Dooce 5.0
September 6th, 2004We’ve been spending the last few weeks polishing up a redesign of the estimable dooce.com. It’s been a learning experience and Heather thought it would be nice for me to write about it from a developer standpoint.
The first thing we did was migrate the MovableType database to MySQL. This has some benefits, some of which won’t be seen in this release of the site, but will allow cool stuff down the road. It does make for faster rebuilds. Given the huge amount of data that dooce.com is, this is nice.
The second thing we did was upgrade to Movable Type 3.0D. This is a developer release for a number of reasons, mostly talked about on any geek blog and as this is an 8% -58% geek blog, I’m not going to go into it too deeply. I think Six Apart was right to call it a developer release. Even still, there are some bites. You’ll have to watch how it handles your archive pages. It does seem to try and retain whatever default formatting you’ve used, even if you don’t specifically assign something in the Weblog Configuration/Archive Files area. This is good in that you won’t lose anything, but bad if you don’t pay attention or want to use the new defaults.
For example, we started a new blog and began working on the architecture (new categories, new CSS, new sidebar). The default archive structure for categories was awesome. However, when we started to migrate our code from the new blog to the old one (I’ll get to why we did this in a minute…) there were some problems as the old blog had the 2.x default category structure whereas the new blog had the 3.0D category structure. Not evil or upsetting per se, but something to be aware of.
Another 3.x migration issue to watch out for is how comments are handled. There is a _HUGE_ MTElse loop on the individual archive pages and it took me about a week of screaming at the screen before I realized I was editing the stuff in the wrong part of the loop. Scroll down and read, people. It’s nice that the loop is there and really awesome and stuff, but bit my ass pretty hard. I’m alive, so I can’t complain too loudly, other than whine a bit as a warning to others.
Perhaps the biggest issue in the redesign is that Heather is stubborn and likes to do things her way. There is nothing wrong with this. However, MovableType is designed to do a lot of the lifting for you. Heather didn’t want MovableType to do this lifting in the past, as she had a system going, and it worked pretty well for her. The problems we faced were threefold. 1) The time she has to work on the site has diminished with the birth of Leta; 2) She used index templates to show category archives, but with this launch, she’s upped the category count substantially and it was not practical to build 30 index templates; 3) She wanted to add more photos to the site, but in the past, had to change about three pages in MovableType to do so. I’ve had to work with her and explain that with a couple of changes in her workflow, the system will handle all the stuff she used to do by hand.
With such a drastic change in both understructure and workflow, the seemingly minor issues to this redesign have been challenging. MovableType has long had less than stellar category support. For example, if I want to make different categories have different templates, I’ve got to do some imaginative work using template modules and Brad Choate’s excellent Supplemental Category Tags plug-in. Textpattern handles categories much better, allowing more flexibility, but it also ads a level of complexity that needs about 6 months of dedication and neither I nor Heather have that time. There are also issues in the back end of MovableType and how it handles categories which lead to these workarounds and heavy plug-in usage. That so many plug-ins have been written around categories should say something about where MovableType 3.2 needs to be improved. I believe the methodology that I used to solve the category template issues will mean a bigger server hit, and a decrease in speed for users and for Heather whenever she rebuilds.
Why not use the dynamic page generation in MovableType 3.1?? Have you seen the instructions for that?? You have to do a lot of monkeying around and what happens to all those Google archived links in search results and links from others? Sure, we could try to generate a redirect .htaccess file, but again, pain pain pain. I think one of the biggest strengths of MovableType is that it generates a living breathing HTML page for the archives. It’s also one of the reasons that so many blogs show up so high in search results.
Now that Brad Choate is on staff at Six Apart (no disrespect to the other developers) I would hope that the category stuff gets fixed.
Finally, I think on a site as big as dooce, it is time to move to a staging server/production server environment. Trying to rebuild a site that is live is killing the server _and_ making it impossible to get more than a few hundred pages rebuilt. It is an exercise in futility and inciting a near-mouse throwing rage. Yes, I know PHP sites are faster. But we like MovableType. Wouldn’t it be cool if MovableType allowed for this feature natively? I could develop a brand new site, with any changes and once I was ready to un-stage it, click a couple of buttons and boom, live site. I think this would work nicely for entries as well, allowing me to stack up entries and then when they were ready, push them live. This would also fix a long-standing issue with the MT-Search feature that, as others have mentioned, isn’t exactly the dopest. Yes, I know we could add the Google search to the site, but it’s noisy, and a little ghetto. For a site like dooce, it’s not going to look so hot to have a sidebar crammed full of Google stuff. The ads are already painful enough.
We’re still working through some issues, and over the next few days, you should be able to see all your favorite dooce content. Much of the archives aren’t working so good, due to the issue about rebuilding on a live site. But that should be fixed tonight when I can get in and do a full rebuild during lower site usage hours.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new dooce. It’s very cool.
You both are awesome!!
I love it. I even enjoyed the big photo of Leta last night that told me to wait up and quit being so damn obsessed with Dooce (OK, not exact words, but no one ever claimed I was a good historian).
Dooce 5.0 looks great! Good job, you two! Can’t wait for all the content to return! Two thumbs up!
I have a confession to make.
I have both of you on my syndication list on LiveJournal, so, I was able to see the design while you were working on it. I’m bad like that.
I kept things hush-hush, though. In that regard, I am good.
Sarah,
Me too.
Shhhhh!
Nice work, Jon. I like the clean look of it. I do miss having Thinking, Feeling Guity, etc on the side bar, but other than that the design is very nice. You’ve got a couple small errors that are keeping it from being valid XHTML and CSS, though. You can link directly to the CSS validator results for your page by using http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer
Ian,
Thanks! I think the valid XHTML just got shitcanned because there are a million images without a proper tag closure (from back in the pre-XHTML days) and without a speedy way to fix all of them, this is going to be a low priority. I’ll put that CSS link in, though. Thanks for that.
Also, if anybody else notices stuff missing or tweaked, there’s a good chance we’re aware of it and trying as fast as we can to fix it. There’s a nasty comment problem in the archives that I’m having a hell of a time with… what is up with MTIfCommentsAllowed and MTIfAllowComments??
That is some wack shit. I’m sure there’s a good reason for them, but again: Ass. Kicked.
Beautiful work, seriously; I too was admiring it as it happened through the syndication links, and am suitably impressed.
Oh, and now that you’re in MySQL, fixing all those image tags *can* be a quick process — you can write a short (probably under-15 line) script in your MySQL-enabled language of choice that looks for and fixes the broken tags. To my estimation, this is one of the best reasons to use the database support of your_weblogging_tool_of_choice — being able to use other tools to fix things!
I think it is very artistic - but I do have a bit of a problem reading it, the dark type on the dark background is hard. I end up having to highlight it to see it.
Oh, and as for the MTIfCommentsAllowed and MTEntryIfAllowComments difference, which horked me to all hell until I bugged someone at 6A to inform me:
- MTIfCommentsAllowed is a tag introduced by the 3.X version, and checks to see if you’ve set any of the prefs which allow comments (either Accept Comments from Unregistered Visitors or Accept Comments from Registered Visitors, or both).
- MTEntryIfAllowComments is a longtime tag that tells you if you’ve set the pref to allow comments on the specific entry.
So, the yin-yang is that the former returns a weblog-general pref, and the latter returns an entry-specific pref.
I agree that it’s shitty that MT 3.1 was released before the docs for the new template tags; that being said, if you’re registered for the Movable Type knowledge base, you can read about the new tags here.
Sorry — “here” was supposed to link to https://secure.sixapart.com/t/help?__mode=kb&doc=examining_the_t as the explanatory page.
I hate to complain, especially since you say that you probably know about the problems. But the new dooce site looks pretty broken in Safari on a Mac. Here’s a screenshot:
http://calebwalker.typepad.com/blog/images/dooce_screenshot.jpg
Ahhh - that was my problem. Thanks Ken - it looks the same way on my PC when I open it with Netscape.
hmmmmm I am on a Mac using safari and it looks perfect for me. Might you have an older version of Safari, ken?
blurb, if i ever find a way to get paid to be a professional blog whore, i will totally hire you to be my tech guru. complete with medical, dental, and four weeks of paid vacation.
and ipods for the whole family. we’re good that way around TMJ Inc.
to ken and Jessica:
It’s a CSS-caching issue. Try holding down the shift-key and hitting the reload-button. If that doesn’t help, empty your cache (Apple+Opt+E for Safari; somewhere in Options for netscape)
Wunnerful! Seriously, it looks great. *sigh* I married a GeekMan too, and like you, he is so very, very hot, especially when he Talks Geek. Thanks for the explanation that went entirely over my head, but was interesting to read nonetheless. Dooce is a lucky gal (and I know I am, too!)
The site looks so wonderful - a very nice upgrade.
nice new design!
andy- thanks for the tip on viewing
Jason,
Thanks for the comment link.
Others,
Refresh often. Shift-refresh often. Also refresh your pants often.
Excellent design on both your old and new site. Clean and elegant. Thanks for being such a class act in all ways.
Why do images sometimes not appear on dooce.com? Like right now I can’t see any images on the site. Using Mozilla 1.7.2, but the same thing happens under IE 6.
Thanks a lot Andy - that fixed it!
Aaron: I’d try taking a look at Heather’s FAQ.
What’s quite odd is that I can see Dooce.com images on my university connection (with Norton enabled), but not on my home computer — only on my home computer when Norton is disabled.
You can always upgrade Dooce.com to Movable Type 3.1, which supports dynamic page generation.
I stumbled onto your site, looking for somewhere to rant and rave about being marrried, I dont know your circumstances, but you touched my heart. I wish yours the very best thoughts, I will say a good word every night. God Bless You.
I agree with Jessica - the dark type on the dark background is difficult to read. I end up having to highlight it to see it. Other than that — looking good!!!
Ignore above comment - I posted, THEN refreshed. Should have reversed that process! Sorry ’bout that!
I feel like a tourist who doesn’t know the native language.
First of all, Zowie! Nice work. Double-plus Zowie.
And now for something entirely related:
A tweak request. I’d like to be able to “Next” and “Prev” through a category. So, for instance, I could go to the Dooced category, click the earliest one of those posts (the one about not letting Dooce work from home) and then “Next” my way through the story without having to “Back” to the Archive list, scroll down, and click the next chapter.
The “Prev” link would only matter if I read something so exquisite I had to go back to it again. But it makes a nice bookend for the “Next.”
I know, I’m a lazy git. But it’s worth mentioning.
–FD
two words: Expression. Engine.
Mmmmmmmmmmm…
Hey there! I’m no tech guru (for god’s sake, I use blogger) but I’m particularly liking the new category database. It allows me to stalk your family much more specifically
No, seriously! With such a popular site, I’m sure a lot of folks are going to want to see the archives - and dividing them by category makes a bunch of sense. More power to ya (and happy recovery, Heather…)
I was using blog software that I had written on my own, before I switched to MT. It used dynamic pages, but the URLs had no question-marks in them (Apache handles /path/to/script/arguments/go/here and executes “script”; You can parse out the arguments from the URL).
I haven’t checked out how MT3.1 handles dynamic pages yet, but I just wanted to mention that it is possible to do Google-friendly dynamic pages.
What the heck, while I’m thinking out loud, regardless of how MT handles dynamic pages, you can still do it. Instead of relying on MT to generate permalinks, you can code the format of the URL into the template directly. Tweak your .htaccess to get it to execute the right script with no extension (if you want pretty URLs), and you’re home safe.
already told heather how i love the new look. and i, too, didn’t understand a word of what you wrote. but - i like FrumDad’s idea with the prev. & next. that way i can go back to the days i didn’t know you guys and catch up easily. also - i do refresh my pants every day.
i just saw that at least one of the google-ads on dooce is in german. you’re bilingual now. how cool is that? JAY!
and i was just thinking that i, personally, like for links to other sites to open in a new window. like when i’m on the “about” site and heather e.g. refers to blurbomat, it’d be nice to have a new window open so when i’m done looking around on blurbomat, i can just close the window and keep strolling around on dooce from where i was.. but that’s just me - and i don’t know if it makes any sense at all..
Great feedback, Jon, and really nice work! (To both of you) I’ll be passing along your comments on MT to our team. I will tell Choate you like him best and rub all the other engineers’ faces in it. Ha ha ha ha.
Someone may have mentioned this, and you may already know this…but your left column is dropping in IE. I hate IE myself and use Opera and Firefox mostly, but try to allow for consistency across all browsers. Alot of people out there still use IE.
I found this very inetersting. I’m new to CSS myself, and self-taught since a few months ago, so you may know all these, but it has alot of helpful stuff.
http://www.positioniseverything.net/piefecta-rigid.html
Crap, I meant right column, dropping below left.
I have to admit I was surprised to see so much gray in the design. Gray page background, gray borders, gray image borders, gray text in the right column, gray page header image, etc.
I admit that I don’t know Jon or Heather personally, but from reading both of your sites, my mental image of each of your is not gray - it’s actually lively and colorful.
Of course I’m not suggesting the site be garishly colored. And you might just be using gray during this website gestation period. But either way, color me surprised.
Best of luck to your entire family and I look forward to reading more.
I must be an idiot because I still get the dark red background with dark font (hard to read!) even after refreshing the screen a few times. I love the new design but the colors do make it hard for me to read - - what am I doing wrong?
me too. i’ve been daydreaming about having babies of my own after reading dooce.com. it’s scary.
excuse me stewardess, i speak jive.
This morning it’s beautiful. Thanks to all who suggested a refresh.
Heather,
I just emailed you the second time..I didn’t mean to say that you have no taste in guys…just in some guys. Your site rocks! Best blog ever…even better than gigglechick.com [sorry Erin].
Even though I have no idea what you were talking about up there, I couldn’t stop reading. This geeky stuff is great! The site looks new and pretty, even though I wasn’t able to look at the different categories (it could be my work brower, though). Keep up the good work!
I’m looking at the site through IE, cleared my cache, and shift-refreshed several times. I still can’t see any columns and have only the black text on dark red background. Any ideas?
On a different note, welcome home Heather!
Dood, it looks awesome.
Have you tried 3.1/3.11 yet? I am tempted by its features, but just as I’m on the verge of upgrading, I read a new cautionary nightmare.
I didn’t understand 98% of the geekspeak, which gives me a goal…understanding 5% next time .. off to see what I see on Dooce.
I barely understood any of the geekspeak– which is such an awesome term, by the way– but I do have one slightly off the wall question. I was looking through the categories on Dooce 5.0, and looking through the Jon category, “Birthday/Puking” entry and I am curious if you, are left-handed, Jon. Because, you know, I’m left-handed, and that would make me cooler by association. (I know this is completely ridiculous, what does left-handedness have to do with puking? But you were holding the pepto-bismal in your left hand, she said, and in the picture at the top you are resting your head in your LEFT hand, and so, I am curious.) I have very little coolness naturally, so any cool received by association would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Most of this post was completely over my head, but Dooce 5.0 is amazing! I love the categories, and is it just me, or are there some older entries brought back? Thanks for all your hard work, on behalf of all of us Blurbodoocery devotees. I’m sure Leta and Chuch are bursting with pride!