It has been a little while, but I have released BookX 0.3. It is not a huge change, mostly a couple of bug fixes, but also verified complete compatibility with the upcoming version 2.8. So Enjoy!
I recently had a very short contract gig working for a company that creates websites using Drupal. While that doesn’t sound very interesting or even hard, to make it more so of both, these guys used Views for every
thing. Which I just don’t get.
If you are a programming, why would you use views? It is adding a layer of abstraction between the logic and database in an interpreted language with a framework that is already bloated beyond all recognition. I know when I write plugins for Wordpress, I want the plugin to be quick, precise, and add the least amount of overhead possible. Views just seem to be a way to do all the opposites of those, just for the hell of it.
If you are not very technically inclined, I understand. Using views is a lot like using MS Access. You can create fairly complex queries yourself, without having to get someone that actually understands it involved. And that is the trade off. You can do it yourself, and eat the extra overhead, or pay/hire/bribe/cajole someone else into doing it for you, specialized, and thus, in theory at least, more efficiently.
These folks claimed to be programmers though, so I just don’t get it. Why are you depending on someone else’s plugin, that extends functionality that is inefficient and clumsy, can’t do everything, and still requires custom code to be written or even more plugins to be added. Where exactly does that circular line stop?
The Drupal “framework” and I use that term loosely since it is really a CMS that can just be extended, has enough problems and bloat in it, why exactly are views worth adding more? Again, assuming you know SQL and PHP on even a basic level.
It just doesnt make any sense. Query writers and views are one thing if you are working directly with the database, (e.g. phpMyAdmin or TOAD), but adding it as a layer to a “custom” application that you will be supporting when you claim to be capable of actual programming!!?? Please explain that one to me.
To be fair, I dont use Drupal much, I like WP much better. The OO approach is much more appealing than the very Perl-esque (read: old) way of doing things Drupal does with its modules. But I still don’t get what the big deal is about Views.
MultiX is a lightweight script to allow for the seamless administration of multiple Wordpress websites that can reside on different servers and databases. This plugin is a way for those of us that need to administer multiple Wordpress websites but don’t have the luxury of having all those sites on the same server or database. I have a lot of Wordpress sites I admin for people and am getting more every day. It is a complete annoyance to have to re-login to each and every one of them, so this plugin makes it to where a trust relationship is set up, and viola, now you can move back and forth at will.
◊ Easy to setup and install
◊ Secure random trusted key method of authentication
BookX 0.1 is finally released. BookX creates an easy way to give your site visitors a peek at your recommended books. Using only ISBN numbers, it gets the information from Barnes and Noble (http://www.bn.com) and stores the information locally to both speed up the response time, but also to not bog down their servers with repetetive requests. BookX creates a widget for your sidebar, a list view, and detail view, all customizable from the easy to use admin interface.
◊ Uses only ISBN to fill in all the important information about your books
◊ Creates a Detail Page View, List View, and a Widget all from the same plugin
◊ Each view is totally customizable from an easy to use admin interface
◊ Lots of controls over the look and feel of the generated code through the admin interface
◊ Stores most (just not the image) of the data on your server for fast results and better control
Time for another lesson in web design: Image Optimization! Yes, as we all know it is really pretty to have a huge header on your website. Hey, look at this website, I have large images on my front page. But, you don’t have to make that experience painful for your users, especially those on *gasp* dial-up!
The solution is simple: optimize your images. I use Fireworks, but Photoshop has it built in these days as well. It is basically a way of taking the image you want to use, and removes unwanted data, making the image size smaller, and hence, faster to load. The web is a horrible medium for images, the 72dpi resolution of most monitors is just not that great. But, it is all we have right now, and that is probably a good thing since anything more and the image just gets bigger and bigger.
By optimizing, your look stays intact, and everyone can enjoy it faster. And it is cheaper on your wallet since it requires less bandwidth and less CPU to serve a smaller file. Speaking of cheap, for those of you that do not have the Adobe suite, there is a pretty spiffy free online optimizer here. Enjoy, and for the love of all things holy, optimize!
If you want to read more on the topic: HTMLSource.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2036d642-2b4d-438a-a0c4-bd3d42cefa6f)
To everyone out there that thinks it is “cool” or “neat” to put music on your website, do the rest of us a favor, and don’t. While I understand the aesthetic nature of some sound, for the most part it is just annoying. When online, I usually listen to iTunes, and the last thing I want is some hideously encoded streaming .wav file repeating the same 6 seconds of music over and over again. Unless I really need to be on your website, I hit back on my mouse and try to immediately start repressing the memory that is your website.
At the end of the day, music requires a lot of bandwidth for those of you hosting the music files, a lot more than even a complex page (assuming your images are optimized, but don’t get me started on that today). And for every Pro:fx out there, there are a 100 Hampsterdance websites.
If you aren’t an amazing DJ, or awesome Flash/Shockwave/Silverlight developer, do us all a favor, and leave the music off your website. I like my thousands of MP3’s, and I don’t force you to listen to them.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=377bdfc6-4d64-454e-8b80-25f0e45078dc)
ThemeX 0.2 is now ready for download and installation. It adds several new features including:
That is about it. Right now there are no known bugs, and a few new features. So enjoy! And as always let me know if you have any issues or thoughts.
WineX 1.1 has officially been released. This is a very minor release for most people, but to those out there still having theming issues, here ya go.
In this release, the admin page has been cleaned up, making it the new pretty version found throughout WP 2.7 and ThemeX 0.2 (in a few days). The other change, the more important change if I am allowed to play favorites, is the addition of a custom CSS field. This field allows the user to enter custom CSS that will be inserted into the page right before the wine, enabling the user to fix any problems that might arise with theming.
Per the usual, if you have questions or concerns, let me know!
As I have gotten more and more involved in the WordPress world, I have released a couple of plugins, working on several more, and have already learned a few things.
One, it is always a good idea to release early, and release often, except where Wordpress release system is invloved. The system is based on SubVersion, which has been great getting to learn, but it lulls you into making some assumptions. The problem with this system, is the moment you upload code to the repository, it releases publicly. While that is fine if it is a small plugin and your first release should be public, it is not a good thing for larger projects that are going to require a lot of testing and iterations to get it ready for an actual public release. Wordpress does disclaimer their system, saying it is not a hosting service just a listing service. Which begs the question, “Why are you using SVN?”. Probably because it is familiar to most people that will be contributing code.
With all that in mind, I have moved my development versions over to Google Code. It is a hosting service, is faster than Sourceforge, and I like the interface a lot better; it is a lot more clean and easy to understand. All my WordPress plugins will be there, under the project SuiteX, and eventually the other projects I have going, like LadderX will move over there as well.
This doesnt really affect any of you much, except for questions/concerns/bugs/requests, I ask that you go over to the Issue Tracker on Google and post there. It will keep everything a bit more organized, than random comments on this website or on the WordPress forums which do a horrible job of notification or even categorization.
Per the usual, if you have questions, please just ask.
Ok, so we all know that we should write “valid”* HTML, and yet, less than 5% of websites validate for one reason or another. Now this statistic can be a bit misleading as a comment from a user that didn’t use valid markup could invalidate the website, so granted, there is some play with the stats (per the usual), but let’s again assume that number is close.
Why? Why do we not write perfect HTML? Surely with the free validator on the authority’s website there is no excuse to write code that wont validate against the standard.
The answer there is simple, if and when all the major browsers (Firefox, Safari, IE, Opera, Chrome) all render a page according to the standard, then I will finally start caring about the validation of my websites. Until then, I will continue to write code that works across the board, and just not care if it is “valid”.
To be real though, most of the browsers work pretty well, however the 800lb gorilla in the room, IE, does not. Microsoft continually changes the standards by which they will render a page, like promising CSS 2 support in IE7 then bailing on that promise 6 months before release. And let us not forget the horribly pathetic Javascript rendering engine, JScript, that the rest of us just ignore because it can’t be trusted to behave reliably.
So, like even on this website, we find ourselves writing “valid” code, and at the same time having to redefine valid to mean “Code that works in all the browsers”, not “Code that the W3C says is valid even though it looks like crap in IE6″. Just to maintain a semblance of order and sanity, we use the handy IE CSS hacks where IE on Windows will actually arbitrarly execute code depending on the version of the IE browser being used. Does that sound like an admission of guilt on the part of MS to anyone else? OK Bill, repeat after me, “I know my browser sucks, so, instead of fixing it which would severely hamper my marketing and legal budgets, I will just allow hacks in order to ensure you nerdy web guys can still make pretty pages”. There, was that so hard!?
So, someone feel free to run the validate against any of my websites. Don’t bother sending me the results because I don’t care. The sites work, the code looks good, documented, and is maintainable, so, what exactly was the complaint?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=688f04e7-7910-4d78-8153-78194999c6b9)
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Maurice Sendak (Illustrator)
Relic by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child (With)
Fall with Honor (Vampire Earth Series #7) by E. E. Knight
Best of Tin House: Stories by Staff of Tin House Books, Amy Bloom, Pinckney Benedict, Aimee Bender, David Benioff