Entry 2253, on 2022-12-26 at 11:47:03 (Rating 1, Activities)
Many years ago now, I was one of the first people at the university to create a personal web site. In fact, I was probably one of the first in the country, and amongst the first few percent of creators in the world. This was in the very earliest days of the popularity of the internet outside of academia and the military, in the 1990s.
I like creating web sites because they fall in that sweet spot for me where art and science combine. Early sites were created using static HTML and very little else, so there wasn't a lot of programming at that time. In fact, calling HTML a programming language is like a standard joke amongst programmers to identify noobs.
But more recently the level of technical skill required has risen dramatically. It's still possible to create simple sites with just HTML, but more often a combination of HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP (or other server-side scripting languages), and SQL are used to create database driven sites with user interactivity. Additionally, it is now necessary to be aware of having mobile-centric presentation for smartphones.
So after creating a site with over 4000 pages using the old techniques it become increasingly clear that I needed to modernise. Instead of plain old web pages, everything is now fed from databases, which allows multiple formats for the same data (to handle mobile), easier maintenance, and extra features like search.
Another factor is that after about 30 years, the connection speeds most people have are a lot faster than they were, so it is possible to have much bigger files available with higher quality graphics, sounds, and movies.
When I engage in a project like this I am constantly aware of the need for maintaining a reliable and bug-free experience for my visitors. At this time, I have had over 45 million views of my site. I know that's small number for a significant commercial site, but for a small, private web site, which I make no effort to advertise, it isn't too bad.
So I started this project in 2020 and have been wondering when to switch my main server over to run it instead of the old site. I keep finding things I have missed out, or bugs I have created, so I keep delaying the launch. Note that this is just something I do in my spare time, so I don't have a huge amount of time to dedicate to it.
But, as you might have guessed, the time to launch is now!
So you might be viewing this on my new site or my old (I maintained the old site for the convenience of people who have created bookmarks, but a lot of it won't be maintained). The layout of the two is similar, but the new site can be easily recognised by the OJB logo at top-left, and a blue bar containing various functions along the bottom.
Some people have asked why I didn't make a massive change to the way the site looks, but I sort of figured the old site worked well for over 20 years, so why change it. I should say that the navigation on the new site is a lot easier, and there are no pages buried under 5 or more layers of menus in unexpected places any more!
Some of the old site was already database driven, such as this blog, so the old and nee sites will source the same material from the database server. This means a lot of the old site will stay partly up to date, but I will put a notice on the older pages requesting people start using the new one, if the logs indicate the old one is still being used a lot.
At this stage the new site id the default option when you visit ojb.nz (yes, I have one of the shortest URLS anywhere, and small is good when it comes to URLs!) so it will be interesting to see how much traffic it gets. At least, now that there is a mobile friendly version, I hope to get more visits from users of phones and other smaller devices.
So that is my Christmas project. As I said, I have been working ont he conversion for a coule of years, on and off, but now that I have some spare time off work I can monitor the new system and fix any issues. So, if you notice any issues please email me: there's a link at the bottom of every page, or if the page doesn't load properly (surely not) my address if ojb@mac.com.
Thanks for visiting and enjoy the new site!
Comment 1 by Ken Spall on 2022-12-26 at 18:41:37:
Congratulations Owen, your blog looks good. I look forward to reading some more of your controversial but sensible comments.
Cheers, Ken
Comment 2 by OJB on 2022-12-28 at 17:46:55:
Yeah, still finding little bugs and glitches. Of course, I keep adding new features which cause a lot of them! :) The site is over 27,000 lines of code (just the functionality, not the content), so there are plenty of places things can go wrong!
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