Darkfalz.com Website Feed

Site Update - 1/10/2012

darkfalz — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:04:37 GMT

I've gone back and forth on this for a while now and I think I've decided that the framework I'm working on is no longer going to be published. The decision had a number of factors involved in it but it boiled down to a couple of key points. The first is that I just dont have as much time (reprioritizing) to devote to it. The second is that I just dont have the desire to support it any longer, that's a biggie. And lastly, it's not quite ready and as such (see point #2) I am probably unlikely to finish it.

I'll probably continue to work on it but now it will be more of a "play thing". Who knows, someday the framework may yet see the light of day but until then I'll probably just let it stay in an Alpha version and only use it on my personal site(s).

Site Updates - 12/12/2011

darkfalz — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:10:09 GMT

... just when everything was looking good. I had all (I think) of the major issues resolved and had been plugging away at some of the minor ones and tweaking away on the addon modules when I decided I really need to get another theme created for release day. Well, that's when the trouble began. I created the new folder, empty stylesheet and images folders and started the app, just to see what would happen. It errored out, as I kind of figured it would but the actual error threw me for a loop. It was looking for a ContentPlaceHolder that didn't exist. When I went to look into it I got a "slap on the forehead" moment and realized that my base pages required that certain CPH tags be used. This was contradictory to my design.

So, what does this mean? In short, I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board on some aspects. I'm hoping that it won't turn out to be an overly substantial rework but I would not be surprised if this pushes me out a little on my deadline of 12/31/11. I'll see what I can do but I would rather ensure a solid/stable product than put out something that would need big patches shortly after release.

I'll keep this site updated as I progress so please check back often. Also, feel free to send your thoughts/comments/etc to me on any aspect of the site.

Site Updates - 12/7/2011

darkfalz — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:15:50 GMT

It's been a productive few days. I've gotten a number of minor issues cleaned up and have revamped some of the Base structure to better suit it for external development (modules, themes, etc.). I've also implemented the ability to use Avatars of different types. I've always had "local" Avatars (use uploaded) but have now also opted to allow the admin to choose Gravatars or even use Identicons. There is no option for hyrid, only a per site setting but still pretty cool I think.

I'll keep posting the updates as they come up. I have discovered a bug in the Forums piece. I am looking into this as time permits and will post the correction when it is ready.

Site Updates - 11/30/2011, Near Completion

darkfalz — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:29:18 GMT

I've put up a new version of the site and the framework today. With this I *think* I have all the pieces in place. The site is now quite dynamic and, I think, flexible. Here is a list of some of the features now:

- Simple Theme-ing of the site with "drop on" style themes.
- Modularized widgets to allow the admin to enable/disable modules, move them around on the site and customize the content per-module. The module methodology is designed to allow users (you all) to develop modules and then they can be listed in the catalog for all others to import/use as well, on the fly.
- List of modules currently released:
      * Simple Event Calendar
      * Simple Link List
      * Random Quote
      * RSS Aggregator
      * Simple Image
      * Weather
      * XBox Avatar
- List of modules still in the works:
      * Twitter Aggregator
      * XBox Gamer Card
- Blog Entry system with RSS Feed and Podcast Enclosures
- Forums with optional Moderation
- Image Gallery
- 100% XML Based system, for maximum flexibility.

Overall I think the site is quite robust. It's not designed for "large" sites, due to the way that it's XML file driven and would potentially run into access contentions but it should handle a pretty fair load.

I'll package things up sometime soon and will release the system out on Codeplex once it's completed. I'll also see about releasing all the modules I've written, so you can all use them as examples. Same thing with the Themes (I'm working on more of these yet too).

Framework changes - 11/28/2011

darkfalz — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:44:09 GMT

Well, when I attempted to seperate the "modules" from the base product I realized I had a slight issue. Circular References. Basically my site had the modules as a reference but the modules need the site's base to reference. When I pulled the modules out of the master solution things went "boom". So, what I've opted to do is to put all the base pieces (basecontrol, basepage, providers, etc.) into their own DLL. This way it's deliverable to the other projects as well as a simple piece to provide to developers to work with the product.

In addition I've also scrapped the ASCX approach for the modules. It's too clumsy and difficult to import. What I've done instead is embed the controls into the module(s) DLL. This should be an interesting patch-in, good thing its now and not post go-live.

Final (I hope) release before Public Release

darkfalz — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:33:15 GMT

I pushed the latest code brach to this site and it appears things are working! This is a good thing :} My hope is that the basic coding is now complete. All that's left to do at this point is to break out all the addin modules from the base product and test the "drop-in" functionality. If that all goes well we're rockin.

I'll see about testing this out in the next couple weeks and if all continues to go smoothly I'll be putting up a release for download so people can start to look at the base. It's going to still be a BETA product at that point but I'm hoping to have an official 1.0 release shortly there after.

Keep an eye out and please start trying some pieces out, let me know how it works. Better yet, sign up and put some items out on the Forums.

And yeah, I know the site isn't the prettiest, but I never claimed to be a designer, just a developer.

Cynical Framework breakthrough

darkfalz — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:15:21 GMT

I finally had the breakthrough I've been trying to figure out with the framework. I was finally able to get the per-module data to store/retrieve/etc properly. While this doesn't sound like a big deal it's actually quite huge. You need to remember that this framework runs under a very "loose" tie. What I mean is that I hard-code as little as possible in the framework itself. I leave all that work for the individual modules to handle. In doing this I have had to use a number of different methodologies. The framework relies heavily on System.Reflection to get the details on the modules as well as finding the methods within them to call from the administration pages. I also use the old LoadControl() method to load up the ASCX's so this greatly limits what I can do from within the control (meaning it's tough to pass parameters in) so I've had to accomodate this.

Anyway, the work has paid off and I had a huge leap forward in the framework and am a considerable amount closer to release than I was a few days ago. Stay tuned for more!!

Site Updates - 11/17/2011

darkfalz — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 06:59:53 GMT

I've pushed a bunch of changes to the site again. Most of the stuff is all backend pieces surrounding the framework. I've added a few more modules (Simple Image, Events Calendar) and started a couple more. Additionally I have started to make the site more dynamic so that modules aren't a 1 time thing. What I mean is that I've begun reworking some of the base architecture to allow individual modules to be loaded more than once. This should allow a more robust CMS style environment.

I've managed to still keep the site 100% XML based (I'm proud of that) and am still trying to keep it so that users can write their own modules and an admin only needs to copy the file(s) in and it's done. I'm really trying to avoid having to compile them into the application. So far I think it's working well but I wont know until I get to some more formal testing. Right now I'm shooting for having the framework out, probably on CodePlex, and available by end of the year.

Oh, and due to some time limitations I've temporarily pulled the Mobile Theme from the site. Sorry Mobile users....I'll have it back up soon but I needed to concentrate on the desktop functionality first.

** Edit: Ok Ok, I fixed the mobile theme issue....geesh...

Site Updates - 11/4/11

Admin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:23:33 GMT

I've been toying around now for a while and fixed a bunch of the issues with the site. These fixes have actually allowed me to keep the existing design model in place (100% XML based system with drop-in Modules). I'm actually quite excited by all of this, it's pretty cool.

I've added some additional functionality to allow admins to change when the modules display on a page (based on theme) and the sequence of them. It's all pretty cool, at least to me.

In addition, I've tweaked the user administration pieces of the site too, allowing me to reactiveate the signup feature. If you had previously attempted to sign up please note I've wiped those accounts and you'll need to re-signup. This was easier than trying to back fix them, since they didn't really work right anyway.

Another New Theme (DF Panels)

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:17:54 GMT

ok, was too lazy to redo the site again so I just did a new theme. I'm intending to start putting up some new content again but had to start with something so I started with a new theme. It's functional and, mostly, good looking I think so it's what you'll get for now.

Keep an eye out for some other new things coming.