#100DaysofCode – PHP edition

I switched The Whisker Shop over to use some PHP. Originally (and part of my WD4E capstone), it was HTML, CSS, and a little JS, but I wanted to keep the JS to a minimum, so it still involved a lot of repetition, copying and pasting the same code between pages, which was just annoying and antiquated.

So I put down some PHP, created a whole separate header file for the nav bar, and updated everything. I also removed the JS Lightbox from the gallery, because a Lightbox for 6 pictures felt a little silly. The site loads a lot faster now, too, although I still plan on making the photos load faster in the future, and finding a more attractive way to display that gallery page. Front-end isn’t my forte but enough people have done so many beautiful things before me, that I’m confident I can make this even prettier.

In the shorter term, I plan on updating the nav bar with a pure-CSS drop-down menu.

#100DaysofCode Days 19 through 22

I have been working so much on The Whisker Shop!! I’m so excited. I’m also still tweaking it, so I’m posting this as a draft, but I’m still real excited about it. My spouse has been talking about selling cat furniture for years (in fact, you should check out the about page to read about how he came to make cat furniture), and here we are finally making it happen.

This is also my capstone for the Web Design for Everybody specialization, and I believe I could submit it at this point, but I really want to turn in a completed and polished project. I’m using my PHP knowledge from the Web Applications specialization to incorporate it into my design, and it’s cool to finally tie everything together.

And I definitely still prefer back end work 🙂

#100DaysofCode Day 13

For the last two days, I’ve been working on a website for The Whisker Shop, my spouse’s cat furniture store we’ve been talking about making for ages. This started out as my capstone for WD4E, but it’s turning into a pretty awesome project: my spouse is also doing a Coursera capstone, but it’s for the project management specialization. So he’ll be focusing on implementing the business’s online presence, and I’m focused on making the website happen. If anyone from Coursera ever reads this, I hope you get a kick out of this capstone crossover collaboration. 🙂

Here is the link to The Whisker Shop’s Codepen, and I post this with the caveat that it will change over time, and will eventually be migrated to a live site. Some features so far:

  • Responsive design: mobile first, with an alternate wide screen view
  • Currently only utilizes HTML and CSS
  • Monochromatic color scheme for accessibility

    Wishlist and future plans:

  • Lightbox for displaying photos
  • Must pass validators, including accessibility validators
  • Minimal JavaScript for simplicity and ease, with a noscript option
  • I need to start taking some photos to display!

web design

I confess that graphic design is not my strong suit, by any stretch of the imagination. I’m much more useful behind the scenes. But web accessibility is so important to me that I needed to learn more about the front end. I’m in the middle of this Web Design for Everybody specialization. It’s been fantastic, and it’s another University of Michigan series on Coursera– I’m so impressed with the University of Michigan! So far, I have completed the HTML course (a sample of some HTML scribbles), and nearly-completed the CSS course (a sample of some CSS scribbles), and I am halfway through the JavaScript course. I have a much healthier appreciation for how much work goes into a fully functional website– and I’ve recommitted myself to making my code the most accessible as possible. Whether it’s a blog post or a full-blown app. The internet is awesome. It should be accessible to everyone who wants to access it, with no exceptions.

I am excited to say I’ll be helping out with the Aardwolf project, a decentralized and open-source alternative to Facebook that was inspired by Mastodon, an open-source microblogging platform. I drafted Aardwolf’s Code of Conduct, and will be helping with accessibility features, as well.