Bengfort.com

Well, I just hit a wall in my forward progress that I have been making over the past couple of days! I have just got a brand new computer that is perfect for development work. I have purchased Visual Studio 2005, which is on its way, and I have everything I need to get going on all of these grand ideas I have… or not?

I discovered that Microsoft FrontPage 2003, the HTML editor I was using on my old computer no longer exits on my new computer! I have the same exact Microsoft Office installed- MS Office 2003 Proffessional, and yet, no Front Page 2003! At first I thought that because I have 3 copies of Office (A student copy, a copy from Navy, and a copy from my old computer) that perhaps I just had the wrong copy of office— nope! I did find Front Page XP, but that is really of no use.

So I am HTML editorless, which makes it tough to do web design work! To do everything this weekend, I used notepad, which obviously gave me a lot of bug shooting to do because I type too fast for my own good.

So I said to myself- I just need to buy a new copy of FrontPage (although after more exploration, good riddance- FrontPage does the most annyoing thing by putting a thumbs.dat file in every single folder you are using). But Microsoft has given up on FrontPage and split it into two very different products- SharePoint designer 2007, and something called Microsoft Expression Web, which I guess is Microsoft’s attempt to rival Adobe Dreamweaver.

Well Expression Web is 200+ bucks, more if I pay in pounds. I had already purchased Visual Studio 2005 to do ASP.NET work as well as C#, but before I could go talk to Jaci about the software purchases, I realized- do I really want to buy into Microsoft this completely?

This led to a lot of angst about my path along this learning process. I have swerved into Microsoft-only technologies somehow, and I am wondering if I should try to escape while there is still time (although Visual Studio is an expenseve back down!), or if there is some good way to mix the two. I am torn, because I started learning C# instead of Flash or Java, and I really should switch back. Needless to say, the Adobe Web Design Premium suite (which contains photoshop CS3, which is another product I really want) is going to run me 1500 bucks- so should I switch now?

Well, now I am HTML editor program-less and clueless about what I should do next! See my next post for my learning path, and maybe someone out there can make suggestions.

Hello All,

Just a note to say that I have updated the girls’ webpages with new links so that you can link directly to their blogs without going back through the Bengfort website. Since there was so much demand, I hope this satisfies everyone’s navigation concerns.

Also, I realize that the comments page isn’t as reliable as it could be. Keep in mind if it says that it didn’t publish your comment, it may actually have- just refresh the page, or click on comments, and it should be there. No worries. Also for those of you that are writing under anonymous, it might be better just to put your name, you don’t have to put a website, just your name will do (like you have been using in the anonymous section- mom, matagi, momb, dad bengfort, whatever you like). This might help. Finally, the main blog page may not actually have the comments listed (it may say only 1 comment when in fact there are 4 or 5. That will change when the post is republished, which should happen every time a comment goes, but it takes a bit- just hit refresh, click on comments, or go to the specific entry page via the link on the side with the title of the post, you should be ok!

I have received a couple complaints about my blog: I apologize that I am not as prolific a writer as the girls, but this particular blog was just intended to address the concerns of the site, not necessarily be a daily blog like the girls’. I intend on starting one soon! Right now my tasks are below (in the order I hope to accomplish them, but who knows the timeline):

1. Get email notifications to you guys when new posts are put up (who knows if this is possible?!)

2. Update the homepage for China Trip

3. Finish writing the series I started on various Blog Engines (which means continued reading)

4. Add Album pages to the website including Paris Album, and Christmas Albums, (soon it will also include a China Album!)

5. Get a recipe post php script online so we can submit and add recipes

6. Remove the site from Blogger to allow a Bengfort.com only engine.

It will be work, but stay tuned as the site continues to be updated!

Well, it appears that we have hit our first road bumps with using the blogger function: specifically, it may be blocked in China, and that is not a good sign. Devi spent a few days trying to get her blog up and running, but with no success because she was not allowed to log into the website. We will continue to try to get her up to speed, but it may be a while before her blog starts publishing.

Luckily Jaci and Bethany seem to be up and running, each with their own unique style of blog! My first question was if it felt like we were leaving bengfort.com to go to these blogs, and I think the answer is yes! Except for the fact that the web address still says www.bengfort.com and hopefully still has the little favicon at the top; the blogs look completely different, and I have no good way of putting navigation onto the blogs except links back to the main page or the blog pages in the little section of the Blog that says “Links”. Is this acceptable?

Next is caching- which is kicking my butt. I know mom may have missed the Birthday banner that I put up on the website because she had an old homepage cached in her browser, she didn’t hit refresh, and therefore the old website loaded without the new content. When my visitors can’t see the new content, they don’t get the most from the site, and miss things like Birthday banners or Christmas wish list links, etc. And back to the blogging: they may miss comments put on the page, or not have their comments post quickly. We need a way to fix this, but I am not sure how yet (feel free to add a comment letting me know how, if you can!)

Finally, I have no way to track who is visiting the blogs, unless folks are using comments, which they are not, which means I have no idea if people are reading about what is going on, which is not a good sign, and frankly I am scared that they are not, which is a bummer.

So with these thoughts in mind, I am going to troubleshoot, please send suggestions my way!