Well here's the way I saw it... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2008:/bradfordcp//266 2008-10-20T14:55:42Z This is my blog to cover school, work, home, projects, & the occasional video game... Movable Type 3.34 Updates... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2008:/bradfordcp//266.32018 2008-10-20T14:54:22Z 2008-10-20T14:55:42Z This blog has been recommissioned as a place to track my work at the VCU Libraries. This is NOT my personal blog, when it is updated it may be found at http://www.deviantsolutions.net/.... Christopher This blog has been recommissioned as a place to track my work at the VCU Libraries. This is NOT my personal blog, when it is updated it may be found at http://www.deviantsolutions.net/.

]]> Google SoC 2007 tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/bradfordcp//266.4868 2007-03-21T15:13:19Z 2008-10-20T14:54:09Z I have just sent in my application to Google for the summer of code 2007. My proposal covers a BitTorrent Tracker Module for the Drupal open source CMS system. Below is my abstract with a link to my application. Edit:... Christopher
Edit: I have been contacted by Drupal and I have revised my proposal, the new version can be found here Edit: The latest revision. ]]>
Application Link]]> First week of school... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/bradfordcp//266.3902 2007-01-19T15:48:49Z 2008-10-20T14:56:35Z Fix homepage header Removed target from the link to the VCU homepage Adjust Sitemap.html Removed all references to port 83 from the sitemap page. Adjust Rotating Content System Rewrote the javascript that parses the XML for the dynamic content... Christopher
  • Fix homepage header
    • Removed target from the link to the VCU homepage
  • Adjust Sitemap.html
    • Removed all references to port 83 from the sitemap page.
  • Adjust Rotating Content System
    • Rewrote the javascript that parses the XML for the dynamic content system.
    • Adjusted the XML scheme to match the parsing system.
    • Added PubMed and Lexis Nexis to featured resource.
  • LinkScan new site
    • Generated a list of third tier pages to be updated.
    • Found problems leading to many 404 errors.
  • Validate Web Manual Pages
    • Moved style_new.css & print.css from production to staff.
    • Added print.css to generic_navpanel.
    • Fixed header problems on staff site.
    • Created the print icon for web manual pages.
    • Adjusted the footers' copyright to 2007.
    • Made "Staff Web" clickable from the staff header.
  • Research custom list icons
    • Tested different icons sizes to determine the maximum icon dimensions.
  • QuickSearch.cfm adjustments
    • Modified QuickSearch.cfm to redirect to catalog.cfm, to generate a better entry link into aleph
  • Caching Engine
    • I have created a engine in perl that caches a website periodically to avoid slow-down due to outside resources.
    • The system uses md5 hashes to determine whether the files have changed since the last caching.
    • ]]>     Update for the first week of the new year. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/bradfordcp//266.3777 2007-01-05T13:12:59Z 2008-10-20T14:56:39Z So here is a list of everything so far this week: Fix JBC Special Collection pages Finished Comic Book Pages Finished Mason Pages Finished Stove Pages Finished Sykes Page Finished JBCBIO Page Featured Resource Added PubMed to the featured resource... Christopher
    1. Fix JBC Special Collection pages
      • Finished Comic Book Pages
      • Finished Mason Pages
      • Finished Stove Pages
      • Finished Sykes Page
      • Finished JBCBIO Page
    2. Featured Resource
      • Added PubMed to the featured resource rotation
    3. Fix Headers
      • Added a trailing slash to the ask a librarian link
      • Removed the target attribute from the VCU Link
      • Moved to production and ssl
    4. New Staff Side Header
      • Remove fly-downs and replace with links used on the staff web.
      • Removed font-change and Ask a Librarian links
      • Moved to staff production site.
    5. Fix CSS Validation Errors
      • overflow-x is CSS3 and we are using CSS2, so this did not validate. Replacing overflow-x with overflow caused the page to break, removing all scroll bars
      • Removed the padding-left from the page-footer in layout.css
      • Added the footBlock div into the footer to contain the text and provide a left side margin, Without requiring an overflow property.
    6. Fix Page Validation Errors
      • The search box's query field does not have a label attached to it. To meet section 508 compliance it needed an ALT attribute attached to the input box.
      • Adjusted the label for the search type to point at the corect element, previously there was a capitalization error.
    7. Search Header Files
      • To get a general idea of how many pages use each specific header the template search BASH script was modified to search for and count all occurrences of calls to the various header files. Some sample statistics are below:


      Header FilePercentage of Pages
      HEADER.HTML84%
      HEADER_BRIEF.HTML2%
      HEADER_BRIEF_JBC.HTML10%
      HEADER_BRIEF_TML.HTML3%
      HEADER_VCU.HTML1%
      HEADER_ILL.HTML0%
      HEADERSSL.HTML0%
    ]]>     Rounding the bend... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3709 2006-12-13T20:15:04Z 2008-10-20T14:56:43Z Quick Update... The new library homepage is almost complete with an expected roll out of December 15th. Everyday we get closer and closer to a finished product and now we are down to the days of polishing every last detail... Christopher The new library homepage is almost complete with an expected roll out of December 15th. Everyday we get closer and closer to a finished product and now we are down to the days of polishing every last detail before the final change over. Almost all pages on the production server have been touched with a majority being put into templates for easier updating in the future. ]]> Onward to a new port... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3505 2006-11-13T22:06:23Z 2008-10-20T14:56:47Z Christopher If you are lucky enough to be able to reach the <a href="http://www.library.vcu.edu:83/">redesign port</a>, kudos to you, you may now view the development of the web site. If not, um... wait until December like everyone else. With this new port we can test all links as though they are in the root of the production server. This in turn will hopefully limit the amount of errors that occur during roll out. Anyway I had nothing to do with making the port it is just really cool.

    Now off to what I did today. On the standard footer for most VCU Libraries there is a "Updated" section, this is dynamic for all pages using the .html extension. Coldfusion files on the other hand are not parsed the same way as .html files and as such do not have a truly dynamic footer. I have been researching various ways to implement this "Updated" feature, but I had only succeeded in confusing myself. When first researching I came across "event gateways" in Coldfusion which run a .cfc file when an event occurs, such as a file system change like a file addition or a file being saved. I did not realize that this was meant mainly for creating custom logging systems, not the dynamic "Updated" feature. After more research I found a code example that looked like this: 
    
<cfdirectory action="list"
                   directory="#ExpandPath(".")#\"
                   name="qGetLastdateModified"
                   filter="#ListLast(CGI.SCRIPT_NAME, "/")#">
<cfif qGetLastdateModified.recordCount>
    <cfoutput>Updated: #DateFormat(qGetLastdateModified.dateLastModified, "mm/dd/ yyyy")#</cfoutput>
</cfif>
    Sadly this did not work, rather nothing happened and I assumed that it was just a busted snippet of code. After consulting liveDocs I decided to take apart the code and see what went wrong where. The main issue was in the line: 
    directory="#ExpandPath(".")#\"
    notice the "\" at the end of the line. This code was meant for a windows system. After replacing it with a "/" the last modified date was returned as "11/13/2006". Now off to livedocs again to figure out how to use DateFormat. In the end the result for the "updated" was: 
    <cfdirectory action="list"
                   directory="#ExpandPath(".")#/"
                   name="qGetLastdateModified"
                   filter="#ListLast(CGI.SCRIPT_NAME, "/")#">
<cfif qGetLastdateModified.recordCount>
    <cfoutput>Updated: #DateFormat(qGetLastdateModified.dateLastModified, "mmmm dd, yyyy")#</cfoutput>
</cfif>
    ]]>     SpryEffects... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3369 2006-11-02T03:27:31Z 2008-10-20T14:56:51Z With the redesign we have many opportunities to integrate new technologies, due to the fact that computers have higher performance capabilities and the number of internet users on broadband increases, allowing more content to be moved faster. One of these... Christopher adobe labs. They were created for inclusion in an AJAX framework that adobe labs was putting together. After some experimenting and slight modification the effects code now fits our needs. Also better accessibility features have also been integrated. Adjusting the text-size has been made easier by the inclusion of a small bar with preset font sizes displayed. Once the user clicks one of the font sizes the site will adjust accordingly changing all the fonts to the desired size. Due to the modularity of the code it is possible to have the elements resize based on the font-size allowing the site to keep its look-and-feel at various font-sizes.]]> <![CDATA[Piercings & Junk Yards]]> tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3316 2006-10-26T15:56:06Z 2008-10-20T14:56:55Z This past weekend was pretty intense. I drove home last Thursday at 11PM with a busted window. It was cold all the way back to VA beach. After I got home I helped Dad work on my truck then we... Christopher This past weekend was pretty intense. I drove home last Thursday at 11PM with a busted window. It was cold all the way back to VA beach. After I got home I helped Dad work on my truck then we went to Pick-n-Pull with my little sister to get some parts for both of our trucks. Kriston and I left Monday evening, but not before going to the piercing parlor because she wanted to get her nose pierced. After a lot of indecisiveness we both decided to get something done. She got her nose pierced and shortly afterward I had my eyebrow pierced. It did not hurt like I thought it would, just a slight amount of pressure. Back in Richmond everything is going awesome with Kriston, tonight we are going to see the movies in the commons which should be a lot of fun. Link colors and headaches galore... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3317 2006-10-25T15:56:26Z 2008-10-20T14:56:59Z Usually you can change the color of a link with: a:link{ color: #000;} When working with the new events template I found that the above code would not work. After a few tests nothing seemed to change the color of... Christopher a:link{ color: #000;} When working with the new events template I found that the above code would not work. After a few tests nothing seemed to change the color of the links. I found to change the color I needed to specify the id of the div where the link resides. So my code ended up looking like: 
    #maincol a{	color: #000;}
#maincol a:visted{ color: #000;}
#maincol a:hover{ color: #999;}
#maincol a:active{ color: #000;}

#footer a{ color: #000;}
#footer a:visited{ color: #000;}
#footer a:hover{ color: #999;}
#footer a:active{ color: #000;}
    ]]>     Updates... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3306 2006-10-24T18:05:00Z 2008-10-20T14:57:04Z Here are a few updates: Focus Groups: I sat in on a focus group and the redesign is looking very snazzy Event Template: I created a template for library events. This is my first Dreamweaver Template and I like how... Christopher
  • Focus Groups: I sat in on a focus group and the redesign is looking very snazzy
  • Event Template: I created a template for library events. This is my first Dreamweaver Template and I like how it has come out.
  • NewsGrab.cfm: I created a script that reads in the Library's "Whats New" feed and extracts the first news item and two other random news items and returns them within <li> tags. Including the file is simple through a SSI.
  • VALIDATION!!!!: Another cfscript, this time working with components, through a cfcomponent the validation function is called as a method of a cfobject.
    • ]]>     The lump of clay begins to take form... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3179 2006-10-09T18:24:14Z 2008-10-20T14:57:08Z I am still working on the redesign, we are slowly leaving the realm of moving large chunks of the layout around to fine tuning and determining the best margin to put where or which tab should come up first. I... Christopher I am still working on the redesign, we are slowly leaving the realm of moving large chunks of the layout around to fine tuning and determining the best margin to put where or which tab should come up first. I got the chance to write some more ColdFusion today. I implemented my RSS functions to pull the first news item from the library news feed, then pull random items from the rest of the feed. All of this is pulled in through a SSI. There should be a link at the bottom of this post showing the source of newsGrab.cfm. Also I took an oppurtunity to work with CSS position and z-index commands. They are essential if you want things to float above or below something cleanly. Overall I am really happy with the work that I have been producing.
    newsGrab.cfm... 
    
<cfinclude template="rss-functions.cfm">
<cfscript>
maxItems = 3;
items = getItems("http://www.library.vcu.edu/whatsnew/rss/news.xml", 0);
title = getTitle(items, 1);
link = getLink(items, 1);
sentence = getSentence(items, 1, 2);

WriteOutput('<li><a href="#link#">#title#</a></li>');
item = ArrayNew(1);
for(x=1; x LT maxItems; x=x+1){

	item[x] = RandRange(2, ArrayLen(items));
	for(y=1; y lt ArrayLen(item); y=y+1){
		if(item[y] eq item[x] AND y neq x){
			item[x] = RandRange(2, ArrayLen(items));
			y=0;
		}
	}
	
	title = getTitle(items, item[x]);
	link = getLink(items, item[x]);
	WriteOutput('<li><a href="#link#">#title#</a></li>');
}
</cfscript>
    ]]>     Redesign... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3160 2006-10-05T18:20:00Z 2008-10-20T14:57:13Z The past few days have been nothing but start and stop. I have been working on the redesign lately and it is an awesome project, but it can get frustrating. I can spend an hour where nothing works, then all... Christopher The past few days have been nothing but start and stop. I have been working on the redesign lately and it is an awesome project, but it can get frustrating. I can spend an hour where nothing works, then all of a sudden I am happily coding away and everything falls into place. On a good note in a couple of days the front page has been created from scratch with some new technologies and a sleek look-and-feel. I have definitely learned a few things from putting it together, mostly in the CSS float area, but also in client-side scripting. I am becoming more proficient with DOM-based javascript which I think will definitely help me out in the long run. There is a 5 foot diameter propeller spinning at many thousand rounds per minute coming straight towards me and I am not running... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3113 2006-10-02T14:27:09Z 2008-10-20T14:57:18Z This weekend my grandfather called me up and said he was going to Dinwiddie County for the annual EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Fly-in, and asked me if I wanted to go. I have not been in two years, but before... Christopher This weekend my grandfather called me up and said he was going to Dinwiddie County for the annual EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) Fly-in, and asked me if I wanted to go. I have not been in two years, but before that my cousin and I had gone for three years in a row and every time it was a blast. I said sure as I remembered the fun times I had in the past. So I jumped in Kriston's car and headed down I-95 S. When I got there I followed my grandfather in to the back of the airport through an industrial park. and on to one of the runways that they closed. This runway was closed because every year some volunteers at the fly-in choose to camp out at the airport and the best place is on of the runways facing away from the airport. I arrived a day early so there were not that many airplanes there yet so we decided to save our aircraft ogling until Saturday. On the way to dinner the first night the tram from the camp area to the hangar containing all the food passed by a helicopter, it turns out that the VCU Life-Evac helicopter operates out of Dinwiddie County Airport. It was neat to see the school's helicopter after reading about it a few weeks ago. Anyway we had a pizza dinner and turned in early. We got up just before dawn and it was freezing outside. I grabbed a sweatshirt and headed over to the hanger from the night before and grabbed a pancake breakfast. Afterward I headed over to the volunteer tent to get signed up and to pick my job. I signed up for aircraft parking and I was tossed over to the "tail-dragger" area. So the first few hours of the day had a few planes come in, but then everything really picked up. The other parking area had become full, so we had to handle all incoming aircraft. You don't realize how powerful these aircraft are when they are coming at you, but when we had to spin a few of the larger aircraft around to fit them in their space, you get hit with the "prop wash" and get blown away by the shear amount of air being forced at you. I stopped my shift at 2, 3 hours after my shift was supposed to end, I didn't mind working the extra time, because it was fun and I got to be in the "action" if you will. I left later that afternoon to come back to Richmond, mostly because of the 3 tests I have this week. Overall it was an amazing experience and I definitely want to do it again next year. Bring forth my fine-toothed comb... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3079 2006-09-25T19:20:06Z 2008-10-20T14:57:32Z I have been progressing on the web manual more and more each day. The first few days were a bit rough with trying to grasp what I was trying to do and determining how I would approach this project. After... Christopher all pages pass spell check, and all content transferred over. All that is left is minor tweaks and changes. I am happy to have finished this project, and I am pleased with the result. I have added to my library of code and I have explored different structure and control schemes.]]> Code of the day: 
    
/* Excerpt from webmanual.css */
div.marginmedium table{
	margin-left: -20px;
}
html>body div.marginmedium table{
	margin-left: auto;
	margin-right: auto;
}
    ]]>     And then it exploded... tag:blog.vcu.edu,2006:/bradfordcp//266.3040 2006-09-19T19:57:44Z 2008-10-20T14:57:36Z So a few days ago I went into the whole development.html thing. This was a huge HTML file covering many aspects of the web publishing guidelines. After careful consideration it was determined that there was just too much there. So... Christopher was a huge HTML file covering many aspects of the web publishing guidelines. After careful consideration it was determined that there was just too much there. So I split the file into its sub-components, and because of the careful structuring it took less time then trying to redo everything. I found that all I had to do was copy and paste and do a couple of find-and-replaces to change the headings. So kudos to hard work paying off. I am slowly coming towards the end of the web manual project. Almost half of the appendices was formatted using my structured methods before we decided to split it into seperate files like the development file. Once I finish putting the content into place the final step will be simple CSS clean-up and formatting.]]>