Milestone 2

Site Layout and Navigation

I have finished all storyboards for the site layout and navigation and have implemented them into html.

Design

I revised the design of the site so that it is more pleasing to the eye and also easy to navigate around. I redid the logo and have a new one that is more of a timeline symbol. I have used circles for the navigation and drag here functionality since the events on the timeline will be represented by circles. The navigation on the left will change depending on whether or not the user is logged in.

As for pages, I have created the event page and have that coded. The only pages left to design and code are the two timeline pages, which I have drawn up plans for.

Code

Alex and I have been working on the basic code structure for the site. First of all, we set up the database and put the site on my sato account. I downloaded the smarty template engine and installed that on the server. This allows us to separate the html and the php, and to be able to have different layouts. We finalized the file structure that we will be using as well. By the end of this week, Alex and I plan to have sessions finished so that users can create events. Right now they can create an account and login.

Starting next week, Alex and I will begin the 3 major coding aspects of the site:
1. Contributing to an event: When a user creates an event, he/she just enters the name and date. Once the event is created, anyone can view it and click on the contribute buttons to get a window that will pop up and allow them to upload media. This will be done through AJAX, and I downloaded and installed prototype.js that has some nice functions to help us out with that part.
2. Viewing the timelines: I have storyboarded out how the timelines will look and have decided how they will be coded. We will use css to create a div that will have the entire timeline in it. Most of it will be hidden, and only a circle will be shown. The amount shown can be changed by moving scrollbars that go through the timeline. All of the events will be circles, which will have pop up pictures of the event when you scroll over them.
3. Adding an event to your timeline: Users will also have the option of being able to take an event and drag it over to the circle on the left to add it to their timeline. I downloaded and installed scriptaculous to help with the drag and drop functionality. It has functions that will help us code that part more easily.

Promotion

Dani contacted me about doing a board with events on it that people can write about. I have to pick 4-5 events that people around campus may have been to that they can share experiences about. I told her that I would pick a specific date (probably the middle of April) and some events by the end of this week. I will also help her put up the board and maintain it.

Outside of school, I have been spreading the word about my project and have many interested people! Everyone wants a link to it once I have a working draft so I have been keeping track of certain people that I want to send the project to for some material to start with.

Testing

After this week, I will have some people (probably in this class ;) ) test some of the basic features that I will have, which are registration, login, and event creation. More intense testing will come in the next few weeks once we get the timeline coding going!