Well, it is here. My self-branded website and blog. I have had the joy of working with WordPress 3.0 for the last few months as I installed and worked with it since the Alpha stage. Once the Beta stage kicked in, that is when it got interesting. It wasn’t until late April when I decided it was time for a new take on not only what I do for a living, but also my website. I’m not afraid to admit it, my last design was a template. Yes, I broke my one and only rule: never use a template for my own website. It so happens that this design was also an HTML static design. I have made some changes to the design, but most importantly, have converted it to WordPress. How did I do it? Through many searches on Google and of course checking the various articles online by the “big guys” in web design to make sure what I was doing, well… worked! I saved each article that has helped me along the way, and now I hope to share what I have found with you.
The beginning.
I happened to be surfing the internet one day and noticed a release of a public HTML template. Having loaded up the demo and looking around I definitely fell in love with it and knew it would do me good, either in the current project I am working on (more on that later) but maybe… just maybe I would use it for my own rebranding initiative.
The article that started it all.
This article on Extending Custom Post Types in WordPress 3.0 started it all. While working on a side project, I was looking into created a WordPress plugin for a Library system. While the details of this project are a little out of scope of this article, while reading this article, it gave me great asperations to install the Beta at my on-campus job and work through creating a custom post type. Boy did that have a mudslide affect. I finished my first version of a Library “plugin” of sorts by adding a post type for Books that include items in a custom meta box such as ISBN, book cover image, etc.. After working with that for 2 weeks, and after I found the template mentioned above, I wanted to see if making a Portfolio would be any easier. It was.
A second article was soon published detailing more information by one of the core-development team members of WordPress, by Justin Tadlock.
For the portfolio, it was imperative that two items were accomplished. First, ther should be an overview with thumbnails that linked to the individual page itself. The individual page would detail what the site was and/or what was involved in making it. It would also have images of certain sections of the website which I deemed as worthy of showcasing.
TimThumb.
I let it be no secret that I often work with templates for various clients. In the recent few months I have been noticing the increasing use of what is known as TimThumb. It is a custom image-resize script that was released as an open-source project. This script takes an image of any size and proportionally resizes said image to any size you tell it. So the image I use on the Clients overview page is the same as the portfolio page, just automatically resized. How cool is that?
Post Thumbnails.
When WordPress version 2.9 rolled around in late 2009, it boasted a feature that was sought over by many. This feature, being a Featured Image that could be attached to every post or page. There are many articles posted on this, but the one I found to be the most helpful, especially since it included code incorporating TimThumb’s was Matt Brett’s Bulletproof Post Thumbnails in WordPress 2.9. I even learned a bit about how to code it correctly. I’ve been a fan of Matt’s work for some time and wish I had a 10th of his Photoshop skills.
Now with every item in place, the Custom Post Type, TimThumb, and Post Thumbnails, my Portfolio Section was complete.
Blog and Comments.
Having worked with WordPress close to 2 years now, the one item most difficult to program for has been the Blog. I have never been able to get the Blog Comments to be properly coded when it is just me working on it. Luckily any website I have ever worked on either had the comment template built in, or the client did not want the blog at all. This had to be changed. One website I frequent is NetTuts, part of the Envato Network. When you are looking for A+ tutorials, look no further! Along with Smashing Magazine’s helpful article on Comment Hacks I was well on my way of coding my first comments file!! Now only if I can figure out threaded comments.
About who?
The About me has always alluded me. For a while I didn’t even include an about me. I had my portfolio and that’s that. Well, I search about Best Practices and came up with a link I took to heart. I have one piece missing, my portrait. I hope to get that taken care of in a matter of a few weeks.
Buttons and Icons.
At the beginning of the month, Matt Brett (again?) had released some Envato Marketplace banners for authors to showcase their work on the various marketplaces. Since I do not have a seller’s account on Envato that is moot for me, however I knew that would would fit perfectly in my, then empty, sidebar. Chasing down perfect icons didn’t take any time at all.
Conclusion.
I am proud of my site. The designer’s site will never be complete as he will always be working on another project than is own, but for what it is, it displays my client work proudly, displays information about me and my services majestically.
Nicely done man.