Abstract Development Blog

The 24 Hour Web Callenge - Part 2

2011-01-09T13:52:00.000-08:00

The other entry was getting messy in editing anyways - onwards and upwards. So maybe updating every hour was a tad optimistic. So I'm just gonna be posting developments from here on in and here's the latest:

21:54 - Navigation

It's based on Chemestry structure, but hopefully also looks quite funky in terms of design for those who are not looking to employ a chemist. Next step is the rest of the layout. In terms of time I'd say I'm slightly behind, but nothing I can't catch up with. So time for a snack and then to crack on.

00:00 - Full Website Design
Yep, it's complete and ready for coding. Some things may get changed in the transition as I'm not 100% sure how happy I am with them, but for the time being I reckon it's looking pretty slick.

02:30 - Stylesheet and Structure
So, we're getting there now. I'm currently using Dreamweaver CS5 to build up all the structural elements of the website first by placing div layers and such and then adding in a style sheet to work the design in from the top down. There's no screen this time however, only my word I'm afriad. For now though I'm going to bed and hoping to rise early-ish tomorrow to squeeze in the hours I need to complete the challenge in full!

The 24 Hour Web Challenge

2011-01-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

Now that christmas is over and done, I've gotta admit, I'm getting lazy! Very Lazy! So it's time to shake things up a bit. I've set my self a little exercise. A very good friend of mine is allowing me to create an online C.V. for her, and the spec has sat gather dust on my desk for some time now. so to ensure I get it done and it is never pushed aside again I'm going to complete it this weekend. Within 24 hours. Since its now 1am I starting this a tad late but still mores the fun and stargazing with my housemate (don't ask) took up my night. So I'm going to pop in every hour until this project is finished (apart from the one's where I'm sleeping, which will probably come first!) and we're going to see how a website really progress when it is the sole focus of your time and resources.

Right, now I've had my last meeting with my friend, clock starts NOW:

16:00 - Specification

Mission Statement
The website is primarily to show professionals in the Chemistry field that you are the person they want to employ. It will also show you as a person and help potential employers get a feel for you and your professionalism. The site must also be accessible to all ages, cultures and disabilities. Therefore the final abstract for the project is outlined as:

“To design a professional, one-page C.V. showing personal attributes and achievements which is to be presented in a professional and striking manner which is accessible to all.”

Target Audience
The function of the website can be separated into two groups, interest from the professional chemistry industry and interest from general employers.

Now we have a definition of what the visitors will be doing with the website we can start building up an exact specification for what exactly needs to be done. From the analysis of the documentation provided I can ascertain that the requirements for the project are:

· Must be accessible and conform to modern standards
· Must conform to standard and advance globalization
· Must be usable and work multi-browser
· Must be clean, professional, yet themed
· Must contact a contact method
· Must not be too large and if possible all content should be on one page

JS & Textbox Pimpin'

2009-04-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

My lord this week has been very crazy at work, not really much time for designing. However I have managed to make some adjustments to the site (even if one of then did take FOREVER). Anyways two main new features to the site this week. The first....text boxes. Not the most extravigant of feature I know but still, you'll be amazed at what a difference the small details can make. For example here is a normal text box:

It's boring and dull and samish and...shall I go on? Right well, heres a modified text box, check out the uber difference!

Note the total lack of dull. And even I was amazed that all it took was a simple addition to the CSS coding with no extra frills.

.login {
color: #000000;
font-size: 10px;
width: 140px;
height: 27px;
background: #FFFFFF url(images/textbox-bck.jpg) no-repeat;
border:
none;
margin-left: -2px;
padding:6px;
}

Cool no? So now the website is all preped and ready for a user login add-on. Woop. So with that taken care of and no longer bugging me we move onto part two. Galleries. There's two galleries I wanted to impliment on the website and I've used the same feaute for them both. Yep, I'm sad to say I'm some what of a lightbox whore. It JS lightoboxes all round! One for the wallpaper gallery:

And one for the Story Art galleries:

But not all is as simple as it seems. All that content is loaded dynamically into the light box by incorperating it in to the repeater function built into asp.net. So each element can be dynamically controlled by (eventually) logging into a custom built control panel.

So that's this weeks pickings and as I'm having the busiest weekend ever (and by busy of course I mean partying several times over) that will prob be all for a good few days. Unless I can cram some time in between the merriment!

Marauders V5 Features & To-do

2009-04-09T02:27:00.000-07:00

So the new site as I said was going to incorperate all of the old stuff, but modernised and some new bits too. Since I've already started some of the project I'll share some of the existing features.

ASP.NET
Well first of all, all of the site is written in the ,net platform, which to be fair is an achivement in itself if you like a challenge! Alot of simple tasks can take time and effort, however some of the drag and drop functionality and enhanced security is worth it. Plus I laugh in the face of adversity - mwhahahaha.....anyways, moving on.

Master Pages
This is something I employ in all languages, a way of keeping the base layout away from each page for easy updating later on. The layout also includes this stylesheet switcher to once again randomly cycle throughout four different layouts, one for each element. With time I'm hoping to develop an ASP.NET switcher, but for now it's done using JS.

Lightbox

The JS Lightbox functionality at the moment is pretty basic and plugs into the site the way that it would any other as seen in the screenshot, but I hope that again with time some of the loading images and other basics can be played around with and replaced or moved to give it more identity. However the main aim for the time being is to mix the ability to use the lightbox with a content managed system. The lightbox itself that I used can be found @ Lightbox 2 Site

Text Size Controls

Anyone who knows me in the professional web sense will always tell you that web accessabilty has been one of my specialities for many years now. However after years of preaching the benefits, its time to put some of it into action on some of my own work. A handy piece of Javascript is attached to each button making the text-size for the linked div layer larger or smaller with a few clicks. This means I get to keep my stylish small text as the default, but the site can still be read by others.

That's the main functionality so far, leaving a to-do list looking much like this:
[+] CMS Control panel for adding Stories, Chapters and any other bits
[+] Lightbox Modification
[+] ASP.NET stylesheet switcher
[+] User system with different roles and access rules
[+] Commenting system that can be linked to the commenting system
[+] Special art secion for each story showcasing commisions and otherwise for each tale
[+] Email notification
[+] Validation and text tools
[+] Image upload feature with possible resizing function

I'm sure there's more but I'd say that's more then enough keep me busy for now!

Marauders: The Story so far....

2009-04-08T16:43:00.000-07:00

Well ok so I was a litte shall we say vauge before. So lets fill in the blanks a bit. My main project as of late is The Marauders website. However, where did it some from? Whats it for? Well, here we go, hope this clears things up.

Many, many years ago me and three friends came up with the wacky concept of four girls who can control the elements and fight the evil pigeon mafia(no I'm not joking, really, evil pigeons). How we came to this I won't go into but it kinda grew over time and I got the urge to write it down somewhere and having no printer ink at the time to show it off and being a web designer I decided to get a website and domain for it.

Version 1
The first layout was as basic as possible as I didn't have much time between this and uni work so I took a simple mix of div layers and built each page in a static HTML fashion until I had a bit more time to devote to the project.

Version 2
Next came a slightly more advanced attempt. The website circles between four different stylesheets using java script, but all four have the same basic principle. A large graphic background image with a left aligned column with transparent edges giving a torn paper look. However the site still remained static

Version 3
So by now I was utterly bored with university, so it was time to step it up. The story was growing and by now had hit around eight to nine novel-sized chapters so it needed some kind of base of operations. So, taking a new layout that was cleaner and simpler, I set to work building a PHP content management system. This also incorperated an email notification system for my friends so I could tell them via email that a new chapter had been released.

Version 4
So by now I'd built up a brand for the site. It had a recongnised logo and four defined colours which coicided with the four elements. When I moved over to version 4 I decided that I wanted feedback for my work instead of bugging people for it. So I built a comment system and patched it into the existing PHP, giving my friends an easy way to tell me what they think.

Version 5
And so that brings us to the present, version 5. After a long time laying dormant whilst the final proof of the story is being proof-read ready for publishing, I thought it might be a good time to re-evaluate. So now a major task lies ahead. To take the functionality and place it into ASP.NET format possibly adding more. So for a rundown of this versions features so far, take a step into the next post (when I've written it of course - which I'm hoping will be moring!)

Introduction

2009-04-04T11:21:00.000-07:00

Well here we go....So yeh I'm kinda stealing this idea from other peoples I know (I'm sure they won't mind though). I used to be a Lead Web Developer, but now I've taken a step back and I'm working on some projects I've been meaning to get out for some time. So they're going to be appearing here and progress on them and such. So let's dive straight in and show you what I've got:

The Marauders
This one is always changing and having features added to it to make it more friendly etc. It's a website to house a chronicle of stories and off shoots. It's currently undergoing a major rehaul so even thought some of it is underway I can keep people posted on that and some of the features that I'm trying to build into it. It's written on the ASP.NET platform and incorperates other programming aspects such as javascript and hopefully at some point some flash.

Footnotes
A sideline site to my main portfolio where people can just come along to get to know me really. It's a place to keep some of my literary and art works that can't go into my portfolio but I want to share all the same. Hoping once again to put it on the ASP.NET platform, but that might change and I might go with PHP, still working that one out.

Black[Slash]Wheezy
This one is a website to house the fan fiction works of two friends, it's pretty basic, but still deserves a spot here as it goes I reckon. It's kinda already up, but not finished and can be seen @ http://www.blackslashwheezy.co.uk

Movie Review Site
Now this one is really exciting, a movie review site with a small twist. It going to have a login system, ratings, comments and all that jazz, but it's missing a name so far - I'll have a better idea on features and such when this rolls round until then its a bit shaded.