designKiln's Blog

Getting the most out of PNG and ImageOptim

PNG is a great image format, but the real world use in web browsers has many tricky issues. ImageOptim solves most of these issues automatically.

I read a discussion on Hacker News about getting the most out of the PNG image file format. The discussion focused on PNG that Works, an article that succinctly summarizes the various technical issues that cause problems with PNG images across web browsers and operation systems.

Apache mod_rewrite for moved directories and folders

Plone has a great system for merging, compressing, versioning, refreshing and serving only the appropriate CSS and javascript files. Learn my about Using the Resource Registries to control CSS and Javascript in Plones documentation.

Recently, a client contracted with a technical data provider. This data is hosted on the provider's servers who integrated our Plone theme as the basis of the design on their hosted site. Unfortunately, the design was hard linked to the temporary merged CSS & JS files hosted on the Plone site. When these files updated they would get a new name, and in the process break the data provider's site design.

To solve this problem on our end (yes, it should be resolved at the source ... ) I created a frozen version of the merged files and placed them in a Zope folder.

The external site was still linking to files in the wrong place, so I created an Apache rewrite rule which came to the rescue. An example of the URL which needed conversion:

http://example.org/portal_css/exampleSkin/ploneStyles2326.css

Was then translated to this:

http://example.org/zopeDirectoryForFrozenFiles/ploneStyles2326.css

Using this Apache Rewrite rule:

    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
        RewriteEngine On
        
        # improper linkage to /home and not raw domain
        RewriteRule ^/home$ http://marillacclinic.org/
        
        # css rewrite rule for third party static css
        RewriteRule portal_css/exampleSkin/(.*)$ http://example.org/new-directory/$1

        # js rewrite rule for third party static css
        RewriteRule portal_javascripts/exampleSkin/(.*)$ http://example.org/new-directory/$1
        
        #finally the standard plone virtual hosting rewrite rule
        RewriteRule ^/(.*) \
        http://localhost:11080/VirtualHostBase/http/%{SERVER_NAME}:80/mount-example/example/VirtualHostRoot/$1 [L,P]
    </IfModule>

Social Networking

A review of how to get started

Getting started

On blogging: by Chris Brogan

    1.    Write to be helpful.
    2.    Be brief.
    3.    Tell a story.
    4.    Connect others, if appropriate.
    5.    Share. Often.
    6.    Don’t overthink it. (It’s a blog, not a dissertation.)
    7.    But be thoughtful.
    8.    Don’t be mean.
    9.    Publish often enough to build a relationship.
    10.    But be mindful of your audience’s time.

Chris Brogan Blog: "A trust agent is a person who’s learned how to be human at a distance using online tools, and someone who believes that relationships are at the core of all interactions." This is THE PLACE to start. Chris has lots of good advice. Get the book: Trust Agents  - see similar books at Amazon.

Betsy's Blog
First of all keep in mind that Facebook is simply one tactic in your overall outreach and engagement strategy.

"I think it makes a lot of sense for organizations to use both pages and groups and to encourage staff and volunteers to use their personal Facebook profiles and friend networks to spread buzz about the organization." - Betsy

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
Using social media for your org: Example: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Regarding NON-PROFIT Guidance

Income Solutions for Nonprofits: what every nonprofit leader should know

Blue Avocado
Practical, provocative, and fun food-for-thought for non-profits

Regarding TWITTER

Video on how to do it


Twitter Secrets

Regarding EMAIL SERVICES (depending on needs):

Email marketing
mail chimp, constant comment, bench mark email, my newsletter builder

Plone vs. SharePoint

Good comparison of the two systems.

I wish that I would have had this summary of Plone vs. SharePoint last year when we were bidding against a Microsoft SharePoint system for a knowledge base intranet. If the table doesn't display try this spreadsheet version on GoogleDocs.

3 Pixel High Font

Now the challenge is to get a 2 pixel font

Okay, it is really a the height of the lowercase 'x' (or x-height)  that is 3 pixels, but an amazing achievement by Miha on Typohile.com. 

Plone is widely used in government

Government's use Plone for public and internal web sites.

The plone community has created the plonegov.org web site to track the latest government projects. Notable projects include the City of Newport News who has shared much of their work for others to use. 

designKiln

After a long time not blogging, we are at it again!