I have started doing the boring stuff of reprogramming parts of the website in order to get the new features in place. Some parts are easily shifted around while others have to be re-written, sometimes as much as 3 times. Prepare for technical blabbering
The upload forms
The form that allows the user to submit images to the website is really one of 3 copies, each although similar in interface is slightly different in the way it stores the form data. All this means is that any program code I write has to be translated 3 times and checked 3 times. 1. New post form: New posts and images uploaded on the front end and stay in a temporary session until they are fully submitted to the post_sub table. 2. Admin review form: all submitted items are reviewed in the admin area. These items are stored is a separate "post submitted" table until they are approved and transfer to the "live" table. 3. Website post form; approved items/posts can be edited aand updated now (which I never needed to do in the past) in the live tables.
All these 3 forms allow for multiple jpeg images to be uploaded/deleted and the item text/body to be edited in their respective states. Images can even have captions now.
Photo sets
When I first added photography to the website in 2004 you could only add one 500x375 picture. Back then we were limited by slow internet and small display monitors. Eventually I upped the size to 800x600 as speeds got faster, unfortunately I did not keep the original file uploaded back in 2004, so now all the old photos are stuck at thier low resolutions. Flash forward to today 2015 I am allowing multiple photos to be uploaded per post which will require me tinkering around with a lot of old code and CSS. Now instead of one big image, I will have fancy groups of images like on tumblr (pictured above). The last hurdle to cross now is how to determine when to generate the thumbnails to use instead of the full copies.
Comment form
As with the post form above, the comment forms also will have to be rewritten using my form controller class which was not available in 2005. I'll be reducing the amount of brain cells you need to post a comment. Hopefully the spam has reduced now compared to the high amount of comment spam that was around back in 2005.
Conclusion
That's pretty much all I am going to change for now hopefully the addition of multiple photos will enhance the content on post by post basis. Its going to take a little while for me to complete it all but I am steadily working through it.
I am slowly adding a new feature to allow more-than-one photo to be added to a post. I will also allow the photos to be laid out in different grid patterns. This change is gonna take a bit of time to get working since wordpress sucks and I have to redo all the admin screens in order to accommodate the more complicated set up.
A like button for the lazy people
I said I would never implement a like button and I have yet to see a good reason for it other than to appeal to social media. But I will work on getting some sort of like/love button on here.
News Section
I think I ironed out most of the problems with the tons of music videos that get posted to youtube on a daily basis. I also added a social media category for those sites who insist on spamming the internet every single day with lists. I am taking them off the main page and implement some kind of limiting factor to control how often they show up.
When the leaves fall in the backyard I sweep them up. I am finding comfort in sweeping the dry leaves every morning. The symbiotic relationship between the tree and the leaves and the walkway is like a iron ball rolling down a hill. The entire world exists so that leaves can fall onto the path every morning for me to sweep. Airplanes disappear in the Indian Ocean so that I can sweep the leaves. All things are perfectly balanced.
As much as I am trapped in my own bubble I find that I enjoy sitting in a new room and just being alive with no impetus to move or rush or go anywhere. I like having you around. This might have been a habit I have acquired recently or a monkey on my back, I am not really sure. A great weight has been lifted off my shoulder or maybe a cross that I have to bare, either way right now, everything will be alright.
They say pretty hurts. Like sand through the hour glass I dare not look it up on the wikipedia. I would rather not know and stay in the plane, watch the clouds than risk falling through them. I have been extending my days into nights hoping that the time passes faster than it normally should but time is constant and I be ducking. Time runs until it stops. It never slows or speeds up. Sometimes you just forget where you are, where you have been or what you are going. It all comes back to you eventually.
