Making this site

This site is running on a package called WordPress. It requires PHP, a web scripting language, and MySQL, a database. All of these things are open source and free of charge.

I made a few customizations to make WordPress track my hours. I created a custom field called “Hours” and then wrote and installed a Category Total plugin. Just follow the instructions in the readme file in the Zip. The Category Total plugin will add up the hours for each category and put it in parentheses at the end of the category name whenever the categories are listed out. It also adds a “Total = XX hours” at the bottom of the category list.

To add the “Hours: XX” at the bottom of each post in the index, I used a “Get Custom Field Values” plug-in. I modified (using Site Admin->Presentation->Theme Editor) my Main Template and Archive Template, adding this footer:
<?php echo c2c_get_custom('Hours', 'Hours: ', ' <strong>|</strong>'); ?>

To customize the order of the category listing, I created a plugin called Category Order. It’s very simple to use. Instructions are located in a readme file inside the Zip archive.

For images, I’m using a web page creation feature in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (Photoshop Album has the same feature). I’m not using the web page it creates, but I am using the thumbnails and re-sized images. I simply copy them into a flat “images” subdirectory on my site. I looked into Gallery and some other photo management applications, but they did more than I needed. I like organizing the pictures on my PC and then just uploading the ones I want on the web site.

To make it easier to link to the pictures, I made another simple plug-in called image_links. With that plug-in installed and enabled, I can simply write “image####” in my posts where the #### represents a number and it will automatically create a link to that image complete with a thumbnail image.

This next customization is rather complicated, probably not necessary, but still cool. To create the month-by-month totals shown at the bottom of this page, I wrote a plug-in called Month Totals (rename it to *.php, put it in the wp-content/plugin directory, and enable it through the administration panel). It will display the table complete with an hour total for each month. Displaying it on the page is a little tricky. I created an alternate template called Page-Hours that I put in the wp-content/themes/default directory. I then edited the page where I wanted the table to appear. Change the “Page Template” for the page to Page-Hours. That will add the table at the bottom of the page. Or you can edit the template to put it whereever you want. You could display the table on every page of your site, but I chose to put it just on that page.

I also installed the wpPaginate plug-in from Scriptygoddess in order to display the “Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | … | 62″ line on the main, archive, and search pages. I edited the templates to call the print_pg_navigation() function as outlined in the instructions.

In short, I highly recommend WordPress. It is working great so far and looks great.