While Justine has been in New Orleans for the last couple days I’ve been adding some functionality to the blog in my spare time. Hopefully it makes the site easier to use and a little more interesting. So far I’ve added the following features to the site:
1. Email a post – You’ll notice the “Email” link next to each post. If you think a post is interesting you can email it to a friend by clicking on the link and sending it to a few friends.
2. Print a post -You’ll notcie the “Print” link next to each post. This link converts the post to a print friendly text version, eliminating the side navigation columns for a clean print on paper (This change was mostly to make things easier for Dan).
- 2a. I also adjusted the the CSS to reflect a cleaner printing experience if the you happen to want to simply print the page directly from the browser. That version will capture the navigation of the site as well.
3. Notify me of comments – If you post a comment on the site, you will notice a new check-box that says “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.” If you check that box when you make a comment, the site will email you if someone else posts a comment to that article.
4. Changed templates – Yeah, the site looks different now. Again. I think this version looks pretty good
5. Added Blog Stats page – I added a page at the top of the site regarding the blog stats (number of posts, comments, etc) Interesting info if you’re into that stuff.
6. Added Who’s Online page – I added another page to the top of the site to tell you who is on the site at any moment.
7. Added recent comments widget – I added a “Recently Commented” widget in the left column so you can see who’s been commenting and on which posts.
8. Weather widget – I added a weather widget to the right column. I tried to add several different widgets, but none of the others seemed very stable. (This one was mostly for Tom who gets a good case of shadenfreude when he sees the weather in Houston. ) I’m not completely happy with the look of the weather widget, so it may change in the future if I find a better one.
9. Mobile/PDA page – I added the mobile phone link back into the navigation (under the login area on the left column). This page will know when you are visiting the site with a web-enabled mobile phone or PDA and present you with a simple page that will render easily on those types of devices. It’s nerd-tastic!
Time to go outside and get somefresh air.
-Dave
