Yow. Nearly a year since my last entry. Got an email reminder form my hosts reminding me that I was still paying for this domain name and webspace and that's spurred me on to upgrade my DasBlog install (now fortified with .Net 2.0 framework) and start blogging again.
Started a new job in January at VioCorp. Some exciting projects on the go there: foremost is the Viostream portal which has been so well received that we've already got 3 clients (rabbitohs, dragons and ivy.tv) using our alpha version.
Features include:
- Ajax based UI that allows video to keep playing as users 'navigate' around the site.
- Leverages the YUI (Yahoo User Interface) Library for cross-platform DHTML effects and other UI goodness - most notably the Browser History Manager library, allowing users to use their browser history functions (back and forward buttons) to navigate via Ajax.
- Playlist functionality: users create/edit playlists of videos (on the fly) that can be shared.
- (semi-)Modular approach (yet to be implemented as self-contained asp.net user controls) that allows for quick configuration of sites to enable/disable the following functions:
- A branded Poll (with nice DHTML results animation if I say so myself)
- User registration/login/password reminder (nicely animated too)
- Commenting on videos (anonymous/registered/confirmed users) + moderation via user flagging
- User rating of videos (anonymous/registered/confirmed users)
- Separate/integrated picture album support - using M.I Jackson's excellent Shadowbox.js media-viewer. I've added in an inline gallery thumbnail viewer as well. When I'm satisfied that it's robust enough I'll release my 'extension' to it under the GNU licence as per the terms of use.
I am becoming a big fan of YUI and have lost some of my disdain for JS. It's still a tricky and pretty arcane subject, but using a cross-browser library like YUI really simplifies the process - knowing that you can rely on some really smart people to have sorted out most of the cross-browser quirks for you already.