John Hesch

Echoing my thoughts and interests

Archive for the ‘Projects’ Category

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

My daughter Amy is having a baby tonight or tomorrow. Her contractions are 10 minutes apart so I need to get some PIM accomplished quickly this evening. :)

The first order of business tonight is to download the IG:Syntax Hiliter for the code snippets I collect. There are many times that I need to locate some PHP or JavaScript code but can't remember where I placed it. For example, when I add an email address to a web page I forget where I keep the JavaScript code to hide email addresses from spam bots. Now I can search my PIM for "email JavaScript" and find the code quickly. The IG:Syntax Highlight plugin highlights code from 14 programming languages.

For example:

JavaScript:
  1.  
  2. <script>
  3. var contact = "John Hesch"
  4. var email = "john"
  5. var emailHost = "johnhesch.com"
  6. document.write("<a style='color:white; border-bottom:white; font-size: 8pt;' href=" + "mail" + "to:" + email + "@" + emailHost+ ">" + contact + "</a>" + ".")
  7. </script>
  8.  

I have a dedicated server where I host 4 or 5 of my own web sites plus the web sites of family and friends along with a few paying customers. I also have quite a few pages that I use to admin my radio station. I created a static page called Web Admin and this page will hold all of the links I need to administer my websites and server. I'm tempted to include usernames and passwords but even though my PIM will be password protected I don't trust the web enough to keep sensitive information online.

I created some tags this evening as I entered in some data. There have been some articles written about KZION in the past and I want to keep those even if they become unavailable from the newspaper itself. Since my PIM is for personal use and locked up I can copy the entire article to archive in my PIM without worrying about the copyright.

The last addition to my PIM for today was to create a To Do list. I created a new file called todo.php and added the following code:

PHP:
  1.  
  2. <?php
  3. /* File Name: todo.php  */
  4.  include ("wp-blog-header.php");
  5. get_header();
  6. get_sidebar();
  7. ?>
  8. <br />
  9. <div id="content">
  10.    <div class="post">
  11. <?php
  12. require_once  (ABSPATH . WPINC . '/rss-functions.php');
  13. $today = current_time('mysql', 1);
  14. if ( $scheduled = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT ID, post_title, post_date_gmt FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_date_gmt > '$today'") ) :
  15. ?>
  16. <div>
  17. <h3><?php _e('To Do List:') ?></h3>
  18. <ul>
  19. <?php foreach ($scheduled as $post) {
  20. if ($post->post_title == '')
  21. $post->post_title = sprintf(__('Post #%s'), $post->ID);
  22. echo "<li><a href='wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&amp;post=$post->ID' title='" . __('Edit this post') . "'>$post->post_title</a> in " . human_time_diff( time(), strtotime($post->post_date_gmt) )  . "</li>";
  23. }
  24. ?>
  25. </ul>
  26. </div>
  27. <?php endif; ?>
  28.    </div>
  29. </div>
  30. <br />
  31. <?php get_footer(); ?>
  32.  

This page takes any posts that I have created which are future dated and lists them. When I want to create a new to do item, I just write it up as a post and then future date it for when it's due. I don't plan on using this as a simple to do list like take out the trash or pay a bill. I want a goal/to do list where I can list ideas or goals I want to follow up on or accomplish. When the item comes due it will become a post that will hopefully have the information or results I was looking for.

Well, my daughter is now being admitted and so I'm anxiously waiting the call to head over to the hospital. This will make me a 4 time grandpa!

Part 1, Part 2

The project

Tonight I didn't have much time to work on my Personal Information Manager but I was able to accomplish a few things. I fixed up my template by changing the masthead image. I used Stock.xchng to download the no cost royalty free image. I also added tabs just below the image for use with the static pages I will be creating.

Because I'm not using a blog title in the header I decided I would make the entire masthead clickable, allowing me to get back to the main page easily. To do this I added the following code to header.php.

HTML:
  1. <div id="masthead" onclick="location.href='http://pim.johnhesch.com';" style="cursor: pointer;"></div>

I really like the practice of Folksonomy or tagging as it is better known. If you use del.icio.us or Flickr then you should be familiar with tags. Using WordPress categories is a hassle because every time you want to add another category you have to manually create it. I installed the Tags4WP plugin which introduces tagging to WordPress. Instead of selecting categories now I can just type the tags I want associated with the post and the cats are automatically created for me.

The last thing I did this evening was to install the Admin Bar plugin. This is a must have for every WordPress installation. The plugin adds a small bar at the top of every page with links to popular admin functions. The bar is displayed only to the admin if he/she is logged in. Also the links can be changed or added to.

I'm creating a personal information manager using WordPress. Yesterday I downloaded a bleeding edge copy of WordPress and uploaded it to my newly created subdomain pim.johnhesch.com.

I found the theme I want to use. I'm looking for a minimalistic theme that's crisp and clean. Design is not a concern because I'm the only one that will see it once my PIM goes live. I decided to use the Benevolence theme by Theron Parlin. I use another one of his themes for my BloggingPro website. If you're following along and want to find a theme other then what I'm using check here. I have pretty much every WordPress theme available listed.

Last night I also created my database for the WordPress installation and installed WordPress. I had forgotten at the time I wrote last nights post that pim.johnhesch.com is the same as johnhesch.com/pim and so I was able to install WordPress without the updated DNS settings.

I also went to the user settings and changed the administrator password. I also changed the nickname to John but that doesn't really matter since I am the only one that will be posting to my PIM. There won't be any need to display the name of the person writing the entry. I then deleted the default post and all the links that come with a standard WordPress install.

I need to allow uploads so in Options under Miscellaneous Options I checked Allow File Uploads. I don't want the files to go into the folder wp-content, so I went onto the server and created a new sub folder of wp-content called files and made it writable. Then back to the WordPress administration and changed the upload Destination directory and URI of this directory to include a subfolder called files. I also checked Track Link’s Update Times, more about this later, and then submitted the changes.

Next I went to Discussion Options and unchecked Attempt to notify any Weblogs linked to from the article. I don't want to ping any other blogs when I post an entry. Next, over to Writing Options and I changed to Advanced Controls and removed http://rpc.pingomatic.com/.

I then changed some of the code in the theme's CSS file so that the page takes up 100% of my available browser and I changed the header image. I'm not really excited about the image I'm using but for now it will do. I also changed some of the font settings.

I didn't have time this evening to get any plugins installed or decide on categories. We'll shoot for tomorrow.

For some time I've been wanting to put together an information manager to organize and catalog my thoughts, ideas, knowledge, code snippets, links, etc. I was reading Paul Allen's blog where has said

But like some other good habits I have developed over the years which are hard to teach and harder yet to convince others to do (like taking notes at every meeting you attend, and storing all your personal knowledge in a searchable database), I have a very hard time convincing anyone to start their own blog. Most think it would be a waste of time.

I have accumulated quite a bit of information over the years which I store in different places like my computer, my journal, online, notebooks, and email. I need to find a way to organize this information into a searchable database that is easily accessible.

Because the type of information I want to manage is mostly gathered online it makes most sense for me to have my information manager accessible from a browser. I'm very familiar with WordPress so I'm going to turn a WordPress installation into a personal information manager. The benefits of using WordPress are:

1. WordPress is built on PHP and MySQL which I'm familiar with and is licensed under the GPL. I can extend it or modify it in any way I choose.
2. All data is stored in a database which can easily be protected with daily back-ups.
3. Data is searchable.
4. XML-RPC interface makes it easy to add data to my information manager.
5. I can easily password protect the entire publishing system.
6. There are hundreds of plugins to choose from when additional functionality is needed.
7. I can create custom fields, multiple categories, and sub-categories.

If you're interested in following along and creating your own personal information manager get a copy of WordPress downloaded. You will need the following:

1. PHP version 4.1 or greater
2. MySQL version 3.23.23 or greater
3. Apache with mod_rewrite. You don't have to use Apache.

Tonight I'll create a new subdomain called pim.johnhesch.com. I'll get my WordPress application uploaded onto the newly created subdomain. I'm going to use the February 8th nightly build of WordPress. It will be 1.5 beta but it's close to being released as stable and should be free of any major bugs. They don't call it bleeding edge for nothing. ;)

I can't install WordPress just yet because it will take a few hours for the DNS settings for the new subdomain to propagate throughout the Internet, so after the upload I'm going to search for a minimalistic theme to use. I don't need a fancy design because I'm the only one that will be viewing and using my PIM. My only requirement is that it's a clean look. Until I start adding data, the URL will be publicly available in case some of you are following along.

Tomorrow night we'll install WordPress and the new theme and decide on how we'll set up the categories and get some required initial plugins installed.

I don’t have all the specifics together yet but I wanted to give some advanced notice. I am looking for an investor/business partner for KZION. I have been treating KZION as a hobby for over four years, and I’ve finally decided that I want to work KZION for a living but I can’t do it by myself.

If you’re interested you can contact me at john at kzion dot com. Please don’t write me and say, I am interested. Let me know your background, what you see for the future of KZION, where you would like to take KZION, what you have to offer, etc.

I will be posting an official job posting but for now I can tell you I am looking for someone who lives in the states, preferably in northern Utah. I need someone who can meet with recording company executives and other potential partners. I prefer someone who has extensive Internet experience and ideally has programming and design experience. My partner also needs to be intimately familiar with KZION.

I am going to require some form of buy-in for two reasons. I have spent thousands of dollars to create and operate KZION over the years. There is value in the KZION brand including a detailed database of over 5,500 LDS tracks, custom software applications, hardware, customers, etc. I also want a partner that is serious about this relationship. Being financially vested in this partnership weeds out those that are not serious or unwilling to make a long term commitment.

KZION is a pioneer in LDS music and LDS radio and I believe now is the time to build on the foundation that exists. More and more money is being spent on Internet advertising and KZION could be the perfect vehicle for advertisers. There are also vertical markets that can be explored that could be easily adopted into a KZION business model.

01-24-05

BloggingPro Stats

Posted by John

I haven't really paid much attention to my stats on bloggingpro.com. This evening I was looking through my usage statistics and was pretty surprised at the amount of traffic that site sees.

Unique visitors per day are as follows

May 2004 - 161
June 2004 - 201
July 2004 - 244
August 2004 - 697
September 2004 - 850
October 2004 - 936
November 2004 - 1,079
December 2004 - 1,344

So far in January 2005 - 1,683

Cool, eh?

12-21-04

Introducing Planet Search

Posted by John

My latest project is called Planet Search. It's similar to Planet LDS but an aggregation of search related weblogs such as Google, Search Engine Guide, Search Engine Watch, and others. There are still a few bugs to work out but it's functional.

Graytone | Design: Tenant Report