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vlcek.at: Website Features

This Website

Reasons for this Website

Besides having a platform for presenting myself and especially some pictures, this website is actually also a technology study and implements a lot of features common to internet sites, which I have also often encountered during my work experience.
Thus the design is not nearly perfect (especially under different browsers), and sometimes a page is only german or only english. For these reasons companies usually hire graphical designers and translators.
However, the goal is to have it easy to use, to configure and to manage.

Features

Visible Features:

  • Dynamic navigation: based on the rights of the user the menu shows different items. (e.g. log in as user "test" with password "test" to get the "Logout" item on the menu)
  • Multi-language capability: using multiple approaches, e.g. complete pages for text pages like this or property files for navigation (not all pages are yet translated).
    Initially your browser settings are used, switching is done by clicking on the flags below the menu, logging in will switch to your preferred language. (e.g. goto Home and click on the flags)
  • Registration: In order to protect my privacy, there is a three step registration process:
    1. The user enters his name, e-mail address and - if available - the person, who refered him to this site (must be registered himself.
    2. He is sent a password, with which he can login (with limited rights). Depending on his e-mail address a filter might give him better rights, e.g. if he is from the company I'm working at.
    3. The referer (or administrator), who also got a message, confirms the user's registration (using a link in his mail) thus giving him additional rights (e.g. to change his profile).
    (Register, but I don't guarantee that I will give you access)
  • Lazy login: Only when the user hits a non-public page, he is required to login. Immediately after login the desired page is shown. (e.g. try to change your profile and you will get an error resp. request to log in)
  • General access control: By passing through a few (3) scripts only (e.g. main.php) the access rights to pages, pictures and other resources are thoroughly checked. Direct access to pages is prohibited.
  • Sub-page level access control: Although you can see some albums even as unregistered user, you will see more information and pictures, when being logged in as e.g. friend. (e.g. go to this album, then log in as user "test"/"test" and you will see more pictures
  • File uploads: For special users it is possible to upload pictures. (e.g. go to this album, then log in as user "test"/"test" and select "Add pictures")
  • Picture Album Management: Friends are allowed to upload pictures to albums, describe them and order them within the album. At the same time they are refrained from changing pictures not uploaded by them. Content managers can change all albums. (e.g. go to this album, then log in as user "test"/"test" and select "Edit pictures")
  • Dynamic picture generation: For the albums only one reasonable sized picture has to be uploaded. Thumbnails and browser display sized pictures are automatically generated on first request. The picture with the mark for the location of e.g. a hiking tour is generated on the fly from some map pictures of Austria, Switzerland, ... (e.g. try this link and then change the x and y parameters in the address)
  • News embedding from national/international news providers via RSS (RDF Site Summary, RDF = Resource Description Framework). The processing is done on the server, not with Javascript. (see Kurier Nachrichten)
  • XSLT based transformation of news for use in newer browsers. (see Kurier Nachrichten)
Invisible Features:
  • Web based user management.
  • Web based management of the navigation tree and rights.
  • Storage of all data in csv and property files: this allows very easy backup, is much cheaper than a database and feasible for a small site like this.
Not yet on-line:
  • Search engine.
  • Integration of weather services.
  • Event management with automatic information of interested users.
  • Providing and using web services.
Principles and Technologies:
  • PHP
  • Pure HTML, no Javascript (yet). There are only some view occasions where you really need scripting on the browser, in the other cases it just keeps people with older browsers or those who have switched it off from using your website. Besides the incompatible object models of the browsers require intensive multi-browser testing.
  • No database, but csv and property files.