Week 8: July 2nd - July 6th

OUTCOMES: ...and the linkable rotating banner code has finally been rolled out! Everything was in working order until our first attempt at moving to the production server, but then we realized there was one application that used our include files in a weird way. We had to roll back and tweak the code to cater to that application (which ended up being safer for the rest of the site as well). After tweaking we were able to roll back out.

I also programmed some XSL code that parsed through an XML document, sorted all of the nodes by a particular attribute, then sent all of the nodes in re-sorted order to an output file. There were maybe 15 lines of code total, but it took me almost a week to figure out the language and how to get things to work properly. This code will be used for the "Related Pages" area of the OC website.

COMMUNICATION: This week I mostly met with John and Jeff to go over the CMS 2002 server upgrade. A majority of my time with them was spent talking about XML, XSL, and XSLTs.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: On top of other CMS 2002 mini-projects, I am also hoping to get started on a site design for the County's Graphics team. I have had this project on my plate for a while, but it has been on hold due to circumstances on their end.

REFLECTIONS: Last week I was bogged down trying to learn a new language/filetype (XSL and XSLT). I had mentioned that I didnt particularly enjoy it anymore due to the fact that it was 90% computer science and 10% digital media. Since then I have gotten a firmer grasp on the language, so now that I understand how the code works I get to think about what I can do with it. Suddenly it became 70% design and 30% coding.

OTHER: I was talking to a friend who recently received an internship. He mentioned he was somewhat nervous that he didn't really know anything pertaining to the professional digital media workplace. Thinking back to before I received my internship and comparing then with now, I was amazed to realize how far I've come since I began. Ive learned more with my time at the County than I have my entire four years at UCF (and that isnt to say my education at UCF was lacking - I've learned a lot at Orange County).

Week 7: June 25th - June 29th

OUTCOMES: This week Jeff and I worked a bit more on the rotating banner code. We got it implemented on our production server, only to find a few hours later that we brought down someone's application due to the way the code work. We rolled back and found the problem (their application was weirdly coded) so we created a work around. We're retesting and plan to roll out next week.

COMMUNICATION: This week I was set to teach a three hour Advanced Content Management course. Unfortunately only one person showed up for training, but I did stay and give them some one-on-one time for almost two hours.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: Next week I want to get the rotating banner code rolled back out. I also will be working on consolidating some CMS templates for the 2002 upgrade.

REFLECTIONS: This week my mind has been barraged with coding terms. Ive been tasked with learning about .xsd and .xslt files and what they do. Its been very challenging, and it has reminded me that although I sometimes enjoy computer science, my main passion is digital media. Im not sure how far I'll be able to go with all of this programming until I hit a wall, so we'll see.

OTHER: What may have been considered a huge task when I first joined the County, I recreated the Style Guide I wrote from MS Word format into an HTML document this week using our Intranet styles and formatting. I finished it within a couple hours and didn't give it a second thought. When I first joined I would have seen that as a huge project. Its funny how far along I've come.