09/25/08

• I added profile information for all authors who have already written articles. I sent out a deadline reminder to authors and information about the new profile pages.
• I modified the login and registration pages. Those pages now have a custom logo (need to create a better image logo). The registration page now allows users to create their own passwords and includes a recaptcha to keep non-humans out. In addition, it has email verification so that users registering have to click on a link in an email that is sent to the address they signed up with. This keeps people from using fake email addresses.

09/24/08

• I installed co_authors plugin and uninstalled multiple_authors plugin. This makes it easier to add multiple authors and attributes each author to the article in their author feed. It does not however, show the multiple authors in the manage interface. It also, notably, does not allow a contributor to access the article if they are a coauthor but are not listed first.
• I modified the backend profile code to give added fields for profile information (title, dept, office, phone, dept website). I then modified the author pages to display this information. Lastly, I made live, once again, the links to the author profile pages.

09/20/08

• I worked on some css related problems and the new home page structure, primarily determining how to delimit the articles if needed.

09/18/08

• I created two documentation pages: Access Account and Submit Articles. I sent a reminder email to all authors about the deadline for article submission with links to these two documentation pages. I worked on updating the wiki and providing more documentation.

09/17/08

• Modified the post views plugin and widget. Wrote a new function to get just the posts and post views from the current issue. Modified the widget to display the most viewed from the current issue by default. Wrote a javascript function and added links to toggle between most viewed this issue and most viewed all time.
• Changed the default structure for pages. Now all pages show both left and right sidebars. This seemed like a logical decision to make and will help if/when we migrate to the "issue"-based system I'm working on.
• Found and fixed a bug in all instances in the php I wrote to generate this "issue" posts.

09/16/08

• Fixed all the validation issues so that the site now validates.
• Installed exec_php, so that I can write php code in posts/pages. This is a somewhat dangerous prospect, so I've got the settings restricted to only my use. Let me know if you want to write php in an article.
• Worked more on php for a modified homepage/structure.
• Scheduled and published the week's articles.

09/15/08

• Modified module written last Thursday to get and display articles in the issue for which the current article is a part. I did this by scripting a function to determine the "issue" for which the particular article is a part of. This way it dynimically displays context appropriate articles and helps the reader know where she is. This is the first step to providing a more "issue" based interface.
• Started writing code to create a new interface for the homepage in order to migrate from an article based browsing system to an "issue" based browsing system. It's going to be complicated, but I've gotten a good start so far.
• In the process of learning more php and more about wordpress template tags, I figured out some fixes to some problems I had last week. This primarily effects validation, rather than usability. I've currently got validation down to 14 errors (started at 38).

09/11/08

• Wrote a module for the bottom of each article to show links to the other articles in the current issue. It would be nice if it was context based so it showed the articles in the whatever issue it was in. This could be done with considerable scripting. We could also consider some sort of categorization scheme that would make this easier. But, hesitate to suggest this because it would be a hack i.e. not something it was intended for.
• Wrote a plugin to create a widget in the Dashboard that would display a Remember The Milk gadget. The thought is that RTM might work really well for our lineup. All you've got to do is go to the dashboard and login using (login: "itnews.itac" password: "infotech"). Then simply add articles as events and put the day they need to be written for. You can add and view notes on individual events/articles by clicking on it and going to the RTM website.
• Removed commenting and voting boxes and widgets.
• Drafted email to send to all authors outlining process instructions and deadlines.