University of Tasmania professor Peter McQuillan and former student Javier de Salas came up with an idea to enable the public to contribute to the worthy cause of cataloguing Tasmania’s fantastic biodiversity.

This is an example of how a simple wordpress site can turn a big idea into workable website.

Species finder helps the public catalog new species

The site enables anybody in the public to ‘Upload’ any photos they have taken of potential new species, where a few selected ‘Specialists’ can review them. Once a new species, or example or a rare species has been found, it is catalogued and added the site including the location where the particular specimen was found.

Rare species can be catalogued by specialists and located on a map for future reference.

If you would like to contribute to this worthy cause please follow this link for instructions.

A company brochure website template built on a bespoke ASP.NET content management system: VisualSite CMS which I have built and continue to maintain for a small client base.

Designing the Front Page Template

• Black/Yellow design following client branding
• Construction “Blueprint” features indicating nature of the website
• Simple and striking looks.

Designing the Sub-Page template

• Sub-menu uses the yellow band directly below 1st level
• Notice the “VisualSite CMS” button used to log into admin area

In-Context Editing

• Apply in-context editing for changing content directly on the page
• Notice “Administration” area and “Log out” button to revert to normal format

Managing Image Library

• Image Uploads and File Management
• Integration into rich HTML editor tool

Template design and implementation of Vignette CMS (Content Management System) for Barclays Private Equity, a well known UK and European Private Equity firm.

Designing the Front Page Template

• Light-Blue page designed based on Parent Company – Barclays PLC.
• Rounded borders implemented in CSS
• Highly accessible Menu and Search function using CSS and W3C standards.
• No HTML tables.
• News / Award boxes implemented as Vignette “content types”
• Uses JSP-based component model and Java framework.

Designing the Sub-Page Template

• Mostly based on the home-page with few modifications
• Menu implementation using a faded version of Barclays Blue
• Collapsable Right-Hand Box model.

Designing Specific-Area Templates

• Mostly based on the home-page
• Tabular format based on available data
• Using CSS and W3C Accessible specifications

Workflow Implementation

• Create content approval workflows in Visio
• Export into XML format
• Import into Vignette platform

All Together Now

• Implementation on Vignette 7 CMS Platform
• Proprietary Java framework
• JSP, XSLT template component model

The 6th incarnation of my travel blog. This time using a template over a bespoke Content Management System (VisualSite CMS) that I wrote myself using ASP.NET C# and CSS / Javascript.

Designing the Front Page Template

• Blue/White “Where in the World is Steven de Salas?” design borrowed and enhanced from previous offering.
• Accessible CSS Menu Navigation
• XHTML and W3C standards compliant
• Featuring new Search Box and RSS subscription

Designing the Sub-Page Template

• Mostly based on Home page with a few exceptions
• Page heading as white on dark blue.
• Two-stage menu layout, featuring top level and side-level menus

Designing the Search Results Page Template

• Search result listing using CSS and W3C standards
• Support for Pagination (Page 1, 2, 3 etc).

Menu Administration

• Using Drag-and-Drop tree interface for easy menu changes.
• Support hidden pages and redirects