Work Stuff
DotNetNuke Default.CSS: Seriously??
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 | Artemis Solutions Group, CSS, DotNetNuke, Improving Code, Programming, Ranting, Skinning, Venting, Web Development, Work Stuff | 14 Comments
Here’s another one of the myriad of reasons that I am displeased with DotNetNuke as a web development platform:
The “default.css” included with all installs of DNN has this (and more CSS for other stuff like it) in it:
H1
{
font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica;
font-size: 20px;
font-weight: normal;
color: #666644;
}
H2
{
font-family: Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica;
font-size: 20px;
...
(I think you get the point)
Excuse me, DotNetNuke core team, but isn’t stuff like this up to the Designers and Developers? Why are you including a default stylesheet with definitions for HTML elements that would be used by Web developers? I can’t tell you how many times default.css has left me absolutely baffled about the smallest details not being quite right according to our design specs because it has these random “defaults” in it. It’s not up to DNN Core team to define my font families, sizes, and colors. And seriously, stop using pixel font sizing.
It’s becoming clearer to me almost on a daily basis, that DNN is not the right CMS for a professional Web shop to be using. They probably have this default.css for people who don’t make skins or know anything about Web development. And if you remove default.css, it completely hoses all the Admin pages and Control Panel. It takes way too much time and effort to figure out what’s removable and what’s not, and you always end up surprised when some random element isn’t positioned or styled correctly later on down the road.
It’s time for us to move on to a CMS that gives the developer full control over the theme, and not put a bunch of defaults in it that you can’t get rid of.
CFD Smile Goes Live!
Monday, November 12th, 2007 | CSS, Clients, Code, Custom Development, Design, Portfolio, Portfolio - Freelance, Programming, Projects, SEO, Semantic XHTML, Skinning, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff, XHTML | No Comments
Well, my first side project has finally gone live! After months of hard work, I now unveil www.cfdsmile.com to you. We wanted to bring out the services right up front for best emphasis, and lots of heavy stock photo usage for high impact.
We also worked with a professional web content writer to make the content more effective and search-engine optimized. This, coupled with semantic HTML, CSS, and google web master tools, will help this site rank high in keywords for Texas Dental Services.
So, please visit the site if you get a chance, and enjoy!
Three Scripts I wrote for DotNetNuke Skins
Thursday, September 13th, 2007 | DotNetNuke, Open Source, Programming, Usability, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff, asp.net, vb.net | 2 Comments
I’ve been in email communication with the new Skinning Team Lead at DotNetNuke. I’m really interested in joining the DotNetNuke skinning team. I bring a pretty unique contribution to the scene, and I’d like to share it in the most appropriate outlet. So I’m talking to Timo to see if I can be useful on his team.
Until then, I’m going to share some scripts I wrote for DotNetNuke skins, which I also sent Timo in email.
City of Southfield voted Best Web Site of 2007 by MEDA
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 | Design, Praise, Projects, Teamwork, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff | No Comments
From internal Artemis Email:
Just released, the Michigan Economic Development Association?s (MEDA) 2nd Annual Marketing Materials Competition has announced The City of Southfield web site as ?Best Web Site? for the population below 100,000 residents category.
Semantic XHTML - More than Table-less layouts
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 | CSS, Improving Code, Life, Programming, Semantic XHTML, Web Development, Work Stuff, XHTML | No Comments
OK so I have a confession to make. I didn’t know that semantic XHTML is different from standards-compliant XHTML.
I formally apologize to the entire web development community. My terrible practice over the last seven years has finally caught up with me and put me in my place!
I am deeply ashamed and will be making every effort to step up my game and read all about the wonderful world of semantic web development.
Modifying DotNetNuke Search and Improving the Results
Saturday, July 14th, 2007 | Artemis Solutions Group, Custom Development, DotNetNuke, Improving Code, Open Source, SEO, Search Engines, Search Modules, Search Results, Stored Procedure Improvement, Usability, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff | 4 Comments
Recently, I modified the Stored Procedure named “GetSearchResults” to improve the results pages in DotNetNuke web sites. Here is my explanation from the DNN forums.
RetroDC gets included in LogoLounge!
Sunday, May 27th, 2007 | Artemis Solutions Group, Design, Praise, Web Development, Work Stuff | No Comments
Congratulations to Steve Jencks of RetroDC and Artemis Solutions Group for the inclusion of his original logo into LogoLounge, an group that publishes an international book for designers around the world to get inspiration for their logo design.
Page Title SEO
Friday, May 18th, 2007 | Artemis Solutions Group, Programming, Projects, SEO, Teamwork, Usability, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff, XHTML | 1 Comment
I’ve recently sent out an email at work explaining Page Titles and their importance with SEO. I thought I’d share it on my blog. You may or may not have noticed that my Post titles and page titles come before my blog title in my page titles. I did this specifically because of SEO.
PAGE TITLE: - the text that shows up at the TOP OF THE BROWSER and in GOOGLE / YAHOO / MSN et al SEARCH RESULTS
Why is the page title important? It is what the casual searching web user will see when searching for content / services offered by YOUR CLIENT. So the page titles MUST INCLUDE keywords relevant to the pageâ??s content. The page title should be formatted well and DEFINITELY BE MORE THAN JUST A COPY OF THE PAGE NAME. The client name should be included.
If you donâ??t know how to do a very quick keyword-density page title, then AT THE VERY LEAST, format your page titles like this:
PAGE NAME | CLIENT / WEB SITE NAME
So if your client is Artemis Solutions Group and the page is Web Design
You can AT LEAST type this much:
Web Design | Artemis Solutions Group
But if you want to be keyword-savvy (just do a quick search and read on SEO Page Titles and Keywords for quick reference)
You could format it like this:
Web Design & Development | Lansing, MI | Professional Web site Design | Artemis Solutions Group
Itâ??s worth a LOT to the client for us as developers to think about their web marketing strategy and how their content and custom features affect that strategy. A little bit of Usability goes a long way, and is very easy to do.
Proper page titles take minimal effort, and add superb value to the client.
Kalamazoo Public Library Usability Review
Friday, May 4th, 2007 | Artemis Solutions Group, Design, Projects, Usability, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff | No Comments
I did a short, very brief usability review for Kalamazoo Public Library today. I thought I’d share it.
Again, it’s very limited and I could have listed more, but I was restricted to so much.
- Web site failed Section 108 Guidelines for Government Web sites:
- http://www.cynthiasays.com/mynewtester/cynthia.exe?rptmode=-1&url1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kpl.gov%2Fteen%2FHomeworkHelp.aspx
- Menu navigation only works with Javascript enabled â?? text-based browsers can not navigate
- Images not readable with CSS disabled â?? or no ALT tags
- Events link could be converted to front page list of upcoming events
- Link opens in new window to page that does not follow site theme
- External links open in new window
- This breaks the back button (the most used navigation element by internet users)
- Also, breaks desktop experience for users with Tabbed Browsing, eliminates user choice and control
- Internal links open in new window
- Creates confusing navigation experience for most users
- Branch Libraries section confusing â?? pictures do not help describe the links
City of Southfield Web site is Live!
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 | Artemis Solutions Group, Clients, Praise, Projects, Web Development, Websites, Work Stuff | 1 Comment
From Artemis Vice President, Bunmi Akinyemiju:
Itâ??s been a long 7 months for everyone who worked on the City of Southfieldâ??s website! We are finally live: www.cityofsouthfield.com. Kudos to the team for great work.
This is surely the largest website we have ever built, and surely the most challenging web project we have ever undertaken!
…
Despite all the challenges and hiccups along the way, this was a very unique opportunity for us in many ways.
….
Again, great work to everyone who contributed to the success of this project. Despite the unanticipated size and volume of work and resources that went into thisâ?¦I strongly believe that the visibility benefits from this project will open up several new doors for us.