Today, after months of coding (on-and-off), I have launced version 8 of my website. The old site was only a little more than a year old, but I was already bored of it so a fresh new look was needed. More than that though, new features have been added, bringing it up-to-date. Here's a list of what's changed, been removed and been added:
No more tables. That's it - they're gone completely (at last)!
That means a full CSS controlled page layout.
The 10 latest blog entries are available in full on the front page - not just the first paragraphs of these entries
Javascript is used to show/hide comments and additional information within the blog page meaning it doesn't need to be reloaded when these links are clicked.
Nicer URLs e.g., blog URLs are now made up of their date and title rather than a reference number. However, old reference number URLs do still work.
Better compliance with HTML standards. Most pages will now validate as HTML 4.01 Transitional. A few old blog entries may still show small errors but all new entries should be compliant since I am not permitting HTML within entries anymore (I have a BBCode style implementation for minor formatting like this list).
The 'About' section is now in blog entries making the section easier to update and including it in daily backups.
A new section: 'Microblog' is now available, pulling data from my Identi.ca RSS feed. This could potentially also include a Twitter feed should I start using that separately from Identi.ca.
The way browsing is done within the Music Library has changed. Users must select the letter of the artist being looked for from a drop down list. Javascript functionality allows users to drill down through listed artists, to their albums and then tracks within that album without reloading the page. Track information is displayed in a popup window and contains more detail than before.
The map icons have been changed to transparent crosshair icons. Only visited locations are now on show
When browsing links, more information about that link can be displayed by clicking on the expand button. This may be developed further to include links to blog entries referencing that link.
The Contact form is available on every page. Initially hidden, it will become visible upon clicking the 'Contact' link thanks to Javascript.
Quick links to other websites where I have a presence are available under the 'Elsewhere On The Web' link
The Search function has been dramatically improved; searching more areas of the site. All results are put into a temporary database table allowing different orders (e.g., order by published date descending or result type ascending). The Music Library can also be searched by artist, album, track, tag, year or lyrics.
Small graphics are used to enhance the visual appearance such as the search field and button, the background of page headers, other buttons.
The Photography and Amateur Radio sections have been removed in preparation for them getting their own sites.
I think that's a pretty comprehensive list. I do believe it's a big step forward for my little site which has also had a small rebrand - it's called Ben Gamblin Central now, instead of Ben Gamblin Online. The idea being that all of my profiles around the internet link back here and vice-versa. Things aren't completely finished. I want to develop the Microblog section so that data is permanently saved in the database rather than just what is available on the RSS feed being shown. New sub-sites will be developed to bring back the Photography and Amateur Radio sections too.
The question now is: will I still like this version of the site in a year's time, or will I change it again?
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