Leading article

For a number of day I have been trying to work out why the first article sits across the whole page. It was dring me so mad I tried to input the text in a different way to stop it happening. I even looked for a plugin to contain the text and image.

First text wide over site

I was looking at some of the controls in the menu panel for the category I wanted to effect and found this panel.

I could state that I did not want a leading article by placing a 0 and wanted three columns across. The result can be seen below.

That made the page look better.

Adding Google Map

I want to a have a page with a Google map on it. I saw a site that had a map of the battle fields and though it would be a good idea to have an idea where the fighting took place.

Battle fields of WW1

I had a try with a plugin "Embed Google maps" I managed to get the map onto the site but I was not very happy with. The process to embed the was not clear and I ended up with 4 or 5 maps all the same on the same page. As before I looked around for a tutorial and while watching one it recommended BT Google maps. Free download after registration. As with all plugins I went to the extension manager found the package on my deck top uploaded and installed it.

Module manager for BT Google maps

Once installed you need to create a new module and assign BT Google to that modules. As before menus have to be created and linked to it before you can see it on a page. Once there you either put the name of a place in or its coordinates and that become the central part of the map. You can also put markers with address and text of areas you want to highlight.

A Day of Lows and Highs

Black Boxes and Grey Text

I set my self a few tasks today. Since Wednesday and after advice I have been trying to change the colour of the boxes the data is entered into.  I confirmed with my tutor how I might find where the code is for the data box. Using the inspector mode in my browser. I could see that it was in bootstrap.css . Using first the browser's inspector I changed the colour to white. This confirmed that I was looking at the right code. I gained access to the files on my site via filezilla. went to temple I was using called lost face and found the css folder and inside the file bootstrap.css . copared code and duely changed it for white(#ffffff), reloaded the file refreshed page, no change. started the whole process again, inspection file change. Nothing then I cast my net further a field looking at the original templates I had down loaded. still nothing. In these situation I take a break and do something else.

Something else. I have had my tutor advice ringing in my ears. don't use uncategorised when it comes to an article. I had done this at the start for my introduction and now was the time to change it. I created a new category called home tied the old introduction to it and added an image, reassigned the category to the home menu, all done and still working.

Back to the matter in hand. traced my steps back and after the second run through I found what i was looking for.

 

Found

Inside the css folder was the bootstrap.css file I had been changing to no avail in the same folder was a folder called themes and inside another folder called green one which I had created inside Joomla. Inside that folder was another file call bootstrap.css upon changing the background color to white it worked.

missing css

When your on a roll keep going, I changed the heading text from 28px to 40px now it looks much bolder. I thought that the white boxes where to bright so I chose alight yellow and changed the code again.

Yellow boxes

A better day.

Data

I am happy I got the form on the site. What happens to the data once you submitted I naively though it would just end up in a folder that I could use. I need a little extra help from a higher power.

If I had been more observant when I created the menu for the form I would have seen that below was formdata. I created a new menu called Visdata and liked it to the formdata and the original forms relative's records.

The records are displayed as a table at present I looking for an easy route to extract the data.

Forms

A couple of weeks ago I started think about the form that I want to have on my site. I went to Joomla Extensions Down loaded a couple including Jforms.

Jform lay out

I spent the next half a day trying to get it to work when I went back to the site it said that tutorials would follow. I must have downloaded 4 or 5 and got rid of them. I spoke to any one that could be of help there did not seem to be one that would fit my requirements and without understanding how they work I did not want to spend $50 only to find it was not fit for the job.

VisForms

At last a little light at the end of the tunnel I have downloaded another free form make form VisForms and after reviewing a again the tutorials on forms from other brands I have managed to make a form.

The first thing you do is to go to components after you have installed the plugin. Listed will be Visforms open and click on new to start to create a new form.

After giving it a title and name on the top right hand side is a button called fields this is how you create the and name the field in the form. You can assign attributes to each field, text, numbers, dates, upload, ect.

Once the fields are created you then have to link it to a menu.

When creating a new menu and selecting type in the selection will be a list, choose form under the heading Visforms and than link it to the from you created in this case relative's records. Now you have the menu item it will display the page with the form on.

 The form is on the site however I am having a little trouble getting it to work.

Headbashing afternoon

Had a bit of a head bashing afternoon Just when I though I was getting to grips with Joomla what seems to be for no reason my introduction entry has changed its look.

loss of text

My Introduction has changed a list. I added another article and that seem to change the text to a list. My first problem was I did not want the new article on the front page. I started by retracing my steps and unpublished the new article that removed it from the list. After going back and forth over each element, Menu, Category, and Article. I discovered that I had changed the menu type to a blog list from a single article.

All returned to normal.

As you can see from the screen grab all has returned to normal.

That what I wanted to know

Today big question was what do I do with all this stuff that came when I installed Joomla. I was at a point of think of uninstalling it all and starting again so as not to have the sample data installed. The guide came to the rescue. The opening par of the next chapter show you how to delete content, article and generally all the sample data install. The guide also states that this data can be recovered as it not truly deleted and can be found somewhere in the data base. Thing are removed to the trash and then permanently deleted when you empty the trash.

The Bold came at the start of this chapter is you can make a website in an hour. in truth it took all day. First order of the day was to create a logo in Photoshop with drop shadows and saved as a png on a transparent back ground.

Created logo

I have not got the name for the site worked out yet so this is my holding position. The logo is put in position via the template manager and at this moment is inserted in to the template Beez 2 via the advanced options and up loaded into a folder that holds other elements. The next task is to replace the header image, this is the first time tat we are going to access directly to the code via a ftp program, I am using Filezilla to gain access to the folder where the banner image is held and by changing the name of the banner currently using and renaming the file to the banners original it will take up an used by the site.

Banner image

I did however have an issue when I did this I put it in the wrong image folder, there are a lot of sub-folder with the same name and its important that you use the right one. The next action was to use the template manager to alter the css of the text under the logo, those familiar with code will find this easy. All we had to do is change the font height which was expressed in em and the font color.
 The rest of the chapter takes you through adding articles and categories and linking menu and setting up a contact page .

 I created a short form to help me remember what to do when creating content.

Creating a Category

Content/Category Manager/add a new category
populate the category with an article

Creating an article

Content/Article Manager/add a new article
assign to a category you have created
assign category to a menu 

Creating a menu

Menu/main menu/add a new menu item
assign a menu type
assign a category

I know this is very simplistic but it works for me. I don't believe you can create a menu unless you have a category and that has been my starting point when adding something new.

Switch of guides

I have worked my way through the Guide by Taty Sena and it is time to get into Joomla in a deeper way. I have found a guide by Eric Tiggeler Joomla! 2.5 Beginner's Guide.

 After a quick read through the start of the book I have started at chapter 3. The installation I had on my laptop was 3.2 and the new installation is 2.5. Though the terminology is the same it really helps that this guide is meant for 2.5, over the last week or so I have seen so many tutorials for 2.5 that are really tutorials for 1.7. Though there may be some difference between the version sometime it is enough to put you of the flow of the tutorial.

Chapter 3 Getting to know Joomla, The main area cover at the start of the tutorial are the front end and back end. What you see when you see the web site and what you see when you need to work on the website.

Detailed break down of Front and Back.

The guide take you through how to create an article and ho to add it to the first page of the sample site. This guide seems to always know what you might ask next as you follow it train of thought.

Creating your first article

At the end of the chapter it give a summary of what I have learned. The difference between static websites and Joomla websites. The key element to Joomla sites is that they are build up of a collection of building blocks dynamically constructed from the database. I have an understanding of the element that make up the font and back end. How to create content and how to rearrange elements through the module manager and the site setting in the global panel.

Joomla and Web space

I have had Joomla on  a local server on my laptop. The one draw back is that all the work I do with Joomla for this project has to be via the laptop and if I want to work, where ever I work I must take the laptop. Before I get to far into the project I am going to install Joomla on a site I have. This will allow me to work on it from any device and at any location.

After logging on to my host provider I navigate to the panel web Hosting services and click on web hosting management.

I am given  the option to create a data base. After the base is created the provider give you a pass word and user name to access the data base, seen below blanked out.

You can either create a directory using Filezilla and the manually up load in much the same way you have done to installation on your lap top but this time to your own web space. My provider has a one click installation alowing you to create a directory via their site and then  installs Joomla to your web space  ready for you to use. The first action I took was to change the default log in and now I am am up and running.

Publishing content

I have started to get to grips with Joomla, the architecture of Joomla needs every article to belong to a section and a category, which can also include a unspecified category. I have been given a good piece of house keeping try not to use uncategorised as it will become the deposit for lots of junk.  The guide give a good analogy is think of a section as being a draw in a filing cabinet and a category a is a folder in that cabinet, lastly the article is the document inside the folder.

Structural relationship in Joomla

I have started by creating a category in the administration part of Joomla (backend) I navigate to content and the drop down menu give me the choice to make a category, at present I only have to give it a title sit can be identified when I create an article. I return to the same section and create an article I have to give a title and then a category from the ones I have created. This now links the article to the category,  the next thing I need to do is link the category to a section (menu name) This is done in the menu section where I choose main menu new. I have to chose the menu type and what section is linked to it. the last thing to do is to view the site via a preview button on the tool bar.

                          This is the first things I have put on screens via Joomla  a small start.

Pitich

We Have had to do some work on our pitch for this project. I have created a a wire frame of the site with a flow diagram to see how the navigation works.

5th version of my navigation and flow diagram

The main gate way to the site is through the introduction, this set the site up giving access to all other areas of the site.

Animated wire frame

I have created some wire frames to help me understand the page layouts I only a faint idea of how the pages should look and have generated one page as a design in motion or starting point.

Design look work in progress

These are some of the element that I presented to my tutor this week.  We had an interesting discussion on the menu and the merits of a home page, idea that I will have to consider for the future development of the site.

Joomla the next step

Joomla the next step

After careful consideration I have decided to use Joomla for this project. The key deciding factor is the need to input data by a form. This will allow visitors to the site to post more than just a blog entries and the site have control over the postings.

CMS are different to website that I have created in the past. I have to create a data base on my web space to which Joomla can be up loaded to. At this present moment I want to have the data base on independently on my laptop.

First I have to install Mamp. This is a local server environment running Apache and Mysql, PHP.

 Mamp 

 A database is at the heart of every modern, dynamic website. MAMP comes with MySQL which is the most commonly used relational database system. There is a MySQL interface for nearly every programming and scripting language available. Thanks to MAMP you can easily develop complex MySQL database applications on your local PC and upload them afterwards on to your live system. For easy configuration MAMP PRO comes with phpMyAdmin and Sequel Pro (Mac).

Joomla administration area

Joomla

After installing Mamp I then downloaded Joomla. After install in it through Mamp I removed the installation files, Joomla was up and running on my Laptop. This process had loaded version 3.2. now I have start to understand how to use it.

I have started with this guide to get me up and running with Joomla.

Content Management Website.

The website will be different to the others that I have created before. We have had restraints as to how we created these site. All had to be had code using nothing more than a text editor. One site had to be one page another was a live client based site and lastly a responsive site.

This site will be a content management site, data will submitted by visitors to the site and this will become a searchable asset.

WordPress V Joomla

I am only highlighting two of the CMS, WordPress and Joomla

WordPress has been described as a blog type of website. It uses templates and can be easily updated with out any knowledge of HTML or coding. Post and pages can be created, with addition of plugins you can add functionality that come as standard with Joomla. It is possible to create content and using categories ans sub pages within two hours.  Being a blog-based system it has a strong presents for search engines like Google. It is an easy system to understand and using guides like WordPress for dummies will save you time. Having some understanding of CSS will allow you to adapt the templates. The set of WordPress allows it to be listed quickly on Google normally with in two days as opposed to fourteen day with Joomla. WordPress is very good at handing large volumes of traffic.

There are some disadvantages in using WordPress. Editing post dates need to be changed in design mode and requires knowledge of WP scripting. Reordering pages and categories and has to be done on a page-by-page bases. Changing the structure of the navigation, which is determined by the templates also requires knowledge of WP scripting, unlike Joomla where menus, attributes like dates, author name can be turned on and off by a control panel.  

In conclusion WordPress is simple and more blog based. Adding more functionality via plugins can run into problems and plugins may require more specialised knowledge.

Joomla is ideal for creating a community or a network with a login area, newsrooms, forums, articles, and contribution from external sources. The navigation structure is easy once you understand it and does not require an understand of HTML. Articles can be set to expire after and then are no longer displayed on the site. One of the great strengths of Joomla is the administration and who has permission to places and view content. Superficially adapting the templates is easy, changing some colour and logos.  Getting use to the structure of the layout system can be a steep learning curve and is different for the templates that you choose to use. Joomla has an in-built multilingual capability. There is a growing community of people who offer free templates if you don’t want to go down the route of buying a premade one that may have all the functionality you require.

As with all systems there are disadvantages with Joomla. If you need to import article from another website is not always easy. Joomla has a complex core, which requires a lot of resources from the server, migrating between versions is not always easy especially when you used complex setup with membership systems.

In conclusion the strengths of Joomla are it is great for community sites it has a deep level of navigation, section in sections, its fixed pages and its posts.

Ref  Rudolf Boogerman

        Joomla Forum

Starting point

For this independent project I wanted to highlight some of the new skills that I have gained over the last couple of years. Websites and web design are two such skills. I enjoyed the web project we have undertaken, however I still feel I need to learn more and strengthen my understanding of website and web designs.

I enjoy family history and in resent years I have discovered that an unknown relative had fought and died in World War One.  Walter was the brother of my great grand father and as a child we live with. I was lucky to find an old photo of Walter so I could put a face to the name. I wondered how many others out there where in the same boat, having discovered that they had an old relative and had no idea what they look like. I have no contact with my great grandfather side of the family partly due to distances and also due to time.

With the anniversary of the out break of the First World War I want create a website that put a face to the name of a solder and connects families who have lost contact with each other.

 

Walter Hunt 1898-1917

Walter Hunt was born in 1898 he joined the Royal Naval Division in June 1917 and died in France on December 30 1917 aged 19.

Choosing an independent project

As part of this independent project we were given a choice of seven starting points. 

1.     “It is a truism to day that we live in a “remix culture.” Today, many of cultural and lifestyle arenas - music, fashion, design, art, web applications, user created media, food - are governed by remixes, fusions, collages, or mash-ups. If post-modernism defined 1980s, remix definitely dominates 2000s, and it will probably continue to rule the next decade as well.
Manovich, Lev. What comes after Remix?

2.     “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”
Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation

3.     “To practice space is thus to repeat the joyful and silent experience of childhood; it is, in a place, to be other and to move toward the other...Kandinsky dreamed of: 'a great city built according to all the rules of architecture and then suddenly shaken by a force that defies all calculation.”
Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life

4.     “...Fan fiction is a way of the culture repairing the damage done in a system where contemporary myths are owned by corporations instead of owned by the folk.”
Henry Jenkins

5.     “This is the postmodern desert inhabited by people who are, in effect, consuming themselves in the form of images and abstractions through which their desires, sense of identity, and memories are replicated and then sold back to them as products”
Larry McCaffrey

6.     “Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”
Susan Sontag

7.     “By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs.”
Donna J. Haraway

We could use any of the examples to inspire a starting point. It is up to us to chose the media to execute the inspiration from the above examples. We were given a opportunity to create our own project. I have chosen to create website based on the idea of putting names and stories to those who fought in World War One. I was inspired by the discovery of family members who had fought in WW1 some know and others unknown to me, and through this website the possibility of making contact with distant members of my family. As part of the fulfillment for the college. I have submitted a brief and a reading list. As this website allows users to post information and after discussion on the merits of using WordPress or Joomla I have decided to use Joomla as this will allow more security measures in the posting of content to the site.

Independent Project

Assessment Rationale / Aims:

This module is intended to test my ability to work independently. The successful synthesis of all modules delivered throughout the course promotes the ability for self-directed study. One substantial assignment brief is set, typically eight-weeks in duration, giving scope for interpretation using the underlying themes of the course as described in the course rationale. 

By this point in the course, I have experienced sustained practical and theoretical elements of study and become progressively used to self-initiated work. It is expected that I have achieved a personal balance of all of the separate course elements and combined these into a personal visual language that can be applied to a given brief reflecting an expression of individual interests, beliefs and opinions. As the course progresses, more of the nature and content of work produced is my responsibility. 

The ability of you to cope with this responsibility is tested by this module. It is not the final assessment tool of the course but it is a useful guide to demonstrate how much I am capable of tackling independently a set of given constraints. I have been encouraged to follow relevant individual paths, and to develop high-level skills and test progress against my own criteria. I will have access to tutors’ guidance throughout the duration of this module, though the nature of this is fundamentally different to what might be expected at the beginning of the course and certainly in comparison to FDA Level. Discussions with tutors are primarily conducted with reference to concepts, the architecture of proposed projects and possible research contexts. 

Time table 

Friday March 7^th 1pm for proforma/proposals 1pm (email)

Wed 26^th March pitch independent pitch / ideas / plans / storyboards / research reading lists - assessed

Wednesday 7^th May all day – Deadline & Pitch for independent projects