A new look?

So, things have been pretty quiet on this blog since I finished my master's. It's been mostly because of (for a time) lack of internet, but also a lack of motivation. But all is not lost! Open Words is destined to carry on! I'm currently working on rebuilding the site from the ground up using Drupal in place of WordPress. My new job has given me new skills and increased confidence in my abilities as a web developer and I've come on leaps and bounds since I began this project.

The current site will stay as it is as a temporary stop-gap while I work on the new site, hosted here on my computer. My intention is to experiment with modules/themes/etc on a local version of the site, before buying some seperate hosting and creating a world-viewable version.

This is what Open Words was meant to be all along and I'm really excited about how things are shaping up. I hope you are too!

Screenshots:

Open Words goes live!

There now exists a working prototype of the Open Words site! It can be found over at congelical.com/openwords and anyone is free to sign up and start using it. Also, along with the forum, there's now an Open Words wiki, which has all kinds of useful stuff (or will eventually) like a "getting started" guide.

Obviously, due to the limitations of what can be done with WordPress and the available plugins, the site doesn't have every feature I might have wanted. But this is a way for me to give people an idea of how the site should work so they can tell me what they like or don't like. This is pretty much it for the practical side of Open Words in terms of my project. The deadline is in two weeks, which will be spent doing the write-up and getting feedback from users. However, this isn't the end of practical stuff completely as Open Words is about more than just making something for my major project.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to sign up and use the site!

A change in direction

As I've said before, my original intention was to learn PHP and then to work on altering WordPress (and other software) to my needs. Having begun down this path, I found it to be a far more daunting task than I'd first imagined. While learning PHP didn't seem too difficult, becoming proficient with it on a level that would allow me to work with a programme as complex as WordPress in such a short time is probably near impossible (or would probably require me to be locked in a room alone for the next few months).

Fortunately, having installed WordPress on part of my personal website and having looked into what you can do with it as a site-building/management tool, it seems that it's flexible enough in itself to be able to do what I want. While this means that the site may not end up the way one designed completely from the ground up would have, it does mean that the site will be a lot closer to working fully than I had originally thought.

The next step shall be to look into how to adapt WordPress (using the settings available, as well as the various plugins there are) in a way that will allow the site to function in the way I wish. I shall also be looking into how to alter the site design. This means I shall be working on design ideas for the site, which I shall put up here.

Learning languages

So, a big step has been taken on the journey to building the site. I' ve now learned CSS (and I've put these skills into practice by building my own site). the next step will be to learn PHP and (possibly) SQL.

My plan for building the interface for submitting/editing pieces of work on the site is to use an altered version of WordPress. Depending on what WordPress can do and what I need, I may use MediaWiki as well. How I will do this will have to be looked into more when I have the ability to understand the workings of the programmes.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts on these ideas.

If anyone else wishes to learn CSS (or various other languages like HTML, PHP, etc). I highly recommend W3Schools.