Programming Done

I added a slew of new features and capabilities to my standard "Simple" theme, and I think I'm done ( except for the inevitable bug fixes. ). It is still simple to use, but actually pretty sophisticated behind the scenes. The major additions:

  • The ability to store custom css in the database and use it to override the built-in css in the theme. This goes well beyond just changing the colors. For this site, I have pushed the whole layout out of shape to match the old hand-made site. I can also store all the special styles of the old site, without altering the theme files.

  • The ability to cut off the sidebar menus at a specific depth. This site has hundreds of pages, and the sidebar menus would blow up if they listed everything. By pushing most of the pages below the cutoff level, I can keep them out of the menus. I can then construct index pages to list all the pages I have suppressed. The menus are essentially the "tree" without the "leaves".

  • Enhanced navigation structures, to handle very large numbers of pages. I can now specify the number of columns for the output. All lists are now formatted the same, regardless of the source. Also, enhanced caching of all these structures to maintain performance.

I stubbed-in blank pages for almost 400 dive sites, and arranged them together with the charts. A lot of exceptions that were handled by hand-coding are now handled automatically by the database. This is the biggest part of the website and the worst job. So I decided to do it first. If I failed to make a satisfactory solution, then the rest would be a waste of time. But I think this is going to work, and the rest will be easy ( or easier. ) Of course, transferring everything from the old site to fill in the blanks will be a huge task. I may not live long enough to finish it!

I stubbed in 32 artificial reefs and worked out how to integrate the artificial reefs with the rest of the dive sites. I may even put the image maps back in some day.


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