A snowy Friday in December

The Arun Productions project I have been working on is finally complete.  It even works on IE fully now after a couple of tweeks which is great as IE is always problematic in one way or another. The site was an interesting project really as it has developed my skills from purely html and css templating to fully functioning interactive and animated modx building.  I started this project originally by templating each of the pages and ending up with a static html structure.  After discussing the project with Matt I then started working on the interactive and animated features using jquery.  I quite enjoy uisng jquery as it is a very powerful and multi-compatible tool which can easily help to make websites more engaging. It was discovered that Ajax would be needed to make the site function practically which I had not really dealt with before so this presented an interesting challenge.  However thanks again to Jquery this became a realtively simple and successful task as Jquerys inbulit ajax functions make communication with PHP very easy.  Modx was also very helpful in this task as it is extremely well documented and I quickly found information on using ajax alongside Modx.  This meant that writing the PHP for the ditto calls was quick and easy and so it didn't require much time to get a working ajax solution.
The most tricky section of building this site was probably the thumbnails navigation on the collection pages which included both Ajax and jquery animation, as well as re-configuring the paginate buttons as they no longer were contained as part of the ditto call.  I have also learnt to use a small amount of PHx in Modx this time to control what displays when.  This has made displaying content a lot easier and ensures that you dont need to create too many templates to build all of the pages required.  Just to explain my understanding of PHx: PHx is an additional section that can be applied to [+x+] placeholders to add sections and the placeholder dependant on the specified conditions.  An example is as below:
[+image:isnot=``:then=`<div><img src="[+image+]"/></div>`+]
Now that this site is complete I have also been offered the chance to do the MODx content management tutorial next week with Chris(arun productions) and Remco which I am quite happy about. This is a step up for me as regards my work with Pixillion and so I have gained a new if small responsibility within the company.  As well as Arun Productions I also did some tweaking work on ECCC this week, nice to finally see it go live. It is kind of astonishing how long the turn over time is on most of these projects, they seem to go live at least a month and a half after completion.  It was quite odd working on it again after so long, and I got to write some instructions for it too.  I had to restructure a small section of it as it was originally not built for content management but should have been.  It took me a couple of hours to get through the various changes required which was alright.
Unfortunately yet again Pixillion is suffering(Remco described it as a sinking ship :S) as one of the major clients work has gone pair shaped and is overloading the workload.  It is a shame, I feel, that I cannot help with this but it is up to the others as to what can be handed over to me and in this case the answer is nothing.  Its a bit of a mental overload for everyone I think but we seem to have managed it this far, so hopefully our luck will continue.  On the upside it is Christmas next week and Pixillion's party is on Thursday(23rd) which should be good.   Can't quite understand why were going all the way to Bath but its up to them, I don't mind.  Helastel's is today as they are finishing earlier but I have decided not to go.  Laser Quest with all the Helastel team does not really match with me, and anyway I want to go home and see all the snow :).  20 mins till finish now, can't wait for the snowy weekend.  Handed out all my Christmas cards today to spread some festive cheer - or at least I hope I did and enjoyed my chocolate muffin for #muffinFridays.  Merry Christmas :)

Work update

Its been quite a while since my last post and I have been involved in a number of projects since then.  Firstly johann finally went live last week although its still causing havoc as there is a bug in the system that I am having trouble finding in order to fix.  I keep testing and editing the site to try to sort it out but am still failing to find the loop hole which is awkward.  The only consolation for this issue is that the errors only occur mainly when the site is being over used at a rate that is probably unrealistic for the average user.  Of course the problem still needs to be fixed. It only really seems to cause problems when moving from information pages to collection pages so I think there must be some conflict with functions and variables that is throwing the system off.  Being that this project was a leading portfolio project for Pixillion I am very frustrated that what I have built is not as clean and tidy as I would hope it to have been, and so I will continue working on the site to try and fix it properly.
As well as the Johann project I have also been working on a few website front-end builds with Modx.  This has included visitor review, hj marketing and currently Arun Productions.  These tasks have included both html/css and javascript work and Arun productions is my second front-end Modx development I have done from scratch, ECCC being the first. Arun is also quite focused on Javascript and so my skills with Jquery are growing all the time.  Admittedly I am only currently scratching the surface of  Jquery and javascript but I am much more comfortable now with taking it on than before I started my placement year.  From working on Arun I have also found an area of skill that I need to develop in browser compatibility.  Although a relatively minor issue with most browsers having similar compliancy, there are still small css complications that occur even with IE 8 that can cause obvious issues with a sites design.  Only today I have solved an issue with the use of border-bottom in IE in that border-bottom of a tags only works when the a tag has a block type display; inline does not work.  Although a peculiar oddity of IE it is still important to catch and fix and so I am learning to take more care over my compatibility and also compliance.  This will help to improve my working methods and make the work I produce more reliable.

Projects worked on so far: a list

Johann Collections - Full Flash Development
Visitor Review - Styling with Modx and Jquery work
Pixillion Flash Games - Change for non data collection
ECCC Website - HTML CSS Templating
Backup Direct - Styling and HTML sections
Tweet List Widget - Entire development
Andromeda flash lesson - some section development

Continued work

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working to complete my fashion flash website which in total has taken me 4 weeks.  The length of time it has taken me to reach a completion point on this project has been longer than I originally expected, and has made me realise that there is often a lot more testing and bug fixing required in projects like this than originally anticipated.  Obviously the more I improve my skills in programming the less problems there will be to fix in this way but this is all part of the learning process involved in my placement.  The whole fashion flash project has aided me in discovering better ways to manage and work on projects which I can then use in the future.  As well as this in the last week I have been helping Pixillion do some work on a web project using Modx again.  This tine I have been working on both css styling, html templating and some Jquery work.  It has been good to have a change from my flash after the 4 weeks that I have taken to make the flash website.  I enjoy working with Modx as it is helping me to better understand content management systems and the ways to build for them using various templates, snippets and chunks.  Being able to work with jquery this time has also been good as it helps to expand my knowledge of different languages which is bound to be beneficial for me in the future.  In particular with the use of Flash under question since HTML 5 was introduced, the more javascript I understand the better as it will make any transfer between languages if required much easier.
As well as this I have now been given a working phone and the responsibility of answering the phones for Helastel.  Although I have always been a bit apprehensive about answering phones I am glad I have been given this responsibility as it shows my position in the company has become solidified and also will give me the chance to improve and develop my communication skills and my confidence at dealing with people.  This has always been one of my weaker points and so I am glad I have been given a change to work on this.
Unfortunately however I have discovered this week that Pixillion are struggling for work and to keep enough money rolling in to be able to continue.  Hopefully this will change over the next few weeks as being such a small company, points in time such as this where business is quiet are bound to be troubling.  Currently there are still things to do so hopefully the problems will blow over and everything will be fine.  Helastel seem to be pretty busy anyway so that is good.  Learning about details like this help me to understand the company and business better which may be valuable knowledge in the future.

Pilot CSS and Flash fashion

Since my twitter widget escapade I have been working on a couple of projects, one css based, the other a flash website.  My first project was more work for Helastel and involved me working on putting in template css to make a elearning system for bristol ground school look as identical to the print out designs as possible.  This provided some interesting challenges as the html content was being generated from the inDesign files and so elements were ordered in a way that could not necessarily be altered.  This meant I had to go through and keep notes on what templates would be needed on what pages based on the content and write up the required css to style the templates to the inDesign documents. 
My second project is a flash website for a fashion company that I am building by myself.  The designs have been provided to me.  The website is based around images of high quality and so requires a lot of use of loading techniques to get the images in. I have programmed the swf to use XML to parse in the image locations and then load them. So far this has worked ok but I am currently only running the file locally and so the loading of the large images is an unrealistic representation.  I cannot currently find a way to compress the files as they are loaded either which does not help in terms of the file sizes.  The images can be reduced in size but preferably not too much as the quality of the images still needs to be good up close.  This is probably the most tricky element of this project to master as it is something I havent tried before and have very little knowledge about. Similarly my methods of handling memory usage are not particularly refined so I am having to try and work out the best ways of keeping memory usage to a minimum as I go.  I think if I was to start this project again it would also be better to plan out my approach in terms of what actionscript classes etc I need and what they should do before trying to build the project in its entirety as I am now going to have to go back and develop classes from code I have written which I would not have to do if I had realised at the start.   My methodology for this project therefore is kind of messy and so I hope to improve this in the future based on what I have learnt.  There are still a whole variety of new elements I have yet to incorporate in the project also to make it viable for the web.  This includes SWFAddress and SWFObject javascript and actionscript that makes the swf work alongside the browser more easily.

Twitter API, Jquery, AJAX, javascript, html, css, YUI grids and 1 widget

For the last week or so I have been busy working on an individual project to create a twitter widget that displays a twitter list in the classic twitter scrolling style. This project was given to me as more of a self development project rather than having any end game, which is really good and I have learnt a lot. The title of this blog kind of outlines basically what the project has required, and in typical development fashion the scope creep has been pretty lengthy.  Along the way I've had a couple of other small flash pieces to work on but this has been the main focus of my time.  The project has gone through many various stages over the past week and a half and now consists of both a working scrolling interactive twitter widget, and a generator webpage to provide the twitter widget to other users open source, probably eventually under a creative commons license.  The twitter API probably saved me on this one, making it really easy to get twitter data which I could then manipulate.  Im glad there was no OAuth issues either as this would have been particularly tricky to deal with.  It was really good to properly get to grips with some of the main jquery functions as it is a very powerful javascript addon, and the more comfortable I am with it the better.  Most of the javascript I worte was standard javascript though which is great as it means I have gathered more understanding about something that I can use to improve my personal work in the future.  In doing this project I have also been able to develop some design skills as I have produced all of the assets for the twitter widget creation pages.  This was only small but it has shown to me that my understanding of how web design works has already improved from the work I have been doing on my placement. I have now uploaded the twitter page to my webspace so that it can be used but am having a few compatibility issues between browsers (no surprise). From doing this I have learnt that I should probably work more in stages rather than one go.  If I had tested my application on all browsers throughout the project any main problems that occurred I could fix as I went along rather than having to try and work it out afterwards when there is a lot of code to look through.

Modx and stuff

Since my last post I have been working on some more html and css based projects for Pixillion.  This time I have been able to use the Modx content manager to build the website on along with Filezilla.  Modx seems to make so much sense I found it really quite easy to adapt to in comparison to my previous content management experience.  I'm glad Ive been able to start using a new tool to increase my experience.  Its good I've finally started using Filezilla too, its so easy to use and everyone uses it but I haven't been bothered up until now. It took me a week to build the site from the psd files given to me as there were some complicated areas involving transparency backgrounds and scalable divs.  It seemed like I had finished it by Wednesday but I always seem to find stuff to mess around with for days.  Today Ive been working on the Flash games again getting them translated and fully functional for the new site.   I think they're finally done now, its crazy, something I was sure was only going to take me 5 minutes this morning has turned into a 5 hour job.  The trouble is now I have hit my first work wall, being that today for Pixillion is dedicated to their new site I am unable to help there, and the Andromeda stuff isn't planned to come through until tomorrow. I'll find out in a minute whether its home time for me, or whether I can manage to waylay myself for another 3 hours.  Not that I mind, I was expecting to be finished before lunch and thought I might go home to eat but now its turned out that I'm still here and haven't taken a lunch break at all.  I knew this morning when I was a few minutes late in due to traffic that it would be one of those days with nothing for me to do.  I hope the Andromeda stuff comes through tomorrow, I don't want to come in to find I have very little to do. Oh well they've managed to keep me busy so far...

Andromeda

Since my HTML assignment I have been busying myself on a big project with the Helastel team.  The project involves lessons on carbon footprint as an e-learning tool ... again! My job was to create all of the components to fit inside the controller of the elearning tool using graphics and animation made by another of our team.  There has been a total of 4 of us working on the elearning tool itself, in Flash mainly, which is all good for me.  The only downside being Ive been working in AS2 but after a few days I have got used to the slightly different format and capabilities of AS2 flash work.  The lesson we have been working on has consisted of 6 parts, although this took some time to figure out what with changes made by the client and uncertainty as to what the script was trying to insinuate.  I built part 2, 3, 4, some of 5, and 6, which has been really good. The AS is pretty standard as the parts needed to be all self contained although I have learnt a bit about AS2 _root and _global and how variables and data can be accessed and used in this way as a form of communication between different swf files/components.  Im glad I got everything finished as there was talk of going in on the weekend to complete the lesson before presentation on Monday which I would have been paid for, but its not a particularly exciting idea. I know this kind of environment is often like that, working all days and hours a bit like freelance, and definitely like uni projects, but the more it can be avoided the better, especially as Im only on expenses, not fully paid.  This week would have been awkward any way as the Bristol Half Marathon is on today making it harder to get into work.  The crazy thig about this project is that we are likely to be asked to do 9 others which is great, but there is a total of 300 lessons that the client wants made and so if we gained a contract for all of them I would basically be working on it for my enitre placement, and it probably wouldn't be finished even if I was!  Thats all without any further Pixillion work too, which isn't the case as I know that Pixillion have "booked me out" for next week some time to work on some Flash project for them.  I find the concept of being booked out quite amusing, it kind of makes me a separate entity between the two groups who fight over my time because I am cheap labour.  I know this, I put myself into the situation so Im bound to be used to save money, Im just glad that Im that appreciated and used really.  Its better than sitting in a placement and doing nothing important or relevant which Im sure happens to some people. Another interesting thing that I have discovered this week is that it seems that Pixillion are working with Mentor Digital.  This is pretty funny being that I hassled Mentor for a placement for so long and now Im working for a company that they have turned to.  Just seems kind of ironic. Think that covers everything for this last week or so, I really ought to post more often.

Mobile and HTML

Since yesterday I have been putting content into a mobile site for a company via a cns system that Pixillion had set up.  Pretty simple, just take the text in the word doc and put it into the html form so that it will look the same when run.  One annoy thing though, it seems in XHTML Mobile 1.0 the sub html tag does not work so all the CO2's look a bit wrong.  Cant seem to find any info as to whether Im right or not.  Just been catching up on my psd splitting to html now as its something I havent attempted before but is vital for web design.  Seems pretty logical: use the splice tool to separate out all the images in the psd to separate files, build an html framework to fit the design and then pull the images in correctly both in html and css to create the final design.  Nothing I couldnt cope with there Im thinking.  My only dilemma is sizing in css, what with ems and pixels and percentages I dont quite see how people decide 1 from another.  Maybe it doesnt matter...

What Ive been up to.

Last few days have been ok.  Started with some flash AS2 games made in 2006 which needed their data capture and highscores rejigging.  Took me some time to get my head around flash, php and xml again but once I had a system that worked for one it was just a matter of doing the same for the others.  Originally Remco wanted the whole data capture system to be removed but in the end he felt that the highscores could be kept in locally for clients and Pixillion to use.  These were for the new Pixillion website which will be relaunched soon as part of their portfolio work.  I completed the work for those this morning and then also took some screenshots for the sites imagery.  I have also just completed simplifying some client work for a company Harthill, who are having their site recreated by Pixillion, a simple job but anything is good.  Ive also been running errands recently posting letters and buying screwdrivers... long story.  There are so many projects on here though that it makes getting a task very difficult, everyone is so integrated into what they are doing.  Im sure the longer Im here the better it will get. The new Pixillion website makes me smile, we had a meeting about it yesterday and I found that it was almost identical to the original ideas we had for the bdat site, what with filters and masonry and everything. Pretty funny, shame I didnt do enough of the dat website to be able to properly help with this one. Im sure Ill get involved somewhere along the way anyway. Going to find out about my next assignment now.

16/08/10 - Day 1 :S

Starting at Pixillion/Helastel/70OneLtd today, guess I could just put 70OneLtd but hey.  Nice shiny Mac and my own desk is all good but everythings a bit up in the air at the moment so just got to hang on for a bit before I really get stuck in.  Thats fine though, gives me a chance to get this blog all started for my placement year reports etc.  Cant believe I have already managed to spill water everywhere on my first day of work, FOOL.  Looks like everything is quite new round here, Helastel have just moved in this weekend which means nobody really knows anyone any more.  The Pixillion group are all here and the Helastels are slowly turning up but I havent got a hope in hell of remembering everyones names yet.  I suppose three out of 15 is not too bad :P. Placement Year here I come!!