content management

Ignatius Press: Michael O'Brien Novels

Bill Powell Sat, 01/14/2012 - 12:29

Ignatius Press asked my good friend Ted Schluenderfritz to build a new web site for author Michael O'Brien. Ted decided to focus his considerable artistic skills on the design, and bring me in for the coding.

This site only has a few pages, and they won't change often. So, Ignatius decided to skip the overhead of software like WordPress or Drupal, and have me code up the site in static HTML. I enjoyed getting "back to basics" and building Ted's elegant design in simple HTML and CSS.

Population Research Institute: Web site

Bill Powell Fri, 12/24/2010 - 13:12

When I first started working with the Population Research Institute, their website relied on a proprietary content management system. Their site offered hundreds of articles, but they were full of hard-coded formatting like fonts, heading sizes, and colors (such as purple). Many hours of Perl and proofreading later, PRI had a new Joomla site with a clean, consistent look.

Joomla served them well, but fortunately, by the time they discovered the real constraints, I had discovered Drupal.

St. Mary's Messenger: Web Site

Bill Powell Fri, 12/24/2010 - 12:28

Drupal

Joomla

PHP

St. Mary's Messenger is a new Catholic kids' magazine (ages 7-12), and most of our energy goes into the print version. (I'm also the editor and layout guy.) But we know the web site is our crucial tool for keeping in touch with our readers.

I was very happy to migrate this site from Joomla to Drupal. In past years, with Joomla, I had to write custom PHP scripts whenever we wanted to get custom feedback (e.g., a drop-down list of answers) from potential readers. Today, with Drupal profiles and CCK, it's almost too easy.

Front Royal Celtic Festival

Bill Powell Fri, 12/24/2010 - 12:16