SiteDirector v5 - In the works
We haven't posted in awhile, there have been so many things going on and not enough time to post about anything that would be helpful. I know I know, if you blog you've got to blog, or don't do it at all. Well we like our blog and we would like to blog more, but with all the various projects going on, blogging is the low man on the totem pole.
Anyway, to our topic. We are working on v5.0 of SiteDirector right now. We are very excited we have some strong things going on and you developers out there will be very excited.
Right now we are in the planning stages and soon to be moving into production. But we are putting our pens and pencils to the paper and making sure we cover all the bases of things we have missed in the past.
Our main goals for v5.0
1) Clean code that is EASY to follow and customize: We want SiteDirector to be very developer friendly. More so than in the past. We will be breaking down the pages even more so it will be easy to add additional fields and additional customizations. This is what will make SiteDirector really appealing to even more developers. We had discussed frameworks, but decided against it, even though we like frameworks ourselves, we have found that many developers find it easier to work with procedural code and it makes for easier changes.
2) Easy Skinning - We are going to make the front end very skinnable and the CSS/XHTML will be much easier to manipulate as well as change out. Just swap out CSS files and the whole site makes it's change.
3) Finally the catalog building. We have ourselves been dealing directly with online stores to find the bumps in the road, the things that slow you down in managing your store. We are designing a much more fluid console area that will speed up management and improve best practices.
Some hints: Ajax, drag and drop, flyout windows, better promotions..... more to come!
www.quilldesign.com
If you need help with this, send over an email and we will walk you through it.
Thanks!!
There will be an upgrade path from v4 to v5 so if you are ready to switch let us know if you have any questions.
We are probably 3 months away on our first release. This could go out further, but I'm getting more and more confident as we move along.
There have been many delays not only in coding ,but in general business that have slowed it up. But we are progressing nicely and we more than anyone want to release it.
I hope this helps.
I work a lot with WordPress and skins/themes on that is outstanding. Customizing preexisting themes by dropping a .custom class on the body tag <body class="custom"> then doing all your CSS customization separate custom.css sheet where every tag starts with .custom. I am actually about to try this with v.4 of Site Director.
I have become a big fan of the 960 Grid System. www.960.gs. I realize it is probably a little late in the game for you to consider working with that for Site Director but you might want to check it out for the future.
These guys use the 960gs architecture for all their WP themes. www.woothemes.com. Good stuff.
Skinning in SiteDirector 5 is very similar to the WordPress template/theme system. The application structure is designed from the ground up to accommodate multiple distinct skins, each of which is made up of a primary layout file (comparable to a WordPress template's index.php), a set of variable modular template files (comparable to header.php, footer.php, etc.) which are included by the primary layout file, and any CSS, Javascript, etc. that a given skin might require. Once these files are in place in the designated skin directory, they are manageable via the administrator console.
SiteDirector 5 will be distributed with a small number of new skins that will serve as examples of the system in use. We also expect to produce and release additional SiteDirector skins in the future.
The 960 Grid System is a great design and development tool, especially in the case of theme and template development where standardization is important. While it's unlikely that it will be employed in the initial skins distributed with SiteDirector 5, look for its implementation in later skin releases from us.
I hope this gives you some insight, and thanks for your interest.