The past two weeks have been crazy at work. We managed to upgrade to PHP 7.2 on our server for Scalia Law site. I worked with a talented developer who pulled a copy of our current and tested on PHP 7.2 to make sure MODX worked correctly. I am glad we got it done before he left the University to move on to something else.

Today we completed the migration of Scalia Law School’s WordPress Multisites to WP Engine. It was a massive undertaking, but we worked with a vendor to do so.

As far as technical things, we are now in a good spot. I am looking forward to some winding down time over the summer.

In a three-part video series, Brian Haferkamp walks through the process of building a static blog using Mavo.io. Part three is particularly helpful to see how Mavo.io works. I need to learn this new tool to build websites that will allow clients to update their own content with ease.

On the front-end, nothing has changed to the Law School website, but the backend is completely upgraded. We migrated the entire site to a brand new dedicated server, upgraded to the latest version of MODX Revolution, and switched to HTTPS. Anthony Harvey is the mad genius who has made all of these happened. He is such an amazing developer. If it was not for him, we would still be stuck in the good ole MODX Evolution. He responded to tons of my questions with patience. I am so grateful for his work.

Need help migrating your site to HTTPS? Read Moving to HTTPS Guide. It allows you narrow down your specific needs based on your platform, web server, and access.

I just finished a three-day intensive JavaScript training with HOTT (Hands On Technology Transfer, Inc.). The class only had four students; therefore, the interaction with the instructor was great.

The instructor was very knowledgeable and he has the ability to explain the concept clearly and made the programming language easy to digest. Even though he had a cold and lost his voice a bit, he plowed through all the course materials and gave us the important components of JavaScript.

What I got the most out of the course was the ability to recognize and read the codes. There were loads of information in three days to soak in, but I had learned what I needed to know about JavaScript to continue to explore on my own. The training turned out to be worthwhile.

Hardcore designers and developers tend to giggle when I tell them that I am still using Dreamweaver for my editor. It doesn’t bother me at all as long as I still churn out impeccable markups. I have been using Dreamweaver for many years because it comes with the Adobe CS suite. Why not just stayed with the whole Adobe line? I tried Coda in the past, but didn’t really get into it.

Coda 2, however, is a game changer for me. I started using it a couple months ago and getting a hang of it. I made the switch because Dreamweaver has become way too slow. Firing up the same file in Coda 2 and Dreamweaver CS6 and the result is quite drastic. Coda 2 launches much quicker. One thing I still don’t like about Coda two is the preview. I keep previewing my CSS and js files by accident. I still like to preview my page in real browser like Chrome or Firefox.

Now I find myself using Coda 2 more and more and Dreamweaver less and less. By the end of this year, I should uninstall Dreamweaver to avoid accidentally launching it.

I cringe every time I see an article with a headline like this: “WordPress or MODX? The Winner Is…” Obviously fans of both camp would show up in the comment section and start a war. Let’s just stop it. Since both are open source, why not embrace both? It doesn’t cost you a dime.

Both WordPress and MODX are my favorite platforms at the moment. I use both for my full-time job as well as my freelance gigs. Rather than picking one over the other, why not use the one that is appropriate for your project?

I love the speed of WordPress. I could have a WordPress site up and running in ten minutes and I could also quickly create a custom design based off a starter theme. That’s the strength of WordPress.

On the other hand, MODX gives me complete control of my markup. I can create a site exactly the way I had imagined without the need of a starter theme. Obviously the process takes much longer, but the result is worth every minute of my time.

As someone who offers full web service (from design to front-end development to back-end development), I can give my clients the options. MODX would be more expensive because it takes more work. Then again, it also depends on the scope of the project. So for me, the winner is both.

Once again Macromedia lives up to the users expectations. Dreamweaver MX 2004 is a huge leap on incorporating CSS. The ‘Page Property’ is now replaced with CSS. Instead of defines a background color in the BODY tag, Dreamweaver defines background color in CSS. Even the links are now defined in CSS. Dreamweaver also supports shorthand properties. You have to change it in the preferences. The CSS editor is much improved from the previous version. You now can check your codes to accommodate different browsers. If you’re designing for Netscape 4.7, Dreamweaver will give you the red line error similar to Microsoft Word indicating that Netscape 4.7 doesn’t support it and Dreamweaver will give you a workaround instantly. I am so glad that the File window is now included in Mac OSX. I always missed that from moving from Window to Mac. Code hinting and automatic completion are time savers. I love those two features.

Dreamweaver is much more than a WYSIWYG. Although it allows designers to create CSS and XHTML without knowing codes, I always use its code view as a notepad on drug. I just switch back and forth to see what I have done so far without preview in the browser. It is such a time saver as the same time produces codes concisely. Furthermore, Dreamweaver displays PHP codes inside the program so you can see what you’re doing. It is extremely helpful for making includes using PHP. Dreaweaver is still leaving GoLive and FrontPage out in the cold. Love it.

The purpose for this redesign is to clean up codes, organize the layout, and most importantly, maximize accessibilities. As you can see, the JavaScript rollovers had been replaced with CSS. Although the previous version was tableless layout with XHTML structured, the coded was quite messy. Designed it back in January 2003 when I first began experimenting with CSS layouts and XHTML. Now that I have a better understanding of CSS and XHTML, I just have to recode the whole site. To accommodate screen readers, I moved the side navigation to the right so JAWS can read the contents first before reaching the side links. There is also a ‘skip navigation’ to bypass the top menu. Design wise, I still want to keep the clean and fresh look and feel. So take a look around, enjoy the new design and don’t forget to write me your feedback. Your comments and suggestions are always welcomed and appreciated.