I’m afraid I’ve failed at my overall mission for Creative Pact, which was to have caitlinrowley.com online today. But on the flipside, it’s been TOTALLY worth it. I’ve had a fantastic time doing it, and achieved a ton of work I wouldn’t have otherwise, and the site’s very nearly ready to go – I’m hoping I can send it live on the weekend sometime, or at least early next week.

Today was spent messing around with PHP – I sorted out the include files for header and menu and so on and go all that working. I’ve also pulled together a basic WordPress template for the blog (which, bizarrely, has already received its first spam comment – how, I don’t know, given that it’s not been linked from anywhere at all) which is starting to look pretty good. I’ve moved some files around so that the detail pages are in a subfolder to keep the upper levels clean and I think I’ve pretty much decided – at least for now – to use variables in each page which indicate which section should be open in the left nav. I’ve also – I think – worked out how to include the latest blog post in the homepage automatically, although I haven’t yet had time to test it out, but it seems pretty clear how to do it, which it wasn’t before. I found a useful page on creating custom RSS feeds using custom page templates, which made me realise that I actually don’t (probably) need anything that complex, that I should be able to achieve it with a custom page template which consists solely of picking up the latest post ID, and that blog post’s basic code, then reference that as an include file directly from the homepage.

So I’m feeling pretty good about what I’ve got through today, and it’s really starting to come together, and feel like going live very soon is a real possibility, which it wasn’t feeling like two days ago, but there’s still quite a lot of work to be done: Fixing up links between pages to make sure they go where they’re supposed to, testing the whole template in various browsers and implementing fixes as needed for IE6 and other contrary beasts, which will probably take a while of course, getting the twitter feed on the homepage sorted (or possibly I might just hide that until I get it working properly – there seems to be an issue with the script I found and my PHP isn’t quite good enough to work out what’s wrong with it), copying across all the various assets for the composition pages – flash files and cover images and PDF downloads and so on, which I haven’t done yet because there didn’t seem to be much point when I was working on the iPad… And I’m bound to think of other things too. It’s enough to keep me off the streets a little while longer, but I’m still confident it’ll go up very soon.

But SO glad I took the plunge and actually did Creative Pact, in spite of my misgivings. It’s been a difficult month for me personally, but it’s been fantastic having a clear goal to work towards and knowing that if I did just a tiny bit each day then that’s at least a small win for that day. And I’ve met a bunch of really awesome people online through it too, doing some fabulously interesting work so YAY! Bring on next year’s!

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And so I’m back on the Eurostar today. With a couple of quiet hours, it seemed a good chance to take stock of what needs to be done in the next couple of days to get this site online, so I’ve started pulling out chunks of code that will become PHP includes, stole the code for the contact form from Minim Media and have built a new page for social media links. So I think that, barring the video page which may be scrapped, pretty much all the content is in place now – huzzah!

Looking ahead, tomorrow I think I need to focus on getting the PHP bits and pieces working – the includes, forms, highlighting menu items, etc. I think that’s the biggest thing. Plus, to go with that, I need to determine how I’m going to identify the various pages as belonging to a particular section. I guess I could just include a variable in each page – it would be nice and clear, but I’ve also been considering whether it might not be easier just to divide up the content into folders and identify the section by folder name from the URL. The problem with this may be one of longevity. There was an article on URL-naming that was referenced from our course materials for the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices course I took earlier this year which I think I may need to re-read – its premise was that addresses of pages should relate directly to what they are about and not reference filetypes, technical approaches or current-but-possibly-unsustainable filing systems. The idea is to end up with a URL that can be used for that content forever – if the page’s focus changes, then it needs a new URL which reflects that. I like the idea of this, that the address for something is permanent because there is no need for it to change – it means that other sites can link with confidence, and archives can be maintained without the need for ever renewing links. So I’ll be re-reading that, I think, and I’ll see what is feasible to implement right now.

And now, back hooooooommme! And then tonight, the concert. Eeek!

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Today was our last day in Paris and this evening has been – understandably – a little fraught, with the packing and calculations of how long it will take to get to Gare du Nord tomorrow and so on. I’m also feeling rather frazzled at the prospect of tomorrow as a whole – getting the flat all cleaned and tidied and parents out to get to the Eurostar, then getting us all home from St Pancras, and then finally the most stressful thing of all – getting us out of the house again to go to the premiere of my new piece Deconstruct: Point, line, plane. I don’t know that any of my other premieres have ever had me so worried as this one. I know I’ve built this piece exactly how I wanted it to be. I’m confident that it can work, but the criticism I received about it when it was still in its embryonic state just makes me doubt just a little bit, even while I know that it didn’t want to be anything other than what it is. And then there’s the question if whether the performers have just decided to change it… And if they have, is it still under my name or have they correctly listed it as an arrangement. I tell you, the sooner Wednesday rocks up, the happier I’ll be!

But we’ve had a lovely last day in Paris. Ran some errands, and my Da finally took me to Shakespeare and Company – and what a gorgeous bookshop it is!!! Most of the books upstairs aren’t for selling – they’re for sitting about and reading! And they’ve got a piano up there, waiting to be played, so we were all happy – the Da nosing around the poetry section, me reading snippets of Julia Child on French bread, the mama playing Debussy on the piano (and drawing quite a happy crowd: Mama: ‘It’s just you there, isn’t it?’ Me: ‘No, but they’re not listening, they’re all reading books, aren’t you?’ Small throng: *assorted giggles*).

And then we visited Notre Dame. And for the first time I noticed the lovely chapel and column paintings – don’t know how I missed them before – so clean and clear. Really gorgeous.

I should stop procrastinating with photos and ‘fess up though that I’ve done precious little Creative Pact work today – I really think I’m reaching the end of what I can do on the iPad for this project. It’s been great and really useful, and I’m VERY glad I didn’t bring the laptop (especially now I’m on the verge of having to lug lots of lovely foodie shopping back to Blighty) but I really need to be working in PHP now, which means I need my books and a server and an Internet connection I don’t need to reset every 30 seconds. Um… On second thoughts, I guess that’s not so much an iPad limitation as a limitation of circumstances, due to not having packed the PHP book and only having rubbish Internet. But still, feeling a little hamstrung and like I’m treading water. I have managed to achieve a tiny bit, but it was only setting up template pages for the contact page (will contain a PHP form) and a page to hold the Tate’s video interview with me, which I can’t tell if I can embed because Vimeo just tells me it’s Flash, which obv won’t work on the iPad – going to have to wait till I get home to see if that should even have a separate page at all or just a link to Vimeo (suspect the latter, which means I’ll need to work out the best styling for putting about a paragraph of text into the right column and making it all look nice). So not a complete fail there, but a bit wussy, really. Still, planning in being at home and working in it for pretty much the whole of Wednesday and Thursday, so I think I’m still in with a chance to get it ready to fly on the 30th…

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Yes, more content: today I tackled the overall music page that all the individual content pages will be linked from. It seems a bit out of date (using what was on Minim Media) but that content’s in now and hopefully I’ll be able to update before it goes live.

Today was spent mostly up The Butte – we went up to hear Mass sung by the Carmelite nuns at Sacré-Coeur (gorgeous – I highly recommend it), then on the way down we found that the vineyard (the only vineyard within Paris and reputedly the source of the worst wine in France) was actually open! In all the years we’ve been coming here and staying in Montmatre, it has NEVER been open to the public. So we finally got to go in and have a wander round. Lovely!

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… and that brings to a close the individual composition pages… or at least the ones currently in existence as it seems there’s a couple that haven’t even made it onto the current site. And one (which I’ve just fixed) which was in as one of its movement-titles instead of the work title as a whole. Whoops. And I even found a FONT tag. Ouch. That hurt but glad to see those done (barring the bits that need reviewing, but I’m sure I’ve elaborated those previously and you don’t need to read it again).

So what’s next? The WordPress template for the blog is something I really want to get sorted now, but it’s possibly a bit silly to look at this before I’ve sorted out the PHPing of the navigation and seen if I can reuse anything from the site proper. Which leaves a contact form (will need PHP but I can nick the code I’m using currently so shouldn’t need a book for that), works list page, CV (maybe – a little undecided on that one)… Um… I’m sure there should be something else in there but too sleepy to go and look it up.

Went to a fantastic concert of Hindemith and Dutilleux music for two pianos/one piano, four hands this evening at the Opera Bastille. Really gorgeous music and fantastic playing. But now I’m itching to get back to my harmony/counterpoint studies… except I can’t because I’m in Paris and it’s in London and I won’t be back till Tuesday night and unable to do anything before Wednesday. Really wanting to be writing some music again too now, but as I’m having to stay up to stupid o’clock just to get any alone-time at all and work on my Creative Pact, this is extremely unlikely to happen. Grr.

But the really exciting thing about today was that I completed a quest I’ve been on intermittently for about 10 years – to find and buy a bread tin with a lid – pain de mie in French, a pullman tin in English. Today I both found and bought that tin – gourmet homemade square bread, here I come! Can’t wait to try it out!!!!

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Got another clutch of content pages done this evening – for the pieces Remembrances of half-forgotten dead people, Deconstruct: Point, line, plane, Egg the Fifth and the Satie Chanson arrangement. I suspect there’s going to need to be a LOT of work done on these – linking in cover images, PDFs and sound files properly, to start with, once I get home. Planning on hiding in my study for the first couple of days back in London to get through everything. Although time’s a bit tight, I’m determined to send this site live on the 30th of September – because I know what I’m like – otherwise I’ll procrastinate and procrastinate and it’ll never go live, which would rather defeat the purpose of all this work!

In non-Creative Pact news (sorry for crushing the posts together, but my Internet connection here is VERY flaky and needs to be reset after every gap in use – spend more than about 10 seconds without actively clicking or uploading and the connection dies!) today involved a major culinary revelation. I had resolved to entirely avoid Mariage Frères tea shops, in spite of the intense interest of the fairly-recent tea-convert that I am, on the grounds that I didn’t want to try it, fall in love with it… and then move back to Australia where I have seen it for sale at $170 a tin. But it snuck up on me. Marriage Frères have a little shop lying in wait for the unwary, in the middle of Galeries LaFayette’s homewares store. I said I was just going to look at the beautiful array of tins, but then I found a vanilla tea and, having been liking the concept but not that thrilled with the execution of Lipton’s vanilla tea which was in residence in the cupboard of the flat we’re staying in when we arrived, I couldn’t resist having a sniff. O.M.G. Then I discovered that it was a mere €10, even though it came in a lovely black tin (I use the word ‘mere’ in the context of $170 a tin, obviously not in the context of Tetley’s from Tesco). How could I resist? The smell is amazing and the flavour, when we tried it, was glorious – a beautiful balance of vanilla and black tea, neither overpowering the other, and absolutely none of that tanniney aftertaste you get with normal tea. Absolute heaven. A little worried I may feel compelled to go back and buy a refill pack before we leave to make sure I don’t run out before the next Paris trip, but I should face the expense of the pain de mie tin first… Baking-shop expedition tomorrow

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And now will come a series of posts that will be, frankly, a bit dull. Feel free to tune out for a few days Because today I started loading in content in earnest, which is mostly cut’n'paste with the occasional text tweak, code clean (found an ancient I tag!!!) or shifting something, such as a cover image, from the main content area to the right column. Today I made files from the templates for all the individual work pages and copied full content across for Pieces of Eight, The blood feud and catharsis (started in the middle, then thought it might be easiest to work in alphabetical order). I’m pretty pleased with how it’s looking, although score covers in the right column I think may need a review, both semantically and visually.

In compensation, for the dullness, here is a photo of the patisserie goodies we had for pudding:

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Phew! For a little bit there I didn’t think I was going to get to any of my Creative Pact work done at all today, but lo, a little bit of quiet time became available and I’ve actually managed to knock over the two hardest content pages – ‘hardest’ because one needed to be rewritten and the other needed to be written from scratch. So now that’s the biography and the credo written, so I’m feeling a bit calmer now. Mostly from here the content’s going to be cut’n'paste from Minim Media, so it should be relatively easy to deal with. Might have a stab at the first of the composition pages before I turn in tonight, just to see how it goes.

I always find writing a new credo a bit of a challenge. On the one hand, I think it’s a useful thing to have in a site (although none of my previous attempts have ever actually made it online) because it can help to explain some of the peculiarities of a composer’s style or approach which may not be immediately apparent from short soundbites on a website. On the other hand though, writing these things makes me feel a bit of a self-absorbed prat. But I think the usefulness (especially considering recent misunderstandings) is going to outweigh the feelings of pratfulness (?) and this one will actually make it to the site.

I did have a question of semantics raised during today’s writing, which was the issue of how to code up titles. There doesn’t really seem (still) to be an adequate way of doing this in HTML 5, and I guess that, while common, it’s a bit more of a specialist need than the spec is likely to handle, so from what I can see, the best that can be done is still <span class=”title”>. At least it’ll be an improvement on what’s in the site now, which is plain ol’ unsemantic <em>s but it rankles my cataloguer’s soul. It feels like there should be a tag for something so common. Will have to learn to cope, I guess

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This morning I left the (metaphorically) sunny shores of England for the (actually) sunny shores of France (the fact that both starting and ending points are inland I’m ignoring because it ruins the poetry). Which gave me a lovely couple of quiet Eurostar hours to do some Creative Pact work, so I fired up Gusto on the iPad and proceeded to see what it could do.

QUICK REVIEW: My verdict is that this is a very neat and useful little app. Of course it’s limited in what it can do, but for anything that just requires simple text edits, well, it does the job nicely. I would say that a certain amount of patience is needed – typing on the iPad’s keyboard is never the easiest, especially when symbols and numbers are regularly employed, but the developers have done a great job of making this easier than it would normally be by including a quick-access bar above the normal keyboard, including brackets and quote marks and other symbols commonly used in web development. From my work today I can say that this is a fantastic addition and what makes Gusto actually usable. For my part, I’d like to see =, : and ; added to the quick access bar, but it’s hardly a complaint – I mean, they even included a tab key so I can keep my code neat! It does lack some of the niceties of desktop editors still – no automatic indenting, for example, and syntax highlighting is yet to be implemented (although it’s apparently in development) but then, it’s not really a rival to desktop systems anyway. As a way to keep working on a project while travelling without carrying tons of equipment, though, it’s just grand. The FTP setup has been great and very easy to use (although the one crash I experienced was when I tried to download a large folder of files into Gusto, so I’m trying to keep the number of files I transfer at a time to a reasonable level) and it also let’s you preview locally, so it’s genuinely useful for making changes offline, unlike using any other random text editor. Overall, I’m pretty impressed – it’ll be very interesting to see how far future updates take this one.

Review done, now back to the Creative Pact stuff. Today on the Eurostar I was working mostly on getting templates ready so that I can forge ahead this week dumping content from the old site into the new and tweaking it to be new and improved. And the result is two templates ready to go, plus the sub-items of the main nav all in place, styled up and working. At the moment the show/hide for these is CSS-driven, but as it’s going to break in IE6 (ah! Adjacent siblings!) I’m thinking I’ll replace this with a PHP-driven approach to include or remove sub-sections according to the section the requested page belongs to. That’s going to have to wait till I get back to London though, as will turning the nav, footer and header into PHP includes, because I’ve not done any PHP in a while and I don’t trust my brain to get it right without a book (plus if I do that, it’ll look broken while I’m previewing the content locally, which would be annoying). I did find a PHP class yesterday to import tweets from my @caitlinrowley Twitter account which I’ve dropped into place in the homepage today, using the demo files as examples, but it seems to be throwing an error and rejecting my login, so I’ll need to look at that a little more closely too.

In unrelated news, today I ate my first mirabelles! I believe they’re a sort of plum, but they tasted more like tiny unfurry apricots. We also indulged and bought some girolles for our evening omelettes. And some awesome cheese. And yummy bread. And Beaujolais. Looking forward to breakfast now!

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VERY excited today. I’ve been playing round with webfonts when I should have been doing any of the ten billion other things on my list, but it’s been such fun I haven’t wanted to stop. Anyway, the short story is that it’s working! Thanks to the marvellous super-easy generator at Font Squirrel (which also has some great fonts, all of which are free for commercial use) I’ve got these up and running really quickly and now have two different fonts working on the page.

First up is Scriptina, the curly one I’m using for the site name (although I think I’ll leave this as an image so that where the webfonts don’t work at least the site won’t be totally plain), which I’ve used as a webfont for the headings in the right-hand column. I don’t know that this will be used anywhere else much on the site, but I think it gives the homepage a bit more of a sense of occasion. It’s not a very easy font to read though, which is why I’m not using it for the content headings.

The second font I’m using is Bebas, which is on the navigation headings and for the blog post title. I like the feel of this – makes the whole nav feel kind of 50s/60s businessy but I’m having some problems with it with spacing between words. Between characters seems OK, but it’s not really leaving enough of a gap between words for it to be clear where one ends and the next begins. Not sure if there’s a fix for this in CSS. If there isn’t I may go hunting for another font along similar lines.

I’ve also dug up a PHP class which apparently will pull tweets in from a user’s timeline, so I’m hoping to be able to pull the last 3 tweets from my @caitlinrowley account to go on the homepage. I’ve not really used anything like this before, so not sure if I’ll be able to get it working for the launch, but I guess I’ve got to try. It doesn’t look too hard to implement. And I’m about to save down some reading about whether it’s possible to import a WordPress blog post into a normal unconnected PHP page (because the blog is separate, for the time being at least) so I don’t have to manually update the homepage every time I post something.

I’m likely to be a bit quiet here over the next week as I’ll be in Paris and I’m not sure what the wireless situation will be like, or even if I’ll be able to find enough time to get some solid work done on this, but I’ll have the iPad with me and will write posts in the WordPress app, ready to post when I get access to the internet. Crossing fingers I won’t have to spend a whole 7 days without access….

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