Likemindedness

Here’s an interesting article on Google’s recent experiments with indexing the “invisible web”:

Google: A Clear & Present Danger to Corporate Data Privacy

My take: yes it may cost companies some money to correct exposure of their supposedly private data - but if Google can index it by the approach they are taking, it was never private in any meaningful sense. Chances are, those companies’ competitors already have copies of it.

If your data is meant to be private it is your responsibility to make it so, not Google’s.

It’s a question that often comes up: which web content management system is the best? Or, just as commonly, which is better out of CMS A and CMS B?

The answer is always going to be: it depends. Disappointing, eh? But it’s worth looking at the main factors involved in making a decision, all the same.

read more about choosing the best web CMS

I’ve worked on a few large site migration jobs now, so I thought I’d share some of my experiences and what I’ve learned along the way.

I recently moved my hobby site Odd Books to Drupal, so that’s the one I’ll use as the prime example.
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Squidoo gives you the power to write simple web pages on any subject of your choosing. It’s free - and you can even earn money from it for yourself or for charity.

Why would you want to do this? Well, increasing your online presence is generally good for business. You can add links back to your own site to your “lens” (Squidoo-speak for a page) which - providing they are relevant to the subject of the page - can help raise the credibility of your site in search engines.

Not only that, if you write something interesting and worthwhile, you may gain a wider audience for your ideas and opinions. That can’t be bad, can it?

As a taster, here’s a page I’ve just started about Drupal development.

Drupal 6.0 was released a few days ago and I am very much looking forward to working with it. There are some great usability enhancements that’ll make using the CMS backend a lot easier, and there are many improvements to the API that promise to make module and theme development more productive.

However, until the CCK and Views modules for the new release are ready, it won’t be suitable for developing major sites, so I don’t anticipate migrating to version 6.0 completely for a few months.

If you have a site that’s still on 4.7, though, it’s definitely advisable to make the move to Drupal 5 as soon as possible. Should you need any help with that migration process, let me know.

K2 is a popular WordPress theme, noted for its sophisticated features. What’s more, it can be used as the basis for your own themes, giving you access to some great site tools.
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What is a wireframe? From the web design point of view it’s a skeleton version of a page, just the layout without colour or graphical elements. Creating wireframes can be very helpful especially when you have many pieces to arrange on a page.

There are many ways to create wireframes. You can use graphical tools like Visio, Photoshop or even Powerpoint, but personally I prefer to use HTML. In the past I’ve created simple page prototypes using NoteTab Pro, but today I had some very complex tabular forms to design and I felt the need for something that would be quicker and much more WYSIWYG. Dreamweaver would be the obvous choice but I really don’t want to spend hundreds of pounds on something to solve a relatively narrow problem.

Instead, I installed KompoZer, which being entirely free, was much more in line with my budget! With it, I’ve been able to knock together page designs very rapidly. You can use tables for layout (fine if you are in a hurry and don’t plan to reuse the wireframes for your final site code) or follow current best practice and use CSS.

KompoZer is allegedly aimed at the non-technical user, but to get the best from it I think some knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. I don’t think it’s likely to displace Dreamweaver as the professional’s web designer’s favourite tool, but for wireframing it’s just the ticket.

Just a few books related to website development that I’ve opened more than once …
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When you have nothing to say, make a list, as Wittgenstein might have said - had he been a blogger. This particular list is of some of my favourite tools for website development under Windows (XP Pro): some well known, others less so.
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“Design is a suite of web-design and development assistive tools which can be utilised on any web-page. Encompassing utilities for grid layout, measurement and alignment, Design is a uniquely powerful JavaScript bookmarklet.”

– From Alan Jardine.

You can add Design to your toolbar or list of bookmarks in a second, then with any web page loaded use it to take measurements directly from the page with absolute accuracy.

Javascript bookmarklets have several advantages over browser plugins, not least their being cross-platform. And, as Jardine says, “you always get the most up-to-date version every time you load it”. Design is both beautiful and inspiring.

One niggle, though. The lack of IE6 support means it can’t be used to help fix the inevitable layout bugs encountered when developing for that browser. But I suspect IE6’s bugginess would make porting Design a nightmare, so it’s a forgiveable omission.