Welcome to Earth Chronicle Beta!

Main Points

• Greetings Earth Chroniclers! Welcome to Earth Chronicle Beta! This is where we develop the next generation of Earth Chronicle features.
• Welcome Back! Welcome Back from hiatus to a completely revamped site!
• Earth Chronicle News Beta Welcome Back from hiatus to a completely revamped site!
• Earth Chronicle Beta Projects Here are the new projects that we're working on.
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Greetings Earth Chroniclers!

Hi! Welcome to EarthChronicle.com's beta site. We're not only inputing new content for review but testing our ability to actually build a website. Browse and enjoy the new changes and Please Give Us Your Feedback! If you would like to make a difference at earth Chronicle this is where you can get involved the fastest. Everything posted here at our beta site is here for your review because we're trying to decide how to design it. Once we make a decision it can go live on Earth Chronicle, but while it's here We Are Asking For Your Help!

You can also view our website log of changes, past, present, and future. Or check out our latest content pages for review. If you experience any glitches, we apologize. For one thing most of the page links won't work, unless the pages they link to are under beta testing as well. Once the webpages are posted in the proper folder at the main site, they should be fine, but otherwise, all pages "should" function beautifully. Expect hiccups now and again, but don't hesitate to let us know if you have feedback or find errors so that we can make Earth Chronicle the best it can be!

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Welcome Back!

We implemented some long held dreams, and gave the site a total face lift in sepia tone. And we can actually implement them because we have real web hosting. Earth Chronicle Beta is fully revised and ready to go. That Javascript clock I'd been begging for... here it is. I built it. There's not only fully deployed CSS, but unobtrusive Javascript controlling the clock and our brand new menus system and server side includes as well. The primary parts of the CSS appearance, Javascript behavior, and frequently used XTHML code blocks are each contained in a file, one file. That means site wide changes can be affected quickly, reliably, and with maximum flexibility.

We've also redesigned the site to use ASP.NET 2.0 server side objects and scripting. Note the .aspx on this page instead of the "normal" .html extension. The biggest change you'll see soon is that I'm in the final stages of putting together a contact form. Using ASP.NET 2.0, the form will process itself and output the data as an email to whatever email address I want. I can change address at will and it will never be seen except on the server side. So it might have a prayer of surviving the spammers, and if not... it's easy to switch addresses. This is the first version of the website to take accessibility into account. While we've made a good start, this site will be the beginning, not the end of that process. We're also adding dynamically generated site navigation tools, and we hope to extend these to dynamically generated site indexes, etc. Obviously they'll have to be cached, but a site index can be revised nightly and still remain highly valid; it's one of the perfect projects to use server caching. So check out our newest News!

Earth Chronicle Beta News

Get all the latest information about the beta site.

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Earth Chronicle Beta Projects

Here are the different project groups that we're currently pursuing.

Development Techniques

The latest web technologies that we're playing with.

• Developer Play
  Here's where we're playing with our web development toys. Programming hardhats required. ;) Or you can check out the specific area you're interested in.
  
  • ASP.NET 2.0 - The latest in our server side coding development.
  • Flash - The latest in our work with Flash animation and Actionscript.
  • Javascript - The latest in our client side scripting and interactive DHTML development.
  • Accessibility / SEO - The latest in our accessibility and SEO development.

[chroniclemaster1, 2006/12/05]

Website Development

Our latest attempt at redesigning the website with XHTML and CSS. We're also implementing Accessibility and SEO techniques.

• Accessibility Testing
  We've solidified what we think will be the new page template. It still needs some testing to maximize flexibility. For the most part however, we're cleaning up details and it's time to conduct accessibility testing and look at SEO before we start polishing too much.
  
• XHTML Changeover
  The next full site redesign is beginning here. Add your input now! :D We're moving to XHTML using external CSS for both layout (box model) and appearance to maximize flexibility and ease of maintenance.
  

[chroniclemaster1, 2006/12/05]

Customized CSS

Creating styles that are easily customizable for visitors.

• Customized CSS
  We now have 5 style sheets up for review. We also need someone who knows Javascript(?) to figure out a functional, easy, and highly cross-platform compatible way to program a functional selector. Otherwise, we'll have to pick just one.
  

[chroniclemaster1, 2006/12/05]

The Beginning

The beginnings of Earth Chronicle. Now purely historical but the first time that the webpage was put together the way I really wanted it.

• Early Navbar Development
  The story behind the early development of the navbar. Finally completed in the XHTML Changeover.
  
• Early Basics of Earth Chronicle Development
  The story behind the little redesign of the homepage, that became major.
  

[chroniclemaster1, 2006/12/05]

Content Page Review

New Pages that are posted for browsing and corrections.

• New Content Pages for Review!
  The newest submissions posted for review.
  

[chroniclemaster1, 2006/12/05]

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