Another new squadron website -- looking for comments

[mjbernier]

I've been a member of CAP only since March, and already I have had the fortune (or perhaps misfortune ) of being appointed as both the IT Officer and the PAO for my squadron. There's one thing I've found in common with both of these positions: they both have responsibility for maintaining the squadron website. The only problem is, the squadron hasn't had an active website for quite some time - the original domain name has long expired, and the last version of anything online has not been updated in almost two years. The good news is I have built and maintained several websites, and starting with a clean sheet lets me work without hurting someone's feelings.

After viewing a number of other squadron websites, I decided to use Wordpress as a base for building. The site's up and running, but some of the pages just have placeholders while I assemble the rest of the content. Please feel free to visit and have a look:

http://captexoma.org

While you're looking, I'd like to ask for your opinion on something I've been pondering for the past several days: at present, I am using the blog as the Home page for the site, and all the other pages are static. Do you think it would work better if used a static page for the Home page and moved the blog to another page (maybe call it something like "Squadron News")?

I would appreciate any constructive criticism you have to offer.

Mike

[Daniel]

Greetings,

I like the website for the most part its not bad.. two things,

1) I'd put a block somewhere on the homepage with a meeting time and place, and a contact number is a plus
2) Make sure the patches/logos in the header are the same color (or no background) as the rest of the header

[NC Hokie]

Looks good so far.  IMHO, the answer to your question about the home page really depends on how often you'll be updating it.  If it's updated regularly, leave it as is; if not, build a static main page and move the blog to a secondary page.

[Eclipse]

Ditto on the graphics - they need to be transparent to lose the boxes.  I would also suggest the MAJCOM would balance that corner better.

Otherwise looks nice.

I will fix them for you if yo need help.  PM me. with a real email.

[JC004]

Agree on the graphics. 

Let me know if you need advice on anything in particular.  I'm putting together a unit webmaster guide as part of a proposal but it probably won't be ready for a few weeks and I'm hoping it'll become part of a larger project that I had planned - a CAP Unit Website In a Box kinda thing (based on WordPress).

If you want, I can send you a list of suggested plugins that are going to be part of the draft proposal.

[mjbernier]

Ditto on the graphics - they need to be transparent to lose the boxes.  I would also suggest the MAJCOM would balance that corner better.

Otherwise looks nice.

I will fix them for you if yo need help.  PM me. with a real email.

Well, I looked at those graphics too and tried to edit out the boxes, but I ended up making a mess every time I tried, so I gave up. I'll PM you with a copy of the files.

Thanks,
Mike

[mjbernier]

Agree on the graphics. 

Let me know if you need advice on anything in particular.  I'm putting together a unit webmaster guide as part of a proposal but it probably won't be ready for a few weeks and I'm hoping it'll become part of a larger project that I had planned - a CAP Unit Website In a Box kinda thing (based on WordPress).

If you want, I can send you a list of suggested plugins that are going to be part of the draft proposal.

Aside from the graphics, the only thing right now that's irritating me is the color of the navigation bar does not fully extend across the screen (it looks correct across the width of the content, but beyond that it reverts to the original template color). It's not noticeable on a square screen, but it's really pronounced if you use a widescreen monitor like most of us have today. If someone could provide me with a couple of suggestions for what I should be looking for in the templates or style sheets I'd appreciate it.

A site-in-a-box would have been a nice place to start, and would certainly be helpful for people who have never built a site (or worse, someone who built a site but didn't do a very good job with it). I've created and managed several sites over the years, mostly written with FrontPage, and while I didn't have an extensive background in WordPress I managed to pick it up well enough to get through what I initially needed. I ended up taking a stock theme and heavily modifying it (removing advertisement blocks and other fluff, adjusting colors, building additional page templates, etc.). Would your package have a recommended theme (or themes)? A list of suggested plugins would be helpful too; I spent almost an entire day testing plugins for just for the photo galleries and the event calendar.

Thanks!
Mike

[JC004]

The easiest way to find things in your style sheets is to use the CSS tools in the Firefox Web Developer Add-on.  Simply mouse-over what you wish to identify in the style sheets.  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-developer/

The other thing you can do with colors is use Colorzilla (http://www.colorzilla.com/firefox/) to identify the color's hex code, then search for that hex code in a text editor like Notepad++ (or WordPress's built-in CSS editor).

The Unit Website In A Box, as I am planning and developing the concept is WordPress core (unmodified), a set of plugins that have common functions that CAP units would use:

• calendars
• a member login area
• photo galleries
• downloads tools for forms and the like
• e-mail list tools
• security
• site health monitoring (bandwidth usage, disk space usage, 404 error monitoring, broken link checks)
• SEO
• maps for things like directions to the unit or activities
• activity registration/sign-up, RSVP management
• meeting information widget
• easy template editing for non-designers/developers
• dashboard tools for your webmaster to monitor things
• announcement tools to add fast announcements about things like a meeting closed for weather or activity raindate
• directories (like a restricted-access member roster)
• document embedding
• file type icons (one unit already has my customized plugin in use here: http://oswegocap.org/members/cadet-resources/)
• forms (contact forms, surveys, etc.)
• mobile site theme
• PDF/printer-friendly page generation
• easy table management (no HTML tables, which are confusing for people who don't code)
• HTML tooltips (these are the things that if you have acronyms/initialisms on your site, you can scroll over to see what they mean)
• video/audio/multimedia
• volunteer interest form database (optionally including a list of possible positions a SM could fill)
• social media integration, sharing, bookmarking, and subscriptions (to annoy Bob)
• RSS management (to reduce Bob's whining about the above)

In addition to that, there would be a guide with easy tutorials for people who aren't necessarily tech savvy, but it would have different levels so you could build a great site either way. 

Then there would be a set of standard themes that you could easily customize.  I am a developer/planner/coder/business/SEO/marketing/social media person.  I am horrible at design because I am not an artist.  So I will need people for graphics and all in the themes work.

The final element would be a set of tools like the kind of things that I gave links to above.

I recognize after some 15 years or so in web development that developing a website is a multi-person job.  Many squadrons don't even have ONE person for it, let alone a designer AND a developer.  This is why we need easy-to-produce unit websites.  They also need to be ready to maintain.

Colonel Weiss's website is actually the most current testing ground for this.  As he will tell you, I built him a custom dashboard.  There is actually a WHOLE HUGE WORLD behind closed doors on that site of things that are being tested for CAP IT implementation, including many pieces of this project.  A little bit of it can be seen on the public site but most is in the backend or testing areas.  He wants to hit the ground running with a strong IT infrastructure if elected, so there is a blog for transition and national staff, a growing testing ground for CAP unit website elements, project management, and a whole host of other test items from his technology plan for CAP.  So right now I'm testing stuff there and planning to recruit developers (HTML, CSS, and PHP) and designers.  Then we'll get testers later, including NON-TECH people.

So from his site, will roll out things to benefit the organization and they are well under development.

As far as plugins, in the interest of keeping things updated with the latest version of WordPress, we will use existing plugins when possible.  If they aren't good for CAP exactly, we'll customize existing plugins.  If they don't exist, we'll build them (least preferable option, so done only if we test a lot of plugins and can't get a good option for CAP units).

I can send you a list of the plugins that have either passed our preliminary tests or are in the running for getting OK'd.  The full package is still being heavily tested on his site and I will need field feedback before this is finished, as well as HQ integration.  But, we're on the right path and we can take CAP by LEAPS AND BOUNDS in the technology arena starting from Day 1.

Talk to Eclipse about graphics.  I shouldn't be allowed to touch Photoshop unless absolutely necessary.  Like I said, I'm not a design person.  I like code, numbers, and formulas. 

There's a thread about one of the forum admin's creations - a squadron site for which I provided the example above.  His site is a good example of where the Unit Website In A Box would be going, and he is using some of my WordPress work for that site already.  I'm sure he'll be adding more.  http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=12942.0

[JC004]

Just finished some of my tests/evaluations on the project, then had to check the site to make sure everything's still running well, so I'm sleepy.     I'm going to take a nap, then work on the beginnings of a plugin list. 

Interested in finding some designers and testers for that phase, if anyone's interested.  I want to have at least a concrete foundation for this by the National Board.

[Eclipse]

Quick and dirty.  I just grabbed them off the site, and it shows.

If you send me, or point me to, higher-res versions of the two TX insignia I can get rid of some of that edge nastiness.

Also, if you know what size they actually need to be when finished that will help, too.  It looks like the web engage is scaling
them for the header, so it's hard to tell.











The 3-insignia screen captures actually look a lot better, but I see you've sliced them up into seperate links, which probably
can't be easily imaged-mapped with the engine you're using.

[Eclipse]

I fudged in the background to give you an idea.

A little drop shadow adds some depth.



Definitely need the originals as you can see when you start adding effects how the flaws in the overly compressed images start to creep out. Compared to how clean the MAJCOM looks because it came from a high-res asset.

Side-by-side example.

[mjbernier]

I spent a little time (in between office meetings) fidgeting with Photoshop, and I think I was able to duplicate most of what you did (I didn't get fancy and add drop shadows, but at least they're looking a lot better than before). I did start with high-res images downloaded directly from TXWG and NHQ (and we had our own in-house for the squadron patch), then scaled them down to fit in the header so there wouldn't be any need for the site to re-scale them. I've reloaded them into the site so you can have another look.

I wasn't sure how WordPress worked regarding picking out zones within a graphic and assigning different links to them, so I took the simple route and kept them separate. I figured that might be helpful as well if I ever needed to rearrange or replace one in the future.

Which brings me to another question: I'm using the CAP seal for NHQ, and your example shows a different graphic ("MAJCOM"?). Maybe I missed reading it somewhere...is there a preference for which graphic should be used?

(remember, go easy on me...I've picked up quite a lot in five months, but I'm still a noob when it comes to the finer points of CAP protocol).

Thanks,
Mike

[Eclipse]

Which to use, the seal or MAJCOM, would be strictly a personal preference.

Cool that you're knocking it out yourself - fishing vs. eating and all that.

[mjbernier]

Thanks! It's definitely a steep learning curve, but it's not like I haven't had to deal with that around here already    I also decided to leave the seal on the header for now; it looks pretty good to me, but I'll keep the MAJCOM handy in case someone gripes about it.

Going back to my original question and the responses I got from it: I have decided to leave the blog on the Home page for now. Since I have a lot of other things to set up on the site, I'm just going to let it run...it works and my commander is pleased, so I'll leave well enough alone. I'll evaluate it after it runs for a few months and decide at that time if it needs to be changed.

As someone else had suggested, I also added a brief message to the Home page telling visitors about our weekly meetings.

Thanks for all the suggestions and encouragement -- I really appreciate it!

Mike

[JC004]

I marked most of the plugins with notes the other night when I was working on them on the test site, but I haven't had the chance to get the list made yet.  I have to finish something up first.  Once that's done, I'll sort through the plugins and notes, make the latest list of plugins for Unit Website In A Box, then send it to you.

Please do let me know what you think of the outline.  This is about units.  I have no use for such a thing myself - so I must know what units need most.

[JC004]

For the people who have asked (or just people interested) about which WordPress plugins I'm testing for the unit Website in a Box project, here is a list of the active plugins that I am testing right now and are likely to see use in the final version.  There are probably 3 dozen more being evaluated right now (see above list for functionality goals).

Admin Menu Editor
AntiVirus
Audit Trail
Better Plugin Compatibility Control
Block Bad Queries (BBQ)
Broken Link Checker
BulletProof Security
Changelogger
CMS Tree Page View
Dashboard Editor
Dashboard Notepads
Exploit Scanner
Fluency Admin
Form Manager
Google Analytics Dashboard
himi's Plugin Organizer
Login LockDown
My Page Order
Outbound Link Manager
Plugin Notes
Redirection
Replace WP-Version
Semisecure Login Reimagined
Share and Follow
Technical Support
ThreeWP Activity Monitor
White Label CMS
WordPress Editorial Calendar
WordPress FAQ Manager
WP Maintenance Mode

As an update to the project, it has been started as of today in its first squadron website test.  I still need theme help (including graphics).  We will be doing some testing at this squadron over the next few days and moving toward a good product for beta testing with other units.

If people are interested in using this at their unit (even if you aren't a tech person), please let me know ASAP!

[Extremepredjudice]

Hmm,
"website in a box" is a great idea...
If you need any help, I am a coder...

Making something like a "quick launch" site would be awesome.
It could be implemented using php/mysql rather than using wordpress(don't really like wp).
Just make "setup.txt" and it would contain the appropriate sql code to setup tables.

My squadron doesn't have a site... Maybe I can get them to launch one...

I can however offer my dedicated server to you..
Hosting expires in feb. But it would give you something to work with.

[JC004]

Starting over is an unnecessary waste of resources.  There are too many functionalities that would have to be done from scratch, which a unit would use.

We can create a plugin for WordPress which automatically makes some needed changes and sets things up so people do not need to do it manually or even know all of what is going on technically.

Not sure what server needs are at the moment.

Is there anyone out there who makes good screencasts who could make a couple of videos on how to set up a squadron website using the infrastructure provided?

Have received some PMs about people wanting to sign up to either test or deploy such a thing.  Others are welcome.

[a2capt]

I can do screencasts of stuff, and certainly understand the bits being covered ..

[Extremepredjudice]

*bump* Sir, how is this going? I'm interested in helping test (if you are still doing this), my squadron commander has finally decided to let me create a site.