Opinions Please

[Tequila]

This is still a Work In Progress!
I'm running a test on how this new site looks. I also want opinions on the information provided, and the basic set up.

http://wip.guild-ed.com - not the final URL, but please bear with it.

If you can think of anything that I'm missing please feel free to post it. Or if you think of any questions for a FAQ please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[Hall of Famer]

It looks quite cute and unique I must say, if theres anything you can make it better, well... You may want to add something to the background that surrounds the main block so it does not look blank. Thats just me though, the site is well-designed already so its difficult to be picky. XD

[Tequila]

Hm, I was thinking about somehow adding in fish and other things you'd see in a river, and that when you scroll it makes them "swim" around the content block.

I could also do a less transparent border section... where did I find that code again. ;3

I was thinking though, for new versions of the script (when it comes to templates) we could use the scrollbar code like I have on site. ;3

[powerchaos]

the site looks nice
it is easy to navigate

the only part that is missing are seo links , but that is work for later

here you have a code you can use for the links in case you switch to seo links
put it in htacces , and be sure that mod_rewrite is enabled


RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymLinks #is not always needed , if it provide erros then disable it
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^about/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$ about.php?$1

to use , just type in www.yoursite/about/storm

then the storm page will open

for the other pages use the same way

on that way you can keep the page in a single page and let the users think it are differend pages (also better for google )

Greetings From PowerChaos

[Tequila]

the site looks nice
it is easy to navigate

the only part that is missing are seo links , but that is work for later

here you have a code you can use for the links in case you switch to seo links
put it in htacces , and be sure that mod_rewrite is enabled


RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymLinks #is not always needed , if it provide erros then disable it
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^about/([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)$ about.php?$1

to use , just type in www.yoursite/about/storm

then the storm page will open

for the other pages use the same way

on that way you can keep the page in a single page and let the users think it are differend pages (also better for google )

Greetings From PowerChaos

I'd have to see how it would work with this style of coding:
<?php if(!isset($_POST['submit'])) { ?>
<h1>lightningmermaid.me Policies</h1>
<p>Thank you for visiting <b>http://www.lightningmermaid.me</b>.</p>
<p align="center">Please choose the policy you wish to read about.<br />
<a href="?fairuse"><img src="images/fairuse.png" alt="Fair Use Policy" /></a> <a href="?privacy"><img src="images/privacy.png" alt="Privacy Policy" /></a> <a href="?stock"><img src="images/stockpolicy.png" alt="Stock Photography Restrictions" /></a> <a href="?booking"><img src="images/bookingpolicy.png" alt="Booking Policy" /></a>
<? } if($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] == "fairuse") { ?>
The file ends with this string as well:
<?php } include('footer.php'); ?>

[Hall of Famer]

Well by looking at the above code in html file makes me more convinced that we should use Smarty for this product. PHP as a templating language just cant get more ugly, writing PHP code in conjunction with HTML is gonna make the script look so unreadable.

[Tequila]

Well by looking at the above code in html file makes me more convinced that we should use Smarty for this product. PHP as a templating language just cant get more ugly, writing PHP code in conjunction with HTML is gonna make the script look so unreadable.

Yeah, this variant is very messy. I may change tactics though, who knows. I've always admired the page.php?section statement though. ;3

[Hall of Famer]

Well with Smarty things will get a lot neater, consider this:


<html>
<head>
<title>{$browser_title}</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>{$banner_image}</p>
<h1>{$document_title}</h1>
<p>{$document_content}</p>
</body>
</html>
Without smarty you write:


<html>
<head>
<title><?php echo $browser_title; ?></title>
</head>
<body>
<p> <?php echo $banner_image; ?></p>
<h1><?php echo $document_title; ?></h1>
<p><?php echo $document_content;?></p>
</body>
</html>
Now it should be all clear. XD PHP is not a good templating language, although it can be used as one(lol its main focus is the server-side programming). With Smarty, the code becomes shorter and more importantly, more pleasant to the eye. XD

[Tequila]

Hmm, I may see how smarty likes my mermaid site. I finally came up with a tail design I like (yes this will be me actually swimming in a mermaid tail! I promise pics and video as soon as I get the projects done!) that is viewable here http://lightningmermaid.tumblr.com/post/37802436810

[Hall of Famer]

Oh great, have fun playing with Smarty. Once you get used to it you'd be eager to implement in every template you create. XD

[powerchaos]

you do not need smarty for that part , but it seems easyer to do that way :D

it all depends how you want to create things and for what purpose

if it is for your own , who cares about code as long you can figure out what does what

if it is also for other people , then it need to be nice and clean (unless you encode it ^^ )

also smarty works nice , but the sad part is that it is a lot more work to get smarty started , as all those variables also need to be defined , or the variable will not work

example

$a= 1;
$b = $a++;

echo $b;


the value of B will be 2 ( a + a = 2 )

so if you do not define A and B , then the output will be nothing
same counts for smarty , and that is the part that need the most work

but on the end , it will be a lot easyer if you got a lot of templates
but only 1 template and 1 file that is the template then it is a waste of time to write so many code just to get that template a bit less messy

atleast that is my vieuw over it :D

then for the /?page=admin stuff
you can make it friendly by using htacces , then it still does not look messy ( put the friendly url in the html page like /pages/admin and htacces to redirect to /?page=admin )

Greetings From PowerChaos