New Website Finally Here

Category: News | 3 Comments | 22nd April 2008

Its been a few weeks in development but I think it's more than worth the wait!

The new JD Pictures site has been completely recoded from scratch, practically no code was reused from the old site, even the database was completely rebuilt. Its been hard work, but I have learnt an awful lot about dynamic websites. I hope you will find the new widgets and simpler design easier to navigate and use. Please please let me know of any errors that you come across- there shouldn't be any but you can never be sure!

I have streamlined the code as much as possible to make the site load as fast as possible, in fact the entire code takes up less than 35kb! - Thats not including the javascripts by the way!

On the subject of javascript, I have used two frameworks in the new site, these are JQuery which uses some trully awesome and easy to use mark up and Spry. Spry is what's behind the sliding panels on the front page and the dynamic form verification on the comments and contact pages! These libraries really add a new dimension to the user interface on this site!

You can take a look at the difference between the old and new designs...

The Old...

The New...

There are still a few things in development, namely the photo gallery and iPhone / iPod Touch compatibility. Unfortunately I have not had the time to re-create these features yet, but they will come soon!

I hope you enjoy the new JD Pictures Experience!

3 Comments so far...

Jonathan Lumb
23.04.2008 / 5am

Loving the new site. Great layout and very easy to use. Any chance of having cookies on the comments so I don't have to fill it out every time? No rush :-)

Jacob Deane
23.04.2008 / 8am

The filling in every time is beginning to bother me too! Looks like I will have to do something funky like check for the cookie and if found, disable the verification javascript - you would already be verified the first time you wrote a comment... Shouldn't be too hard! I'll look into it!

Jacob Deane
23.04.2008 / 2pm

I have got cookies to work, to remember your details, after a fashion, you wont see results until you load the page again after posting! - Shouldn't be a problem as most people wouldn't double post!!

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