Novels Pages Progress Report

I'm happy enough with the initial tests to say that I've settled on an archiving system to replace our current novels pages and Cellar. There are still some kinks to be worked out and a few user interface issues to fix, but I'm going to base it around Wordpress.

It looks like I'll be able to take some time off either later this week or early next to work on it. Among other things, I want to write a script to pull in the existing novels pages. One thing the alpha testing drove home was the absolute tedium of moving a large archive, so I want to get as much automated as possible.

Currently, I'm using version 1.5 with a couple of mods. The last of those mods was updated to work with 2.0 recently; I want to try that before turning anyone else loose with it.

Silrana had the patience to put A Cappella in during testing. Go take a look.

And if you know CSS or know someone who does, be thinking about what you want your own archives to look like. The page design currently in use at cappella will be the default, but there is room for customization. Check out Alex King's Wordpress Theme Browser for ideas. Custom themes will be subject to approval; if it makes my eyes bleed, I'm going to say no.

I am having difficulties reading with a menu on the left; from my past experiences, my left eye starts to hurt in a few hours when reading in the following format: http://cappella.gamejag.net/?p=74

However, while reading in this format(no menu on the left), I feel much better: http://gamejag.net/C.../Chapter90.html - though, I admit, black letters on the white screen are preferable.

Is it possible to create such an alternative? Like a "full screen" button on the left, or something?

I am having difficulties reading with a menu on the left; from my past experiences, my left eye starts to hurt in a few hours when reading in the following format: http://cappella.gamejag.net/?p=74

However, while reading in this format(no menu on the left), I feel much better: http://gamejag.net/C.../Chapter90.html - though, I admit, black letters on the white screen are preferable.

Is it possible to create such an alternative? Like a "full screen" button on the left, or something?

Mmmmmaybe. The plugin that lets me control who can edit which posts probably disables the most obvious way to do that. But I will look into it.

Err, surely the most obvious way is to create an alternate stylesheet with the navbar on the right, and use something like this http://www.alistapar...ries/alternate/ to set up user switching?

Err, surely the most obvious way is to create an alternate stylesheet with the navbar on the right, and use something like this http://www.alistapar...ries/alternate/ to set up user switching?

Actually, the most obvious way would be to use a theme switcher or a stylesheet chooser plug-in. The user-authorization plug-in I'm using (vHost) ties a given category/site to a given theme and throws errors if the appropriately-named theme doesn't exist. (That may be a quirk of our particular hosting set-up; it doesn't happen with everyone using vHost.) I'll have to test the various switchers available for compatibility.

Other than a plug-in, the most straightforward way would probably be to make inclusion of the sidebar template conditional in the single post template. I may go that route anyway. I would want to maintain some of the navigation links from the sidebar such as the link back to the table of contents, probably as a horizontal bar under the header. Add a div for the horizontal menu to the CSS and then serve either the sidebar or the horizontal bar depending on a cookie setting instead of maintaining two versions of a theme or a CSS file.

I have to sa I rather liked the black on light blue writing. I don't mind the bar on the side so much though. I like the old onr better, but if the new one works better, I am sure I can live with it too.

That's what's fun about programming - everyone has different definitions of what "the obvious way" is

and thanks - I learned something new today

I have to sa I rather liked the black on light blue writing. I don't mind the bar on the side so much though. I like the old onr better, but if the new one works better, I am sure I can live with it too.

What the new one will do is take some of the workload off of Leo, who has been maintaining the entire novels site by hand all this time. I expect the colors and design will vary from archive to archive, but I had to choose something as the default.

That's what's fun about programming - everyone has different definitions of what "the obvious way" is

If I weren't using a template-based system, I'd have agreed with you. As it is, might as well leverage the features that come along with the program.

In this case, "most obvious" == "answer you'd most likely get on the WP support forum".

and thanks - I learned something new today

I took a look at the new pages.

I like them, though the layout will take some getting used to.