Well, after a few weeks of tinkering with the website, including having to learn XHTML, PHP, and SQL (programming languages), I am starting to run out of things to do. Let me tell you about a few of the updates (comments for computer nerds in italics)…
1. I scrapped the old hodge-podge website design and made it more organized. This included designing a navigation menu on every page, as well as submenus if that subject had more than one page. This makes it easier to get from one place to another. After getting frustrated by having to update every single page when I added a new page that needed a spot on the menu, I turned to php and mysql. I created a database that had a list of every page included in the menu. I then created a header file that would include all of the header information, including the code that would pull the menu info from the database, adding the submenus when needed. Now I just have to add an entry to the database if I add a new page, and it will automatically be included in the menu on each page.
2. I decided to add this blog (a web log for those not in the know) to the site, as it is a much easier way to update with news and pictures. Thanks to Ryan for the idea and the source. It was a royal pain to get installed, but now that it is done I am excited to use it. While the main website will continue to be updated, most of the news about our family, new pictures, or random musings from the inner regions of my brain will be posted here. I plan on uploading most of the new pictures to this blog (click on ‘Albums’ at the top of the page to see them) and sort them by folders titled by the date they are uploaded. I will eventually put some of the better pictures on the main website but for those of you (Grandmas and Grandpas) who need a bigger picture fix, that will be the place. I will post a message when pictures are uploaded. Please leave a comment if you so wish!
3. I have just completed an email subscription service as well. This will make it possible for me to send a generic email out to everyone who subscribes when an update is made to our website. So if that appeals to you, below the menu and our information on every page is a place to enter your email address to be subscribed to this list. You will get an email with instructions on confirming your subscription, and after that is done you can get an email whenever there is new info or pictures up. While this will be helpful for us (not having to send out an email to everyone we know if there is an update, including those who don’t care), I really just wanted to figure out how to do it. It was pretty easy using PHP’s mail() function and a mysql database table. It was just a pain to code all of the confirmation script for subscribing or unsubscribing.
4. All pages are XHTML 1.0 transitional compliant, according to the World Wide Web Consortium’s standards.
So, to conclude, check this page for news about the Litschers, and if you would like to be contacted when that news is available, be sure to subscribe to our email list! We hope you all have a happy new year!