Unleash the shackles
Amazing how much you can do when you're house-bound for a few days. So, a PHP update:
Got somewhere with the "new" version of this site. Notice a few things:
One, that the ability to navigate articles by area (e.g Agents, Forms, JavaScript etc) has gone. Having thought about it I could see no benefit in this method of finding what you're looking for. In fact the only reason I can see that it was ever there is that everybody else used the same method. Call it an adopted convention. In its place I've added a better way of getting round the archive of my blogging efforts.
Two, that the articles view has a better way of getting about it (the navigation links at the bottom). Still the best way to get to anything you want has to be to search for it.
Three, that you can now play your part when you encounter an error. How? Send me an email.
Four, that it's damn fast!
All in all, I'm just having fun doing the things that haven't been possible with Domino. Unleash those shackles...
On the subject of adopted conventions. Note the URL structure that SitePoint.com use:
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/748
If only everybody adopted the convention that that article discusses.
Your articles link has some problems
Parse error: parse error, expecting `','' or `';'' in /home/sites/site52/web/codestore/articles on line 105
D'oh! Look what happens when you go showing off ;o)
Thanks to both yourself and Mr "Ian Beale" for the pointer. Hey, who's perfect...
I don't agree with your comments about article navigation. What if I'm not looking for anything in particular and just want to browse through the articles? Surely as someone who's banged the usability drum quite often you should offer search and browse navigation?
Tompy. If you want to browse articles you go to the articles view and browse them. The only difference with the new version is that they aren't broken down in to meaningless subsets. As the way I wrote articles changed the choice of "area" became harder and harder. Most of them involving combinations of Forms, Agents, JavaScript etc.
Say you come to get help with search results on the web. Where do you look? Forms? Views? Quick Tips? It just doesn't make it any more usable to have this navigation in place.
Becoming more and more an information architect by day ain't we!
That would make a good article J, an article explaining the principles behind information architecture, and the things you should think about when designing the foundation of any website.
Every web developer should also be an information architect! Its key stuff we should all know!
I agree with Tompy, prwanFresh and Jake at the same time.
Tompy: from time to time I also like to read about certain subjects.
prawnFresh: as an information architect we should think how people look for information
Jake: if your articles often describe a combination of TECHNOLOGIES, you may need a different set of keywords, based on FUNCTIONALITY e.g.:
- search and searchresults
- menus and navigation
- layout
- performance
- dealing with attachments
- connectivity (XML etc.)
Also, links like this on your homepage give new users or first visitors a grasp of what kind of content they can expect in CodeStore: it is like reading the TOC of a book you read in the bookstore.
Good luck reassining!