Thursday, June 7, 2012

Week 13

This week I spent a lot of time working on visual style. 

http://eddiehunter.no-ip.org/wordpress/ (This will not be available all the time)

I now have merged style with functionality.  This meant adding css styles to the template pages.  I did work on the header to make it more visually appealing, and also more apparent that you are looking at the Ajiri Tea website.

Below, I've listed what I wanted to get done, and what I did.  At the bottom of the post, I have a list of things that will need continued work.  That to-do list has grown since not everything was accomplished last week.

[ Was going to do ]
  •  ( yes ) Start working on presentation
I began a PowerPoint presentation.  It is very brief at this point, but the idea will be to work through the needs of my client from the site re-design to the added functionality that a content management system provides (CMS).    
  • ( no ) I would like to use lightbox to display the images in their full size on the gallery pages.
  • ( no ) I also need to include the brochure on the homepage.
  • ( yes ) I also need to reduce the size of the company brochure.
I was able to reduce the size of the brochure from 7.2MB to around 400K. 
  • ( no ) I also would like to make the "News" & "Search" sections more robust.
  • ( yes ) Plus I need to start cleaning up my code and establishing a style for the site.
I need to do more on this, but I was able to merge the content with the style.  I still would like to make sure that I am following proper conventions, and also using consistently using the WordPress API.
  • ( no ) I need to hook into various social media sites, at least facebook and twitter
I added placement for social media links, but have not worked on hooking in the social media links.
  • ( yes )Style side navigation to make links bigger, easier to click/ see
While working on style I created an h3 style for links.  This will be used in side-navigation.  I am still trying to figure out how i will use this for the sidebar on the archive pages.
  • ( yes ) Style the main navigation to make it less blocky (Larger plain text, with underline on hover?)
I decided on some white text with a dark brown hover effect for the main navigation.  I also gave both states a text-shadow style.  This gives the effect of recessed lettering in the header during the hover state.  It also makes the text pop a bit more when the menu is in its ready state.

To Do (Next Week):
  • Change JSON format country->state->store
    • JSON feed is also getting messed up
      • I am escaping quotes on the database inserts, then the json_encode on the php side is also escaping the quote, so i end up with something like Eddie\\'s
  • Add brochure to the home page
  • Work on the "News" section
  • Clean up code
  • Create poster
  • Finish PowerPoint presentation
  • Cross browser compatibility checks
  • Update wordpress version
  • Work on getting content into the site
  • Link to social media
  • If you have time create an images page, large gallery with categories, so that all your images are viewable in one place.
  • If you have time think about a lightbox implementation (this can happen after the course is complete)