Week 12: July 30th - August 3rd

OUTCOMES: This week I began working on bug fixes of the CMS 2002 application. Most were cosmetic, but a few required some new bits of code. Jeff and I started working more on the Template Consolidation project again. Ive gotten the script to a point where it recursively parses the entire CMS application instead of a predetermined directory. This will mean we only have to run the final script once and we'd be done, as opposed to running it for each directory that holds an old template that is being consolidated.

COMMUNICATION: This week I met with some folks from the County Attorney's Office in the OC Admin Building to discuss plans for an Orange County Task Force for Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform web site. I took their specs and brought them back to Susan for approval. I whipped up a mock up site in development and am awaiting the go-ahead for rolling to production.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: Well, this is officially my last weekly update for this class. Im still working with the County, though. Next week I'll be fixing more CMS 2002 bugs as well as adding more code to the script for Template Consolidation.

REFLECTIONS: It's been an awesome summer in this class, and the perfect way to end my education at UCF (Im graduating this weekend!!) Ive learned so much that is going to help me in the professional world.

OTHER: Nothing else to say except that even though this class is done, Im still looking forward to all the new things I will continue to learn in my internship this fall.

Week 11: July 23rd - July 27th

OUTCOMES: This week I continued working on the County Calendar prototype. I made "Check all" and "Uncheck all" buttons for the table layout, among a few other smaller touchups.

A majority of my time this week was spent researching the ASP.NET 2.0 framework. Im actually interested in how sites are built that way. Ive had to brush up on some C# programming but so far Im understanding everything. Ive been reading about Master Pages and how you can use them to design the navigation of your site, and allowing you to change it on the fly sot that all of your pages update automatically. Its pretty sweet.

COMMUNICATION: I had a meeting with Susan and Poonam to look at the prototype. We decided to make a copy of it and try some different layout ideas.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: Jeff is back, and I think next week we will be testing the script I wrote that converts postings to the new template I created. Hopefully the prototype will get finished up, and I plan on reading more about ASP.NET 2.0 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

REFLECTIONS: I've decided to return to the county for one more semester through the Experiential Learning office as an intern while I hunt down a job. We're in the middle of a content management server upgrade, and if I can get a project like that under my belt I should be a shoe-in wherever I apply for a job.

OTHER: I hope I'll be able to slide into a fulltime position somewhere after I graduate (next week!) Im starting my hunt, and I can only hope that what I've learned at UCF and the county will be enough to secure me a well-paid entry level position or higher.

~ I am incredibly embarrassed. I've been emailing myself my report, but I never got around to posting it. And I've managed to forget two weeks in a row. :( Better late than never, I suppose.

Week 10: July 16th - July 20th

OUTCOMES: Wow, what a week. First off I began and nearly completed a script that will convert all postings using County News and other related templates to postings using a new template that I’ve created. This new template will replace at least eleven existing templates, freeing up lots of space in the CMS application and making customer support a lot easier.

This new code essentially searches a directory for postings using each of the templates that are being removed and copies their content from placeholders in the old template to the appropriate placeholders in the new template.

Users to the site will not notice any difference, but on the backend things have changed considerably.

This week I also worked with Susan on the prototype. I added simulated table sorting functionality by directing users to a sorted page based on values in the URL’s query string. This way I didn’t have to program a table that sorted (as this is just a prototype site) but still gave the user that functionality.

I did end up doing some Javascript programming, however, when I was asked to make some checkboxes actually change the layout of a table. Essentially, certain data would be displayed when particular checkboxes were checked. Since creating a database was out of the question, I coded some Javascript that would hide/unhide the information the user requested when certain checkboxes were clicked.

COMMUNICATION: This week I met with Susan a few times to go over the County Calendar prototype, but for the most part of been on my own just typing away. Its been a pretty busy week.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: Next week I think the prototype might be finished. Also Jeff comes back, so I will likely be working with him on the new script I wrote. I don’t think the Graphics page I was going to be designing will ever come off the backburner – I should inquire about it again.

REFLECTIONS: It now seems that my weeks have been alternative between “computer science” weeks and “digital media” weeks. This week was both, although computer science certainly took the spotlight.

OTHER: If I had read this report a year ago, I would never have thought that I was the one who wrote it. Me? Programming C# and Javascript? I know I’ve said it before, but its amazing to see how much an internship can teach you.

~ I am incredibly embarrassed. I've been emailing myself my report, but I never got around to posting it. And I've managed to forget two weeks in a row. :( Better late than never, I suppose.

Week 9: July 9th - July 13th

OUTCOMES: This week I ran interference with lots of customers requesting help with CMS on the Internet and administrative services on the Intranet. I made quite a few updates to Internet sites, including building a new page for Fire Rescue, adding some documents to the site for both the Building Division and the County Admin office, and I also posted a new meeting cancellation for a Growth Management advisory board.

The biggest outcome, however, was rolling out the new Utilities site structure. For the past few months I have been working off and on with a marketing coordinator from the Utilities department to completely redesign their pages. We finally removed the old site and brought the new one live this week.

COMMUNICATION: This week was all about phone calls and emails. I was in constant contact with customers asking for help with their pages. In one case I was on the phone for at least an hour while I gave someone a walkthough on how to use the Events Listing function on the Intranet.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: Next week I will be working with Susan on a prototype for the new Meetings Calendar application. With Jeff out of the office next week, I will also be working on some scripts so that we can implement them upon his return.

REFLECTIONS: After all the programming I have been doing lately, it was nice to move back into the design aspect of my job for awhile – helping customers post content and get it organized. It looks like this prototype job I will be doing with Susan will also be design-centric. I cant wait :)

OTHER: Every day I keep finding that Orange County Government, in terms of employees, is larger than I thought.

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.

Week 6: June 18th - June 22nd

OUTCOMES: Finally, FINALLY, we rolled out the Purchasing and Contracts page. There were some last minute code changes and directory moves that I had to accommodate, but overall the rollout went smoothly and the pages are now live on the website. This week I also helped Jeff with getting the Related Pages area of the site working with the XML nodes and his DTD setup.

COMMUNICATION: This week I met with Tina Boyd in her office to go over some last minute changes to the Purchasing and Contracts project. I also spoke with many web coordinators over the phone to help them with Content Mangement issues.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: We put in a change management request for the rotating banner code, so that will be going live starting next week.

Also next week I will be teaching a six hour class on content management. The two trainers for this application will be out on emergency personal leave, and rather than cancelling the class (which only occurs once every month or so) I was asked to teach it.

REFLECTIONS: This week I learned a lot about ASP.NET code, as well as XML, XSL and DTD files. I had taken an e-Commerce class with Erik Vick that taught a lot of this information, so I was glad to find that it was not a completely foreign concept to me.

OTHER: Not much went on this week to set it aside from previous weeks. Im learning more programming, which I never thought I'd be interested in after becoming a digital media student. I suppose I am still interesting in the programming aspect of websites, but I am still more interested in the design.

Week 5: June 11th - June 15th

OUTCOMES: My biggest achievement this week was designing code that would allow certain images in the rotating banner in our pages' header to be linkable. The code detects whether or not an link is associated with the image and inserts the link accordingly. This was my first time working in ASP.NET other than creating electronic forms. I was very excited, and was able to create the code in two days (as opposed to the predicted 1-2 weeks).

COMMUNICATION: This week Jeff and I had a couple face to face meetings to go over my workload. I also received a few calls from customers asking for help with Content Mangement, so I walked them through their problems on the phone to get them where they needed to be.

NEXT WEEK’S GOALS: Next week we are going to be testing the code I wrote for the rotating banners before it gets implemented into the site. It seems to be working fine on our development server, so we'll see what testing turns up (although Im confident it is fine as is). We are still waiting on the customer from Purchasing and Contracts to get back to us regarding her page, so hopefully we can get that online next week too.

REFLECTIONS: I again fell back on my computer science skills to help me create the banner code in ASP.NET. Before working with the County I had never had any experience with that language, but I knew enough about C and Java that I was able to figure out what I was doing and how to do it.

OTHER: I had an awesome time at work this week. I felt very accomplished when completing some of my tasks this week. I really hope I'm able to get a fulltime job with the County. I learn something new with them everyday and its really helping my professional experience grow.