Todnem.com (beta)

Testing diff feature again.

Hello everyone and happy Sunday!

The latest release (Beta version 2.0) is now out and available for use and testing. There are a lot of changes in this version (both back end and front end) so please let me know if you see any issues. As always, log out and clear your cache and cookies. Then return to the site.

Below is a summary of most of the changes in this release. You don't necessarily have to read it. However, it does provide detailed explanations and locations for most of the new features. So if you're confused about navigating within the new layout, please come back to this post for a reference. Some of the below features are subject to change as I'm still working on a few things.

Blogs are back!! Rather than continue to see Google articles related to wooden shoes, I opted to revert the main post section back to "Blogs". You will also see the term "post" throughout the site now which is considered synonymous with "blogs". The Photos, Events and Links sections are currently down until I can revamp them to work with the new interface. It shouldn't take too long as it's mostly cosmetic adjustments.

Most of the functions previously available in the sub-header have now been relocated to the bottom of the page, in the footer area. Since most of you are here for the blogs, my primary focus was to make as much acreage available at the top of the page by moving all non-menu items down to the footer.

Footer Section Updates

• Under View:
• New Posts - Returns all unread posts or posts with unread comments or posts with recent updates to the content (wip).
• Last Search - Returns the results of your last tag cloud search without having to go to the Tag Cloud page first and then submit.
• Default Search (updated 9/12/2006) - Returns results based on your Default Search setting (see Tag Cloud Updates below). If you haven't specified a Default Search setting, this will pull all blogs from the last 3 days.
  
• Tag Clouds - These muti-select tag areas allow you to build the criteria for your searches.
• Members - Provides member-specific details such as who is online, number of posts, etc.
• What's New? - Returns posts related to recently-implemented site features.
• Coming Soon! - Returns posts related to current development projects or fixes that will generally be available in the next release.
• Under Functions:
• Create A New Post - Takes you to your primary choice of text editors so you can compose a new post.
• Mark Post As Un-Read - Sets the Read flag to "Un-Read" for a particular post so you can come back to it later. This item will show up under the "New Posts" search.
• Mark All As Read - Sets the Read flag on all current post results to "Read". These items will not show up under the "New Posts" search.
• Mark All As Un-Read - Sets the Read flag on all current post results to "Un-Read". These items will show up under the "New Posts" search.
• Under Settings:
• Account - Allows you to view and modify your individual account preferences.
• Styles - Provides users with the ability to instantly switch between different style sheets for the site, to alter the default look and feel. There are currently 4 different site styles available with Mono and Mudd being the two most recent additions.
• Under Help:
• General Info - Returns posts related to the site in general.
• Tips and Tricks - Returns all posts labeled as Help posts.
• Bug Reports - Returns all posts related to bugs and possible fixes.
• About Us - Provides a brief overview of the site's history.
• Under Login Status:
• Log In Prompt - If you are not currently logged in, you will see the login form otherwise, you should see the welcome message with a Log Out link.
  

Blog Page Updates

• The layout of the blogs has been reversed to provide access to the scrollbar on the blog list itself.
• When the content of a particular post is longer than will fit in the preview pane, a scrollbar notification message will appear at the bottom of the preview pane, indicating that there is more content. For those without a mouse wheel, a "toggle scrollbar" link is now available in this same notification area.

Preview Pane Updates

• The individual post area has been cleaned up quite a bit in an effort to make it easier to read and less cluttered overall.
• "Posted By" messages are now located at the top of each message so you can immediately tell the who, what, and when.
  
• Blog and Blog Comment toolbars have been replaced with corresponding links, but are located in the same general area and serve the same purpose as before.
• The toolbar item "Comment" has been replaced with "Reply to Post".
• All toolbar references to "Blogs" or "Clogs" have been replaced with the term "Post".
  
• Privacy messages are only located at the top of the blog itself vs. on each individual comment.
• The Blog toolbar now contains two additional items:
• Permalink - This allows you to get instant access to the URL of the post you are previewing in case you want to link to it from another site or an email.
• Tags - Toggles the display of available tags for a particular post.This area also includes two new sections:
• Technorati - Searches the Technorati site for other blogs that correspond to the tag on which you are clicking.Allows you to see who else is writing about that particular term.
• Bookmarks - Allows you add the link for the post you are currently previewing to a bookmark collection at your choice of several online bookmarking sites.These sites allow you to save the link to a blog and then add your own tags to it so you can easily find it later.
• (Added 9/11/2006)  The Blog Comment toolbar now contains an additional item:
• Reply to Post - Same as on the Blog toolbar. In the event that there are multiple comments on a post, this link allows you to respond directly to the post without having to scroll back up to the top.
• (Added 9/11/2006)  Any changes or modifications to a post from it's original format will be registered as an "edit" and will be captured and displayed at the bottom of each entry with the Member's name and date/time stamp.
  

Blog List Updates

• The blog list has also been trimmed and slimmed a bit to make it easier to visually sort through individual posts.
• New icons have been added to standardize a post's status regardless of which site style is applied.
• Red Envelope - New or Unread post
• White Envelope - Old or previously read post
• White Envelope w/ Pushpin - Sticky Post/Topic
• Yellow Triangle - Announcement or High Priority Post
• Padlock - Indicates that a Post has been flagged as Private
• Highlighted number after post title indicates the total number of comments

Rich Text Editor Updates (added 9/11/2006)

• Layout - The previous format has been slightly reorganized and the fields have been made larger to make entering and selecting items quicker and easier.
• Mark this message as New - Allows you to RE-flag your post as New for all members if significant modifications are made that affect the overall content of the message.
• (added 9/16/2006) Mark this message as Collaborative - Set by the original poster, this option enables members to modify the content of someone elses post.
  

Tag Cloud Updates (added 9/12/2006)

• Save these settings as my Default Search -  This option allows you to specify the settings for your Default Search preference.  Just check the box after selecting your criteria and click the "Search Blogs Now" button to save the current settings as your Default Search.
  

Since you all asked for a heads up, I figured I'd let you know that the format for the site will most likely be changing in the next day or two.  It depends on how long it takes me to finish designing and debugging. 

If you want more details as to what will be changing read onward...

The new format implements some minor back-end changes, but the most noticeable ones will be cosmetic.  That's right, soon you will have graphics.  Oooh, aaahh.    Just FYI, the site design will be centered around Logo #1 shown in my previous post about the new site logos.

Some of you may be thinking, "But hey, we're on dial-up".  Not to worry.  Once again, with the assistance of AJAX you won't have to download graphics more than once which should make the site a whole lot nicer to look at, without over-burdening you guys with loads of images.  Between the browser's cache and AJAX, it shouldn't be a whole lot different than before.  Basically, the whole header portion of the page with your menus and the logo (coming soon) will only need to download once.  From that point forward, you just click on a menu item and the pages actually load below the header.  Quick and easy.

So consider this your heads up notice.  The next time you hear about it will be after I push it out.  Weeeeeeeeee!



I considered redesigning the layout of the clogs but the current format seems to work pretty darn well, so I have kept it in place for now, with a few minor modifications.

In keeping with the recent trend of Web 2.0 standards, I have designed my first compliant logos.  Just thought I'd share it with everyone to see if anyone had suggestions or ideas for other cool logos.  Eventually, I'd like to move away from this basic layout to one that is a bit more flowing and less blocky.  So these logos are just the beginning.  All ideas are welcome!  The images are a bit large so they may take a little bit to download.

View New Logos

I realize that you guys probably don't keep up with every single release the moment it becomes available.  But I thought I'd let everyone know that the latest release for Firefox is out.  Hopefully, since Grandpa P. just downloaded his, he has the latest version.

Just fyi, I ran into an issue recently where the insert Link function in the text editor window would not work.  As it turns out, it appeared to be problem caused by the combination of version 1.0.5 (the latest) and one or more extensions that I loaded into Firefox.  Always keep in mind that if you utilize extensions, that these things are designed by programmers from all around the world and are free to anyone that wants to try them.  That does not guarantee, however, that they are completely stable or will not cause potential problems of one sort or another. 

I had several extensions that we due for an update and once I updated, thankfully, everything worked again.  Just something to keep in mind before installing random pieces of software into your main web browser. 

On the opposite side of this coin, there are some really, really cool extensions out there which can make Firefox an even better browser than it already is.  Everything from stock tickers to complete web development troubleshooting tools.  And with the exception of the occasional issue you run into, most of them are actually pretty good.  You can check out all the various extensions for Firefox using the link below.

Get Firefox Extensions Now »

In a startling revelation, a BBC report released today stated that after extensive studies over the course of the last hour, they've noticed a sudden fluctuation in tag cloud sizes.  They state emphatically, that although the tag clouds may appear large at first glance, simply clicking on an individual tag cloud title will cause the cloud to completely disappear from sight.  The human eye is still very capable of tracking the title, they say, so the clouds original size can be immediately restored if required.  They also indicated that such fluctuations were nothing to be concerned about and actually offered the benefit of being able to browse the Blogs without so much scrolling, by making only certain clouds visible at any given moment.  Research and long-term studies will continue they stated, and any further discoveries would result in an updated report. 

Reporting live, from the office, this is me.

 

For those of you on dial-up connections, I'm curious as to how quickly (or not so quickly) the site is loading for you all.  I'm always looking to add more features, but never at the expense of load times.  So I'm trying to keep everything to a minimum so the pages load more quickly.

I recently switched the default Blog display to only show the blogs from the current month/year.  That way you're not loading every single blog each time you visit.  Just in case anyone bookmarked the blog link directly, please click on the blog link in the top menu, and update your bookmarks.  Since the site will continue to grow in features, I would suggest NOT bookmarking to a particular section, but to the site itself (http://www.todnem.com).  That way, you won't miss out on any new sections or features.

Please respond with your estimations on how quickly the pages load vs. how quickly you think they should be loading. 

Thanks!

Just a quick note on some new features/updates...

A request was made to add a "Reply To" button for each of the comments so a person could actually respond to individual comments instead of just the blog.  So be it.  A "Reply To" comment now shows an "[RE: Comment #]" at the top and each comment gets a unique comment number associated with it (also displayed).

Since the number of blogs is quickly going to overrun a single page, I've set the default selection up to only display blogs from the current month.  All you have to do to see additional blogs is click a different selection using the "View Blogs By..." tag clouds.  By the way, rather than having to scroll down past the clouds every time, just make your selection and then click the "View Blogs By..." button again to hide the clouds.

A side note on some minimum requirements to post.  Currently, I do not have a plain text editor available for those using older browsers.  The current editor is a Rich Text Editor and is only supported by newer browsers such as...

• Internet Explorer 6
• Firefox 1.5
• Netscape 8

If you have a different browser type or an older version of the ones above, I seriously suggest upgrading to the latest version.  Or you can just get the latest version of Firefox and be done.  If you haven't switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox yet, you should give it serious consideration in my opinion.  I am a big proponent of Microsoft products but once I switched I really began to see how many problems are associated with Internet Explorer.  Now, I only use IE for testing purposes.  Firefox is a fantastic browser and with the additional extensions available it is truly awesome!

But for those of you who cannot upgrade (or refuse to) for some reason, I will be adding a Plain Text Editor soon that is backwards compatible with older web browsers.

This site has been up and running for several years now and has already undergone quite a few transitions. As I get different ideas, I continually update and play with different techniques and schemes. The current site is centered entirely around Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The effect is pretty much the same as when using tables but requires a lot less code, thus resulting in a quicker load time for web browsers. Due to some tabular data requirements, I have not eliminated tables altogether in the site. However, compared to sites I have done in the past, where tables are nested 5 or 6 deep, I believe this is a vast improvement. ;o) This is not my first venture into style sheets as I've been using them for quite some time to render text and images on the screen. However, this is the first time I've really attempted to use style sheets as a means of controlling structural content on the page.

It's a challenge to switch gears but I think the end result will be a much better design. As though the CSS leap wasn't quite enough, I have also switched server technologies from .ASP to Coldfusion. The current version of the site is built using Coldfusion (CF) 7 as a backend. The CSS and Coldfusion ventures are a direct result of my exposure to new technologies at my current job as a web application developer. As I continue to learn more, I will continue to tweak and update this site to improve it.

If you're not completely asleep by now, then feel free to take a look around. Since the site is currently undergoing a transition, all the features have not yet been implemented but come back and see us soon. I plan to add more features to the Blog interface as well as to the Photos section. Stay tuned!

For anyone who is currently viewing the new site layout, be forewarned that there may still be issues with portions of the site.  I was up late last night hammering out enough of the basic code to get the new version into daylight.  But I haven't had a lot of time yet to really test out all the functionality.  Call it "using the Microsoft approach" but I was tired so you'll have to forgive my haste.  If you notice an issue with one or more portions of the site just let me know via the Contact form.  I'll try to fix any issues that crop up as soon as possible.

In the meantime, here are a few ideas that I'm planning for the near future:

• Search interface for Blogs (sortable & page-able)
  
• Search, sort and view Blogs by user, date, categories and keywords
  
• Edit Blog comments available to anonymous users
• Online manager for uploading/editing photos
• Submission area for new links
• Account manager for member sign-up and account preferences
• Auto-notification features via e-mail
• Select one or more Blog Categories when posting
• Add Blog Keywords to posts
• Show/hide comments
  
• And more...

Since the number of updates to the site are directly proportional to the amount of spare time I have available, I can't guarantee when all the above features will be implemented. But since this site is now my current concentration piece, you should hopefully see new features popping up on a regular basis.  So check back often to see lots of cool new stuff!

I have compiled the following list of Categories for use when posting your blogs. While the list is extensive, it is by no means all-inclusive.  If you will be posting (members only) and would like to suggest one or more categories that don't fit under any of the below topics, please send your suggestions to us using the Contact form. Thanks in advance!

Advertising and Marketing Agriculture Antiques and Collectibles Application Development Art Auctions Audio Automotive Aviation Bizarre Blogging Boating Broadcasting Business Camping and Recreation Chats and Forums Chemistry Colleges and Universities Computer Science Cooking Crafts Crime Dancing Databases Design Diseases Do-It-Yourself Economics E-Commerce Education and Training Employment Energy Entertainment Environment Ethics Ethnicity Family Folklore and Urban Legends Food and Drink Friends Furniture Gadgets Games

Genealogy Government Graphics Guns Hacking Hardware Health and Fitness Healthcare History Holidays Home Automation Home Businesses Home and Garden Humor Internet Investing Language and Linguistics Law Literature Management Martial Arts Math Medicine Military Mining and Drilling Miscellaneous Mobile Devices Motorcycles Movies Moving and Relocating Museums and Archives Music Mythology Networking News Nutrition Obsessions Open Source Operating Systems Opportunities Organizations Paranormal Parenting People and Society

Personal Pets Philosophy Photography Physics Places Podcasting Politics Productivity Programming Publishing and Printing Quotes Radio Real Estate Relationships Religion and Spirituality Reviews Robotics Science Security Shopping Small Business Sociology Software Space Spam Sports Streaming Media Subcultures Support Groups Technology Telecommunications Television Theater Tools Toys Vacations and Travel Vehicles Video Volunteering Weather Web Development

I've added Blog Category and Keywords fields into the editor window.  These features will be saved with each entry and eventually will be used by others to find past blog entries pertaining to a particular topic.  These fields are not required to post, however, selecting an applicable Category at a minimum will assist you, and others, with finding your postings.

More to follow...

Just a few notes on some new features that are either in place now or will be shortly...

The tag clouds and tags within each blog entry have now been adjusted in how they work (slightly).  Searching using a tag is exactly the same.  However, it is now much clearer as to what tags are in use at any given time.  When a particular tag is selected, it will be highlighted within the respective tag cloud as well as within the blogs.  If no entries are currently selected, the "ALL" tag will be highlighted.  To return to a "tagless" search after specifying one or more tags, simply click the "ALL" tag within the respective cloud or blog.

Usernames are now linked to your account page.  Members are allowed to edit settings such as email, bio info, password changes and subscription notification preferences.  This same interface will be available to other members as well as visitors but will only display the username and bio info.  An option will be made available shortly to allow all members to opt out and not display this info to anonymous users.  The reply notification and password change settings are not quite in place but should be ready to go by this evening.  To access your account, simply click the "Account" link at the top of the page or click anywhere you see your username displayed (i,e; any of your posts or replies).

I guess that's about it for now.  Look for changes to the site in the next day or so.  Members will be allowed to individually select to be notified when any of the following occur: