SDOC Welcomes RikEmmett.com

This one is for all of my progressive rock/classic rock fan friends out there.

Effective this morning, SDOC Publishing is providing all development and back-end maintenance services for RikEmmett.com, the official website for former Triumph frontman Rik Emmett in Toronto.

You won't notice any visible changes when you visit.  The current theme by Burning Fire Design will remain.  However I'm climbing down into the back with my digital wrench and doing some major upgrades on the e-Commerce side, with upgraded capabilities for downloadable music and other products, as well as improved functionality for the fan forum and promotional newsletters and assorted other interactive features.  Some time next year, SDOC will provide all hosting services as well.

Helluva way to hit the ground running after Briers North Halloween!  Enjoy!

So Much For Code Enforcement

GOTCHA!!!

It's Halloween and we're all gearing up for a night of world-class decorations and trick-or-treating in Briers North!

You won't see anything on the news (several news agencies have been turned away already) so if you're going to visit for Halloween, here's the 411.

Some information for you if you are planning to join us:

• Halloween is ALWAYS and ONLY celebrated on October 31st.  Rain or Shine!  For 2012, this will be on a Wednesday.

• The passing out of candy begins at 6:00pm and stops at 9:00pm.  No one is admitted to the subdivision after 8:30pm.

• We start closing the subdivision to automobile traffic at 5:45pm and we do not reopen until 9:30pm. There is NO parking inside Briers North subdivision. If you park outside, please do so legally. The North Peachtree Baptist Church (corner of Tilly Mill & Peeler) is accepting donations for the use of their parking lot for anyone wishing to park there (proceeds being given to the Boy Scouts).

• Trick-or-treating in Briers North on Halloween is AT YOUR OWN RISK. This is a public event on public streets and is NOT sponsored by any association or group. Briers North assumes no liability or responsibility for visitors.

• NO pets are allowed during this time (they get scared and some of the children get scared!)

If you enjoyed Halloween in Briers North in the past, or plan to visit this year, please consider giving a small donation.  Donations help to make this a SAFE event for everyone and are gratefully received!

There is something for everyone here.  Kids, adults, whoever.  For the local curmudgeon who isn't happy unless they are complaining about something, we have Code Violation Bingo.  Lots of unauthorized construction going on so you'll rack up your bingo in no time.  The free star in the center of the card is the outhouse on my front lawn.

But seriously folks....

My neighborhood is proud to welcome so many visitors from so many places this night.  Everyone is a knight, or a princess, or whoever they want to be regardless of their walk of life.  You learn a lot about people and more about yourself when you show hospitality to people you normally don't encounter.  I ran across this piece on Facebook recently.  Please give these words some serious thought if you are tempted to get frustrated with Halloween celebrations and encountering people you are not accustomed to.

With Halloween upon us, please keep in mind, a lot of little people will be visiting your home.
  Be accepting.  The child who is grabbing more than one piece of candy may have poor fine motor skills.   The child who takes forever to pick out one piece of candy may have motor planning issues.  The child who does not say "trick-or-treat" or "thank you" may be non-verbal.  The child who looks disappointed when they see your bowl may have an allergy.  The child who isn't wearing a costume at all might have a sensory issue (SPD) or autism.
   Be nice.   Be patient.  It's EVERYONE'S Halloween.

May I Have a Word(Press)?

Almost all web development these days is based on a content management system (CMS).  The most popular currently is WordPress.  WordPress began its life as a stand-alone blogging software package but evolved over the past several years into a full-fledged open-source CMS.  WordPress users can add pages, design elaborate themes, and add all kinds of functionality - including some surprisingly robust ecommerce capabilities.

Several of my current clients requested WordPress updates this year, including Atlanta Panhellenic, COCAP, Northside Tree, and there are more in the pipeline.   Most users find it easy to use for a layperson.  But WordPress is not the only CMS out there.  How do you know if it's right for your project?

Here's the breakdown:

Pros:
Again, ease of use.  Many hosting providers, like GoDaddy or BlueHost offer "1-click" installation.  You don't have to know what you're doing, you just have to remember your username and password and the server does the rest.  Adding functionality ("Plugins") is also easy as a user can search for the right plugin through the site's administrative page and install with a couple of clicks.  You can truly get away with not knowing any code or how to interact with a server if you need to.

Flexibility.  Unlike specialized systems like Drupal or Sitefinity, WordPress will function on either Linux or Windows servers, so long as they support the PHP programming language.  99.9% of them do.

Support for non-Flash animations.  It is rare to see a WordPress site without a slideshow that is visible on tablets and smartphones.  That's because the standard WordPress installation has excellent built-in support for these functions.  Don't let slideshows fool you - they have a million moving parts and are NOT simple creatures!  WordPress has made it easy to install slideshow plugins and the plugins themselves are easy to learn.

Cons:
Quality control of "plugins".   Plugins - additional functions that extend the capabilities of a basic WordPress site - are linked from a dedicated section of the main website, wordpress.org.  However there are many duplicates and not all of them are equally useful or reliable.  Some are so generalized it is difficult to customize them to your needs and even require some coding knowledge.  That defeats the "ease of use" principle.  Others are so specialized they can't be used at all.  Further, there is no synchronization between plugin development and core evolution.  Plugins rely on community feedback to determine if they are compatible with the most recent upgrade of the standard WordPress installation, which is notoriously unreliable.  Plugins can be useful but choosing the right ones can be a crapshoot.

Little support for online communities.  Unlike WordPress' counterparts Joomla and Drupal, WordPress does not have major support for directories of users or custom profiles, or individual contact forms. Online community functions like bulletin boards are slowly emerging into sunlight.  WordPress assumes that all users with access to the admin page are there to edit content and not necessarily interact with each other.  The closest WordPress comes is a plugin called BuddyPress; however for the average user, this plugin - plus its over 300 companion plugins - is difficult to use and intended mainly for professional developers.  Most WordPress users I've encountered will use a separate bulletin board program, like phpBB as an additional installation for this purpose.

Weak internationalization.    If your target audience uses more than one language, you're going to run into problems.  Most WordPress plugins rely on automated translation (remember Babelfish?) which is never recommended by serious interpreters or translators.  If you have to have your content translated into different languages (or, if you want to deliver different content based on the audience's language) my personal favorite is Joomla with the JoomFish extension.  (I used this combo on the Cap Global Language Services site.)

When you're planning a website, make sure that you have a solid list of what you want it to do, how you want it to function, and what you want your visitors to be able to do when they get there.  That will help you and your webmaster determine the right technology and the right CMS for the job.