A Facelift for NZTechie.Com

This weekend I implemented the most significant change to NZTechie.Com in several months. I have ditched the former style of using a sparse Google-like interface and have moved to an open source content management system called Joomla.

Joomla comes with a very professional-looking template which I have adopted (however, there are many more available online!). After some work, I completed menus to point to my Privacy, Policy, Copyright Notice, and Legal Notice. I have also included links to both my blogs, YouTube Channel, and Photo Gallery.

The advantage of using this content management system is that I can make modifications to the site from anywhere that has Internet access. I am no longer restricted to editing my pages in Frontpage or Dreamweaver, and then uploading them by FTP. (Before you say, I know what Frontpage Extensions are!)

There are a few nifty built-in features which I have retained such as the ability for users to create accounts (you can restrict access to content by accounts), and I have retained the poll facility which was included as "sample data", however I have changed the question. There is also the inbuilt capability for registered users to submit articles for inclusion on the site.

One initial downside to using Joomla is that it has no native support for any advanced HTML or scripting. This posed as a problem for how I would list my recent YouTube videos, and how I would implement my Adsense code. I was also worried how I would get Google Analytics working as well.

Fortunately, Joomla is very extensible with a multitude of 'extensions' being available for download from the Joomla. For this particular problem I used an extension called SpecialHTML written by Rony Sandra Yofa Zebua. This module allows you to insert HTML at any location. It has worked effectively for my Adsense adverts, Google Analytics, and Google Video Bar.

There have been a few teething problems with how Joomla is displaying my RSS feeds. I have configured the CMS to display the most recent post from all three blogs I maintain. However, on inspection it appears to not be showing the most recent ones. Joomla appears to have selected much older articles then are available in the RSS feeds. I'll try to fix this during the week. [Update: The CNS has updated itself since I published this post!]

The new site generally retains all of the functionalitymy former homepage had with one minor exception. I did have the facility to perform a search that will crawl all of my posted content from all sources. This was using the Google Custom Search facility. Joomla of course does not come configured with this.

It does however come configured with a search that will search all content published within the Content Management System. I may consider using SpecialHTML to include Google Custom Search back at a later stage.


Joomla!
http://www.joomla.org/

Joomla! Extensions Directory - SpecialHTML For Jomla [sic] 1.5
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4089/Itemid,35/

SpecialHTML Download Mirrors: [Mirror 1] [Mirror 2]

Additional Information: Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and reliable. -joomla.org

A Major Change for NZTechie.com

I have been allocating a significant amount of resource and time to my Blog and my Youtube channel, to the detriment of my website. The site generally remains static, and acts as a central link to the rest of of content on the web.

Today I decided to modify it radically. Ive taken to copying the Google model for the layout and design of the site. This keeps the page loading quicker, and is beneficial to some of my visitors who are on narrow-band connections (read dial-up).

The homepage is now simple. It contains a link to four areas of which I do regularly maintain, and have new content. Firstly, this Blog, my Youtube Channel, my extensive photo gallery, and downloads.

I have included a custom Google search on the homepage also. This effectively searches though all of my content from all the site that I maintain. It puts the Live! search I used to have on my homepage. I found that Live! search poorly indexed my sites. I am keeping static links to the remainder of my content in the top right-hand corner of my site. Navigation and returning to the homepage from one of these pages can easily be achieved by clicking the Home navigation links placed at the top right, and bottom right of each page.

It was quite a bit of work dealing with the existing CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which I had used in the site previously to control layout and colouring.

After this major retrofit, I have now included Google Analytics code in all my website pages to enable more efficient tracking of visitors. You will note that that there is no longer a link to the spam-attracting forum which I had. The completely unused chat is also gone.

One other thing you will notice is that my ugly mug no longer adorns my website.

The Google Adsense advert has been moved up so that all visitors can see it. In my old website design, anyone but those with the highest resolutions and/or the biggest of screens would have to see it. Hopefully I will get a few more additional clicks to earn myself some additional dollars.

Useless Information: Diamonds were first discovered in the riverbeds of the Golconda region of India over 4,000 years ago

He should have been a salesman

When I arrived home from work today, I realised my petrol tank was virtually dead empty. I had to decide whether I was going to get up earlier in the morning to fill it up, or go fill it later that night. Being the non-morning person I am, I selected the later option.

I filled up at Shell in Botany Downs. The petrol pump was a pain. The little switch thing that keeps the gas pumping without you needing to stand there wasn't working properly. When I did manage to get it to work it didn't seem to be pumping out the petrol very fast. What a pain.

To add injury to insult, the attendant at Shell attempted to sell me one of those Dairy milk chocolate bar thingies. It is great for "dessert" he says. I bought 42.85L of Ultra 91 for NZ$65.78. This was NZ$1.545 per Litre. At least I earned some Fly Buys points on the petrol purchase. I passed on the chocolate bar.

On the way to the petrol station I detoured through the Botany Downs Town Centre, as I caught something on my Police Scanner before leaving. Just a few cops surrounding some dodgy looking guy. My photography is hopeless I'm afraid. I had heard a lot of bag snatches and burglaries on my scanner tonight.

I also set up weekly reports from Google Analytics to provide me with information on where my vistors are coming from, and why on earth they would actually read this blog.

Additional Information: To warn off other males, the orangutans of South-east Asia burp loudly to declare their territory.