rtraction - London, Ontario - Web Design, Web Development and Strategic Consulting » Uncategorized

Compost

gavinblair — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:06:48 +0000

Compost is an easy web-based way to grow consensus with your designs. Upload designs and allow your clients to annotate, rate and discuss. Easily revise comps based on feedback and get approval.

Compost is currently in version 0.8beta. Coming-soon features include email notifications, project searching, and an iPhone application.

Compost is free software, released under GPLv3. You have the freedom to:

- use the software for any purpose
- change the software to suit your needs
- share the software with your friends and neighbours
- share the changes you make

Getting Started

You can download the latest version of Compost here. Follow the README instructions to get Compost up and running in seconds.

If you have any suggestions or problems, be sure to drop us a line.

Compost Versus Alternatives

Compost differs from most feedback systems in that it is completely free and open source. Here is a chart that compares some popular feedback systems to Compost.

	Compost	Getsignoff	backboard	redmark	Concept feedback	Notable	ConceptShare
Web-based	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Any type of design	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Ability to annotate designs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Comment on annotations	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Create Revisions	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Change the look and feel of the site	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Unlimited clients, projects and designs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Free	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Open Source	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Each project can have multiple reviewers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Clients can rate designs	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Permissions-based projects	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
iPhone App	Coming Soon!	No	No	No	No	Yes	No

Participate

If you’re handy with PHP, jQuery and Code Igniter we encourage you to become a committer! Help us move Compost forward and give back to the open source community.

To get started, visit the project at Google Code – there you can familiarize yourself with the issues, checkout the source code and browse changes. You will need to be a member of the project to commit any changes – to become a member, send an email to gavin.blair at rtraction.com and I’ll add you as a committer.

If you’re not a coder you can still help out by testing Compost and providing feedback.

Coming Soon

Very soon Compost will have an iPhone app, drag-and-drop design ordering, and email notification options. What features would you like to see in Compost? Leave a comment below or at our feedback site.

Drupal or Wordpress? 6 Questions to Consider

gavinblair — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Drupal and Wordpress are two essential tools in any web developer’s backpack. Both open source content management systems allow the developer to rapidly design and build fully functional websites, however each has its own benefits for you and your client. Here are six questions to consider when deciding which one to use for a project.

1. Is it a Brochure Website?

If so, consider Wordpress. This popular blogging software makes it very easy to rapidly build a site with mostly static content. Keeping a blog on your brochure website can help with search engine optimization and keep the visitor traffic flowing.

2. How many content types will there be?

If there will be multiple content types (for example, “blog”, “page”, “event”, “job posting”, “store location”) then consider Drupal. When paired up with CCK and Views, Drupal can handle any content type requirements you throw at it. On its own, Wordpress can only deal with two content types – “page” and “blog post”.

3. How Technically Savvy is your Client?

For “out of the box” user-friendliness, Wordpress surpasses Drupal by leaps and bounds. If your client tends to be afraid of anything that isn’t email or sudoku, put them at ease with Wordpress’s intuitive layout. That said, we are excitedly waiting to see what Drupal 7 will have to offer in this area.

4. Will there be a shopping cart?

If you have one or two products that are unlikely to change, you are safe with Wordpress and PayPal’s shopping cart links. If your project will have an online store with variable products (where “products” is a content type), go with Drupal and Ubercart. Ubercart is a very customizable e-commerce module that has excellent documentation and a great community.

5. Is the website likely to grow?

If your client’s budget can only support a simple brochure website and blog, but they plan for their site to eventually become the next Facebook, consider Drupal. Drupal makes it easy to add functionality to an existing website.

6. What’s the client’s budget? Or, How much time do I have?

If you need to have this website done by Friday, Wordpress is your friend. Wordpress makes it very, very easy to go from HTML template to Wordpress Theme in a couple of hours.

Asking yourself these six simple questions will help you decide on Drupal or Wordpress for your next project. How do you decide on which CMS to use for a project? Let us know in the comments.

Simple changes can yield dramatic performance gains

David Millar — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:04:45 +0000

Whenever your browsing the web I’m sure you’ve run into many websites that have horrible loading times. If your sites are slow this can impact your customers and your business.

Here’s some helpful hints to get you headed in the right direction:

1) Host any dynamic website on apache whenever possible – it will run fast and handle heavy loads with ease
2) Use tools like YSlow from Yahoo! to get suggested speed fixes on all your sites.
3) Build caching into your custom web sites and utilize caching in any existing frameworks when provided.
4) Take the time and energy to go through both your apache httpd.conf and your php.ini (if applicable) and verify you only have necessary features enabled. Adding extra bloat to your server will slow it down – and make handling heavy amounts of traffic more difficult.
5) Monitor your log files for software bugs and when you’re content with a running site – disable all non-critical logging as the server error logging can cause some delays.
6) Use the built in apache benchmarking tool called ab – you can’t go wrong with this tool.
7) Get in touch with a Professional for some additional tweaks, testing and benchmarking. Typically a small investment can leverage large gains in performance.

Starting with the suggestions above you should be well on your way to reducing your page response times by at least 50%.

Developing a backup strategy for your business

Shawn Adamsson — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:26:42 +0000

Developing a good backup strategy requires thoughtful planning, from the selection of devices to the determination of backup schema and other logistical issues. Each step must be carefully analyzed in light of such factors as staffing, technical expertise, and budget. Weâ€™ll take a look at these factors and break down the requirements of a successful backup strategy.

Stop spam from Foreign countries

Shawn Adamsson — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:44:59 +0000

from Lifehacker: “It’s known that most spam (particularly malware such as keyloggers) originates overseas (Estonia, Moldavia, China, Poland, etc.) By blocking email from most of the undeveloped world, I’ve successfully reduced spam by 95 percent in the past year. In Outlook, click Actions > Junk E-Mail > Junk E-Mail Options. Click the International tab, then the Blocked Top-Level Domain List button. Now select the countries you wish to block.”

Very handy little tip.

10 Tips for Improving Your Wireless Network

Shawn Adamsson — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 17:31:52 +0000

“If Microsoft Windows ever notifies you about a weak signal, it probably means your connection isn’t as fast or as reliable as it could be. Worse, you might lose your connection entirely in some parts of your home. If you’re looking to improve the signal for your wireless network, try some of these tips for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network performance.”

Very straightforward advice for people new to wireless.

TechRepublic’s ultimate guide to enterprise wireless LAN security

Shawn Adamsson — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:38:06 +0000

“Enterprise wireless LAN security is a persistent concern for every system administrator and CIO. Threats from both within and without the enterprise threaten your data each and every day. This download gives you the basic foundation you need to secure your enterprise wireless connections by detailing security protocols such as the Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP), the Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP), Cisco EAP-FAST authentication, and Microsoft IAS RADIUS. The guide also walks you through the configuration of these authentication protocols so you can properly implement them in your enterprise.” (registration with TechRepublic required)

Breaking Traditions in Small-Business Backup

Shawn Adamsson — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:13:33 +0000

“Following old-school backup routines for data backup could put your business at risk. To avoid disaster, you need to think about what data you need to recoverâ€”and how quickly.

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty details of backup, most small-business owners (along with most individual users) have a less-than-solid grasp on the reality of their backup needs. This knowledge gap should come as no surprise, since the path of least resistance is to follow the tradition of daily backup, rather than taking the time to examine one’s workflow and determine real needs.”

Overview of Wireless Communication in a Wireless Network

Shawn Adamsson — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:12:14 +0000

“Wireless networks, like their wired counterparts, rely on the manipulation of electrical charge to enable communication between devices. Changes or oscillations in signal strength from 0 to some maximum value (amplitude) and the rate of those oscillations (frequency) are used singularly or in combination with each other to encode and decode information.”

Small Business Primer on Network Security Threats

Shawn Adamsson — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:10:05 +0000

“Over the last ten years, our world has become interconnected in ways not previously imaginable. Today, for instance, people in Spain, the US, and Brazil can find out simultaneously that soccer-star David Beckham has switched teams. Small companies can now affordably be spread across the globe, and big companies can now have inter-office collaboration on a daily basis. But all of that interconnectedness relies in large part on our ability to protect the networks that create those connections.”