The now deprecated Instagram API was one of my favourite APIs to use. It was well documented, simple to use and provided some great data. It’s unfortunate that they decided to stop its usage, but I understand that companies need to protect their data as it’s often their most valuable asset. I recently found out though that Instagram provides a public feed of users recent posts. So I thought I’d look at creating something with it. ...
Producing a rough sketch on a piece of paper may seem more like the realms of a designer desperately trying to get an idea out of their head into a physical form to share with others but I find it can also help me develop backend code. Planning # When starting a new bit of work I normally have the rough idea in my head of how I’m going to modularise the code and what functionality each piece will need. ...
When we develop sites we start off locally and in a development environment. During the development process we continue this process as we evolve the design and functionality. But there comes a point where the site we’re working moves to the stage where it will become the live site. At this point it’s preferable to move it to the live environment. Configuration # We try and match development and live environments as much as possible but it’s not always possible to get exact matches due to various constraints. ...
As I spoke about in the previous post about redesigns my work generally focuses on clients who have existing sites that need to be moved to a new Content Management System and have a new design applied to them. Whilst this can have it’s advantages for design work by allowing the front end developers far more freedom with markup it has some challenges for the backend. Discovery # Every database I have received have been from a different CMS, some have been MySQL and some have been Microsoft SQL database but all have required some discovery. ...
Paul Boag has recently posted an article titled “Do people see you as a roadblock?” that includes some very nice mentions about me. So in a shameless act of self promotion I’m going to link to it. You can read the article at https://boagworld.com/dev/do-people-see-you-as-a-roadblock/
The website for the MARINEXUS project is approaching a launch date which should be before the Christmas break. In anticipation I created a new holding page to makes things that little more interesting. The website will be developed in the new year to run from WordPress to allow users to adjust the content and add news and events when the project hits full swing.
The JC Surf site I worked on recently has added Discovery Surf Media to the products John can provide access to. Discovery Surf are a local company who are now making it big in the wider surf industry with their instructional DVD series.
The new version of the MarLIN Recording Blog has gone live today. MarLIN, The Marine Life Information Network, has an activity community of recorders who submit sightings of marine life through the MarLIN website. The blog, built on WordPress, will be updated with interesting and unusual sightings as well as information from MarLIN events. The blog also updates the MarLIN Twitter account when a new post is added or edited.
Based in London Lilly & Day provide garden and landscape design. Working with designer Random Badger the site is built on WordPress allowing the client to make updates to text or upload new portfolio images. The portfolio gallery uses a jQuery plugin Galleria to improve the user experience progressively for those that are able to use javascript.
John Copley has been part of the surf scene since the sixties and now works as an agent for a large number of worldwide surf brands. Working with Random Badger I created a site to showcase the companies and products that JC can provide for you. The site is aimed at getting the user interested and encouraging them to get in touch. The site also contains a small profile about the man himself. ...