[Rhodes22-list] The New Website

[Peter Nyberg]

Mike,

Thank you.

I’m not sure how much I trust the Google search thingy. I’ve tested it a few times, comping its results with using the ’site:’ option in a normal search.  The results seem close, but not identical.

The email list archive page is live.  Every time you click on it, the latest stuff is in there.

I’ll work on producing a site map.  There are a total of 22 what I’d call ‘primary’ web pages.  The whole tree contains 647 items and is about 76 MB in size.  All internal links are relative, but they may not be in the same relative position now that they were before.

Tom seems to have some concerns about keeping the old website alive, which I will admit I do not understand.  But it did occur to me that If we do keep it accessible, we may want to fence it off from Google indexing so that pages don’t show up in search results twice.

Content should reformat if the browser width is changed.  I don’t think that’s something you have much influence on in the HTML.  I’ll take a look.

The new website did seem to display and work OK on my iPad and iPhone.  Others will have to comment on different devices, though this could easily get beyond my skill set.

As to the scrolling of the left side navigation bar … I dunno.  I’m guessing that it would not be a small change,

The ‘reference pages’:  The way it was on the ‘blew skies’ site was that each individual topic was a fully independent web page (and not a pretty one from a code perspective).  I stripped the outer HTML wrappers off these pages leaving mostly the core text.  I created a common page that can display any individual topic.  The main ‘reference pages’ page passes the name of the topic page to the common page, and a bit of Java Script creates a bit of dynamic HTML to display a complete page. 

So, the way the ‘reference pages’ works is pretty different, but the content is mostly unchanged. I cleaned things up a little around the edges.

—Peter



> On Oct 1, 2020, at 9:25 PM, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> 
> I like the new website very much. I think that it brings us to a much more friendly format. It is much easier to navigate and SEARCH! Did I say how much I love the Google enhanced search bar?
> 
> Are the email list pages live? Is the archives page simply cloned or is it continuously updated?
> 
> Do you have a site map? How many pages are involved? I'm sure that it is an easy task to move the new pages to the existing web server. Are the links to images and content relative to the website or will we need to redirect?
> 
> Keeping the old website alive and linked should be easy.
> 
> Is there a way to make the pages reformat if the browser width is changed? The text does not seem to flow (wrap) when the width is changed. This is very important for the different browsers in use and the ability to display on tablets and phones. Do we need to generate a "responsive" design to support all of these devices?
> 
> Is it possible to keep the left hand navigation menu visible at all times, regardless of how far down the page the user scrolls? I find it annoying to have to scroll back to the top to access the navigation.
> 
> Have you changed the "reference pages" or just copied them from the old "blew skies" website?
> 
> All in all it is a very impressive and fast website.
> 
> Mike
> s/v Windlass ('91)
> Nissequogue River, NY
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rhodes22-list <rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org> On Behalf Of Peter Nyberg
> Sent: Thursday, October 1, 2020 5:55 PM
> To: The Rhodes 22 Email List <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] The New Website
> 
> It’s been something of a slog, but I’ve finally completed the process of converting the existing rhodes22.org <http://rhodes22.org/> website content to a new format.  Naturally, I think it’s a significant improvement, but you can judge for yourself.  The new proposed website can be reviewed at http://sunnybeeches.com/rhodes22 <http://sunnybeeches.com/rhodes22> .
> 
> The largest part of the effort was moving the 'picture gallery’ and ‘reference pages’ (formerly FAQ section) to the new format.  I made new thumbnails for the pictures, making them a common size so they could be displayed in a grid.  I didn’t mess with the content of the reference pages much, other than fixing non-displayable characters in the text.  As I was working on these, there were a few threads on the list that I thought merited inclusion, so I added them.  They have year notations at the end of their subject lines.
> 
> Behind the scenes, the HTML code is better structured, and will be easier to maintain (and there’s a lot less of it). 
> 
> It’s almost all hand-coded HTML with a bit of CSS and Java Script.  The Java Script is used, for example, to allow a single HTML page to display all of the full size pictures in the gallery.  A similar approach was taken for the reference pages, documents, and cruising tales sections.
> 
> The only really new content is the sections for ‘About the Rhodes 22’ and ‘General Boats’.  It seems to me that someone who comes to the website with a newly found interest in the Rhodes 22 will find useful information in these topics.
> 
> The new website seems to work on Safari and Firefox browsers on my Mac, and my iPad and iPhone.  I am unable to test on other platforms.
> 
> Like most people, I’m not very good at proofreading my own writing.  Don’t hesitate to point out typos, missing words, or misspellings.  (Though I think the reference pages should be left in their original form, warts and all.)
> 
> If consensus is reached at some point that this should become the ‘official’ website for rhodes22.org <http://rhodes22.org/>,  we’ll need Mike to take the lead on that effort.
> 
> Gotta go, dinner’s about to be served.
> 
> Peter Nyberg
> Coventry, CT
> s/v Silverheels (1988/2016)=
>