Site Updates

» 29 May 2006, 9:58pm in technology, misc - 0 comments

I've implemented a few small changes to the site recently, and made an addition to the site's main menu bar at the top.

The sites uses many scripts written in PHP to display content that is stored in the database without having to create all of the individual web pages. The scripts use templates, then query the database and essentially fill in the blanks to create what you see. The dynamic nature of the pages requires URLs with query parameters, which in the past looked like this:

http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/index.php?gallery_id=111&media_id=3

It seems that URLs with query strings attached (everything after and including the ? mark) sometimes don't get indexed nicely by the major search engines. So I've followed suit with the major content management systems (CMS) and reprogrammed my scripts to use URLs like the following:

http://www.pinciuc.com/photos/gallery/111/3

This change has affected the blogs, Photos, and Music sections of the website. It should be transparent to you, and the "old style" URLs with query strings still work (in fact, the webserver just rewrites the "new style" to the "old style" internally, automatically).

I've also added a Search function to the website. In the main navigation bar on the right hand side you'll now see a text field with the word "Search..." in it. You can click in there, type in some keywords, then hit Enter (or click the "Go" button) to search my entire website. The search is powered by Google and implemented using the Google Web API.

It should now be easier to find something specific on my website just by searching for it. Try it, you'll like it!

Lastly, I've limited the homepage blog content to entries from the past 30 days. This should reduce some clutter (and motivate me to keep the page fresh!) You can now find the past 10 entries listed on the right hand side, just in case you missed something, and you can, of course, still browse the archives.

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