. Its important to work through things step by step. You can always add, change and remove modules as needed so dont get too caught up by this. Drupal's many options are what enhance your learning experience but can also deter you by overwhelming the part of your mind which innovates.
Now comes section-specific brainstorm time! Focus on the main aspects of the site, starting with the most important one. In this case, my site's number one purpose is to display products in a catalog form. With Drupal letting one create content types with any type of field (with any kind of display type), it is probably best to brainstorm all the fields you will need.
While most would suggest some of the ecommerce modules (Ubercart is a very popular choice), simple taxonomy is the method i am using for splitting my products into categories. I need to get an idea of that category hierarchy and then create a product vocabulary. Categories and subcategories will go under that vocabulary as a term.
With the brainstorm sheet(s) in hand and taxonomy created, start adding those fields. At this point, one might want to install any further field display related modules. ImageField is one of the most popular ones for product driven content such as mine. For me, some fields are going to be hidden to annonymous/guest users and others might be hidden to particular roles that authenticated users could be assigned. So, for "step 5b", I'll create those roles and set up permissions accordingly, including specifying fields which only certain role types should be able to see. Another optional step will leave me defining field groups for the product content type since I want to use fieldgroup tabs.
Once content types are set up with fields and/or respective taxonomy applied, you are nearing the end of the functionality part of things (but dont quote me on this, kiddies.). Now you can get closer to the theming aspect of things. This includes determining layout aspects such as your menu's hierarchy and placement, colors, and overall placement of body content as well as dynamic blocks of content. Ill leave it up in the air as I figure that part out myself.