Optional Necessity

Kinetic version 1.2 released

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:18:52 -0700

The Serendipity template Kinetic has been upgraded to version 1.2.

This new version of Kinetic offers even greater power and flexibility to your Serendipity powered magazine, or newspaper styled website, in addition to the extensive featureset bundled into the original Kinetic release as well as the previous upgrade, Kinetic ver 1.1.

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Custom meta details for Serendipity static pages

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:35:00 -0700

Your site's content can rank higher in search engine results through the use of page-specific title element, meta descriptions and meta keywords. The Serendipity HTML META-tags plugin simplifies this task for entries, as I discussed in Better search results with meta details.

Unfortunately, the current version of the HTML META-tag plugin cannot emit meta details for static pages, but static pages can have custom properties. We can use these custom static page properties to emit unique meta details for each static page, just like the HTML META-tag plugin does for entries.

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New AddThis button code for Serendipity Templates

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Wed, 27 May 2009 09:57:13 -0700

Social bookmarking has long been popular on nearly any type of website, especially with sites featuring regularly updated content such as news sites and blogs. Social bookmarking allows visitors to remember, rate and recommend content through a number of channels, including Facebook, Delicious, Digg and many others. While many sites prefer to use numerous icons and links to each service available, I prefer to use the single point of service through AddThis.

Launched in 2006, addthis has become the #1 bookmarking and sharing button on the Internet. Many serendipity developers and website owners have incorporated the addthis code, or "widget", into their serendipity templates. I personally added it to a number of my own templates, and this code has been a part of the current serendipity default template Bulletproof since its initial release. Addthis has maintained compatibility with older versions of their scripts, but I decided it was time to update the script, especially since they just released a new version today.

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Kinetic template version 1.1 released

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:03:16 -0700

Kinetic has been updated to include a number of new features, many of which were recommended by current users of this news and magazine template framework for Serendipity. The new features provide greater power, configuration flexibility, and site accessibility.
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Kinetic as a magazine template

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:02:00 -0700

Kinetic is Serendipity template designed to publish content for news or magazine styled template. However, what exactly does the format "magazine" mean?

When Kinetic was originally released, the screenshots and demo primarily focussed on using Kinetic as a news template. Being a news template, one would expect a front page presentation organized by categories. This is a key concept of a news template. But Kinetic can display content in much the same manner with less emphasis on categories, and more focus on the content. This is what I will call a "magazine" format, and Kinetic can do this easily by making a few simple changes to its configuration options.
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Kinetic - a magazine and news template for Serendipity

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:03:07 -0700

Your Serendipity powered website is structured using many categories. You would like to summarize those entries on your front page according to each category, but the default Serendipity presentation merely lists those entries in date order - most recent first. What can you do?

Announcing Kinetic. Kinetic is a Serendipity template designed to present your content in much the same way as might be seen on a newspaper or magazine website.
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Additional sidebars for Serendipity templates

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:15:00 -0700

Serendipity templates utilize a page structure that includes a main content pane and sidebar containers, often positioned left and/or right of the main content. But what if you want a top or bottom "sidebar"? How about more than two?

How do you code that information into your template, and present - and secure - it to other users of your custom serendipity templates if they are publically distributed? Template configuration and Smarty code can easily provide the solution for any of your custom serendipity templates.
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99 New Images for the Serendipity Karma voting plugin

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:32:55 -0700

In my 2008 list of new year objectives I expressed an interest in continuing to contribute toward Serendipity plugins when I could. A great deal of effort has been spent updating Serendipity's karma voting plugin resulting in the release of version 2.0 and I contributed four simple yellow/green and yellow/red star images, in three different sizes to that version. I have also installed the plugin here at Optional Necessity and will be using it from this point forward.

The Serendipity karma voting plugin is a "core" plugin, meaning it is distributed with every Serendipity release version. This also means we don't want to overload it with too many images that bloat the overall plugin size. So I chose not to include a lot of other images that I created for the plugin, but they are now available for download to really make the graphical version of the new karma voting plugin shine!

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Happy New Year! Now what?

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:58:49 -0700

Here in the United States, it seems the 5 - 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day is mostly about excess. Excessive eating, drinking, spending, visiting, partying.... It is a great way to end a year!! But now that another year has passed, and with it the year-ending excesses, it is time for me to think about some (definitely not all) of what I want to accomplish in 2008.

This site only existed for the final 2 months of 2007. The direction at launch was to serve as a platform for releasing my own personal serendipity templates, as well as discuss and promote concepts and tools that make site design productive, somewhat innovative and maybe even fun. Looking forward, I want to spend more time focusing on new ideas and taking them to completion. I also need to make sure my non-development projects receive fair attention. These are in no particular order of priority:
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New serendipity comment format

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:31:01 -0700

I have styled most aspects of serendipity templates. Single and multi-entry pages, static pages, sidebars, headers, footers and even archives. However, in the back of my mind, and in various partially coded versions, has been the idea of a different format for entry comments than what I have typically used. I have played around with odd vs. even comments, different styles for author comments and several different methods of showing comment meta information, but none of my experimentation fully accomplished my objectives. Serendipity itself also presents a rare functionality - threaded display of comments and the ability to reply to a specific comment, or delete a specific comment if logged in as an administrator. I think I finally arrived at a great looking new comment format for my serendipity templates.

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Christmas rss icons for your template

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:59:32 -0700

It seems there is no end to creativity when it comes to rss icons. In my recent entry New RSS icons for your template, I included a few links to other sites hosting nice collections of rss feed icons. These are great alternatives to the standard feed icon, whether your site is powered by Serendipity, or some other cms engine.

For those who are not content with just decorating their home, tree, and everything else that stands still long enough for tinsel, garland ornaments and lights, now you can add a seasonal flair to your website templates as well. Below are a few links I found containing creative Christmas rss feed icons. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

The Real Christmas RSS Icons from Ajax Digest

Christmas Social Bookmark Icons by FastIcon

If you enjoyed this article, please bookmark it at your favorite social bookmarking sites using the Bookmark button below so that others will enjoy it as well!

New RSS icons for your template

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:44:54 -0700

Orange. Small. Square. RSS feed icons don't have to be any of these. Creative designers and illustrators have come up with many different interpretations of how to represent your rss feed. For those who have seen the admin backend of the Serendipity template bulletproof, you know I love icons. Big ones, small ones, and everything in between.

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Better search results with meta details

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:24:01 -0700

Effective use of a page title element, meta description and meta keyword tags can lead to significantly better search results for your site's content. Achieving better results in any Serendipity blog is easy thanks to the Serendipity "HTML Meta-Tags" plugin.

I have recently completed modifications to version 0.8 of this plugin with the assistance of the Serendipity user and developer community. These new and modified features unleash the hidden power of a plugin that may make the difference between an entire Serendipity weblog, or specific blog entry, being found by the masses and one that is rarely, if ever, viewed by anyone other than its author.

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New Serendipity Template Site Launched!

nospam@example.com (Don Chambers) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:14:00 -0700

This site will feature my contributions to the blog engine Serendipity, particularly serendipity templates. I am a firm believer in this particular open source project and contribute to it as much as my experience and time will permit.

Woven into my Serendipity template contributions may be pieces of my personal life, annecdotes or perspective on anything that happens to catch my interest.

Please be patient! Development of this site is happening simultaneously to my Serendipity template and plugin developments, so it might take a bit longer than I like to get this site packed with valuable content.

I trust you will visit frequently and help spread/feed the news!

Regards,
=Don Chambers=