WordPress 2.6 Is Out… But I’d Recommend Some Procrastination

THOSE DILIGENT developers in the WordPress community have gone and released the latest iteration of WordPress (V2.6) almost a month earlier than planned, but I wouldn’t be rushing to upgrade just yet if I was you. Read more

Welcome To The New & Improved Avalon5.com

WELCOME at last to the new look Avalon5.com site folks. There has been a hell of a lot of hours work put into this by yours truely – not all of it productive it must be said – but I’ve finally got to the stage where I can launch the new look Avalon5.com website and with it a host of new features. Read more

Yet Another Speed Bump, But Almost There…

I’VE HIT ANOTHER SPEED BUMP on the way to releasing the new version of my website folks; sorry for the – hopefully – last delay.

I was just about to release the new look and theme when the sodding developers released a new version of the base WordPress theme I’ve been extending, with enough changes to the base files that I need to now retrofit all the changes I’d been making in order to get the best usage from the theme itself.

All I can do is promise you that the new look is a major departure and I guess I should drop a few hints at this point about what you can expect.

For starters – you might have noticed I’m using consistent image sizes for recent posts, and that’s because I’m going for more of a magazine look to the new website, meaning a fixed width layout with consistent image sizes and thumnails for a more professional look.

I’ll also be featuring embedded videos of choice and providing some additional functionality for readers too. I plan to launch within a week (assuming I can retrofit the changes successfully) and then look to make more gradual changes over time, as the starting ones are so fundamental. Read more

I Have Seen The Future: Content Aware Image Resizing

THIS IS POSSIBLY the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long time, certainly one of the most impressive pieces of technology I’ve seen lately. Many thanks to Mick for bringing this one to my attention. It’s the brainchild of a Dr. Ariel Shamir and I think it just might make him rich in the process.

The concept is “Content Aware Image Resizing” which I could ramble on about for a few paragraphs but basically just go watch the video demo of this new technology and be amazed. Honestly – you will be completely gobsmacked when you see the power of this new approach to image manipulation. If you want the full tech briefing check out this PDF document on the topic; it should satisfy the nerdiest of needs!

The implications are endless, but even from a WordPress perspective I wonder if there is the potential to incorporate such functionality into how images are handled by default, thereby making fluid themes really fluid (as distinct from now when image sizes remain constant while the text on the page moves as you resize your window).

Either way, even if this new technology cannot be adapted for WP sites, it will hopefully end up in Photoshop or all the usual players because it’s just too damn sweet to be ignored. In particular – stick with the video to the end folks – you will love the ‘eraser’ functionality.

I seriously hope the dude behind this idea has his patents sorted out because this is one nuclear hot idea.

WordPress V2.3 Upgrade

I’VE UPGRADED the site to the latest iteration of WordPress, Version 2.3 and refreshed a lot of the plugins and code around the place too.

This release is a  major milestone in the WordPress roadmap, so there may yet be some kinks and issues to be worked out, but I tested out the upgrade on my local test site first and eventually decided to go ahead with the full upgrade anyway.

If you’re a WordPress fan – like myself – or just a user, you really should go download the latest version and upgrade, however make sure you get this Upgrade Preflight Check plugin first. It will scan your setup and see if there are likely to be any issues with the upgrade. It’s not foolproof, but it’s a nice tool to check out your probable issues in advance.

Take note that there have been some database changes since the previous version so it really is worth checking out things before you upgrade. In fairness though my upgrade took approximately 5 minutes to complete, so you can’t ask for more than that now can you?

You can download WordPress V2.3 here or indeed go check out the WordPress Support forums here for more information.

 New features in Version 2.3 include:-

• Native Tagging Support
• A Built-In Update Notification System for WordPress and Plugins (something I’ve been asking for since V1.5)
• Canonical URLs
• More Advanced WYSIWYG Editor Functionality
• Hundreds Of Other Bug Fixes / Minor Enhancements

Anyhoo, as ever, if you notice any issues, weirdness or problems around the place please contact me and let me know; I’ll sort them out as soon as possible.

The elusive Opensource E-Commerce Holy Grail: Multi-Site, Multi-Store

I GOT INTO OPENSOURCE over two years ago, and started http://www.avalon5.com as a result. Since then I’ve been keeping my eye on developments in this space, and in particular the Opensource CMS/Portal and E-Commerce side of things. The reason for my interest is that I’ve always thought it would make perfect sense to take a good solid and production quality Opensource e-commerce solution and marry it with a decent Blog/Portal/CMS solution; one with the ability to support multiple sites.

Two years ago I looked at the contenders and evaluated their capabilities, and nothing really hit the mark. For the last two weeks I’ve been checking the progress of various products and solutions (hence the lack of reasonable activity here at the site) and unfortunately my conclusion (unless someone can correct me) is that things have not really progressed that much in the last two years either.

There are some commercial products out there which claim to be able to do what I need – but I’m keen to do this with an Opensource solution rather than a full blown (and expensive) product. Specifically I want to have a single install/codebase which enables me to create sites on the fly (probably as subdomains) for clients, each subsite presenting it’s own front end (templates, shopping cart, taxes, products etc.) to consumers and backend (admin GUI, catalog, configuration items etc.) to vendors. I see the role of a central site as an aggregator (acting as a shopping mall if you will for each subsite), but it’s important to me (and the clients) that they are also accessible as individual shops in their own right. The idea of the single codebase/install is that it cuts down dramitically on support effort, and therefore costs. It also means I could get a dedicated server for all subdomains and just do the whole hosting thing simply, instead of having to setup seperate hosting contracts for each client.

Unfortunatly this concept seems to remain elusve to me, as distant as the Holy Grail if you will. It makes perfect sense to me that such a product/solution should exist; indeed many of the Opensource communities seem to be actively working on such ideas and directions, but no one has yet managed to get it working as far as I can see. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Honestly – I’d love to be proved wrong on this one. If my analysis or conclusions are off then let me know, and certainly if you know of any Opensource solution out there that can do what I’m trying to – then get in touch and put me straight. I’ll be forever grateful if you do.

So which products have I considered? And further, why have they not met the requirements? Well – if you’re interested in Opensource solutions and you’ve been thinking along the same lines as me then read on. Perhaps I can save you some time and frustration… Read more

New Design In The Works…

SORRY for the lack of content and attention around here lately folks. I’ve been using this week to work behind the scenes on a new design for Howl @ The Moon! and it’s approximately 70% complete at this point. I hope to finalise this before or during the weekend and then port over the site to the new layout. I’m still taking suggestions for any improvements you would like to see. The new layout will be a lot faster than the current one (less graphics, less front page content) so that should address any speed concerns.

Right now I’m going through the usual CSS and PHP hell as well as trying to work with new template tags in WordPress V2.1, but of course I’m no genius when it comes to these things so it’s purely the ‘trial and error‘ approach which gets me through. Unfortunately this takes a lot of time as I discover what works and what breaks the site.

Anhyoo – be patient and I shall resume normal service with a renewed sense of insanity and political incorrectnesss soon. Oh yeah, if you want to check out the work-in-progress and let me know what you think (comment back here on the live site please as the test site has commenting turned off)… by all means please do so, but remember it’s still being ‘tweaked‘ so depending on what time you look at it, it may look great or a complete mess as I do the ‘trial and error’ stuff.

Later.