Stephen (Steve) Withington - Web Site Projects

Launched New Online Presence for Family Optical Centre Powered by ColdFusion + Mura CMS

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:43:00 -0700

Family Optical Centre, Inc. has officially launched their first ever online presence at www.familyopticalcentre.com. Family Optical Centre has been a part of the Rockford-area community for over forty-five years and currently operates three locations throughout the area. If you're in the market for some new frames and/or lenses, you might be interested in taking advantage of some of their Special Offers too.

The site is powered by Adobe® ColdFusion® and Microsoft® SQL Server with online content management provided via Mura CMS. Talented artist and designer Greg L. provided an elegant, yet simple design which I quickly and easily converted into HTML, CSS and Mura CMS templates.

Congratulations to the team at Family Optical Centre on your new online presence. Best wishes for continued success!

Designer: Greg L. | Developer: Steve Withington

MuraMediaPlayer Plugin Released for ColdFusion-Powered Mura CMS

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:44:00 -0700

I was finally able to finish up my MuraMediaPlayer plugin for Mura CMS. This plugin uses JW Player™, the Internet's most popular and flexible media player. It supports playback of any format the Adobe Flash Player can handle (FLV, MP4, MP3 and AAC). It also supports RTMP, HTTP, live streaming, a wide range of settings and more.

This plugin is available in the Mura CMS App Store under plugins. Since the primary guts of the plugin are driven by my cfMediaPlayer project hosted on RIAForge (a ColdFusion wrapper of the JW Player™), I'm posting a copy of the license here just so there's no confusion.

License

By using MuraMediaPlayer, you agree to the 'non-commercial' license found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. For corporate use or if you're planning to generate revenue from your site (e.g., by running advertisements on the page, selling anything, etc.) you will need to buy a license for JW Player™. To obtain a commercial license of the JW Player™, please visit http://longtailvideo.com/players/jw-flv-player/commercial-license/

Installation

Installing the plugin is pretty simple. I've created a brief video tutorial and also included an outline of some simple steps to follow:

Download the plugin from the Mura CMS App Store's plugins section
Note the location of the 'muramediaplayer.zip' file that you downloaded
Log in to your Mura CMS Admin area
Click 'Site Settings' found on the top-right portion of the screen on the yellow bar
Select the 'Plugins' tab
'Browse' to the location of the 'muramediaplayer.zip' file and select it
Click 'Deploy' and the 'Plugin Settings' form should appear
If you want to change the 'Plugin Name,' feel free to do so
You can simply leave the 'Load Priority' alone or change it to anything you want to be if you have other plugins that require loading ahead of it
If you're Mura CMS install is using Amazon S3 for file storage and you've set up an Amazon CloudFront, you can enter the 'Cloud URL.' Otherwise, leave it blank.
If you're Mura CMS install is using Amazon S3 for file storage, you have an Amazon CloudFront set up and you've setup a Streaming Distribution to deliver content to end users in real time, you can enter the 'Streaming URL.' Otherwise, leave it blank.
Under 'Site Assignments,' select the site(s) you wish to enable the plugin to run on.
Click 'Update' when finished.
That's it! You're ready to create MuraMediaPlayer pages and/or use a new [mura] tag method that is now available to you.

Please visit Amazon for more information about their S3 and CloudFront services.

Usage/Instructions

Detailed instructions for using the plugin are available at http://www.getmura.com/index.cfm/app-store/plugins/muramediaplayer/documentation/. In addition, instructions can be found after you install the plugin simply by logging into the Admin area, click 'Plugins' (or go to 'Site Settings', then select 'Plugins' tab), then click the 'MuraMediaPlayer' link.

Launched ColdFusion + Mura CMS Powered Sites for EBL Canopy Zipline Tours

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:32:00 -0700

EBL Canopy Tours, launched their completely revamped online presence at www.ebl.org. Technically speaking, three (3) separate sites have been launched for EBL. The main site has become more of a "landing" page allowing visitors to choose the direction they wish to proceed: Canopy Zipline Adventures and Canopy Zipline Installations. The "adventures" site is geared towards those seeking zipline and canopy tour adventures, while the "installations" site is geared towards those seeking the "premier installer of Canopy Zipline Tours."

All of the sites are powered by Adobe® ColdFusion® and Microsoft® SQL Server with online content management provided via Mura CMS. Jaci M.'s fully customized designs were easily integrated into Mura CMS to allow our client the ability to add and edit content while maintaining the original design's integrity.

The sites feature a brand new Mura plugin I've developed called MuraMediaPlayer™ which will soon be released to the general public. MuraMediaPlayer allows our client to easily add media files to any page on their site. I also set up an Amazon S3 for storage of site assets and Amazon CloudFront account to allow for streaming video. In addition, the adventures and installations sites both feature a "weighted-randomized" header for the home pages. Using some Mura class extensions, I enabled the client to upload a header, location details, up to five (5) additional location images and also determine the "Weight for Randomness" for each canopy zipline tour location.

This was definitely a fun project to be a part of and hopefully one of these days, our client will invite us to one of his canopy zipline locations (hint hint!). Congratulations to everyone at EBL, and I look forward to working with you again soon.

Designer: Jaci M. | Developer: Stephen Withington | Content Management System: Mura CMS

Launched ColdFusion + Mura CMS Powered Site for Mitchell Swaback Charities

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:41:00 -0700

Every once in awhile, I'm fortunate enough to be involved in projects that truly "make a difference." This, for me, is one of those projects.

Mitchell Swaback Charities, formerly known as The Mitchell Swaback Foundation, launched their new web site at www.mitchellswabackcharities.org. Mitchell Swaback Charities was started in 2004 by family and friends of Mitchell Swaback after he suffered from a fatal accident on August 14, 2004. They wanted to continue Mitch's "compassion to serve in missions, the church and to honor God in the way Mitch did on a daily basis." For over five years now, they have been busy fulfilling their mission through a variety of projects and events that continue to impact people throughout the world.

The site is powered by Adobe® ColdFusion® and Microsoft® SQL Server with online content management provided via Mura CMS. I was able to fully integrate Jaci M.'s completely custom "bloggishy" design into Mura CMS without a hitch. I leveraged a number of class extensions and custom display objects in Mura CMS to pull everything together.

I was even able to pull in my cfMediaPlayer project from RIAForge to allow the client to upload and display video quickly and easily. Luckily, Amazon added streaming capabilities to CloudFront just in time for me to allow our client to stream their video as well.

Along with a typical "donate online" feature, the client had a few unique needs such as the ability to "flag" nearly any project as "supportable" which would then allow a visitor to direct their donation amount(s) towards that particular project. Other custom e-commerce applications included a "charity event participant sponsorship" application and a complete "golf outing sponsorship and registration" application.

I truly felt privileged to be a part of this project and hope that my work further enables MSC to continue thriving and growing in their mission to "Advance the Kingdom of Christ by Reaching Out to Others." Congratulations and thank you to everyone at Mitchell Swaback Charities.

Designer: Jaci M. | Developer: Stephen Withington | Content Management System: Mura CMS

Released cfMediaPlayer on RIAForge

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:44:00 -0700

I've released cfMediaPlayer on RIAForge today. It's a ColdFusion custom tag wrapper to display FLV, MP3, MP4 and AAC files using the JW FLV Player™ with one line of code. For example, <cf_mediaplayer file="myvideo.flv"></cf_mediaplayer>.

This tag supports many more options than CF9's newly added cfMediaPlayer tag. Included is a readme.htm file that gives full descriptions on all of the available attributes as well as some detailed usage examples.

Download is available at http://cfmediaplayer.riaforge.org/. SVN access can be found at http://svn.riaforge.org/cfmediaplayer.

I look forward to hearing any feedback users might have. Thanks!

Launched ColdFusion + Mura CMS Powered Site for Rockford Linear Motion

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:57:00 -0700

Rockford Linear Motion, a subsidiary of Rockford Ball Screw, has just launched their first ever online presence at www.rockfordlinearmotion.com. The site is powered by Adobe® ColdFusion® and Microsoft® SQL Server with content being managed by Mura CMS, a comprehensive web-based content management system. Rockford Linear Motion offers a fully customizable lineup of linear guide rail systems, products and services.

This was my first "commercial" web site constructed to be managed by Mura CMS. I was able to take our designer's (Greg L.) completely customized design from Adobe® Illustrator® + Photoshop® to CSS + XHTML and then fully integrate this design with Mura. I was also able to leverage and extend much of Mura's functionality to achieve the final result.

At the client's request, we also integrated the custom design with two other third-party vendors including Catalog Data Solutions and Network Solutions CommerceSpace™. Needless to say, I learned quite a bit about working with each of these vendors and look forward to working with them again.

Amazingly, we were able to launch the site within three (3) weeks of receiving the final design files for the site. As anyone who builds web sites would testify, this short of a timeframe is definitely not the norm. However, by utilizing Mura CMS and ColdFusion, we were able to get the job done in record time.

Congratulations to the folks at Rockford Linear Motion! Also, a huge thanks to each person who assisted me in keeping this project moving at light speed.

Designer: Greg L. | Developer: Stephen Withington | Content Management System: Mura CMS

Will Work for Guitar!

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:03:00 -0700

Here's the deal ... I will build you a ColdFusion + Mura CMS powered web site and all you have to do is buy me a guitar. Now, not just any guitar of course! One guitar in particular that's been on my wish list is a Gibson Les Paul. If you have one, or something of similar value, let me know! I'm sure we can work something out. Need to see some of my recent work? No problem. I've blogged about several of my web site projects.

Inspired by Kyle MacDonald and his "one red paperclip," I'm sure somebody out there needs a quality-built web site that they can have full editing capabilities of and is willing to make a trade.

Interested? Let's talk!

Launched Mura+ColdFusion Powered Web Site for Ever Increasing Faith

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:35:00 -0700

If you read any of my prior web projects, you may notice that when I create a web site I typically use a combination of Adobe® ColdFusion®, CSS, XHTML, Microsoft® SQL Server and then optimize the site to be compatible with Adobe® Contribute® which allows clients to update the "static" areas of the sites. Of course I typically also build a completely custom back-end for clients to update any of the more "dynamic" areas of the site such as products, services, news, calendar events, etc.

Well, recently my brother needed a web site. He's a missionary serving in India for the past nine (9) years and is also in the process of building an orphanage. For several years, he's struggled to keep his supporters updated via email and newsletters sent by regular mail. For obvious reason, he really needed a better way to communicate his message with current and potential supporters. Luckily, he has a brother who is a web developer (me!). Unfortunately, due to my workload, I had very little time to dedicate to building him a full-blown web site with all the bells and whistles ... "pro bono" of course. I really didn't want to short-change him.

Fortunately, I attended a presentation on Mura CMS at cf.Objective() 2009. Immediately following the presentation, I downloaded the FREE, open source ColdFusion project. I kept stopping by the Blue River Interactive Group table (the creators of Mura CMS) to ask them questions throughout the conference. Each of them were extremely helpful in answering any questions I had. We actually ended up getting to have dinner together too (thanks again guys!). So of course I just had to give Mura a try when I got back to the office.

Well, like everything else, I had to jump back into my work pile and carried on as normal. Until my brother came to visit for a brief time recently. He was very anxious in creating his web presence. I immediately knew Mura CMS would be just the ticket to help me get him up and running with as little time as possible.

After downloading the most recent version and poking around here and there, tweaking this and twisting that, we were able to launch his site in only two (2) days! Other than a completely static HTML/CSS site, I've never launched a "dynamic" site within that amount of time. Ever!

Now my brother has full control over his site. Not only can he add and modify content, he can even update the navigational structure of the site. I only had to show him how to use the editor, add/remove pages, etc. He was able to start contributing in no time at all.

I really need to mention that Mura is extremely flexible when it comes to design. For my brother's web site, I simply started with the baked-in "Merced" theme and made a few adjustments to the CSS. Nothing fancy either ... trust me ... I didn't have time. I added a custom rotating banner for the inside pages and a few other minor tweaks, but for the most part, that's all I needed to do.

Today, I'm using Mura CMS on my current project for a "paying" client. I'm also using a completely custom design without any problems either. Essentially, it's really just a custom "theme." Now that I've been able to get under the hood and do a few things, I'm learning how powerful Mura CMS really is. Heck, just take a look at their Back End Development section of the Developer Guides and see for yourself.

If you can't tell, I'm really pumped on Mura CMS. If anyone is interested in future blog posts on Mura CMS, please let me know!

Many thanks to the people at Blue River Interactive Group and Mura CMS! I couldn't have done this within the necessary timeframe without you.

Oh and thanks to my brother ... for his patience, enthusiasm and for serving Him.

Developer: Stephen Withington | Content Management System: Mura CMS

Launched Just Rite Acoustics, Inc. Web Site

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:54:00 -0700

Another ColdFusion web site was launched for Just Rite Acoustics, Inc. located at www.justriteacoustics.com. In addition to acoustical ceilings, Just Rite offers "pre-manufactured acoustical wall panels, site-built acoustical wall systems, access floors and a specialty division that concentrates on difficult and unusual projects."

The site was originally built using tables and several images for the layout where most of the text was actually embedded into image slices. As you'll see, that has all changed. I've reconstructed the site using CSS, XHTML and of course Adobe® ColdFusion®.

In addition, we've added a fully customized back-end for the client to add or modify services, projects and even office locations.

A huge "Thank you!" goes out to Todd Sharp for his work on cfImageCropper which definitely came in handy on this project.

Congratulations Just Rite Acoustics on your web site facelift!

Developer: Stephen Withington

Launched A ColdFusion + ActionScript + Flash Site: OurGreenIsBlue.com

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:56:00 -0700

OurGreenIsBlue.com was developed as one part of a larger initiative for Aqua-Aerobic Systems, Inc. located in Rockford, Illinois. The initiative focuses on going "blue" instead of the typical "green" since their primary business centers around "providing sustainable, innovative wastewater treatment solutions." In fact visit the site, "join their cause" and they will donate $1 to the WateReuse Foundation!

The site is powered by Adobe® ColdFusion® along with Adobe® Flash®, ActionScript 3.0 and Microsoft® SQL Server. The eye-catching design and interface was created by Gordon B.

Designer: Gordon B.| Developer: Stephen Withington

Another ColdFusion Site is Launched for Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:44:00 -0700

Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center's web site has officially been redesigned and re-launched. The Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center "provides quality music for people of the Rockford area through live performances by local and world renowned artists."

Using the power of Adobe® ColdFusion® along with CSS, XHTML and Microsoft® SQL Server, I was able to bring Jaci M.'s sophisticated design to life.

The site features a fully integrated secure shopping cart with payment processing via PayPal. The "all-in-one" customized cart solution accommodates tickets, subscriptions and dues. The site also features a comprehensive back-end to allow for easy maintenance of concerts, venues, subscription packages, performing artist dues and more.

Designer: Jaci M. | Developer: Stephen Withington

Launched ColdFusion-Powered Web Site for PG Engineered Control Solutions

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:32:00 -0700

This morning, I launched another ColdFusion web site for PG Engineered Control Solutions (a.k.a. PrecisionGovernors.com), who "has a long history of innovative system implementations for electromechanical, electrohydrolic and engine management."

As usual, I built the site from the ground up using Adobe® ColdFusion® along with CSS, XHTML and of course Microsoft® SQL Server. Some of the more "static" areas of the site were optimized for use with Adobe® Contribute® CS4.

Many thanks to Greg L. for the squeaky clean design!

Designer: Greg L. | Developer: Stephen Withington

Launched www.FurstPerson.com, Another ColdFusion Web Site

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:25:00 -0700

I'm proud to announce the launch of a new ColdFusion web site for FurstPerson. FurstPerson claims to "Drive Hiring Performance Improvement" with their "Call Center Hiring and Assessment Solutions."

The ultra-slick design was courtesy our "beloved" Jaci, who performed her magic using Adobe's Photoshop® and Illustrator®. Using Adobe® ColdFusion® as well as MS SQL, CSS and XHTML, I constructed the site from the designer's image files.

The site features the ability to "Gate" some dynamic content such as case studies, white papers and even video whereby a user may be required to "register" in order to view the material. To deliver streaming video, we partnered with the folks over at Brightcove. I was able to leverage some of their API's to deliver the video dynamically. The site has also been tightly integrated with Eloqua for lead generation as well as some statistical information.

I plan to write a few more posts down the road on how I handled some of the hurdles I faced while building the site, including the ability to allow the client to tie documents, blog/news posts and videos directly to specific products and services through an intuitive back-end administration area.

Congratulations Jeff and everyone else at FurstPerson. This truly was a challenging and rewarding project to be a part of.

Designer: Jaci M. | Developer: Stephen Withington

Launched Clinkenbeard.com

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:03:00 -0700

Another ColdFusion web site was unveiled this morning for Clinkenbeard, a "worldwide leader in the rapid production of complex cast and machined parts using a wide variety of plastics and metals." I built the site from the ground up using Adobe® ColdFusion® along with CSS and XHTML. The "mavericky" design is courtesy Greg L., a designer dedicated to the art of "awesomeness."

Static areas of the site were optimized for use with Adobe® Contribute® CS3, while the dynamic, data-driven areas are administered with a custom back-end powered by Adobe® ColdFusion® and Microsoft® SQL Server.

Designer: Greg L. | Developer: Stephen Withington

Launched Act2 Strategists, Inc. Web Site

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:26:00 -0700

We successfully launched another ColdFusion web site on Friday for Act2 Strategists, Inc. located at www.act2plan.com. I built the site using CSS, XHTML and of course Adobe® ColdFusion®. The site was designed by one of Northwestern Illinois' finest designers, Greg L.

Congratulations Act2 Strategists on your new online presence!

Designer: Greg L. | Developer: Stephen Withington