The Hobby Webmaster Blog

There is a new gallery of images on my background image site: http://www.symmetricalbackgrounds.com/galleries/gallery3/. These are symmetrical derivatives of images submitted by Maureen Brown. I will be posting Maureen’s gallery of images soon. I have to make some adjustments to the html template for my gallery software to accommodate these images. While Maureen’s images are not symmetrical for the most part, there are some very nice designs available. I am sure that visitors to the site will find things that will be of use to them among this collection of images.

I have been attempting to install a file uploader on one of my sites. I downloaded a cgi script and worked with it for several hours yesterday and the day before. I could build a pretty page, but I could not get the uploader to work. I finally gave up on it and went out searching for other options last evening. I downloaded a few choices, but the one that I put up is a php script package. It really has more features than the cgi script that I had problems with.

I had only minor file path problems getting this script to install. Once I figured out the proper database and user naming convention on my server the installation only took a few seconds. I did run into several problems when I started to customize the theme. Most of it was straight forward, but I had some conflicts with my site stylesheet and the uploader stylesheet. I also had some file path problems with my various includes. Part of this must be the way that the script builds the dynamic pages. It seems that the puzzle does not fit together in the way I had guessed. The most difficult thing to figure out was the stylesheet conflict. There are three stylesheets applied to the pages, and the effects can cancel or add depending on the situation.

I think that I was finally victorious. If you want to check it out it can be found at: http://www.audioartmusicplayer.com/uploads/

I am continuing to fight with the file up-loader. It may not run on this server. I have primarily had file path problems with this installation, but I think that I had the file path correct one time and then the server complained about the file being writable. I would hope that it was, because if it is not writable there can be no upload. I may look for an alternative script. This one was written by someone in the Netherlands, and their English language skills leave something to be desired.

In other news, I received a contribution to the backgrounds site from a site visitor. There are some very nice and usable images in the collection, although they are not symmetrical in nature. I will post a gallery soon with these images. I may adapt a few of them for symmetrical background usage as there are some nice colors and textures.

I am getting on well with the WordPress software. It is quite intuitive to use, and would be more so if I had ever spent significant time snooping around other peoples blogs.

As you can see, I have succeeded in changing the site theme from the default. I have also added my link list to the other sites that are the subject of this blog. I may add another group of links to the various programs that I use in my efforts as a webmaster.

I still have a lot to learn about using the software. I will probably use it in a modified form in other sites that I develop. I would also feel confident about setting up blog space for others at this time.

I have begun to delve into this software a bit. I did start a bit backwards, but I am making progress. My hosting service offers a one click install for WordPress. I did the install without ever having any of the files on my computer. I wanted to look at some of the files and at the structure of the site, so I downloaded the things in which I was interested. I found the relevant parts and made a few changes. Then I went back to the site and found that some of the changes that I had made could have been made through the interface. The pages are completely dynamic. They are built with php when the site is visited. It is an interesting approach. I found the relevant parts and added the google add and the tracking script to the page. I also played with the colors and background image to make the page unique. I am now adding the links to my other sites.

In addition to learning about WordPress I will probably use this blog to tell of changes to my other sites. There is provision for an RSS feed from the site. If you are interested you could subscribe to the feed and get news of updates to my sites. I may also call for comments or suggestions regarding the sites.

I have just installed this WordPress blog software on this site. This is, initially, to familiarize myself with the software and to do some experimentation in working with the software. I will be looking through the documentation and attempting to make some customizations here and there. I would like to make the software blend with various site designs.

When I am comfortable with the software I may go live with the blog. I could use it to describe my various websites and my adventures in building, maintaining, and administering the sites. We shall see what happens with this endeavor.

When I am comfortable with this software I may offer it as a feature to enhance some of my other offers.