Keystone Advisors CMS Conversion
Three years ago we did a site re-design for Keystone Advisors, Inc. They contacted me earlier this year for some content changes and, after some discussion, we determined that this would be a good time to switch things over to a Content Management System (CMS). WordPress, of course.
The site design is a mild customized version of the iDream theme. The sidebar navigation relies on the Flexi Pages navigation widget. This project is the first that I've used that one and I'm quite pleased with how well it works.
Now we have a site in place that the client will be able to modify the content of for himself. We have some little bits here and there to touch up, but opted to push it out live last week to get it out there for folks to enjoy.
Site Conversion to WordPress
This site has been static for too many years – the last redesign was back in 2008!
I’ve converted the Solo Technology site to WordPress and added a bunch of content about some of the projects that I’ve tackled over the past couple years.
As part of the conversion I also did some theme work. This particular theme started life as the free Revolution Code Blue theme. A customized header and a bunch of CSS tweaking and we’re no longer nearly as blue.
While the theme is quite serviceable for here, it has more work ahead before I install it over to the Tech Blog. Stay tuned for that one, updates will include threaded comments and other more “bloggy” bits.
DW / ETL for Desert Botanical Gardens
Landed a maintenance and support project subbed under TeamLogic IT - Northwest Valley for their client Desert Botanical Garden.
I will be providing support for an existing ETL application that feeds their SQL Server 2005 data warehouse. We started the project by reviewing and documenting the existing ETL scripts -- a collection of batch files, most running sqlcmd with existing .sql scripts -- most of which then call a few stored procedures. There's a custom .NET app in there somewhere too...
Custom Process Management DB
Started a project to build a custom MS Access database for one of the machineLOGIC clients. They need a simple way to track tasks related to processing employees when they start or when they leave. Access was deemed the best way to build them something quickly and inexpensively.
The database design is just a handful of "core" tables in 3NF and half a dozen lists tables used in the Access forms for combo boxes and such. There are main application forms along with lookup date management forms where they can mark items active/inactive and control the display order. While Access isn't always the best choice, for an app like this with just a couple of users it is a great fit.
As I write this (early May) we're just about done wrapping up the reports part of the project which is always the most iterative or interactive (imho).
Non-Profit: Backups and Security
Had a few more visits with the local non-profit to wrap up a few images -- we're still working through the road-map that I created as part of the first engagement.
First I spent some time running more nmap scans on their internal network. They thought they had seen signs of "extra" PCs on the network so wanted more assurance that everything was as it should be. I identified all devices by IP and MAC address and then verified that we could match each to a machine in the office. Fortunately, it all matched up as expected.
Next up was putting some backups in place. We're going with MozyPro to start. They don't need a ton of data backed up and the cloud storage model is much preferred over buying tape drives, tapes and arranging for off-site storage. We have MozyPro installed on their main file server and it has been diligently running nightly backups without issue so far.
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Access Active Directory Anti-malware antivirus apple backup certification clonezilla CMS conversion CSS database Data Warehouse design DNS ETL firewall HTML mozyPro network nmap open source PHP restore security SEO server SonicWALL SQL SQL Server 2005 support Vista volunteer web wget Windows WordPress XP
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