tutorials

Spring 2007
course
navigation

Patrick's Log

Week 1

Jan 29 - Feb 2

Finished Don't Make Me Think!. I liked the design and content tips, though I think it was bit too deep on the business end for the kind of designs I'd like to do. Nonetheless, I'm going to try to stick to it's general ideas:
This week I designed a simple layout using CSS and XHTML. Basically, it's just a head, navigation, two body columns, and a footer. As I was designing, I started implementing color scheme and font styling, but decided against it and kept it just to layout in the end. I want to keep myself focused on content before presentation. In other words, I want to first put the content down without any styling or layout, and then create a simple, logical, user-friendly layout of the different elements.
Next week, I'd like to finish styling and possibly create some more pages.

Week 2

Feb 5 - 9

This last week, I definitely finished styling the template. I also created one other static page in addition to the home page. I really like the template design for my site so far. I feel like I accomplished what I projected last week. I mainly contribute this to sticking with two things: 1) A clear hierarchy of content; 2) using the content, then layout, then styling approach. While my site template is very simplistic, I feel like it accomplishes what a simple site should: easily navigable, user-friendly, visually appealing, and up-to-standards.
This next week, I'm going to move away from this page and onto a totally new and somewhat more complex project. An organization I'm involved with in Kansas needs a webpage--simple html with a calendar. I've already developed a catalog for them (they're a library), so I figure this will be relatively much more simple. It will also give me a chance to redo many of the steps involved in weeks 1 + 2.
So, for week 3 I want to:

Week 3

Feb 12 - 16

After looking into open source php/mySQL calendars, I came to the conclusion that it would be easier and more effective just to install drupal and use its calendar. I was hesitant to do this for two reasons: 1) the organization's previous website used Drupal and no one wanted to take the time to learn how to use to it and make it work; 2) Drupal is really feature rich, which is great at times, but the downside is that it's easy to go overboard with superfluous features.
Since I'm pretty happy with how the site template turned out, I believe I'll dedicate week 4 to:

Week 4

Feb 19 - 23

Well, I ran into some problems installing Drupal on port 8080. Turns out is was a cookie-related problem, but I ended up spending about 1.5 hrs hacking the settings.php in order to figure it out.
Other than that, it was a clean install. The theme transferred over nicely (built on wireframe theme). I've started messing around with modules, but this is where I've run into the most problems in the past. Drupal offers so many options regarding how to display events and a calendar. For next week, I need to:

Week 5

Feb 26 - Mar 2

Still working on the going live with the site. I've been working in off-line mode and haven't felt that its ready to be see by the public.
However, I did finish the basic site structure--finished the template, set-up modules. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to do an events calendar. Since we effectively have two types of events (events and meetings), I installed CCK and Views so I could construct two different types of events. After setting this up, I realized it was too much work and I could effectively do the same thing using the events module and taxonomy. So I just used a basic event with two attached taxonomy terms (event, meeting).
To make the event/meeting lists on the right sidebar, I used the views module to construct a two lists of nodes filtered by type, taxonomy, and the event start time. Thus, they display in chronological order according to the next six upcoming events/meetings.
Next week I'd like to spend debugging and finishing content. I believe I'll wait for spring break to go live just to make sure everything's in order. Since this is supposed to be a professionally made website for non-profit, I want to make sure everything is working.

Week 6

Mar 5 - 9

Created a list of past events, again using views. I spent a lot of time collecting content from flyers and a past website for the same org in order to make it. See it here
I have also made a list of bugs I'd like to work on with Jim next week:

Week 7

Mar 12 - 16

This week I was able to successfully go live with the website. I solved most of the bugs, added some final content (esp. in the "about" section), and turned it online. I am very happy with the end product, and we'll see how user-friendly it is in the coming weeks when volunteers begin posting content.

Week 8

Mar 2 - Apr 6

(Ryan, I don't know why you're marking Week 8 as Apr 1 - 8, and Week 9 as Apr 3 - 10. Unfortunately, we simply cannot change space/time in our tutorial, despite its obvious benefits to productivity)
Ryan did a pretty good write up for this week re: our work together.
We spent our tutorial time with Jim going over some Drupal basics and tips. (I also discovered I can't count, as I thought Drupal 5.1 was a downgrade from 4.7.6). We decided that we are not actually writing a module (thank G.), but just looking at how to create some infrastructure for TM functions. My idea is to use organic groups to give Marlboro orgs and committees some webspace that can easily be updated through Nook.
For next week, Ryan and I need to get together and make a basic plan for some Drupal community modules

Week 9

Apr 9 - 13

Ryan and I met up for about 3 hrs to discuss the TM modules and play around with Drupal. I fear we possibly did more playing around than necessary. By the end of the afternoon, Ryan's pale complexion and the detached look in his eyes were indication enough that we might have let Drupal get the better of us.
However, I believe we got a feeling for what modules and framework could be useful. We installed and setup Views, CCK, and Organic Groups--all of which give some cool functionality to things like group webspace, nominations, voting, and creating lists of all kinds of content.
Next week, I'd like to really create an outline of our goals--as detailed as possible--and then move onto how Drupal can accomplish them. We have begun this, but I feel like we moved into installing and setting up modules too quickly. They really affect how you think about a project, as Drupal can feel limitless yet stiflingly complex.
For next week:
http://cs.marlboro.edu/ courses/ spring2007/tutorials/ web_design/ patrick_log
last modified Tuesday April 10 2007 12:51 am EDT