May 12 2009
School Messages -the latest
I have changed the messaging system.
It is still using a WordPress blog as it’s core but I have removed the J Post Slider plugin as this was proving very slow at displaying each message. The image fading in/out in the background also added to the slow speed.
I have changed the theme to 72Class a single column black and white theme and am now using a plugin called Marquee Plus.
Marquee Plus is intended to produce a scroll box in within a blog. I have enhanced this so that the scroll window is actually the whole of the content.
Addition:
I had to alter the marque-plus.php script inside the plugin so the text is larger and each post is separted by a blank space
The posts are then fed into this box via an RSS feed.
I had problems initially, trying to feed in the same blog’s RSS feed into Marquee Plus so I have set-up another blog called Messages.
The Messages blog, is the blog on display for the screens dotted around the Gresham’s campus.
The Test blog is the blog that holds the posts and is written to by the Receptionists.
I have also altered the RSS feed that is displayed on the Staff and Student portals, so the messages are more prominent. This is achieved by installing and configuring SimplePie a great PhP script that allows me to add RSS feeds into web pages.
I’ve heard quite a few positive comments on the new message system. On the message items being displayed on the Staff portal, they don’t seem to fit on the page background – works on the Student portal, though
The removal of the fade in/out image and the slide in/out message has increased the messages speed.
Ah yes, I did have this problem a while ago, thanks for pointing this out. I will try and fix this.