| I finally got around to updating my dbvt.com .text admin page. I spend a lot of time in it after all, and its the same admin page I've been looking at since I started blogging at weblogs.asp.net in March of 2003. Time for some small improvements.
Two quick points first: 1) ScottW's admin page rocks and requires no improvement in its basic functionality and UI, and 2) In answer to the question, “Why do I keep using the web-based page to enter posts?” I have HTML templates for various pages (like this one), I like going to one place to get all of my blog activity information and perform maintenance, and there are nGallery and DotNetNuke integration pieces yet to add in the .text admin area.
At top right is the classic .text admin page format and at bottom the updated format. I had a few objectives which are numbered in the bottom image: 1) bump up the body to give me more real estate, 2) personalize various page elements (like the colors and return link), 3) increase the number of blog posts from 10 to 20, and 4) remove legacy source .text stuff.
Particulars: 1) Updated the pagetemplate.ascx and admin.css to relocate items, reduce the top margin, and maintain my dbvt.com Vermont Green theme, 2) moved the BlogTitleLink hyperlink control to the subnav menu and changed its text from the title of the blog to simply "Return to blog." This is changeable in the Dottext.Admin.WebUI.Page.cs class.
_blogTitle.Text = "Return to Blog"; // was Config.CurrentBlog().Title;
3) 10 posts is just too few and wastes too much space so I bumped it up to 20 by updating the Constant in the Dottext.Admin.Utilities.cs class.
internal const int PAGE_SIZE_DEFAULT = 20;
If I accessed my blog from a variety of monitors I would want to make that dynamically configurable, but since I don't I hard-coded it. 4) Personalized a bit. I wanted to keep Scott Watermasysk's name and the .Text logo visible, but didn't need to see the tired "Powered by ASP.NET" logo or the old .text Help or the old .text site links. So I added a single "Logout" link at page bottom. Again, simple pagetemplate.ascx and admin.css changes. |
 |
 |