New features to KJC!

A couple of new changes are in the works with KeyJayCompound.com . By now, you may have already become aware of the minor updates; implementing most of the popular social networks to the compound such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reverb Nation. However, the site is now linked to iLike, YouTube, and of course, Word Press! Speaking of which, The KJC Dev Box blog now has a subscription tab in the right most navigation pane. This allows you to subscribe to the RSS feed of the Blog instead of the website. In turn, you’ll be able to keep up with all the updates around the compound; from minor updates like site development, development tips, issues, and “What’s on my iPod” at the moment, to the larger more important updates like possible events, the event announcements themselves (which will usually be links back to the main site), and more. The main website updates are mainly for the larger updates.

While having all the updates on the blog is cool, don’t think I totally forgot about those who only visit the website! You no longer have to leave the Key Jay Compound website to check for Dev Box Blog updates anymore! Now on the front page, you can view the blog updates right after pressing the blog button!

While all these updates have left a large smile on my face, it has been rather annoying seeing the Events page in the state that it’s in. Ever since the site launched, I never really got it to work the way I wanted. The main idea of the Calendar was that when events are announced, my Google Calendar would be updated. After which, you would be able to add that new event to your Google Calendar. With this accessibility, you’d be able to get event updates and reminders published directly to, let’s say your cell phone perhaps.

It’s equally exasperating to see the code I had to pain staking figure out to integrate into the site in the first place. I wasn’t able to get all the necessary PHP functions to work and finally resorted to using the JavaScript method. While a lot of it worked at the time, the way it processed things was just so ugly (lol).

Don’t get me wrong, I think the Google Calendar is an awesome application; probably one of the best Calendar applications on the net! I just think it needs a little tuning on the document side as at the time, figuring out some of the commands you’d expect isn’t that easy.

So what I’m thinking about doing is totally eliminating the Calendar all together, and have the most current and upcoming events listed in a table, similar to how it’s done on the Lady Gaga website. Though I’m not sure if it’s powered by anything, the design concept looks simple enough to emulate. While I won’t have the “add to my calendar” feature that I would have wanted, more than likely this will have its own RSS feed as well. Time will tell I guess.

If you have any suggestions of features to help me out, that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading as always guys!