This week I finally had the change to release my new redesigned blog. Have been been working with a enhanged backend for some time, but at the end I decided to redesign the frontend to. I was looking for something more simple, and at last to move away from my old Wordpress template.

Major changes to the BCMS (Blog Content Manager System)

• Dropped the comments table: According to KISS I didn’t need it. I am not run down by comments, and fighting spam is not my war.
• Dropped the Categories table: Now I am using a flat table, with a Ajax-based auto-complete system to keep my tags unified. Not sure, but I guess thats what Del.icio.us does to.
• Moved from FCKeditor to TinyMCE: FCKeditor got fileupload build in, but it’s huge bastard. Wrote a new controller for fileuploads, which store images in a "year/month" pattern. For the rich text editor, I also tried widgEditor from the man in blue, but unfortunally it doesn’t work with CakePHP way of handling formdata. Ended up with TinyMCE, but I am not completly happy with it, maybe I will switch to a wiki-style editor in the future.

Changes to the frontend

• A new design: A simpler main menu, a WorkTimer banner alltime visible in the top right corner (hidden for IE users, since the badass browser dosen’t support these high quality transparent images) and a secondary content with short info about gersh.no, tags and recent posts.
• Reworked the css: Used the reset.css to gain more control.
• Went for a fluid width to better suit different screensizes.

Future plans:

• Create a persistent login system (remember me)
• Try out wiki-text
• Implement blogger api
• Book and author models to keep track of all the novels I read.
• Write a CakePHP wrapper for table I keep the log of workouts.

Screenshot of backend: Showing upload window, inspired by Wordpress.