Chadwick Wood

I'd like to share how I go about hosting development versions of websites on my Apple laptop (it's a 12" Powerbook G4). These instructions should work for anyone running OS X 10.3 and up (probably even earlier versions, as well). I'm talking about the regular OS X, not OS X Server.

The goal for these instructions is to be able to run a local version of a website, under a domain name of your choosing. Incredibly useful for development.

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A couple of friends have asked me recently what I recommend/prefer to use for a content management system (CMS) when building a website.

For most small business, non-profit, or personal websites, I think Drupal is the best choice that I've come across.

From a developer's standpoint, Drupal is highly-configurable, extensible, and offers a ton of functionality, even in its default state. From a client's standpoint, using Drupal gives you a website that's easy to update and modify without having any background in web technologies.

The Drupal website already goes into all of the system's details, but here's a quick list of what I like:

• Themes - The theming system in Drupal is relatively easy to understand, and allows you to make a website look however you want. I find it doesn't make a lot of the assumptions that other CMS's make about how you're going to want your site to lay out.
• Modules - Drupal has a module system that allows you or any third-party developer to create new functionality to hook into the system. And, there's already a large collection of modules out there, so chances are that if you're looking for some specific functionality that someone else has needed in the past, there's probably a module written for what you want to do.
• User Roles - Defining different roles with different sets of permissions for users is built-in, so it's easy to allow your non-web-savvy client to update the content on their website, while keeping them away from features like changing the navigation architecture, changing the look of the site, etc. Also, by limiting a client's permissions, you eliminate a lot of the visual clutter in the CMS (all the links to features that don't need to be messed with during normal site operation), making the client's experience of maintaining their website a lot more enjoyable.

Anyway, that's 3 perks, and there's a lot more I could say, but basically: if you're a developer looking to choose a content management system as your go-to for client projects, give Drupal a thorough look.

In the past, I've made more than a couple of CMS's from scratch, because I was hesitant to buy into any existing system, for fear that I'd spend the time to familiarize myself with it, only later to discover that its limitations would prevent me from doing everything I needed to. I have yet to feel those kinds of limitations with Drupal.

Collective Playlist is an ongoing web-based art project that I got involved with a couple of months ago. From the website:

What is the Collective Playlist?

TOPICAL PLAYLISTS
A series of playlists organized by artists, curators and other cultural producers.

PUBLIC STREAM
A collection of user-contributed Mp3s linked from across the internet and made available as one streaming m3u file.

I've been working as a web developer for the project. It's just one program of the larger Collective Foundation, which "focuses on fostering mutually beneficial exchange and collective action by designing practical structures and utilizing new web-based technologies." Check them out.

Last Friday marked the launch of a website redesign for Workpod 9, an architecture and design firm based in Austin, Texas. I worked on the project as web developer, as well as design helper to Ryan Coover, principal of Workpod 9, who designed most of the site.

The original Workpod 9 website was actually one of my first freelance projects, back in 2004. That site was all Flash (to date, my only all-Flash project, as a matter of fact), and as a result, it was pretty, but not search engine friendly. One of the primary goals of this redesign was to keep the feel of the old site, but ditch the Flash.

To replace the Flash-based "film strips", the series of scrolling images on many of the site's pages, I wrote a custom film strip class in Javascript, on top of the Prototype framework. In addition to how the old site's film strips worked, I've now added start/stop controls, as well as previous/next jump buttons. Take a look for yourself.

As of February 1st, I am a full-time contractor, meaning I am no longer the Web Developer at California College of the Arts. Now is an exciting and scary time. It was my choice to leave and start fresh on my own (Exciting), but I chose to leave a comfortable, secure position in order to pursue an unknown, financially-risky path that doesn't come with health insurance (Scary).

My two years at CCA were educational and enjoyable. I'll definitely miss the great people and laid-back environment there. During my tenure, I completed a lot of fun projects, including:

• The Calendar, with its AJAX-enabled disclosable event details.
• The Faculty Bios, which use my own heavily modified version of Lightbox 2.0 to display faculty work. Check out the profiles of Mark Fox (Graphic Design), David Orgish (Interior Design), and Randy Chavez (Illustration) for some nice examples.
• The Admin System, which is a big behind-the-scenes set of tools allowing CCA staff to directly manage various aspects of the school's websites (sorry, I can't link you to those!).

In two years, there were a lot of other projects, too. The school has a great website, so poke around it if you have some free time, even if only to browse their wonderful Online Gallery of student work (I redesigned that part of the site, too). Alright, I'm done tooting my horn.

And so, now, I'm picking up contracts where I can, relaxing, soaking up a little more of San Francisco than usual, and beginning to pour some major time into a personal web application project that I'm very excited about.

Did I mention that I'm available for hire?