CalebD.net is this website. It is the second incarnation of the site. This version was designed and developed from the ground up to be professional, concise, and informative. When development began, I decided that this new iteration had to fix several issues of the previous design. For one, the previous design used a simple PHP script that loaded XHTML content from a subdirectory and displayed it within an XHTML template. Updating the site consisted of manually editing the XHTML and uploading it to the server. Secondly, the layout of the previous design was horizontally constricting and prevented me from displaying larger images. I also felt the website did not have as professional of a feel as I wanted. My ultimate goal was to create a new website that reflected the skills I have learned since the last incarnation, and to present myself in a more professional manner.
To overcome the problem of content management, I selected to install Drupal based on my previous work with the software. The main dynamic part of the website would be the portfolio area, which I decided should have the ability to list projects with details. Through the use of the Content Construction Kit, a module for Drupal, I created a custom content type for the projects, allowing me to easily specify dates, descriptions, URLs, people involved, and images. For the projects, I wanted to be able to display relevant images to back up my descriptions. I decided to use the free JavaScript program ThickBox, which is written using the jQuery JavaScript library. ThickBox is somewhere between a full fledged gallery program such as Gallery 2, and raw XHTML used to display images. By combining several free software packages, I was able to craft a new near perfect solution which is easy to use.
The limited design of the previous version was rectified with this new design, done by Raechel Haller and modified by myself. We decided on a green based color scheme because it reflects my personality (green being my favorite color). The width of the website was also increased to 960 pixels, a favorite of mine due to its balance between fitting on 1024x768 resolution monitors, but not looking too squished on higher resolution monitors and wide screen monitors. The overall look of the site was designed to be firm and colorful, but not overdone. Minimal amounts of images were to be used.
Technologies: Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL, Drupal (including these modules: CCK, Views, JavaScript Tools, and Webform), XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and ThickBox