Most clients seeking a Flash site (like the “Righteous Tribe” project here) need an HTML-based “mirror” of their site to accommodate not only web crawlers (which need to understand the site’s content) but also visitors using older browsers or slow Internet connections.

The goal of this project is to create a look-alike “Tribe” HTML site that pulls data from the same MySQL-fed PHP script used in the “FlashCMS” project. In layman’s terms this means that clients will get a sweet-looking Flash site and a more practical, matching HTML site, each of which are updated simultaneously through a web-based administrative console.

The music group “Righteous Tribe” hails from Uganda, Africa, where the members each individually worked for various aid-focussed NGO’s. They have each travelled the world raising funds to support organizations like AOET (www.aoet.org) and to come alongside the world’s most vulnerable people. Now, they have formed the US-based group “Righteous Tribe” to take their group to the next level and attempt to catch the eye of a record company. Although they are striking out commercially to provide a better life for their families, their commitment to the underprivileged has not waned. They still perform fundraising events and have committed themselves to raising funds for those less fortunate, regardless of how “big” they get. In the purest sense, this is not a “charity” project, as the group is not a charity, but our volunteers were willing to come alongside them and develop a site worthy of an up-and-coming music group.

The founder of “the Tribe” picked a nice-looking Flash website from a template company. This provided the foundation for the site, but updating the site required heavy knowledge of very expensive software (Adobe Flash CS3, specifically) and this did not fit our goal of putting our clients in complete control of our “creations”. So the goal of this project was to create an interface that would allow “the Tribe” to update their website through a web browser. Our volunteer (Peter) came up with the idea of the “FlashCMS” which would allow this update capability as long as the Flash template was modified to read data (blog entries, news, photos, videos, music, etc) from a PHP script fed by a MySQL database. This project required not only working knowledge of Flash, but also PHP, MySQL and JavaScript coding experience. Peter took on the entire project, leading to the creation of what we call “FlashCMS v1.0″. It is our hope that “FlashCMS” can be used to provide a Flash-based website for other clients as well.

With “v1.0″ completed, our focus turns to securing and beta-testing the application. In addition to the FlashCMS, most clients seeking a Flash site need an HTML-based “mirror” of their site to accommodate not only web crawlers (which need to understand the site’s content) but also visitors using older browsers or slow Internet connections. This need for an HTML site spawned another project which seeks to create a look-alike HTML site that pulls data from the same MySQL-fed PHP script. In layman’s terms this means that clients will get a sweet-looking Flash site and a more practical, matching HTML site, each of which are updated simultaneously through a web-based administrative console.

AOET has had a lousy site for quite a while. The original site was nice enough, but it hasn’t been maintained, and now the mail server’s getting flaky, and oh, by the way, other than the blog (that we installed!) they’ve had no way to update the site.

This is an interesting request. It’s not technically difficult, but it requires basic WordPress experience (not too hard, really) and a tad of HTML. This is going to be like data entry, or cutting and pasting, combined with a little bit of reorganization.

We’re migrating them to WordPress. Why WordPress? It’s simple to maintain, easy to use and configurable enough that they can take over complete administration with little trouble.

Right now, the main AOET site (http://aoet.org) forwards to http://aoet.org/blog, which is our simple blog. The original site, available from various links, can be seen at http://aoet.org/icomission.php. All of AOET’s info is sitting here, and I’ve started to create a WordPress site to replace it, and have even put together a site that shows a suggested organization here: <link kept private>. This site, hosted on my server temporarily, is what their new site might look like. It includes an active front-page blog, and all the info from the old site, all in one place. This would be the starting place for your work, and you could build upon that.

This work is a critical last step in getting them away from their quickly deteriorating web site and getting them onto a stable platform that will help them spread their message.

If you are interested in helping out, please email me directly at johnny@ihackcharities.org.

This is the first in a series of CFV’s aimed at the new child sponsorship system. We need someone to do a code review of Paul’s PHP-based system. A qualified volunteer will be able to review his code, making active suggestions about potential weaknesses in the code and offering alternatives. This is meant to be a learning exercise for Paul, who is currently one of our star volunteers, so “social” (email) skills are a definite plus. It’s important that our lead coder learn and grow as this project progresses to the next phase. Please drop us a line if you are interested!

With Paul M slinging PHP and MySQL, the AOET child sponsorship system is really taking off! At his request though, the system needs a visual makeover. So one CFV and an hour later, Seba takes the reigns as the system’s front-end designer. Once we settle on the look and feel, we’ll move to the next phase: code review and application assessment.

AOET’s primary goal is to sponsor children. But their existing child sponsorship process was completely decentralized, causing a serious administrative bottleneck. Translation: more children could be sponsored with much less work. Continue Reading »