Here is a progress report on recent updates to this site.
Ok so it's midnight right now and I've been working on the site for over 10 hours and the following is a list of what has been updated.
I made the menu bar at the top of the page with drop-down attributes. After that I was spent hours dealing with a huge problem setting up the character tab. At first I was gonna put a vertical menu bar with drop-downs for each characters bio, email, photo album, movies, music etc. but I didn't want the page to reload every time a visitor wanted to view someone's profile. Also it would make it difficult for the design of the site if I made the page reload since the rest of the site is structured around AJAX syntax that prevents the site from loading through spry CSS.
I wanted to utilize the new features available in Dreamweaver CS3 which has a new and easy method for inserting spry ajax into the site. Much like the menu tabs I wanted the character tab to have links to each characters page but I didn't want the links to reload the pages or open the profiles in a different window. Basically it makes it easy to jump from one profile to the next without reloading the web page and it makes designing and updating the site easy as well since I do not have to update the menu links for every page because there is only one page with frames inside the page for different areas.
So each characters profile is inside a frame and all the content included in each menu tab is inside its own frame as well. I guess you can think of it as being in one living room with different frames on the wall so you can see outside content without leaving the initial room. I guess it would be more like being in a security surveillance room where you can view video feeds or other up-to-date dynamic content without leaving the room and having to physically walk to where the action was taking place.
So after hours and hours of work I have finally developed the characters tab. Now you can go to TheWebsiteForTheShow and click on the characters tab and have a menu bar with each characters name as a link that when clicked will display their respective profile without reloading the web page! Using xml to achieve this feature I have also discovered that dynamic content can be displayed on each frame so I can create exclusive forms for the characters of The Show that upon submission their re sluts will be displayed on their profile. I can also use this knowledge and technology to create an online forum and comment feature.
There are some other things I can do using spry and ajax some of which include a feature where if you click on a picture it can resize with animation and I can also have a feature where if you click the header of the menu items it organizes them so you can re-organize the menu by age, height, alphabetic name, etc.
There is tons and tons more I plan on developing for this site within the next few months for portfolio purposes, practice, just to see if it can be done, and oh of course it's all for The Show ;)
Check back soon on this blog and also keep reloading the site because this is the time when things are being updated at a consistent basis! Remember to look at the updated window to see when the site was last updated which is very often at this time!
Friday, September 28, 2007 3:43 PM
Some more design updates have happened this afternoon.
I have made accordion drop-down links for the news articles to make them easier to navigate because the articles were starting to pile up. I also added some css styles to the accordion links like the link color, text size and style, border width and color etc.
I am working on setting up the profile pages with more content so there will soon be areas for each characters movies, blog, photoalbum, and email. The design for the character tab has been finished and now I just need to add content through the xml file. I am thinking down the road a ways to when I will develop a feature where each character can edit their profile and choose which movies they would like showcased although this wouldn't be developed until further down the road.
So for today I will take a few movies and convert them to Flash and start working on embedding the flash movies using spry to have each movie displayed on the characters profile from the characters tab. This is all done without refreshing the website, only the content is loaded when each characters profile is visited but the page does not refresh so it saves time from having to reload things like the banner, the menu, the footer, etc. which is the same on every page. Only the relevant files that are required to view the page are loaded while the site itself remains the same.
Now that the site is starting to be put together and the styles have been written it becomes easier to update content since you can see where something is placed and how it will look. I have not had any difficulties yet today with the design progress although I've only worked a few hours on the site mostly writing CSS and blogs oh and the accordion drop-down menus.
Expect to see some videos on the character page by the end of the day I will probably put three best-of videos on each profile and start with one profile and finish before I move on to start putting videos on the next profile. Once the videos are done I will move on the adding music, then photo albums, then a blog for each. When I have that all set-up probably in the next few days then I will start working on the contact links for the characters which will have an area where visitors can fill out a form and write a message that is send to the email of the character.
So yeah I'm gonna start working on converting some videos over to Flash so I can start putting them online so while I get started working on that check back soon to see the videos!
Saturday, September 29, 2007 7:15 PM
Some of the characters videos have been encoded and uploaded to the site and are now available.
At first I encoded a batch of videos but they were all different aspect ratios so I went back to original source files and re-encoded the videos so they were all the same size and larger so it's not like watching a video through a postage stamp.
I was having trouble getting videos to display on the first character link from the character tab so I decided to have my profile first on the tab because there's not any videos for me except my editing demo reel which I have made available as a URL link.
I got my photo album set-up and it was easy to have links go to my email, music etc. but I still don't know what I'm gonna put on the blog window for myself since I am basically writing blogs here in the news tab but I dunno I'll come up with something for it because I want the character tab to be some-what entertaining but if the first character you see is me and it's just links to other pages it will take the visitor away from TheWebsiteForTheShow before they had a chance to look at the other character profiles which are much more entertaining. The only reason I put up a profile for myself is because sometimes people wonder who the person is behind the camera and I wanted to provide a little bit of detail of what I am all about.
I put some more tabs on the page today so visitors can go right to the videos, music, blogs, and I made a separate tab for logging in because it was first on the Home tab but visitors thought that ALL the content on TheWebsiteForTheShow required users to log in which is not true so I moved the login tab to the far right next to the signup tab. The top menu bar at the very very top of the page has been designed but the links just go back to this page because I am still working on the features for them which I do not expect to be developed for another few months or so because I am focusing my attention on uploading the videos then I'll get the photo albums for the characters all set-up and the music after that.
I basically have a plan of developing all the features down the tab line with exception to the signup and login functions which have already been developed. Of course I have more plans but I do not have any indications as to what other features I will make available until I have developed the existing features.
Oh on another note just real quick I wanted to mention that I informed Bryan of the new site which is under construction and when I finally got him to visit the site he immediately went to his profile and the picture that was displayed was unacceptable to him which he did not fail to mention. He demanded that I change the picture then tried to send me some cheesy pic he took with his hair all combed over lookin' all stupid-like and I was like no way am I putting that dumb ass photo on my site so there was a conflict of interest. My guess is that since he is going to court soon for a DUI and possession of drugs charge he wants to look like some angel that lives in his parents basement but seriously though like he's the first person in the world to go to court and look like some prince gimme a break for cryin' out loud. Yeah like having some beautiful pic on TheWebsiteForTheShow where you're skipping in a field somewhere donating to charity is gonna get you an acquittal so I guess the news update for this entry is: Bryan, it's TheShow for Christ's' sake. You're supposed to look like a jackass. Get over it ya baby!
I'll probably put one or two more videos up later tonight and I'll put some more up tomorrow. Thanks for reading!
