Blog of Ryan Ilg, Web Developer and Graphic Communication Specialist.
Update: ActiveCollab is no longer an opensource project, but lucky for us, others have taken on the development from version 0.7.1 onwards. You can check out the new system at ProjectPier.org.
If you always find our yourself jumping from project to project, and forgetting where you left off, then you should check out Active Collab. Its a open-source, FREE, project management system that you install onto your own web server. I have been using it for a few months now, and have come to love its ease of use, and customization. It even allows you to theme the interface, so you can make it look just like your familiar site. If you are familiar with Basecamp, you will be right at home. A lot of the systems are the similar, you add clients, and employees, and then assign then to your projects. The client will then have access to adding files, to-do lists, milestones, etc. When there is something added or updated, there will be an email notice waiting for you. Overall, I am really pleased with Active Collab, it allows me to do everything that Basecamp does (with some minor exceptions), minus the monthly fee, which can get pretty pricey if your managing more than a few projects. Check out the Active Collab features page for more information about what it can do for you. Enjoy.
Well as you may have noticed, over the last 5 months this blog has pretty much been inactive, for the last month, the blog has not even been online (mainly for the reasons below). I decided one day that it was time to completely overhaul the whole back end of my portfolio. After a year I was getting a little sick of its lack of functionality. Starting up a new version while keeping the older version as the live copy, I ripped into it, rearranged how the back end worked, and totally scrapped the old database (except for the content). In the past when I was setting up my site, I did everything in pieces, instead of sitting down and pumping it out in one go.
When I first created this version of the site, I started with the design and production. I built the site in a very simple way, using php includes for each portfolio entry. A few months later, I added a cms system to control the portfolio entries, a month later, a custom tracking system (from scratch) to track hits on projects, so I could see what people were getting attracted to. Then came a projects section, and an archiving system. By the time the smoke cleared I had a stack of sub sites all accessing their own database tables, and they were all starting to get to me. I had features I really liked in some that I didn’t integrate into others, so thats when I decided to change everything.
I started out by fiquring out my content, since that is the most important part of any site, and tackled the databases one at a time. Deciding on what needed to go, and what was staying, I created a short list of necessaries. On the front end of the site, you will most likely not see much change (as far as content, not design) since a lot of what was on site was working. The content as getting me quite a few hits, and as well was the most useful information about the projects.
I then created a brand new database with one table… yes only one! This allowed me to bring all the content to one place, calling one table, but differentiating the content based on a few variables. I included a column to tell me what kind of content it was, ie folio, projects, in the works, or archived. On top of that, it could all be interchanged. I build into my cms the ability to switch an entry from one section to another, on the fly. I could add a project when I started it, then move it to the live portfolio when it was all wrapped up. I had always wanted to better track when a project started and ended, that, the old archive was doing quite well, but until now I never integrated it into the portfolio.
So along with a new database, also came a new cms, with more options, more information. I cleaned up all the calls, perfected the functions, and created better name based variables. Overall, it was perfect, at least to me. I no longer was going to 5 different places to manage everything, the uploaders (for the site previews) were well rounded, and now removed the old screen when a new one was uploaded. Some might think this is not that big of a deal, but when your writing everything from scratch, its just satisfying to see everything work so problem free. Basically I am building my own, personal, custom, wordpress cms, from scratch. I have plugin functions, feeds, config docs, global headers & footers, etc.
By the time I had everything wrapped up, a month and a half had gone by (don’t forget I am still working a full time job at Free Agency Creative, as well as had a number of side contracts going on at the same time). At this point it was almost ready to launch. My new and improved tracking system was up and running, as well a few external site statistic systems, like the new Reinvigorate (which is currently still in beta, but works so well), and google analytics. I wanted to get as much information about my visitors as possible. That way I could tweak my site in little ways to make it run smoother for everyone, including the friendly search engine spiders.
I always made sure my content was presented in a logical order, and have always been obsessed with making sure it still looked good with no style sheets. So I could not just up and abandon this now, I went the opposite direction, and made it better. Integrating multiple microformats into my site, I am giving the user more information. One of them included an hCard, which allows users with the Operator toolbar for Firefox to automatically pull content on the page (styled with specific classes) and convert it to a vCard for their address book at the click of a button. For the web savvier clients and contractors, its saving them the time of having to manually find the information and add it.
So all in all, a lot of time has gone by, and as you may have noticed, the design has changed here. After the new site & cms system was live (on the old design) with all the new features. I then decided to sit down and work out a new design. It has been a long time coming, and every time I had sat down to do it in the past, I felt I could not make it any better well keeping the same simple flow, so I would just leave it. But then it came to me, I started with a concept and ran with it, so basically what you see is what you get. I took my time, made sure everything was perfect, and it took me about a month (between work, my girlfriend, and friends) to get everything to a place that I was happy with.
I just hope everyone likes what I have done. I would love to hear what everyone things, so please post a comment if you have time. Thanks for the patience, in waiting, and reading of course. This turned into quite a long post.
I just got back from a 2 week vacation. Before I left, tdSwansburg Design Studio’s site was launched. Check it out at tdesign.biz.
Over the next little while I plan on designing a new portfolio & blog. Im not in a big hurry, so don’t expect for at least a few weeks.
The new Cogneto site has been launched. Have a look at cogneto.com
Due to the large amount of (paying) work. I have had to push back the work on the image management tool. There are only a few more features I would like to implement, so launch is not to far away, but it will most likely be end of month before work commences on it again. Keep an eye out for it.
I have been busy the last 2 months I have not been posting. Recently I found out I will be building v2.0 of the Cogneto website. I started at the begining of the week and am already at a really good place. The site will be running off a full featured CMS and have a few little hidden features. It should be launching soon, so I will post when there is something to see.
So here we are, another month has gone by, and summer is almost over. Its sucks to think about how fast the time goes by. Anyways, work has been pretty hectic as usual. I seem to say that alot, but I guess the work never keeps flowing. Recently I have been working on a few “confidential” projects, so thats reason for the lack of posting. Along with those, I have taken on a few other jobs, including Blueprint Fundraising (this is a link to the current site). The new site will be designed by Isabelle over at seven25 design, and then passed off to me for a rip and build of the actual site. It will all be built off wordpress, with quite a few tweaks to get it to function and look just right. Keep a lookout here for the launch.
On another note. tdSwansburg design studio, which is a interior design company from Vancouver/Victoria, has finaly started back up again. After a 3-4 month break, where the company went through a idenity overhaul (largly based on the site design I created in February 2006), the project is wrapping up. It is expected to have a mid August launch date. I will keep you all informed. Later
With projects at Free Agency picking up again, and a few side projects under my belt, I have not had as much time as I hoped to finish the IMT. I have managed to almost complete the front end, which can be totaly customized by modifying the stylesheet. You can check it out here: Ilgrafica Image Management.
For the last few days I have been working on a little backend image manage system. I started from scratch on Tuesday and had it 90% complete by the end of the day. On Wednesday I just did some final tweaking to the uploading features, as well as making the interface pretty. I will be adding a few more features to it, then when I feels its ready, will release it to the public as an open source app. It should be pretty simple to setup, as I will create a simple little installer script for it. If you are interested in seeing it, just leave me a comment and I will send you the link (I don’t want a bunch of people uploading stuff they shouldnt).
This morning I switched over all my web hosting to Dreamhost. It went over quite smoothly, and I think my site was only down for about 10 minutes. It was just a matter of uploading all my sites, importing all my mySQL data, and changing a few connection variables. I know I will like it here at Dreamhost. Their support is phenomenal, and what you get for your money can’t be beat. 
