Dr. MadCow's Web Portal Change LogWeb Portal V3.60

Website Version 3.60 - 2008-02-19

I'd like to start by saying that this is by far the most significant version update to the website, and the underlying web framework since I initially released. I originally started this project at the end of February 2007 while working on learning object oriented PHP. The other goal was to rewrite as much of the underlying original PHP, which shall I say looking back at my PHP & MySQL skills from 5 years ago man how things have changed. Secondly I'd like to thank Amy Armitage at Lunarpages for making this possible. I've been suffering from bad hosting (very noticable regular downtimes) now for nearly a year so their web hosting sponsorship couldn't have come at a better time.

-Convert all web pages from HTML 4.01 Transition to XHTML 1.0 Transitional.
-Added Javascript to index.php to autofocus on the search box.
-Redesigned MySQL Database Structure for Link Archive for compatiblity with Webspider CMS.
-Rewrote Link Archive PHP + MySQL to be cleaner, more efficient, and compatible with the Webspider CMS database schema.
-Rewrote Link Archive backend into Webspider CMS object oritened php web framework.
-Redesigned MySQL Database Structure for Hit Counter for compatiblity with Webspider CMS.
-Rewrote Hit Counter into Webspider CMS object oritened php web framework.
-Merged 2 Column and 3 Column CSS files into 1 CSS file.
-Adjust the colors to make links stick out more, remove mouse over colors, and changed colours of left navigation.

Website Version 3.51 - 2007-05-29

-Added social bookmarks to the View Articles script.
-Added redir.drmadcow.net to avoid Google caching header redirected links.
-Revised usage of Google ads to increase my Click Through Rate (CTR).
-Changed from allowing multiple search engines on main page to just Google to reduce code.
-Removed Free Email Links from main page, then due to my mother calling and complaining I readded them (Everyone is a critic!).

Website Version 3.50 - 2006-12-30

-Added logic to Articles script to display all Articles to build an Article Sitemap for engines.
-Adding Article overview to all articles to benefit from internal link building.
-Rewrote entire template in Pure CSS, minimalizing HTML markup code. Large savings in content vs markup ratio as well as overall site size.
-Modified layers, merged layers, and sliced Photoshop PSD Web Design.
-Brand new graphic design by Bluwolfe.net.
-Cleaned up SQL code throughout the website.
-Reduced total number of images / objects per page.

Website Version 3.03 - 2005-12-26

-Updated Template and CSS for Header element, first stage of pure CSS rewrite for V3.1.
-Updated colour scheme to a more complimentary colour design.
-Added functionality to Article Viewer to display independant keywords for each Article out of the MySQL database.
-Added Adsense to the website as a Google experiement.
-Redesigned the Article MySQL Database with all new tables for the new CMS.
-Rewrote Index, and Articles for new Database Structure.

Website Version 3.02 - 2005-Nov-13

Version 3.02 builds on the success of Version 3.01, with the goal of a tighter integrated system. Unforunately due to a bug in some code I lost a month worth of referral informational. However I have fixed this bug and found this data to be extremely valuable since that time. For me the referral data is one of the most important pieces of information that I track about a hit. This will tell you from where a hit originated (ie a website, search engine), as well as provided you with other bonuses. For any Web Master interested in doing any SEO work I would recommend keeping a close eye on this. It helps me monitor the popularity of my link exchanges, and the search strings used for finding my website (as gives you an indicator of which page of search results they found you on).

-Finished Apache2 Mod Rewriting the Articles section.
-Fixed a bug in the News Section after implementing revised news editor in the CMS.
-Fixed a bug in the counter script introduced in V3.01.
-Fixed a mistake in my Apache2 Virtualhost configuration for www.drmadcow.net, and added a .htaccess file for the website with a 301 Apache2 mod rewrite rule. Both fixes will help make sure that www.drmadcow.net and drmadcow.net do not have different pageranks. *Pagerank updated on 2005/07/15 from 1 -> 4 (drmadcow.net had a pagerank of 3.0 and www.drmadcow.net a rank of 1).
-Added Counter Statistics page, Search Engine awareness tool.
-Removed Next / Prev page on Articles that only have 1 page.
-Applied Mod Rewrite to nearly the entire site to create a more static looking site for search engines that don't favour Dynamic Content. Some search engines fail to cache (too few pages), or over cache (too many pages) the entire site. Over caching can also dimish your individual pagerank as the same page can have seperate ranks.
-Had to make minor changes to nearly every single file because of the new Apache Mod Rewrite rules.

Website Version 3.01 - 2005-June-18

Version 3.01 was a maintenance with the goal of making the Website more Search Engine Optimized. It also included several features that were originally intended for Version 3.0.

-Complete CSS Code Audit & Optimization, CSS 15% smaller.
-Increased the amount of h1, h2, h3 tag usuage.
-Added SiteMap, as a SEO tool.
-Added ChangeLog to help track progress, and for future ideas.
-Added Super Search to clean up busyness of the initial page.
-Cleaned up Logo with Photoshop.
-Added More Stats to the MySQL Hit Counter to help track Search Engine traffic (incoming search click throughs).
-Created a single counter script that is now included in all pages.
-Modified Robots.txt.
-Website is even more modular (MySQL Database, Version, and Counter now in seperate include files).

Website Version 3.0 - 2005-June-02

The primary goal behind Version 3.0 was to completely rewrite all the code for the website (making it more modular), and appling a smoother more browser compatible website.

-Complete HTML rewrite with extensive use of CSS pages shrank between 10% - 40% in size
-Rewrote all Articles in the MySQL Database to reflect the new CSS Layout
-PHP Code Audit
-Template redesign based on several older revisions of the website, and from user feedback (keep it coming).
-Added a custom PHP Search for the Website MySQL Database. Includes a triple table MySQL JOIN, plus array functions.
-New design is more modular (Header, Footer, and Menu are now include files).
-Redesigned Links section so a link could be in multiple categories.

Website Version 2.0 - 2005-Mar-15

In January I returned back to Camosun College to take Computer 275 (E-Commerce). As my E-Commerce project I worked on redeveloping the Website from the bottom up. You'll now find several affiliate based articles in the articles category, and a seperate consulting website (with my services offered with a Paypal shopping cart).

-Migrated from Apache 1.3.x to 2.0.x
-Complete HTML rewrite with use of old legacy code, completely table based template.
-Template redesign based on several older revisions of the website, and from user feedback.
-Added custom PHP Search capabilities to the website. Includes a triple table MySQL JOIN, plus array functions.
-Built a custom CMS (Content Management System) backend in PHP for the website MySQL database using HTTPS.
-Original SEO (Search Engine Optimizations) done to site (ie robots.txt, and metatag optimizations).
-Added Article & Link Popularity Tracking
-Split consulting page into seperate page.
-Rewrote all PHP after disabling Global Variables for tighter security.
-Wrote a PHP script for displaying email addresses under the contact page as images with the PHP GD Library.
-Added New Article Notification written in PHP.

Website Version 1.0 - 2003-July-??

The initial version of the Website was developed as a Portfolio Site to showcase during the Capstone Symposium as part of graduation from Camosun College Computer System Technology. It was also the first project I used PHP & MySQL (I had taken courses in Perl & Oracle).

-Added Articles Section.
-Added Link Section.
-Initial simple counter.
-Wrote PHP contact script.
-Initial page had 10 search engines in seperate boxes.