So, it just occurred to me that the last time I posted an update or made any other change to this site was in 2021. It may very well be another 3 years before my next update with how busy I generally am these days, but I wanted to post a quick note here to simply say that I'm still around.

I'm still programming for a living, and my personal life has seen me foray into a number of different hobbies. However, aside from pursuing Arch Linux as my psuedo-daily driver OS, none has really risen to the top as a new full time hobby. However, a quick list of things I've found myself dabbling in are

• Video Game development using Unity
• Video Editing
• Sofware Development in the Rust language
• Video Game development using Rust
• 3D Modeling

That's all for now! I'll post again in the future, and I hope it won't be another 3 years before the next one. In the meantime, take care, and I look forward to speaking to you again.

Will

Return to Top Comments Monday, November 11, 2024

All projects listed on my Projects page are fixed and ready to be explored! Thank you for your patience, and have a great day!

Return to Top Comments Thursday, May 20, 2021

Hello internet, and welcome back to Will's Web Development! I have made some changes to my main site, and have been fighting the after-effects of changes that were made.

First, in regards to changes that have been made, in a previous post that has since disappeared after being posted (more on that in a minute) I mentioned that my Contact form has been spammed by bots daily in large quantities. To thwart these efforts, I have added a ReCaptcha system from Google to my Contact form. Now only time will tell how effective this tool will be. Also, since I have implemented ReCaptcha on my Contact form I thought it would be a good idea to place it on my Login form as well.

Next, I updated some of the CSS styles. The validation error messages on my Contact and Login pages should now be more readable, and the size of the buttons has been increased for easier pressing on mobile. Furthermore, I decided to move away from the default button style and styled the buttons as well. Lastly, I noticed that the Comment icon that should be (and now is) next to the Comment link of my posts was missing and have now fixed it so that it is visible once again.

Lastly, in regards to fighting things that have changed, my site host recently migrated to a new hosting platform. For the most part the migration went smoothly, but it did break my project subdomains and I am missing the last post that I wrote because the database they moved was a snapshot made prior to the previous update. This means that my Tech Support Tracker, Student Administration Tool, and my Zombie Survival Store projects may not work as expected for a short while until the subdomain issues are worked out.

I will post a new update once everything is resolved and in 100% working order. Until then, have a fantastic day!

Return to Top Comments Tuesday, May 18, 2021

I have recently decided to set aside some time to revisit my website and personal projects, and then I see that my last post was nearly a whole year ago. My first thought was my, how time flies! I really should post more often. I also am of the opinion that I should make more projects for my portfolio, or at least update my current projects.

Speaking of my projects, the Tech Support Tracker has been fixed and is available once more in the Projects page. Better yet, it now has it's own subdomain and can be found at 'http://techsupport.wmtennison.com'. Honestly, I had it fixed nearly a year ago, but, as I mentioned in my Website Updated & Tech Support Tracker Progress Report post, I had decided to convert the app structure and keep it inactive until that was complete. Unfortunately, as often happens, I got more involved with work projects and devoted less time to my personal projects and have only recently circled back to the Tech Support Tracker. However, stepping away from that project for a while gave me a different perspective about the updates that I had begun to perform.

I have decided that I will not convert the Tech Support Tracker into a 3-tier application as I had mentioned previously. Instead, my desire now is to recreate it with the knowledge I have now, 7 years into my career, and also incorporate experiences I have had with similar systems to make a ticket management system which is aesthetically and functionally superior to the current version. The next update I write will include a status report on the progress of the new ticket management system.

While working on the new version of the Tech Support Tracker, I will also be working here and there on a complete redesign of wmtennison.com. Every time I visit my own website I have mixed feelings because, though I am proud of the work I accomplished, it looks like a 7 year old website and I know that I can make it look much better. It is my goal that by this time next year I have my new website design completed and the blog and project components completed.

Lastly, I am considering creating a github account for future projects and making those projects public for the world to see. I have been reluctant to do so up until now because of a feeling akin to "stage fright." While I am fully confident in my code, I know that there is always room for improvement and other people might be able to provide constructive feedback and ideas I had never considered. I consider this to be a good facet of making my projects public, especially since it is difficult to review my own code with an unbiased attitude.

If you have created any public repositories on Github, what are your thoughts? How was your experience with doing so? Do you continue to make projects public, or have you stopped for some reason? I'd love to hear about your experiences. Write me a note via my Contact page and let me know!

Return to Top Comments Saturday, July 25, 2020

Since the last update, I have begun tinkering around on the codepen.io site. For those of you who may not know, Code Pen is a front-end sandbox which allows users to breathe life into ideas that they may have with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Users also have the ability to embed their "Pens" into other web pages to share with other people. I have decided to embrace this ability and updated my Projects page with the ability to display embedded Pens. Currently, I have 2 Pens created and listed on my Projects page: the 100 Dots Challenge - Triforce and Tic-Tac-Toe. Both of these are now also embedded into the page as well, so check them out and enjoy!

Lastly, as a result of embedding the Pens, I realized that the project descriptions on the Projects page were starting to get lengthy. While not necessarily a problem, I want to avoid as much vertical scrolling as I can while still listing all of my projects.

My immediate thought was to throw them into an accordion like the sidebar links and Home page articles. The caveat to this, though, was that I still wanted a small preview of the project descriptions that would fade out at the bottom of the preview area, but accordions hide their contents completely until opened. Therefore, to accomplish the design I had in mind, I created a custom accordion using CSS transitions, box-shadows and sticky positioning combined with jQuery's toggleClass() function on a click event.

Are you a fan of my latest changes? Have you noticed any bugs with the design, or suggestions regarding how I might make it better? I encourage you to let me know via my Contact page! Otherwise, please enjoy Will's Web Development!!

Return to Top Comments Monday, September 2, 2019

Hi there! Since the last update, I have been working on both my Tech Support Tracker project and this website.

First, if you check out the Projects page, you will notice that right now the Tech Support Tracker is not visible. That is a product of the work I have done on this website. Up until now, my projects listing has been static HTML written on the .aspx page. Now, however, the project information is now being pulled from a database into a ListView control.

Second, the Tech Support Tracker project is still unfinished. I have been working on it, and I did get it fixed. However, I decided while working on it that I wanted to convert it to a 3-tier application from an all-in-one. I would say that I am roughly 50-60% done with it, but I hit a snag and decided to switch gears to this website instead. I will be getting back to it soon.

Lastly, there is another update that was completed on this website that, while not visible to you, the reader, will make formatting these articles and the project descriptions easier. I have written a MarkDown parser which allows me to write with the following formatting options:

• A 1-Tier Unordered List
• Italic Font
• Bold Font
• Bold & Italic Font
• Updates - A Custom Tag for Project and Article Edits.

I hope you enjoy the site, and I assure you that Tech Support Tracker is in progress and will be back as soon as I have time to complete it. Until then, have fun!

Return to Top Comments Tuesday, August 20, 2019

It was recently brought to my attention that my LinkedIn profile link was broken, and that my Tech Support Tracker project is running into an error upon launch. My LinkedIn profile link has now been updated, but the Tech Support Tracker project is still broken.

I have, however, added a note to the description of that project which informs users that it is temporarily broken, and I intend to to have the error resolved soon.

Return to Top Comments Thursday, July 11, 2019

The 2nd round of updates to this site have been completed, and is by far the biggest update yet.

The first update is was to the Links page's Random Link Generator. Before, when the Random Link button was clicked, a link was generated during a page postback. Now, though, I have used jQuery to reload only the link of the page with an Ajax call instead.

The second update is regarding the styling of my site. My site, when originally built during my time at Centriq, was not built with responsive design in mind. Instead, when the site was viewed on a mobile device the user would be redirected to a special mobile site. I have redesigned my main website* so that it is responsive and can be viewed easily on multiple screen sizes. Perhaps one of the most notable aspects of this update is that all the design work, from the use of jQuery to the CSS, was hand-written and is not a product of the popular Bootstrap framework.

Lastly, to view the navigation on mobile, just tap the Hamburger menu icon to expand the list of all the navigation options. The main navigation options are listed first, and the items from the side bar (hidden on mobile) are listed underneath.

I know that it is probably not perfect yet and some tweaks will need to be made. If you find something that could be done better, or have any other questions or comments, feel free to send me a note via my Contact page.

*The responsive redesign does not yet include my Resume page.

Return to Top Comments Sunday, June 23, 2019

Hi there, welcome back! After finding out the hard way that my current hosting provider does not support the more recent versions of the .Net framework and subsequently downgrading my project again, I have finished & published the first round of updates!

The first round of updates consist of what I considered to be the two most important ones from a UX perspective:
- Line breaks are now being displayed correctly in articles
- The article list has been reversed so that the most recent ones are on top.

Stay tuned! More updates from the update list are coming soon!

Return to Top Comments Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Wow, I cannot believe that it has been more than four years since my last post! While there are a number of factors which I can attribute my absence to, I will skip all of that and just simply say that I have returned!

I have learned quite a good bit of information over the time that I have been absent, and I plan to make some changes to my website in the near future. The current feature development roll-out plan is as follows:

- Line Breaks
-- Presently, I type these articles up in a simple multiline TextBox control, resulting in line breaks being saved as typical carriage returns instead of HTML line breaks, and articles displaying as one big blob of text.
-- When displaying the text, I will convert the carriage returns to HTML line breaks.
- Async Links Page
-- When the 'Randomize!!!' button is clicked on the Links page, the entire page refreshes in a postback.
-- Using JQuery, I will make the link generation asynchronous from the rest of the page.
- Change Randomize!!! Text
-- Looking at this button now, I do not feel the word 'Randomize' is really appropriate for the action and should be changed.
- Article Ordering
-- When I first built this site, it seemed a good idea to have the oldest article first since it was following my development as a developer.
-- I now feel like the order should be reversed because users should not be forced to scroll to the bottom of the list for the latest update.
- Sidebar Link Updates
-- Unfortunately, all of my original classmates have let their old websites disappear, and all the current links are broken.
-- I will, however, be adding a link to the website of a friend of mine, who, at the time of this writing, is currently attending Centriq himself.
- Responsive Design
-- When I graduated from Centriq, I had a vague idea of what Responsive Web Design was, though I did not really know how to implement it.
-- Now, however, I am armed with the knowledge of the Responsive Grid Layout and the methodology of designing for mobile first.
- Contact Update
-- Unfortunately, I have been getting spam from my website's Contact page. I would like to attempt to limit this by adding some sort of human verification before Send can be clicked.
-- I would like to implement a ReCaptcha at some point in the future, but I will build my own for now.

[EDIT 6/8/19: Fixed a typo.]

Return to Top Comments Saturday, April 27, 2019

Over the past year, I have heard some constructive criticism in regards to the way I styled my website, and the biggest comment I received was that some people had a hard time reading the light blue font on the dark blue background. In response to these comments, I recently decided to perform a partial re-design of my website. Unfortunately, I was a bit torn because I really did like my original style.

The final result was the system I currently have in place:

- When a first-time user visits my website, the user will see my 'Normal' style by default.
- Whenever a user decides that they would rather change to something that I think of more as a 'Typical' (i.e. black letters on a light background), all that user needs to do is select a different theme from the drop down list in the navigation bar.

After a new style is selected, whatever page the user is on will be immediately and smoothly transitioned to the new theme with some jQuery code I wrote. In addition to the changing of style, a simple cookie will be placed in your browser (unless you have disabled cookies in your browser). The only information in this cookie is which style theme was the last one you selected, and an expiration date set for a year after the change. The reason for using a cookie rather than storing this in session is that when the user closes their browser, objects stored in session are lost, and the result would be a loss of the user's style preference. However, with a cookie, even if a user closes the browser and waits six months* before returning, the user will again see the website in his or her preferred style theme.

*DISCLAIMER: This is assuming the user doesn't clear the browser's cookies in that time.

Return to Top Comments Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Lately, development projects at work have been put on hold so that we may focus on repairing old and broken processes. Because of that, I have recently turned to developing Windows Forms programs in my spare time. Of the two programs I've created, one is a search program to find files within the operating system. What is unique about my program is that unlike Windows search system, in which you search for a single file at a time, you can enter as many search terms as you like. The program will then recursively search, starting at a specified directory, for all specified terms simultaneously, and return the path of any file name that contains any of the search terms. Once the search is stopped or complete, the user then has the option to export the results to a file. Also, if there were any folders that could not be accessed due to permission issues, the user has the capability to view a list of those folders.

The other program I have in development is an Instant Messenger client designed to operate only within an internal network. This messenger consists of two parts, a server program which rests on a server computer and handles user authentication and interaction, and a client program which is installed on each client machine. This program allows any registered user the ability to communicate with each other instantly without having to hold a phone to their ear or send an email. Also, users have the ability to set a status so that other users will be able to see when they are available, offline, busy, or away. I also built an auto-update module for the program so that, whenever there is a new update, the client program will automatically update itself when it is started. Some other current features of my messenger include:
- Ability to set conversation font size and color
- Ability to enable/disable and set alert sounds
- Ability to set the messenger client as a start up program.

I have enjoyed working with Windows Forms, and learning the difference between developing web applications and Windows Forms applications. As time passes, I will continue to expand my knowledge of both Windows Forms and web applications.

Return to Top Comments Saturday, March 15, 2014

I know it's been a while since the last time I wrote an update for my site, but I've been so busy at work that my website has fallen somewhat to the wayside. I've learned quite a bit in the last couple of months; so much, in fact, that I can't quite remember it all right now! However, some of the stuff I've learned includes the benefits of creating Web Application Projects that can be compiled into .dlls for quicker loading speeds, creating and utilizing a data layer class to relay data from a database to a presentation layer .cs file (while doing so, I also learned much about DataSets and became more experienced with writing classes and methods), querying Active Directory, and became more comfortable with using Query Strings. However, since all the work I do is for the company intranet, I cannot share the work that I have done on my website. I plan on doing more work for my personal site, though, to showcase my skills. That is, if I get enough time! =D
[EDIT]: After having written this article, I was looking around my site coming up with possible ideas when I realized I never updated my Resume! So now my Resume is updated, too.

Return to Top Comments Friday, October 18, 2013

On Monday, August 5th, I embarked on my new career at Mazuma Credit Union. My first two days have been very exciting, even though it is still just a training period. However, I'm highly looking forward to actually start working in my role as Programmer there. I have been informed by the Director of Information Services (my manager) that when the training period is complete, she already has 3 projects planned for me to start with. She has given me some details about one of the projects, a notification ticker for the company intranet page, and I've had ideas rolling around in my head ever since. I can't wait!

Return to Top Comments Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Today I decided I would finally add a custom error page for exceptions and 404 errors. Please feel free to check out the 404 error page by typing in www.wmtennison.com/[enter random word].aspx. (ex: www.wmtennison.com/xylophone.aspx) As for the exception page, I have no direct way to cause an exception. Given this is the case, I hope y'all never see it...

Return to Top Comments Tuesday, July 16, 2013

On July 12th, my education at Centriq Training was complete. In summary of my last three weeks of training, our class learned about creating mobile-friendly websites using both responsive design and the creation of a separate mobile website. After our 'mobile' week, we started on the first of two projects each of us needed to create on our own. For both of these projects, our instructor became more of a team lead, assisting us when we needed help, but primarily leaving us to our own devices. Our first project, the Tech Support Tracker, was built using ASP web forms and is designed to fulfill a small variety of functions. A brief list of functions include: creating trouble tickets, opening pending tickets, closing opened tickets, creating company departments, deactivating/activating departments, creating employees, and deactivating/activating employees.
Our second project, the Student Administration Tool (a.k.a. Anonymous University), was built using MVC. Basically, this website is designed to emulate a college website where students can browse offered courses and see when they are scheduled. When logged in as an administrator, the user has the ability to create or modify courses, statuses, students, and class enrollments, as well as the ability to modify the class schedule. At the end of the two 'Project Weeks', we presented our projects to a small audience, displaying all the functionality of our websites and providing an explanation. If anyone is interested in checking out either of my projects, see my projects page for links to each one. I look forward to see where my chosen career will take me in the future.

Return to Top Comments Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Howdy y'all! I'm posting this update to say that I have changed the way articles are stored and displayed on Will's Web Development. When I first started this site, every article had been hard-coded into the HTML. Now, however, articles are stored in a database created for this site, and are displayed using a Repeater. Also, if you look to the right side of my navigation bar, you will see the new 'Login' button. When I'm logged in, I can also add new articles or edit existing articles directly from the website. I've also been playing around with the idea of creating a comments section that shows comments under each post. I haven't had much success with it yet, and may not ever implement it. I would like your feedback concerning this feature. If you would like to have the ability to comment on a post directly, please send me a message via my Contact page. Thanks for visiting my site, and I look forward to your feedback!

Return to Top Comments Friday, July 12, 2013

On the third of June, we started ASP 5, which covered Web Services, some jQuery, and advanced C# concepts.  The C# portion of this week was a good refresher, given we haven't really focused strictly on C# since our first two weeks of class.  However, as stated previously, this was far more than just a refresher; we covered new topics, such as Interfaces and file input/output, as well as delved deeper into other topics like Polymorphism and Collections.  We also created a page populated with blogs that have been pulled from a database we created specifically for them.  However, if the user is an admin, they have the ability to update individual blog posts, or post new blogs to the database.  During this week we also created a small shop driven by a products database we've created in class.  In this shop, not only could a customer view the details of an item or opt to purchase it, but they can also enter in the quantity they want to order and recieve a confirmation message of the quantity added to their cart after "Add to Cart" is clicked.  Speaking of the cart, this shop has a Cart page which displays the items ordered along with the quantity of each item and the total price of the order.  The functionality of this page includes the ability to update the quantity of any item selected for purchase, or the ability to remove the item from the cart entirely.  Two other items I would like to point out about the cart is that with every item/quantity change, the total of the order changes to reflect the new price, and the "Shopping Cart" link has a number which updates to reflect the current total quantity in the cart.  Then, on June 10th we started the ASP Alternative Framework week, within which we learned how to create a website using MVC (Model View Controller).  MVC makes the creation of a data-driven website much quicker than ASP, and can allow the developer greater control of the different elements at play.  I definitely appreciate the time saved using MVC, but I can't decide which one I like more yet.  Admittedly MVC gives us a lot of free code through scaffolding, which can make life easier, but I feel like I have more power over the design elements when using ASP.  Granted, I've only spent a week so far with MVC, so it could be I'm just used to ASP and haven't completely gotten used to MVC.  All I can say for certain at this point is that I look forward to more experimentation with MVC.  Also, on a side note, next week we should finally be learning how to implement our databases on our domain servers, so keep an eye out for more projects to be posted on my projects page!!!!

Return to Top Comments Saturday, June 15, 2013

Since I'm interested in implementing more jQuery to my site, I figured I'd experiment with making the side navigation collapsible as well.  Please let me know if y'all think it's a bit much. I think it looks good, but I'm just not sure if I should really be applying that to the side navigation.  I'd really appreciate any and all comments about this.

Return to Top Comments Sunday, June 2, 2013

After posting my article "LINQed Web Applications", I started to feel like my home page was getting unnecessarily long.  Therefore, I decided to throw all the articles into a jQuery accordion to make my home page cleaner.  Let me know what y'all think of this change, whether you like it or dislike it, or if y'all think improvements should be made to it.  Thanks!

Return to Top Comments Saturday, June 1, 2013

On May 24th we finished our fourth week of ASP, which covered Data Driven Applications created using LINQ to pull information from a database.  Granted, the LINQ method performs the same functions as the method we learned last week, but the process of retrieving or modifying the data is where all the differences lie.  When using the previous method, a large chunk of setting up the database and the various displays of the data was done in Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010's (MVWD) "Design Mode".  For those of my readers who are unfamiliar with MVWD, the "Design Mode" is a view that allows a programmer to develop a web page using a graphic, drag-and-drop type of interface.  You can nearly build an entire web page without writing a single line of code.  LINQ, on the other hand, is almost entirely done by hand in the C# code behind the scenes.  From building the connection string, to retrieving and displaying data from a database, and to updating and deleting data is all typed out.  What I personally find most appealing about LINQ is that all the code is right in front of me.  Using "Design Mode" in the previous method is more of a headache, in my personal opinion, because the number of different windows to set up the database and gridviews and the like is relatively large compared to having the code altogether in one place right in front of me.  One problem I found with "Design Mode" is that all the code is effectively hidden from view, and if there is a problem with the code, it can be more difficult to locate the issue quickly.  This is especially true when the error received is quite vague.  Another reason I much preferred to work using LINQ is that I love working with actual code because I feel like I have more control over what is happening in my program, and also because, as one of my instructors put it, "Design Mode" feels like "magic" since you don't see exactly what's happening.  To me, as a programmer, that type of "magic" is kind of scary.

Return to Top Comments Friday, May 31, 2013

May 6th saw my class embark on a completely new and different subject: Database Management.  The week of May 6th through the 10th we learned the fundamentals of creating and managing SQL Database Servers.  It was fairly simple subject matter to grasp, given that there are only a relatively small amount keywords and operators to learn as compared to C#, HTML, or CSS.  The real fun started the following week, on May 13th, when we started our ASP3: Data Driven Applications week and created a database tailored specifically for our Widgets & Gadgets websites and learned how to tie the database into them.  We learned how to display data from the database in a Grid View, and then how to show more detail about a selected piece of information in a Detail View.  For example, when you go shopping online, generally a list of products is displayed with a picture and some basic information.  When you click on a product, the list is replaced with a page that shows your selected producted, but with more detail.  This is similar to what the Grid View and Detail View (known also as Master/Detail) accomplish.  We also learned how to filter products with the use of drop down lists, search boxes, and even check boxes.  However, not only did we learn how to display information stored on a database, but also how to programmatically edit, add, or delete information from the database via the website rather than need to go to the database directly.  I can think of several possible uses of data driven websites already, and I'm sure there are many more uses than I'm currently thinking of!  One of those uses is perfect for this website; under each of these updates is a link that says comments.  Unfortunately, the link currently sends you to my Contact page, though I would love for it to actually take and display comments from readers of my updates.  With a database, I believe this could be easily accomplished...however, according to our instructors, setting up a database on our remote host is more difficult than creating one locally, and we have yet to be instructed how to do so.  As soon as we learn, though, keep an eye out for a few changes around here!

Return to Top Comments Sunday, May 19, 2013

The ASP.Net version of the site is now up!  The pages that were already up are not very different visually, but the way they are working behind the scenes is totally different.  Also, if you check the address bar, the most of the pages now end with .aspx instead of .html.  That is the biggest "visual" change between an HTML page and an ASP.Net page.  There are a few additions to the side bar links, and be sure to check out the Contact and Links pages I've also added.  Send me a message and let me know what you think!

Return to Top Comments Saturday, May 4, 2013

After our week of learning HTML5, CSS3, and jQuery, my class had a self-study week in which to recharge our mental batteries and experiment with what we had learned so it could sink in.  Then, on April 22 we learned the basics of ASP.Net and followed that up with a deeper dive into ASP.Net on April 29.

 Over the weekend I started to redesign my site to use .aspx pages in place of .html pages, plus finally add a Links page and a Contact page now that I've learned how to make them the way that I had envisioned.

 The Links page will technically be just another example project where you click a button and the link under the button changes to a random link from a pool of links that contains every link available in the site, and the Contact page asks for a name, email address, and a message.  After 'Send' is clicked, an email will be sent to me with your message, as well as a confirmation email to inform you that it has been sent.  The new version of my website should be up by the end of this week.

[EDIT 4-21-19: Improved language in some spots.]

Return to Top Comments Wednesday, May 1, 2013

On April 8th, I started my next course: HTML5, CSS3, and JQuery.  Most of the week has been spent learning the fundamentals of static HTML web sites and CSS styling.  On Friday, April 12th, we learned the basics of jQuery and included a few different types of scripts in a classroom program we've been developing this week.  We set up our domain names and hosting Tuesday, April 9th, and I started working on my website Wednesday.  Although still unfinished, I uploaded my website Thursday, April 10th.  That is to be expected, I suppose, given that our websites are meant to be works in progress, and that we are supposed to upgrade them frequently using different techniques we learn during the weeks following this one.  Eventually I'll also add projects to this website to demonstrate my development abilities.  I'll keep y'all posted.

Return to Top Comments Friday, April 12, 2013

On March 25th, I started training at Centriq.  The first course was C# Fundamentals, which lasted approximately two weeks.  Admittedly, it was definitely a lot to learn in just two weeks, but I certainly had fun with it!  I finished that course of my training on April 5th.

Return to Top Comments Thursday, April 11, 2013