Web development:
A platypus strapped to an
Aardvark in estrus.
Hey there!
Welcome to the official website of Bike to the Earth. We're happy that you decided to drop by, and we're super-excited to hear more from you as we prepare for this ambitious journey. I'm Evan Stratford, and I'm here to say a short bit about the site.
A major part of this process is being able to share it with others; that's why we built this website. Take a second to check out some of the features:
- At top, we have our social media links. If you're looking for our Facebook page, Twitter feed, Flickr photostream, or YouTube channel, you'll find them up there. There's also an RSS feed.
- At bottom is the timeline. Drag the mouse to move the timeline or use a/d to move backwards/forwards in time; use w/s to zoom in/out; click on an icon to jump to that event.
- Have a really great idea for the site? Found a problem? Let us know! We've got a UserVoice forum set up; just click the feedback box at left.
- Want to leave a comment? For now, we're using Facebook Connect; just log in to your Facebook account through our site and you'll be able to post comments.
As we start taking pictures and videos of the training process, we'll be moving quickly to make those available both here and on our Flickr/YouTube pages.
Want to know how this site was built? Keep going!
WARNING! TECHNICAL DETAILS AHEAD!
(Don't say I didn't warn you.) If you're still reading, you probably want a peek at our technology stack. Here's a quick overview:
- jQuery on frontend, with CSS3 techniques sprinkled throughout;
- Pylons (a Python-based web framework) for mid-tier;
- CouchDB for backend, accessed from mid-tier via python-couchdb;
- git for source control, managed over SSH via gitosis;
- WebFaction for hosting.
A few more random points:
- Sliding toolbars are incredibly easy to pull off; all it takes is jQuery animations and a bit of creative positioning.
- We use jGrowl for the notifications at top-right.
- We're using Facebook Connect for a bit more than comment posting; we also use it to identify site admins and grant them Super Cow Powers.
- Yes, the timeline is completely DHTML/AJAX/CSS. No, it doesn't use Flash. No, it wouldn't be better in Flash. Next question :)
If your burning inquiry hasn't been answered here, ask! As we said, we're glad to share this process with you; that means everything from physical training to, well, putting in full-day hacking sessions to make this site even more awesome than it already is.