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  • Tales from a Tech » Web Design

  • I surrender, oh mighty CSS

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I give up.  Just spent the last hour or two screwing with the mobile menu on my Minecraft site. It looks great on a computer, and it works fine on mobile. Ran into one weird issue that I just CAN’T seem to fix.  On mobile, if you drop down a sub-menu, it works great.  If there are a lot of items in the sub-menu, you get these super weird large rounded corners around the whole thing.

    I can’t fix it. I’ve tried everything. I even got the plugin to modify the settings for that menu directly, and it still does it.  Only options left are to fully replace the menu (which wouldn’t go with my theme), or just accept it.

    So I surrender.


    Web Design

  • Minor Setback(s)

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I’ve attempted to migrate my Minecraft content from this website to the new one, and was met with multiple stages of disappointment and failure.

    I had thought maybe if I downloaded all the media files from this site and uploaded to the new one, that the import/export feature of WordPress would do some nice magic.  I was mistaken.  It failed no matter what I did, and couldn’t access the files.  So scrap that idea.  Technology 1 | Seth 0

    I then attempted to import all the posts from the Minecraft category and had mixed results.  I managed to get all the posts over, but the attached images were something else.  The FIRST time I ran the import, the images were working. They just loaded off the old site. I was OK with this!  But I ran into issues with categories, and had to start over. Every import after that, the images didn’t work. AT. ALL.  Technology 2 | Seth 1

    In the end, its going to be simpler to just start fresh on the new site.  I can link back to the category archive here for anyone who actually wants to read through it.  This just means, sadly, I need to redo all my pictures.

    So aside from this, I also messed around with my Genealogy website this morning.  It started out with trying to understand why the URL icon stopped working, and ended up with chasing madness down a rabbit hole.

    The website has never sent out emails properly, and I decided to look at it again.  After a few attempts, I actually got it to send out an email to a new user!  But then the link back to authorize the email blew up on me.  I have yet to figure it out.

    FINAL SCORE:  Technology 3 | Seth 1


    Web Design

  • Long Day of Web Design

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I spent nearly all of today at the computer overhauling my website. We won’t talk about the 2 hours I spent reloading Windows 10.

    WayFar Design has a brand new website. It’s all finished, and even connected to Facebook! It was a good bit of work, but I’m quite happy with it. 

    I’ve started working on a new site for Minecraft: Alpha. It’s barely under construction, but some key elements are there. I need to move a lot of content over. I may even take the opportunity to update all the pictures.

    I’m debating on what to do with my archive of Minecraft posts here. It may be possible to copy them, but bringing all the old pictures is a staggering nightmare. I may just leave it all here and link back to it. 

    I do plan to make all future Minecraft-related posts on the new site. It will also get a shiny new Facebook page where all the posts will be shared automatically!


    Web Design

  • Decisions, decisions

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I’m trying to spruce up Sethen.com a bit, and I’ve worked myself into a corner.  I want to make the main menu less insane, essentially by taking all the Minecraft stuff out and making a sub menu.  I’m just having tons of issues getting the menu to look and/or operate in a fashion that I agree with.

    I’m now debating whether I should look for a whole new theme, or split my website into 3 websites.  A new theme would work, but I honestly like this theme, and its currently still being updated.  I’m thinking maybe I should split Minecraft and WayFar into their own sub-domains.  WayFar had its own once upon a time, so it isn’t like this idea is totally in left field.

    I could also setup a sub-site for Minecraft, using some shiny Minecraft themes I found.  And honestly, WayFar probably should have its own site again. I could develop it a bit more, and make it look more professional.  The main site would remain my blog and contact info, the others would just be simple sites with informational pages 🙂

    I’m just not so sure I want to run three separate installs of WordPress.  Maybe I can do something with multisite….

     


    Web Design

  • Ultimate Frustration

    Posted on by Sethen Comment

    I think I’ve reached the end of the road with calendars and Drupal 8.

    None of the plugins I had found worked, so I came up with the brilliant idea of making a copy of my handwritten calendar on TRC and trying it out.  Well, in concept, it was a great idea.  I tried to implement it this afternoon, and it went horribly awry.  Drupal 8 doesn’t let you connect to external databases the same way Drupal 7 does.  None of my MySQL commands will work, nothing will connect.  Drupal 8 wants me to include the DB into its core configuration, which is fine and dandy and all that.  It just means I’d need to rewrite a ton of code in my calendar…. I’ll need to make all the SQL calls use the friggen Drupal API.  I’m not sure I’m ready to get that deep into this.  The Calendar code scares me in places… its a hodge-podge of over 10 years of recompiled insanity.  The final product works and looks amazing, but the back-end is a pretty scary place.

    I guess for now, its back to the drawing board for the new Bradford Website calendar.  I have no idea what to do.

    This has also put the brakes on my TRC Drupal 8 upgrade project for the indefinite future.  If it was just the calendar, it would be one thing.  However, TRC has multiple locations that use an external DB.  The calendar, directory, webcams, several rss feeds, and i’m sure more I can’t even think of right now.  Re-coding all those scripts to use the Drupal 8 API is going to take me a lifetime.

    I hate to say it, but I’m probably going to end up putting off the TRC upgrade until they actually stop supporting 7.  We’ll see….


    Web Design 📎and tagged