Michael Richard Murphy

I attended a demo for a CMS by Sitecore recently. The organization is looking at it in order to more efficiently update content on our external sites but it’s also of interest to me as an intranet developer for the same reasons. Sitecore offers full support for Microsoft’s .NET plus XML, SOAP, XSLT, HTML, CSS, Javascript, C#, and the DOM so that it can easily integrate with ERP systems, CRM tools, financial systems, etc. More about that in a later post however. Because of the wide range of department representatives attending, the demo didn’t get too technical but focused more on the role of an Editor.

The Editor functions seem to most closely map to the responsibilities of copywriter, meaning they are ultimately responsible for generating content. What I liked most about Sitecore in this regard is the ability to establish a workflow. Within the system, the overall adminstrator can specify areas which are editable by the Editor. The Editor can then add, delete, modify, etc content within these areas and mark it as pending for the next step in the workflow. This could be the adminstrator, another higher level Editor, legal counselor, compliance, corporate branding, or anyone who might need to approve content before it is published. Any level can send copy back to lower levels for revisions along with the ability to attach notes to the copy. It’s my understanding this workflow can have unlimited steps as long as it stays linear.

Sitecore also makes allowances for dated content. Content can be created in a staging area and then given a date in the future when it should automatically be published. For example, the developers for an E-Commerce web site can put together promotional materials ahead of time for their big post-Thanksgiving sale and set it to be published Thanksgiving day at11:59p or whenever they like. Conversely, content can also be set to expire automatically at a future date.

The technical developer-focused demo is this week so I’ll have additonal details after that. So far though, I’m pretty impressed with this product and excited about the opportunities using it could uncover.

I saw a discussion somewhere recently about the May 1^st reboot. If I’m correct, the idea is that every May 1^st, designers and developers will unveil redesigns of their sites. www.may1reboot.com will serve as a focal point for people to find those creatives participating in the program. I think there might be prizes (besides Internet fame) for best design but I’m not sure.

One of the reasons The reason I don’t have more information to offer about the program is the god awfulness of their web site. I don’t want to mercilessly bash it but I’m not sure I have even one good thing to say.

I should preface the following by saying that I’m no Nielsen when it comes to usability. I like images, I sometimes deviate from #00f as a link color, and I hate to tell you Jakob but sometimes I don’t even underline them. That being said, the reboot site (for me anyway) is totally unusable.

First things first, you need Flash in order to view anything at all. I know, people will tell me that Flash has like 98% penetration…whatever. I’m using a new install of Firefox and I had to go download it. My mom isn’t going to go get Flash to look at any web site. Granted, my mom is not their target audience…but as a professional web developer, I would assume that I am their audience. People are doing ridiculously cool things with Flash but it should add something to the presentation that can’t be accomplished any other way. As near as I can tell, they didn’t use Flash for anything that a little intermediate level knowledge of CSS couldn’t pull off.

“As near as I can tell” brings me to my number two beef with this site. I can’t read anything on it. That’s right, I CAN’T READ ANYTHING ON IT. Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration but once I got Flash installed and actually took a look at the site, I found very little contrast between any of the design elements. Dark red, faded grey, or pale yellow text against a black background. To make matters worse, it displays in the super small font that only the really super über hip and in the know designers are fond of. The text can’t be resized because it’s all in Flash and my young eyes just can’t take it. The default display of the links is in a color that’s either the same color as the background or pretty close to it. To me they’re totally invisible until I stumble across them with the mouse and then they light up. Maybe there’s more contrast on Mac because the colors aren’t so dark but I have to figure I’m not the only developer working on a PC. Some of us might like to participate in the reboot but like me can’t get the information they need to do it.

Did I mention the annoying music that plays INCESSANTLY in the background? I couldn’t stand it and I had to keep opening and closing the tab the site was running in as I flipped back and forth for reference while writing this.

I understand art for art’s sake and even being weird just for the sake of being weird. I can understand if some of the submissions are experimental, cutting edge, and/or not entirely usable because of it. But in this instance, the site is intended as a tool to convey information about the event and in that regard, it just fails. Miserably.

Anyway, I’m not sure there was any point to this post other than a chance to rant like a usability fanatic and possibly as a general outline for what NOT to do when developing. I’m going to start work shortly on a redesign of my site and I was interested in participating but now I’m not so sure I want to be associated.

I first became aware of Google’s promotion of the Firefox web browser through a recent post on Dave Shea’s web site, although I see from the comments there that this has been the buzz in certain circles for a little while. Loads of Google-related extensions have been available for Firefox from day one and the built-in search box lets you choose between a handful of search engines (with Google as the default) so I’ve never really thought about it. Google has created a win-win situation by actively promoting Firefox and its Google toolbar by creating a referral program and paying referrers per download. Google sees increased usage of their toolbar by tying it in with a new, hip product used by people in the know and Firefox gets promotion of its product subsidized by Google. How can you beat that?

I have to be honest, I don’t have the Google toolbar but a little research revealed that it has some nifty features including SpellCheck, a built-in translator, PageRank display (I have the stand alone extension of this useful feature), and a pop-up blocker for those unlucky enough to still be using Internet Explorer. Whether you download and/or use the Google toolbar, you ultimately owe it to yourself to get Firefox. One of the first browsers to offer pop-up blocking, increased security, and most importantly (to me anyway) tabbed browsing. Click on the image above and Get Firefox already.

I was hoping to complete more certifications while Brainbench is offering them for free but since the promotion’s end date is tomorrow, I probably won’t manage it. All in all though, I received four certifications for free that normally retail for $50 each. Not a bad deal. I should take this opportunity to thank RichInStyle.com for the crash course in CSS2. It’s quite possibly the ugliest site I’ve ever seen but it gave me the knowledge I needed to complete the CSS2 certification.

Frankly I’m a little surprised that scoring in the 91% percentile didn’t qualify me for a Master level certification since I scored in a slightly lower percentile for the HTML 4.0 certification and still managed to make the Master level. Maybe I’m just splitting hairs but I guess I’m just a perfectionist like that. Maybe the quality of the people taking the CSS test raised the bar a little higher? At any rate, I managed to get some resume boosting certifications under my belt at no cost so I’m pretty content.

Here’s the latest certification from Brainbench. In the immortal words of Mr. T, “I pity tha fool” who’s reading this blog, is in this profession, and isn’t taking advantage of these free resume building, raise getting tools. You know how much you know, but here’s third party verification that you can show any employer.

If you haven’t taken advantage of the free certifications offered by Brainbench during the month of November, get over there and do it. Here’s the latest for me. I’m trying for a different one every night. http://www.brainbench.com, do it for your career.

Brainbench specializes in employee testing. They offer technical certifications to bolster resumes and let potential employers get an idea of a candidate’s aptitude. Ordinarily there’s about a $50 charge to complete certification testing but I found out recently that every month, certain select tests are free courtesy of sponsorship by companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, etc. HTML 3.2 Master Level (97% percentile) is my latest. Some of the tests are slightly outdated (as you can see from my latest) but a free certification is a certification. For the month of November, Brainbench has sweetened the pot by offering up all their tests for free. Now is the time to show everyone how much you know…http://www.brainbench.com. Or click on the logo to see my Brainbench transcript.