TJ Falls

Updated the blog engine from WordPress 2.8.7 to the current 3.2.1!

Been wanting to update for a while – just no time.  Now I get to see what’s been broken in the theme by updating!  So far, everything looks OK.

Will have to play with the theme and see where things go.  I’d like to update to an HTML5 / CSS3 theme – whether or not I have time to make my own will remain to be seen…

This blog has been officially launched!  What that means for you?  Not much of anything!  If you’ve been reading my postings, then you’ve seen my work in progress changes.  Basically by officially launching, all I’m doing is stating that I feel the blog is in good enough shape to be given out and linked.  There are still many tweaks and fixes I need to do…mostly behind the scenes, but I’m pretty happy with where I am at.  I am running version 1.0 beta of my custom theme.

Today I’ve completed improvements to the Image Gallery.  I updated much more than I originally had planned.  Version 1.1 of my custom theme has been pushed live.

• Image Gallery now validates XHTML Strict 1.0 on all pages except the password protected entry point.  I’ve redesigned a custom password entry page and it validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
• I’ve combined the various password protected albums into groupings.  This helps so that a person only needs to enter the user name and password once to get access to the groupings of albums rather than needing to enter a user name and password for each album.  This seems to be the best solution working within the restrictions of ZenPhoto – the engine behind my gallery.
• I’ve created a custom 404 page for the Image Gallery with a search function.  This page is good for the time being.  Once I get a custom 404 page built for my site, I’ll decide if I’ll merge that look into the Image Gallery’s 404 page, or just keep it as is.
• The main Gallery RSS feed is now linked to Feedburner.  I had to create a few custom PHP functions based off the core RSS functions to link to the outside RSS host.  All albums, images, comment RSS feeds are still run by the internal engine.
• Other misc. tweaks and bug fixes went into this update.  I’m fairly happy with where it is at.

Now I’ve just got to get new pictures uploaded!

The Image Gallery has been officially launched.  I am running version 1.01 of my custom theme.  That being said, there are a few areas I would still like to update.

• Image Gallery validates XHTML Strict 1.0 on all pages except the password protected galleries entry point.  I have 1 error.  I could solve the problem by having the page DOCTYPE be Transitional, however, I feel using Strict for the Image Gallery is the way to go.
• To solve my validation problem, I plan on creating a new Password protected entry point web page.  This will allow me more flexibility than that I currently have utitilizing the password components of the core engine of the gallery.
• I plan on creating a new 404 page for the Image Gallery.  This is low priority, but I’d like to create a consistent 404 page for the entire website.  Once I do that, I’ll morph that page into an Image Gallery specific 404 page that matches the theme.

This blog is a Work-In-Progress.  It is not quite ready for primetime yet.  If you’ve stumbled upon it, please come back soon once we’ve officially launched.  In the meantime, check out the Image Gallery which has gone LIVE as of Sept. 18, 2009!