Josh Gomez

Last week was very exciting at work. I made lots of progress on the new AMBER Alert website in such a short amount of time. I kind of started over last Monday with the layout and HTML structure, just because I wasn’t feeling my first shot at it. That’s how it usually goes. This week has started out slow, but I hope to pick it up here in the middle.

Most of the work to be done is part of the Child ID Kit section. I plan on overhauling the existing page template I have for this section and developing a new foundation so it has a custom look. I am trying to get more space for pretty photos of the software interface and the actual USB device. I will also be adding a secondary horizontal navigation bar for the Child ID Kit section.

By the end of the week, I am hoping to have a soft launch of the website.

Working on the new AMBER Alert site has drained my motivation to complete this blog. However, this weekend will give me the time I need.

I’ve been keeping a steady pace with the maintenance of this here blog. However, when I move forward with content and design, I end up slacking in the code department. I need to tighten up my page templates and get the most out of my sidebar. Most importantly I need to get a list of plugins together and get them running smoothly.

Page Templates

Besides the default Wordpress templates I need to configure, I also need to create custom templates for each of the sections of my website. I have some ideas for my About section involving a personal timeline and maybe some integration with the handful of social networking groups I belong to.

The two other templates I have been working on (sketching out) since the beginning are my Projects  and Topics sections. I would like to have a nice section for each project I worked on with sketches, drafts and finished product screenshots. That would be nice to have, just for my personal archive. Topics should be fairly easy to create, once I get on the ball and start blogging about shit worth reading. Right?

Sidebar

What’s the sidebar all about? I don’t know, but everyone keeps raving about how cool sidebars are, so I decided to just do it. So far, well, you see what I got. Maybe a photo of a fake office fern?

Plugins

Finding plugins that are worth a damn is always fun. After going on so many hunts, I’ve created a nice library of surefire killers. Now I finally have a reason to organize it, dip it into subversion and share it with you. Later.

I spent a few more hours on this theme tonight, and I am happy with it. I like where it’s going. However, I still have a few little things to finish up before I can step away from it.

Page Templates

I will be designing a few page templates for certain sections. I am working with a bare-bones theme arrangement right now, so most of the content is being served to you through the default template - index.php

First on my list will be a single post template. My design for the posts template will focus on two key goals: readability and comments. This is what posts are all about, right?

Next I will get together a generic list design to create the archives, topics, tag, and search results templates. These designs will display lists of posts depending on how you want to browse: month by month, by topic area, through tags, or using the search box.

Finally I will have some fun created the templates for my projects, topics and contact pages.

The projects page will showcase my work on past and present projects. I might also include a section on ideas for future projects.

Topics will be displayed with their corresponding subtopics and a brief description. My inspiration comes directly from A List Apart’s topics section. I think I will go with something split into columns, with graphics and shorter descriptions.

Contact forms are fun. I want to spicy this page up with something, but I don’t have any sauce, yet. We’ll see what happens on that day…