Plans for Website Update

I have started to worked on changes to my website. I had a couple of goals. First to make the website more mobile friendly. Second to update the look of the website. I've made some progress.

I've had a website for my movies since 1999, and I haven't updated the look of my web page since 2009. Originally I used HTML for my site, then switched to PHP in 2009. I finally switched to WordPress in 2010.

In WordPress I tried a couple of themes (Kubrick and Core) before I decided to create my own theme. I tried to build one from scratch, but then decided to modify the Core theme. I didn't know about child themes at the time, so I just modified the original Core files. I added several special page types. I ended up with was a very rigid theme that is difficult to modify.

Over the last year or so I've read that more and more people access the internet through tablets and smart phones. Because the screen sizes are smaller, websites designed for a desk top don't look very nice on portable devices. My current theme is very hard to modify for different screen sizes.

Last week I installed a local server so I can experiment with different themes on my computer without making changes to my on-line website. I got it from a company called Bitnami (https://bitnami.com/stack/wordpress). It was quite easy to set up and work with I'm not sure how I can use it to test how the website will look on different devices though.

So far I have focussed on the technical aspects of a new theme design. I haven't given much thought as to what I want the theme to look like. I'll stick with my Dynamic Lethargy Films logo, but I'm not sure how I want the page laid out, or what color scheme to use.

My initial attempt was to create a child theme. I thought that would be easier to do, but after a little experimentation I decided to create a theme from scratch. I found a web page (http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/wordpress_create_theme.htm) that provided the code for a very basic theme. I used that as a starting point.

I've managed to create a theme that can handle my current page set up. It still needs a lot of work. Several times the theme wouldn't work when I make some changes to the templates. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I was able to go back to earlier versions that did work.

I plan to work in small steps toward a theme I'm happy with. I'm not in a big rush to get it done.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Website Upgrades in the Works

I want to improve my website and have started to experiment with some changes.

My first improvement was to add an e-mail notification to my blog. Google’s Feedburner allows you to sign up for notifications every time there is an update to the blog. I tried it out myself and it works just fine. Now I need to get people to sign up for it. I already have an e-mail list to send out notifications, but I promised to send out notices no more than once a month. The notices from this will be more frequent.

Up until now, I have created my website with html and php files that I coded myself. I did add WordPress when I added my blog. More recently, I looked into content management systems, which would make it easier for me to maintain the website. I could add features, like comments, which I can’t do very well now.

I hadn’t found any systems I felt comfortable with, and then someone suggested I could use WordPress. Since I use it for my blog, I have a reasonably good idea how it works. I set up a test website a couple weeks back to experiment with. (http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/testsite/ )

In order to match the look of my current website I need to create my own theme. That has been a challenge. I’ve run into and solved several problems so far. I got a WordPress for Dummies book, and while I found it useful, it doesn’t have a whole lot on how to create new themes, especially with the features I want to include.

I still need to fix a few bugs yet and I want to add in all of the pages before I take the new site live.

I sometimes wonder if I put too much time into improving my website. Maybe I should put that time into my stories or films instead. On the other hand, I think that a professional looking website does help. So far, I don’t have huge numbers of people who visit my site, so I feel I have the time to experiment with the site itself and with what I put on it.

Besides, I enjoy setting up ad improving the website.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog