Bare Kiwi Photo/Video of the Day

Bare Kiwi put up a cool website but some additional programming was needed for Video of the Day and Photo of the Day; they came to me for assistance.  I decided the simplest solution was to extract content from RSS feeds and implement a dynamic chooser - the result was simple and automatic.

• low budget, fast and simple solution
• I was outsourced to program only the daily video/photos
• technologies used: XML, PHP, HTML
• http://www.barekiwi.com

Dental Wellness About Page

A designer friend required assistance in implementing her work on her client's website; I took her Photoshop design and programmed some CSS to allow it to display nicely within Joomla.  So, with a bit of HTML and CSS knowledge, I quickly actualized the designer's vision.

• affordable and fast solution
• I was outsourced to assist with About us page only
• technologies used: CSS and HTML
• http://www.dentalwellness.co.nz/

Tessa Rain Dirt Poems CD Release

Tessa needed a quick, low-cost website to give her a bit of web-presence while she released her debut album (fabulous, check it out!).  Since she merely needed to display the artwork, release poster, and a few links, it made the most sense to go completely free with Blogger.

• a nearly-free, very fast solution
• designed to match CD artwork
• simple manipulation of Blogger's design functionality
• http://dirtpoems.blogspot.com

Aaron Burgess Photgrapher blog

Aaron had a Flash website which he couldn't update or add content to.  Plug in the blog; Aaron designed it in Photoshop and I implemented it and plugged it into his site.  He has since found a non-Flash solution for his website, yet the blog is still an excellent venue for him to display new work.

• an affordable, low budget project
• all font and layout designed by Aaron
• integrates thematically into existing site
• technologies used: HTML, CSS, Javascript, Thingamablog
• http://aaronburgess.co.nz/blog

Cartoons by Marzio

Marzio needed a website to display his cartoons, without the clutter usually found on blogs (archive lists, tags and categories), and without the usual weblog format for displaying posts.  In this solution, I created some fun ways to navigate through the cartoon collection, while keeping the interface simple and uncluttered.

• a medium budget, custom solution
• font choice by Marzio
• custom administration console for managing content
• technologies used: PHP, HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, Ajax, XML
• http://www.cartoonsbymarzio.com

More Info

Four PHP classes were created: cartoon entry, cartoon list, cartoon category, category list.  These classes used DOM XML methods to access and save data in XML files.  It was useful to have separate data (and classes) for categories to reduce PHP processing time for simple requests such as RSS feed and category change.

Over half of the implementation time went into the creation of the content management system:  Add Entry, Delete Entry, Modify Entry, Modify Category.  These modules were kept simple in appearance, but their functionality is strict in keeping errors and discrepancies out of the XML data.  Modify Category was the most fun to implement, using JQuery movable thumbnails to represent cartoons in and not in a specific category.

Form pre-processing is done with Javascript/JQuery, then PHP also processes before finally implementing changes and announcing success.  A failure is not impossible, but would be a rare fault of the server's.  Ultimately, Marzio is informed of form discrepancies until all is validated, then he may confidently submit his changes/additions.