A new version of my website has been pushed live over this bank holiday weekend. Hopefully you won’t notice any real changes, as this was more an update for myself. That said, it’s taken quite a bit of tinkering under the hood:
Upgraded to a new version of WordPress
This website was actually running a preWP2.7 version, which mean that almost everything had to be re-coded. I’d held off upgrading for quite some time due to my use of bbPress0.9 for my support forum, but it felt like the right choice to make when WP3.0 coming out soon and bbPress1.1 on the horizon (haha – dollars to donuts we don’t see it before October).
New (and less) plugins with more custom code.
It wasn’t until a custom build for a client last year that I realised how many plugins that “kinda/sorta/90%” did the job I was looking for. One of the real joys of this re-release is how much custom code I’ve managed to write and optimize, and hopefully most of it is reusable. Either way, I believe I’m using less than 10 plugins, and most of them are the bog standard backup/security ones.
Less Javascript
I love Javascript, and the move to jQuery1.4 has been a good one, but i also felt that my website was a little too dependant on it for the fundamentals. So I’ve removed the jQueryUI library and 3-4 of the plugins I was running to make the site more streamlined. I miss the tooltip plugin (tipsy) and how simple it was to code against, but otherwise I’m very happy with the results.
More CSS
I love distributed stylesheets. Yes it’s an overhead on having just 1 stylesheet but the hit is truly minimal. The real advantage is that my code is human readable, and in a parent child relationship; which is brilliant for bug finding and optimization. I’m also very proud to be able to offer my stylesheets for others to learn from, even though this theme is not offered under a GPL.
Validation
Far too many people are strict on validation tools built and aimed at the year 2000. I tend to focus on how a website looks to google and screen readers; especially when dealing with arbitrary rules about what is valid and what is not when dealing with content that is not visible to the screen. In those terms though, validation tools are brilliant at helping you spot bugs, coding irregularities and semantic mistakes; and I’m very pleased that this website passes the xHTML and CSS validation tests from the W3C as well as the Cynthia Says semantic report and Wave 508 accessibility evaluation.
Semantic improvements
I often spend time on websites without stylesheets, JavaScript or images turned on and the one thing that continues to amaze me is how little of the content on websites is given any context. Tables with no headings, Unordered Lists with no descriptions and other basics. My own effort against this has lead me to fall in love with the DL/DT/DD tags. All the power of ordered lists with the ability to give headers and context while still being easily iterated through my DOM scripting and Search Engines. These are so incredibly powerful, I am very happy with the results.
Speed Improvements
My website now loads in just over half the time of its previous incarnation. Given the growth of code and external image use, it’s been a real joy to spend a whole day just optimizing my website. True, I could reduce this further, but the upshot would be small, and I’m very happy with how my page appears while loading.
Mobile Friendly
The current theme has a number of little tweaks which make it flexible for mobile browsing. Opera mini and iPhone versions both run great, without having their own specific version; and I’m proud to be able to check my website and support forum with ease on the go. I have no doubt that this is something we’ll have to take into consideration more and more; and I’m glad to get in on the ground floor.