The Plan

[danwells]

1. Colors/Graphics Design

Basic

• [x] Background
• [x] Header/Footer
• [x] Menus
• [x] Highlighted text (emphasized, bold, weblinks, etc.)
• [x] Main content area(s)

  Advanced enhancements

• [ ] Menus
• [ ] Highlighted text (emphasized, bold, weblinks, etc.)
• [ ] Main content area(s)

[danwells]

Plan (1. Colors/Graphics Design)

Background

• [x] Plain colored background (light blue)

Header/Footer

• [x] Add placeholder title, other text, and styling to app/views/layout.erb

Menus

• [x] Add navigation menus to header (see plan step 2 for details)
• [x] Use simple drop down menus to start off (< select >)
• [ ] Update to stylistic menus after functionality established

Highlighted text

• [x] Use standard < strong >, < em >, and styles
• [ ] Modify to custom styling after functionality established

Main content areas

• [x] Use main < body > between header/footer for blog content and comments
• [x] Create "/" route displaying app/views/bloghome.erb with main content
• [x] Add < div >'s to separate body, comments
• [ ] Add sidebar < div >'s as necessary after main functionality integrated

2. Page Header

• [x] Page Title
• [ ] Navigation Menus
  • [] Table of Contents
  • [] Browse All Articles
  • [] Options (Page Themes, Fonts, Colors, etc.)
  • [] Help/Support Links (Removed from header, place in footer with other links)
• [ ] Search Box
• [ ] About Page

[danwells]

Plan (2. Page Header)

Page Title

• [x] Select an appropriate title for the blog page (e.g., Programming Languages - Syntax Comparisons)
  • Chosen title: Programming Languages - Syntax Comparisons by Example
• [x] Once page title is picked, create and add it to a "titles" table in app/dbfiles/navigation.db
• [x] Use a large heading tag

Navigation Menus (select/drop down)

• [x] Add a < form > selection showing navigation choices and current selection
• [ ] Navigation database file app/dbfiles/navigation.db containing tables to hold each menu's content
  • [] Table of Contents (blog sections, subsections)
  • [] Browse All Articles (list all articles by author with links)
  • [] Options (Page Themes, Fonts, Text Color, Highlighting Colors)

Search Box

• [x] Add < input type="submit" .... > within a < form >
• [x] return data to main.rb ("/search") route
• [ ] research how to search a page for text and save positions of resulting "finds"
• [ ] compile matching text from blog page into app/dbfiles/search.db (results table)
• [ ] display search results by highlighting words on the page (or links to page sections)
  • [] research how to link to page sections

About Page

• [x] calls "/about" route in main.rb
• [ ] display app/views/about.erb page with basic information about author/blog

[danwells]

3. Blog Format (Q&A, FAQ, Instructional, Conversational, Journal, Reviews, Tips, Lists, Photos/Video, etc.)

• [x] Blog will be a cross between Instructional and List formats
• [x] Content will be a small discussion and example of types of basic programming syntax statements (variable assignment, branching, looping, etc.)
• [ ] Blog subsections divided by programming language (C, C++, Java, Ruby, PHP, etc.)

[danwells]

Plan (3. Blog Format)

• [x] Pick short list of programming languages to explore syntax structure

  • Chosing the following (may have to pair down if running out of time)

  (1) JavaScript (2) Java (3) PHP (4) C# (5) Python (6) C/C++ (7) Ruby (8) Objective-C

• [ ] Create subsection for each language on app/views/bloghome.erb (see plan step 8 for details)

[danwells]

4. Category Title (Sports, Events, Self-Help, Video Games, etc.)

• [x] Pick a category title
  • Chosen: Programming Lanugages

[danwells]

Plan (4. Category Title)

• [x] Once category title is picked, add it to the "titles" table in app/dbfiles/navigation.db
• [x] Display category title in a heading tag smaller than the page title but bigger than the article title and subsection titles
• [x] Add the keyword "Category: " to the display

[danwells]

5. Article Title (Golf tips for improving your short game, Frequently asked questions on buying a computer, How to replace a light switch, Political Affect of Russian Occupation, My Alaska Cruise adventure, Best/Worst movies, Advice on Dealing with a bad boss, Top 10 Things to do in Colorado, etc.)

• [x] Pick a title for the first article
  • Chosen: The Variable Assignment Statement
• [x] Compile a list of possible future article titles
  • Increment operation, Conditionals, Loops, Switch/Case, Classes/Objects, ...

[danwells]

Plan (5. Article Title)

• [x] Once article title is picked, add it to the add it to the "titles" table in app/dbfiles/navigation.db
• [x] Add future article titles to the database
• [x] Display the article title in appropriate sized header tag

[danwells]

6. ‘By’ line

• [x] Add an author 'By' line

[danwells]

Plan (6. 'By' Line)

• [x] Create a contributers database file app/dbfiles/contributers.db
• [x] Add an "authors" table to the database with (author_id, first, last, article_id) fields
• [x] Display 'By' line with the author's name under the Article title

[danwells]

7. Post date/time

• [x] Add a posting date and time

[danwells]

Plan (7. Post Date/Time)

• [x] Research date/time formatting and how to retrieve from the system when the article has been posted
• [x] Display the date/time to the right of the 'By' line and under the article title
• [x] Save date/time in the "articles" table

[danwells]

8. Content Area(s) (Main body - required, sidebars/widgets - optional)

• [ ] Introduction
• [x] Body Sub-title
• [x] Sections/Sub-Headings
• [ ] Section discussion/body text
• [ ] Helpful/illustrative media (photos, graphics, videos, etc.)
• [ ] Quotes (Professional, personal, other)

[danwells]

Plan (8. Content Areas)

For each programming language sub-section:

• [x] Display a subsection title
• [x] Use heading tag smaller than the article title
• [x] Create an article contents database file app/dbfiles/articles.db
• [x] Add an "articles" table to the database with (article_id, category, title, posting_date, contents_id) fields
• [x] Add a "sections" table to the database with (section_id, section_title, contents_id)
• [x] Add a "contents" table to the database with (content_id, type, text, media_id)
• [x] Add a "media" table to the database with (media_id, type, media_link, media_data)
• [ ] Compose introduction and store in database
• [ ] Compose body text and store in database
• [ ] Gather supporting media (image/video links, quotes), associate with text sections, and store in database

[danwells]

9. Feedback/Comments Section

• [x] Multiple user comment blocks
  • [] Contributor name
  • [] Comment date/time
  • [] Comment body text
• [ ] Multiple user comment blocks (advanced)
  • [] Responses to that comment
• [x] Sign up form
  • [] Name (required)
  • [] Email (required)
  • [] Website link (optional)
  • [] Other descriptive information/text (optional)
• [ ] Sign up form user validation

[danwells]

Plan (9. Feedback/Comments Section)

Multiple user comment blocks

• [x] "/add_comment" route will handle incorporating new comments into the page
• [x] Add bordered box around each comment
• [x] Display Contributor name
• [x] Display date/time of comment
• [x] Display comment text
• [ ] After basic comment functionality incorporated, add facility for others to respond to a comment

Sign up form

• [x] Add < form > for entering signup data
  • [] Name (required)
  • [] Email (required)
  • [] Website link (optional)
  • [] Other descriptive information/text (optional)
• [x] Add a "commenters" table to the app/dbfiles/contributers.db database with (commenter_id, first, last, email, weblink, other_info, comment_date, article_id) fields
• [ ] Add ability to check whether a user has signed up (and is therefore authorized to comment)
• [ ] If the commenter is authorized, add/show a button to allow comment submission

[danwells]

10. Page Footer

• [ ] Contact Info
• [ ] About Page Link
• [ ] Reference Links

[danwells]

Plan (10. Page Footer)

Contact Info

• [ ] Add link to show author contact information
• [ ] Handle call through "/contact_info" route
• [ ] Add app/views/contact.erb to display information
• [ ] Show at least the author's name and articles written
• [ ] Add a way to return to the article page

About Page Link

• [ ] Repeat navigation menu link to the "about page"
• [ ] Handle call through "/about" route
• [ ] Add app/views/about.erb to display information about the blog
• [ ] Include short summary of blog purpose, format, navigation, and uses
• [ ] Add a way to return to the article page

Reference Links

• [ ] Gather and display links to references used during research for this article
• [ ] Gather and display links to other places that are related to the article's topic