Hello again!
While I’m not quite getting these update posts written once a week, I am trying to keep you all updated on my progress with the new site theme. Its going very well. In fact, I’m running out of things to do. Throughout most of the process, its been a very satisfying cycle of designing a feature, researching how to achieve it, implementing it, debugging it (when it inevitably fails to work), and then, finally, checking it off the list.
I left that enjoyable sandbox of discovery a couple weeks ago as my focus shifted to optimization. Not just implementing features but implementing them the correct way: reducing database calls and http requests, combining and compressing scripts and style sheets, and on and on. I’m running out of things to do there as well. I’ve done some cross-browser testing across a number of platforms, devices, and screen sizes. Everything is working and looking exactly as its supposed to. Another big checkmark on the list.
At the moment, I’m in data-migration mode. I’ve automated as much of the process as I can but I’m still manually moving data over for a lot of things. The old theme’s way of posting and managing manips and the new one are so different that there’s no simple way to transfer the data from one to the other. Animations take more time than simple photos. Series take more time than anything. I’m about halfway finished with all of the Animation posts as of right now.
There’s more to do. But not much more. Move the last of the data over. Test everything again. Back up everything before I throw the switch. We’re getting close now. I’m comfortable saying that the transition is weeks away at this point. I’m looking forward to having it done and focusing solely on creating new content.
In both the short and long term, I have a lot of ideas that have been building up and I’m anxious to get started on them. See you soon!