Gears Projects

[Tachyon]

I've already prepared images for the 7 remaining profiles for Super Robot Wars. After those profiles are up I will be completely caught up with all submissions. It will be nice to start planning out the new look and navigation for Gears Online. During the work of revamping Gears Online I would like to periodically push up some new Gundam Girls images. That should keep me busy for a while.

[Tachyon]

The 7 new mecha profiles for Super Robot Wars are now posted. I'll make an announcement on the site soon. It's nice to be caught up! I'm going to make some notes on revised site navigation and then put together a presentation for 2 Web designers in town. I'm hoping I can have Photoshop files for a new site design soon.

[Tachyon]

I had lunch with the 2 developers. I'm looking forward to seeing what ideas they have for improved site navigation and a new design.

[Tachyon]

The bad news is I almost got fired because management made a "miscalculation" about future projects. My boss pulled some strings and got me to stay but only if I bust my hump and learn higher level JavaScript real damn fast. The 2 developer friends of mine are still kicking around ideas on site navigation for Gears Online. My PHP studies are giving me some solid ideas for the Gear Heads project.

I wiped a thin layer of dust off my scanner today. That's just... that's just wrong!

[Tachyon]

My developer friends have backed out after producing nothing. Gears Online needs a new site design but I'm no graphic designer. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. Gears Online needs a new site design!

[Tachyon]

The new design for Gears Online has taken so long to get that I'm going to work on some issues early. I'm going to reorganize some sections, improve some underlying code and add some user interface improvements. I'm going to back these new things into the current site and then continue trying to find a graphic designer who can work on the new design affordably.

I've already written some improvements like a new bread crumb navigation aid. I'm going to work on the new mini search box and finalize the code for the new navigation menus. I think poor navigation is one of the main obstacles for visitors to Gears Online.

Once I've got the new nave menus written I'll post a test page to get your comments. I doubt it will be this week as I'm trying to schedule time to move 14 sections into a better file structure.

It's actually been a fun project. I learned a little more about Apache commands and I'll add jQuery code to Gears Online for the first time. A few people have mentioned converting the site to a CMS (content management system) but I think it's too early for that and it wouldn't provide much benefit for site visitors.

[Tachyon]

I finished the new mini search box. This will allow visitors to use the specialized Google search for Gears Online from each page in the site. This search box is nice because it will give results from the Gears Online pages, the Gears Online forums and, now, from GearsBlog as well.

[Tachyon]

I found time this weekend to overhaul the Battletech section. It was the first section built for Gears Online and it was really outdated code. There are 13 sections left to migrate to the new structure. They should be a lot less work than Battletech.

[Tachyon]

I just converted Gunbuster so that makes 7 out of 15 sections done. I'll look at Galvion next.

[Tachyon]

Galvion and Macross are converted. I'm slowing down on Ideon. I'm going to change the pages and lay some groundwork for expanded content later on.

[Tachyon]

The only section remaining to convert is Gundam. I'm going to take a few days and reconstruct several sections within Gundam.

[Tachyon]

The sections have been converted. Let me know if you come across any broken links. I'm reading about regular expressions now so I can update blocks of HTML code throughout the site. After that I'll add the search box and breadcrumb navigation to the tops of pages.

[Tachyon]

The code replacement is going pretty well. A handful of regular expressions I wrote are making it much easier.

[Tachyon]

I updated the "specs" boxes throughout the site. I'm working on cleaning up the thumbnail galleries found on so many pages now. I'm getting slowed down by cleanup for the Gundam Sentinel naval review:
http://www.gearsonline.net/series/gunda ... nel/ships/

[Tachyon]

I just finished uploading the updated thumbnail galleries. That completes my "cleanup" projects. I'm going to add the search box to most pages next and then breadcrumb navigation. Then I'll start building test pages for the new navigation menus.