Drupal 7 Site for electronics manufacturer
We built a new Drupal 7 site for EIT, an electronics manufacturer based in Sterling, Virginia: http://t.co/L1jVOfPL.
EIT, LLC ($75+ M/yr) is located in Sterling, Virginia and has been providing complete electronic design, assembly and test services since 1977. EIT’s old site was built using static HTML pages and was becoming outdated. EIT staff needed a way to edit pages without involving web developers in every content change. In addition, EIT’s southern Virginia facility (in Danville) had its own site at eitsouth.com, the contents of which needed to be merged into the main corporate site at eit.com.
We designed and built a new site from the ground up using Drupal 7, configured in such a way that designated staff members could edit pages. The page editor supports content revisions, so that editors can roll back to a previous version at will. The design features an image slideshow on the home page and a customized header image for each area of the site. The Careers page allows the HR derpartment to add job openings that candidates can apply for on the spot, including the required EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) form. Submitted form data is emailed to relevant personnel within the company, and can be exported to CSV or Excel formats.
Main Swing: Joomla CMS conversion for DC jazz band
New Joomla site for DC jazz band, Main Swing: http://t.co/pYeQ8wwI
Main Swing, a chic cutting-edge jazz band based in Washington D.C., performs swing, bee-bop, blues, latin-jazz, and popular dance favorites. Their previous site consisted of a single-page HTML file. We built a new site using Joomla, allowing their site to grow more easily, and enabling the owners to edit the pages on their own. We also added an mp3 player with playlist support.
Joomla site for electronic health records company
MDI Solutions has a Joomla site, which we revamped and improved for them: http://t.co/3tX02gQo.
MDI Solutions, a provider of electronic health records and data integration services in both North America and the UK, approached Plethora Design for some visual and functional improvements to their existing Joomla site. We implemented numerous design and SEO improvements, including changes to the fonts, menu system, XML sitemap, meta descriptions, and titles, and added links at the bottom of all pages for additional search engine optimization as well as providing an alternate way for users of the site to access information. We also adjusted the home page to accommodate a new page for MDI’s UK market, using modules as home page content.
Washington DC language program site using Joomla
DC Internationals – MESALI uses Joomla: http://t.co/83iAKdV.
MESALI / DC Internationals offers foreign language classes including Arabic, Pashto, Kurdish, Turkish, Urdu, Persian, and many more.
MESALI runs ads on NPR radio (WAMU 88.5 in DC), and approached us for help migrating to a better hosting environment and cleaning up the site overall. We improved the layout and styling of their Joomla site while migrating their tuition payment forms away from their previous host.
We also helped out on SEO. When we got involved they were hardly being found on Google. Now you can Google “arabic classes dc” and find them on page one. That took only a matter of weeks to accomplish.
Joomla 1.5 golf site
Real Deal Golf is a new golf-themed site using Joomla: http://t.co/yKzmFvc.
Realdealgolf.com is a golf community with auctions, deals, and maps. Users can customize their profiles, connect with other users, send private messages, locate other users nearby on the map (using a Google Maps integration), bid on penny auctions, and see daily deals for their area.
Front Page Slideshow Link Problem
Front Page Slideshow Link Problem http://t.co/dhKOgCA. We encountered an issue when trying to save slides that we did not intend to link; they were getting save with “URL” as the link. The solution was to manually enter “#” instead.
Front Page Slideshow Link Problem
FPSS is a great slideshow addon for Joomla, Drupal, and standalone slideshows.
They have a new version for Joomla 1.7, with a much improved interface. When it comes to linking slides, it seems you can choose to display links for all slides, or not. But what if you want links on some slides but not others? In such a case, if the user did not supply a URL, the link will say “http://www.yoursite.com/URL”. You could enter “#” or “javascript:;” as the URL, but one cannot expect non web developers to remember to do this. The user should not be required to take additional action just to NOT link a slide.
We wrote a quick fix for this. Open up the default.php template file for the FPSS layout you’re using. We used JJ-Oobs so we opened up /modules/mod_fpss/tmpl/JJ-Obs/default.php. Right after “foreach($slides as $slide):” insert the following
if($slide->link == 'URL'){
$slide->link = 'javascript:;';
}
We used a “javascript:;” URL rather than “#” because this way if you slideshow is far down the page, clicking it will not take you back to the top of the page … using “#” can conflict with named anchors but “javascript:;” does not.
Joomla site wins Web Award
Our Joomla site for the Vineyard Arts Project (vineyardartsproject.org) won a Web Award in September 2011: http://t.co/UPOsUdp.
Founded in 2007, Vineyard Arts Project is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose mission is to foster, develop, and promote the live arts as experiences central to education and the community of Martha’s Vineyard. Its founder and artistic director is Ashley Melone, whose most recent credits include ballet coordinator for Darren Aronofsky’s film Black Swan, for which Natalie Portman won an Oscar.
Having designed their original site in 2008, we were asked to redesign it with an emphasis on upcoming programs. As with the previous site, the site features beautiful photos of dancers in motion, but we opted for a light and airy look: white, light blue, and orange. The layout was built as a custom Joomla template, and is iPad and iPhone compatible.
The original site also used a custom Joomla template, with a Flash home page based on photos of various Vineyard Arts Project dancers. This minimalist gray / orange design was accentuated by the warm colors in the home page photo, and put the viewer’s attention squarely on the content, whether it be photos or text. The new design maintains that, but using a light color scheme and more emphasis on user participation through social media.
iPad testing ..
In a previous post I mentioned testing iPad and iPhone sites using simulation software (ibbdemo). It does an admirable job but in some cases it does not act the same as the real thing. For example, an actual iPad might crash safari on some pages, but ibbdemo would just show the page. Needless to say, I got an iPad to remedied this situation. What better way to test than with the real thing?
I will say I am a bit stunned at the lack of built in voice recognition on the iPad 2. It has a microphone, and using the google app you can search using voice, but why on earth can’t you do this with safari or for that matter any place where you might want to enter text… Like when writing emails or notes? Evernote is useful, but built in voice to text would be far superior.
Joomla site for community organization
New Joomla site for Council of North County Neighborhoods: http://tinyurl.com/3auwy58
The mission of the Council is to bring together the North County’s neighborhoods to promote communication and cooperation between member organizations of Northern Pinellas County, to foster a sense of community, to provide a forum for member organizations, and most important is to act as a neighborhood advocate for the benefit of our member organizations and to bring a common voice to state and county government including and not limited to the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners and State Legislators.
Joomla site for systems engineering company in northern Virginia
We designed a new Joomla site for Stratos Solutions in Fairfax, Virginia: http://tinyurl.com/3qklhms.
Stratos Solutions is a professional technical services company specializing in Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA advisory services) in support of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). We designed and built a new site for them using Joomla 1.6, to allow them to edit the site without outside help. We also built a private document sharing tool for them, also using Joomla.
Joomla site for dance center in Texas
We designed a new Joomla site for Protégé Danz Center in Bartonsville, Texas: http://tinyurl.com/5trfepe
This new Bartonsville, Texas dance studio was in need of a content management system and new site in advance of the opening of their studio. We designed a custom Joomla 1.6 template, with Mootools JavaScript effects, image slideshows, embedded video, Twitter and Facebook feeds, and a custom-designed image menu.
new VirtueMart e-commerce site
Tools for All http://tinyurl.com/6b3vbec, an Australian tool supplier. The site uses the Mynxx template for Joomla and VirtueMart.
just added: Aardweg Landscaping
just added: Aardweg Landscaping http://tinyurl.com/3vjpt5m, a landscape designer serving suburban Philadelphia.
Steven Aardweg’s required a new site with full CMS capability and SEO-optimized HTML and content.
We built a Joomla 1.6 site for him, while adding many new pages and a full project portfolio area, to give his completed projects the full attention it deserves. After all, customers looking for a landscape designer will very quickly want to see examples of completed projects. On his previous site, his work did not get the proper emphasis, and this has been rectified. Because Aardweg Landcaping is built with Joomla, it allows for full content management functionality, so that the owner can edit all pages, menus, forms, and modules.
just added: Konekte Haiti aid map
just added: Konekte http://tinyurl.com/3talx6y
mapping / data filtering for Haiti aid NGOs
Konekte is a mapping tool developed by the Garnet Group for use by and in consultation with the Clinton Global Initiative’s Haiti Action Network (HAN). It displays data from HAN member organizations so that interested parties can see what other organizations are doing and where. It allows people to see what other activities are being carried out in a given area, and is intended as a way to reduce duplication of effort by the many non-profits active there. Konekte features data filtering of multiple organizations vs. multiple activities, the results of which are displayed on the map and in a data table that can be exported to CSV or printed. A Google Earth export feature is also in the works. Konekte is built using Ushahidi, but the data filtering was achieved using custom programming, because Ushahidi only allows for a single set of categories and has no filtering built in.
- Client: Clinton Global Initiative
- Link: view site
- Location: New York, NY
Selecting HTML tag(s) by CSS Class using JavaScript
Often web developers like to use:
document.getElementById(‘yourelement’).style.display = ‘none’;
With jQuery there are easier ways to do this, but I’m talking just about plain JavaScript.
But suppose you’re using some script that’s encoded and prevents you from adding unique IDs into <div> tags, for example. This is the case with CBSubs, for Joomla. The files are encoded and for most DIVs there are no IDs, so we’re left having to select them based on the CSS classes (in CBSubs you can assign each plan a unique CSS class).
Here’s one way of doing it;
Full article; http://tinyurl.com/6h6szp2
just added: Virginia Martial Arts Academy
just added: Virginia Martial Arts Academy http://tinyurl.com/3kbsuoz, a Joomla 1.6 site.
Virginia Martial Arts Academy offers programs in Tae Kwon Do / Hapkido and Combat Jujitsu for children through adults. Their previous site was difficult for them to maintain, and featured some complicated trial membership forms that we moved into Joomla 1.6 for easier management, using RsForm Pro. The VMAA site also includes some Facebook modules allowing people to ‘like’ the site and add comments.
Testing websites for iPad/iPhone compatibility
There’s a very handy utility called iBBDemo2 that lets you test websites using an iPhone / iPad emulator. We used it with vineyardartsproject.org. It does not do a great job emulating video. For example, using standard YouTube embed code (an iframe), it renders a black box where the video would actually be, even though the video *will* run correctly on a physical iPhone. Other videos (e.g. locally hosted video) would be much harder to troubleshoot reliably using this tool.
It also seems that targeting for iPhone using CSS doesn’t really work with iBBDemo2. For example:
@media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px) {
#somedivtag{
width:300px;
}
}
Relaunched AICIT.com, a northern Virginia VoIP/email provider
We just designed a new Joomla site for http://www.aicit.com, a VoIP provider in Sterling, Loudoun County (northern Virginia).
A new corporate site for a northern Virginia / Washington DC area solutions provider with a presence in the Equinix data center for North America, near AOL’s operational headquarters. The site is built using Joomla 1.5 to allow AICIT staff to edit it themselves. We also designed their original site for them in 2009, and were very involved in the redesign effort from start to finish, including copywriting, content development, layout design, and programming.
just added: Al for Sterling
just added: Al for Sterling http://tinyurl.com/5vcafqn .. a site for a political campaign in Loudoun County, Virginia.
Just redesigned Vineyard Arts Project
Just redesigned Vineyard Arts Project for Ashley Melone, ballet coordinator for Black Swan – http://www.vineyardartsproject.org/.
Founded in 2007, Vineyard Arts Project is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization whose mission is to foster, develop, and promote the live arts as experiences central to education and the community of Martha’s Vineyard. Its founder and artistic director is Ashley Melone, whose most recent credits include ballet coordinator for Darren Aronofsky’s film Black Swan.
Having designed their original site in 2008, we were asked to redesign it with an emphasis on upcoming programs. As with the previous site, the site features beautiful photos of dancers in motion, but we opted for a light and airy look: white, light blue, and orange. The layout was built as a custom Joomla template, and is iPad and iPhone compatible.
The original site also used a custom Joomla template using a Flash home page based on photos of various Vineyard Arts Project dancers. This minimalist gray / orange design is accentuated by the warm colors in the home page photo, and puts the viewer’s attention squarely on the content, whether it be photos or text.
Yondrr – children’s site
Yondrr.com features submitted art, writing, and videos by and for children. We were brought in to expand the scope of the site’s content, and when we got involved the site design was already in place (done by Tim Kenney Marketing in Washington, DC). We revamped the file structure using PHP includes for common page elements, designed user-friendly buttons for the home page, and built jQuery image galleries for the art and writing areas.
Plethora Design Concrete5 Article in Web Designer Mag, UK
We wrote an article about the Concrete5 CMS for issue 182 of Web Designer Magazine, currently on sale in the UK. If and when it is published online, we’ll provide a link here.
We have written a number of blog posts on the Concrete5 content management system.
VirtueMart Category Dropdown Menu
VirtueMart is an e-commerce component for Joomla, and it comes with a module called Product Categories (mod_product_categories). This module comes with several display options, such as a link list, CSS menu, and some JavaScript menus. Strangely, though, it does not come with a dropdown select option (a <select> menu). This post will show you how to add that option. This VirtueMart core modification also adds a “selected” attribute to the currently selected <option>.
Rather than writing it as a separate module, I have extended the the normal product categories module to have this as an option in addition to all the other options such as Transmenu, Links List, and so on. This should make it easier to incorporate in the next release since the work’s already done.
The following is in use on a site running Joomla 1.5.23 and VirtueMart 1.1.8. You can download VirtueMart here. Download the “complete package”, unzip it, and look in the modules directory for mod_product_categories_1.1.8.j15.zip. This is the module that need to be modified.
After making the following modifications, you will need to edit your categories module and set the category display type to “Dropdown select menu”.
There are two file modifications and one new file:
- modules/mod_product_categories/mod_product_categories.php (modified)
- modules/mod_product_categories/mod_product_categories.xml (modified)
- modules/mod_virtuemart/vm_select.php (new file).
(For the code for modules/mod_virtuemart/vm_select.php, please see the updated post at http://www.plethoradesign.com/virtuemart-category-dropdown-module.)
Modify modules/mod_product_categories/mod_product_categories.php:
After:
case 'tigratree': /* TigraTree script to display structured categories */ include( $vm_path . '/vm_tigratree.php' ); break;
Paste this:
//product categories select mod case 'select': include( $vm_path . '/vm_select.php' ); break; //
Modify modules/mod_product_categories/mod_product_categories.xml:
After: <option value="dtree">dTree</option>
Paste this:
<!--product categories select mod--> <option value="select">Dropdown select menu</option> <!--end-->
For the code for modules/mod_virtuemart/vm_select.php, please see the updated post at http://www.plethoradesign.com/virtuemart-category-dropdown-module.
just added: NotesnCoins.com e-Commerce Site
NotesnCoins.com is the online presence of Coin Buyers International, Ashewicke Ltd., owned and operated by Howard Perkins since 1957.
Phoca Download CommunityBuilder for Joomla
We’re pleased to announce a new version of our CommunityBuilder Phoca Download plugin. The new version works in both Joomla 1.6 and 1.5, and allows users to edit their files’ titles and descriptions, and lets them delete their own files. We are working on adding more refined group-based access controls in the plugin parameters.
The editing interface is still a bit clunky and will also be improved.
Enjoy!
just added: Elbrus World Race …
just added: Elbrus World Race http://tinyurl.com/4svf9mf
This was a fun little project redesigning the splash page and partially redesigning the WordPress theme for this extreme winter sports site.
Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox
It’s been a long time coming, but Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 are finally out. There is no doubt that these both represent major improvements to each respective browser.
For IE9, it means much better and more reliable web page rendering, including support for CSS3 effects like rounded corners.
For Firefox 4, it means tabbed browsing and hardware acceleration á la Chrome (for faster browsing). Firefox was starting to be eclipsed by Google Chrome on those fronts, and now has a shot at maintaining its lead. One reason for that is that Firefox has loads more addons that are also more mature than the ones Chrome offers. In addition – and this is admittedly a minor thing – Firefox has Print Preview and Chrome STILL doesn’t. Let’s give Google the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s because they want to save the environment … but if that were the case they should remove the Print function altogether!
You can install Firefox 4 alongside a previous version of Firefox by installing it into a separate Program Files folder (for those of you using Windows).
The Web Developer Toolbar extension for Firefox is already available for Firefox 4.
Moreno Diaz Law Firm – Our first Concrete5 Site!
just added: Moreno Diaz Law Firm http://tinyurl.com/4md4o72
This is the first site we create using Concrete5. Overall it was a good experience.
I feel that the editing process could be streamlined, as slick as it is. Let’s get my basic gripes out of the way:
- Inserting images and file links requires too many clicks. Why not show a “Use this image” or “Use this file” button after the file has successfully uploaded … the way WordPress does? The average user is going to have a hard time locating the file they just uploaded.
- File management should support directories. Maybe you can add those using FTP, but it isn’t possible with Concrete5. Instead, it offers “Sets” as a way of organizing files. After familiarizing myself with this, it worked OK, but I can’t help but worry that I am potentially overwriting existing files. Using directories allows me to know exactly where files are. It is the conventional approach, and using conventions is one sure-fire way of ensuring usability, even if it isn’t as slick as Sets. A first-time editor shouldn’t have to learn a new method of organizing files: use the conventions that people know … files and directories.
- Saving a page takes two clicks; Exit Edit Mode, and then Publish. Why not simple show a simple Save button showing a friendly icon of some sort, and save a version of the page automatically? Currently, you are presented with a screen asking you to name the version of this page. It’s great that versioning is built in, but it should be as painless as possible. In my opinion, a timestamp should be sufficient for the version name.
- Blocks are easy to use, and saving blocks for reuse is easy too, using the “Add to Scrapbook” feature. Unfortunately, these blocks do not function the same way as Drupal blocks or Joomla modules. When you insert a Concrete5 block from your Scrapbook and then want to edit the block once and have it update on multiple pages, it’s a no-go. You will need to edit it in place on one of your pages, then re-save it to your Scrapobook, then remove the previously inserted blocks from your pages, and finally re-insert the block from your Scrapbook. This is a severe limitation in my opinion, which will limit Concrete5′s usefulness on larger sites. Imagine having a block assigned to a few dozen pages. Who wants to reinsert a block that many times?
Please note that my comments are based on a default configuration using Concrete5. Perhaps some of these issues can be overcome with modifications, but I think that is beside the point. I do still think it is a great content management system for “brochure” sites of perhaps up to a dozen pages, but would not yet consider it for any larger-scale content management. For that I will stick with Joomla and Drupal.
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- new site: Cultural Arts Academy Charter School at Spring Creek http://t.co/T9mGBghq
- new site: Global Voice Hall http://t.co/9miirfTE
- new site: Cowork Suites http://t.co/2nYoA2TW
- new site: Atlanta Home Modifications http://t.co/i3xQLgNk