KIXE Redesign: Frontpage and the Anal Coder July 30, 2006
Posted by ptvGuy. Comments: , trackback
…many of my projects will be coming as new web content…
I apologize to everyone for having been too busy to post anything here for the last month, but many of my projects will be coming your way as new station web content very soon. However, to get back into the swing of things, I bring you the KIXE redesign. I have maintained the KIXE website (such as it is) for several years now with a complete redesign always pending but never approved. It's horrible design and coding has always been a thorn in my side and, with the launch of their new logo and look, I've finally gotten the go-ahead.
KIXE is a small-market station based in Redding, California and serving an incredibly huge geographic area covering most of the northern end of the state–ten counties in all. This area runs the gamut from rural to mountainous to desert to farmland to just plain sparsely populated. Many of the people served by this station live in small towns and isolated communities, and home-schooling is quite common. If ever there was a place that could benefit from all of the incredible content (especially educational resources) that a PBS station website can bring, this is it.
…Piefecta is a beautiful piece of coding and highly adaptable…
There are a number of challenges to be met in getting KIXE's site up to standards. There's the usual content rescue wherein I have to find all of the actually useful content and extract it from the coding nightmare that it's currently buried in. There's the fact that it's hosted on a Windows 2003 server with a number of other sites, and I don't have the usual server control that I've been getting so spoiled on. There's the addition of an online auction and an eGuide that will require initial setup and long-term maintenance–probably with Microsoft Access interaction. However, the greatest challenge here–and I'm gritting my teeth and going forward anyway–is the absolute reliance on Microsoft Frontpage.
I'm not a Microsoft basher, so if you were hoping for a tirade on that subject, you'll have to look elsewhere. The web is full of them; they're not hard to find.
That kind of stuff always reminds me of those guys that see you putting a tiny nail in the wall with a little utility hammer and start in making derisive comments about what they call "housewife hammers." You have to cut off people like that before they start telling you how many ounces their "real hammer" is and let them know that the point is the job and not the tool. Best answer for that kind of stuff: "I could do it with a rock; I'm sorry that it requires so much more for you to accomplish the same thing."
…reworked it to cover one, two, and three column layout from a single CSS file…
So, how does one go about creating an accessible, standards-based, cross-browser compatible, dynamic website with a tool like Frontpage? Frankly, you cheat. You do as much as possible directly in the code, and you start with a standards-based design and rework it to fit your job. KIXE wants a site based on the PBS Be More Station Website Prototype which varies between differing static pages having one- to three-column rigid layouts and a header and footer. Therefore, I've decided to adapt the Piefecta layout to the prototype to achieve a standards-based, rigid-column design. [Thank you John and Holly.]
Piefecta is a beautiful piece of coding and highly adaptable. I've reworked it to cover one-, two-, and three-column layout from a single CSS file and even added in support for the three faux columns found in the center column of the homepage. If you'd like to see where this is at right now, then visit the KIXE test page. There are still a lot of internal styles to work in, but the primary layout is there and waiting to be filled.
…added in support for the three faux columns found in the center…
If you look closely, then you'll see that I've actually used a few proprietary Frontpage extensions for server side includes. This makes up for the fact that I don't have the .htaccess control of an Apache server here to hide my server processing in a plain HTML file. I don't want to create a site laid out with all the files having SHTML or ASP extensions as those tend to confuse people, so I will be making use of what the server offers me. I will be using both standard and timed Frontpage includes to run basic server preprocessing from a plain HTML file.
Keep checking back here as I update you not only on the progress of this redesign, but also on some great new tools that you'll be wanting to add to your station website soon.
Thank you all, code well, and good night.
Comments»
I’m not a developer. I’m one who needs the small hammer. Actually, the guy who developed my website wasn’t far off that. He designed in in Frontpage. But, I really could use the robustness that comes with the many templates that support tagging such as wordpress (After a couple months I am figuring a few things out) if I want my “posts” to update on technorati. I embedded tags that they provide, but, this didn’t work. Any ideas? My site is really 3 pages. Home, about us, and archive. Thanks for any suggestions […edited URL…]
Hi, Nicholas. I love the video on your site. Pure genius. The “Fat Tail” theory is bound to win the “Nibble Prize” for economics. Also, you can never have too many Don Quixote references.
As far as the web development end of things goes, I think that you’re on the right track in leaning toward WordPress. Combine that with PodPress, the same plugin I use for my podcast, and you could put your videos right onto your site and have them fed out by RSS and wrapped up nice and neatly in all the appropriate tags for Technorati and just about anything else you can think of. It also makes it extremely easy to supplement the videos with announcements and any other kind of content that you might come up with. The only technical hurdle you might hit is having to have someone reskin the PodPress video player to “Carrotvision.”
As far as trying to “hand tag” your “posts,” there are ways to do it, but it requires a lot more raw coding than I would imagine you’d want to mess with. Unlike me, most people don’t enjoy that kind of stuff. I would say, why mess with it when you have free access to such a powerful, dynamic system as WordPress and PodPress.
Hey thanks so much for the very thoughtful answer. Glad you liked the show.
Podpress looks astounding! I can’t believe I never ran into it. Man, it never ends… Plus, I wished I had thought of the Nibble Prize, I coulda used that!
it’s just a website. My god get over it! It’s not like you are curing cancer.
It’s not about curing cancer; it’s about providing a service. In this case, it’s about making the job of local teachers easier–especially those in remote, rural areas. I find that to be a worthwhile use of my time.
Although your website is very nice it seems as if some of the other sites that you have created seem quite amature for a person in you position. I am wondering whether you are doing this non profit or something. It may do you well to take some design classes to better communicate your ideas and already defined coding style. Good luck
Linda: I understand where the current KIXE website might give you a negative impression of my coding capabilities, but that’s not my design. I used to maintain that site, but I don’t any longer. They’ll have to do their own redesign now. The SOPTV website is still in the works for a redesign and possibly a full CMS package. It’s still using a table-based layout that was already there when I started.
BTW, why did you list your website as this.com? You don’t have to include a site URL in order to comment here, and there’s no reason to send other users to nonexistent sites. I don’t mind criticism, input, or linking to a site that has good information for my readers. I’m offering a free information resource here, and I’m far from the final authority on anything.
For my reader’s sake: There is a Lynda Weinman (spelled with a “Y”) that has a great site called Learning @ Your Own Pace and has an awesome collection of free training videos and doesn’t seem to charge all that much for the more advanced ones. It’s definitely worth a look even though it has nothing to do with this comment.