Spinning Kitty Entertainment v2
Spinning Kitty Entertaiment v2 was built out of necessity. With the original site growing so large, and the layout not designed for expansion, I decided to start from scratch.
I knew that this time I wanted something that I could easily update, and expand as I needed. I also wanted something that was more accessible, and easier to use. Above all, I wanted a site that would show off my web development skills.
The main reason that this redesign began was for the DVD section. It was taking far too long to update the old site, and, quite frankly, I was getting tired of doing it. I needed a way that was as automatic as possible. No longer did I want to go and change a bunch of code just to add a new DVD to the list. So... I designed myself a database, and wrote a content managemet system to do the work for me. When I was designing the database, I figured that if I was going to redo the whole thing from scratch, I might as well go all out. I decided that in addition to the title and synopsis of each movie, I would also list the director, actors, release date, genre, rating, aspect ratio, and audio for each movie as well. And if I was going to build a database to store all this information, I might as well build a search engine for it too.
This proved to be one gigantic task. Over a year in the making, the DVD Database is finally complete. It is simple to update, and that is exactly what I wanted. Now, I will be able to add to it without cringing and putting it off.
There are many other sections to the new and improved Spinning Kitty website. Of course, this section (the Portfolio section if you don't know where you are) is where I will keep information on my latest projects for all to look at. The Photos and Artwork sections are completely redesigned, and have a nice way of showing you a larger thumbnail just by hovering your mouse over any picture. Click that picture, and you will be taken to a new page showing you an even larger picture. In the Stuff section, you never know what you might find, but I will try to keep it interesting. And, last but not least, is the Contact section with the information you will need to get in touch with me.
While designing this version of Spinning Kitty Entertainment, I really wanted to keep my users as my main focus. I wanted this site to work, and look good no matter what. Whether you are running an old computer on an old monitor at low resolutions, or you have the latest and greatest, this site was designed for you. If you have Flash installed for your browser, great. If not, not only will you not miss out on any content, but you also won't be bothered with annoying pop-ups asking you to install anything. If you have javascript enabled, great. If not, don't worry about it. You won't miss out on a thing. Great care, and much time was devoted to making this a site that everyone could enjoy. No matter what.
For any of you techies out there, I will let you in on what is under the hood. Spinning Kitty Entertainment was written almost entirely in php. It is outputting XHTML, CSS, and (in certain cases) XML. I used some Flash here and there just for the pretty factor. Javascript was used to add functionality, but I made certain that it was unobtrusive. There are three different MySQL databases containing over 20 tables that are accessed to dynamically create almost every page. Each line of code was hand written by me. Of course, I can't take all the credit. I did get some help on some sticky parts here and there from my friends over at the [H], and, as all of us web developers do, I did borrow and modify some ideas from other sites around. There is not one single table on this site (even though the DVD section might have been easier that way). It is pure XHTML and CSS. All pages were carefully written, and validate through the W3C.