IRLS 675 Unit 5

I added the "site map" drupal module. I first wanted the Google Analytics but I needed to create some kind of tracking id for google and I was having trouble logging into my google account so I abandoned that one. There wouldn't be that much usage to track anyways. Normally I think tracking would give good feedback of what people like and don't like.

I like what the site map does, mapping out everything on my site in various subject headings and lists all of my object meta data fields and their members. It also has RSS feeds. Pretty simple module as far as enabling and configuring. I just followed the installation instructions exactly and made it available to everyone and it worked. It gives me a better visual picture of what is contained in my site and helps me understand drupal more.

IRLS 675 Unit 4

I see my collection as much like the Arizona memory project. Both contain a lot of images of various things. I like the way the AMP was set up and since they use Drupal, my collection of images of music items can be set up much in the same way. However, the way my stuff is displayed by drupal right now is not that great. you have to click on something, then click on its image to get to see it. On AMP, the images have little preview icon images you can see that is more aesthetically pleasing. Mine does not. I looked around a little to see how that could be done but couldn't find anything. Maybe a little bit of PHP is involved.

IRLS 675 Unit 2

I read "Luwak: a content management solution" by Matt Benzing. It discusses a content management system called Luwak, that uses XML, a database, and XSLT, a style sheet language. That is what we are doing in the technology side of the class with Drupal. It was done at the Dressler Research Libraries for their online content. The idea was to separate the content from the formatting so that it is flexible to work on multiple devices. Handheld devices were the original catalyst for doing this. Traditional HTML webpages are slow and unwieldy on handhelds. Converting the HTML pages to XML had a few hiccups, including in determining syntax errors and spelling errors but overall the transition over to it went smoothly, according to the paper.

They also mentioned it was easier to maintain and support. They didn't even need style sheets for different browsers after trying the site out.

I've heard that story of Luwak coffee beans before. It still seems disgusting.

VPN client

The VPN client seems to crash my macbook. I get kernel panics when it is running.

IRLS 675 Unit 3

Shoot, I guess I forgot to blog last week. I'll work on that tomorrow. Looks like I managed to post to the discussion last week at least. Too many personal issues going on right now. Anyway:

The tech assignment is about the right pace for me so far. Of course, I have extensive computer experience, software development experience, etc. Web servers are new to me, though. I had done html and cgi before but I would just put them in a certain directory and it would magically work. Doing all the creating this week got a little tedious, but the info has to get in there somehow. I wonder if I am taking on too much this semester with 671, 675, and 524 plus a quarter time Graduate Assistant-ship. I guess I will find out.