(new front page and webstore designs, click for bigger)

So what’s the deal with the new Knucklebuster site?
This post might get heavy on the webnerd jargon at times, so I’ll cut to the chase quick and let those of you really interested continue reading… the deal is, it’s in the works and things are finally coming together to where I believe the new site design and sections will be live before Christmas… here’s hoping at least. Click on the pics to see full size previews of the front page and the new webstore as they stand now. Both of these will undergo some changes before the site is done, but you’ll get the general idea. Every section of the site is getting a major facelift, and if you look closely at the front page navigation bar at the top, you can see some of the new sections being implemented, and yes, the features section will finally go live. The section that I’m most excited about is the KBGA - and that’s all I’m going to say about it. You’ll just have to wait and see.

So why has it taken so long?
The easy answer is this: I’m not a web programmer. A web hack maybe, but not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination. However, I can say that my understanding of the related programming languages has grown by leaps and bounds over the past month. I’ve had my nose in books about CSS, PHP, MySql and its finally starting to pay off, although I still have a long way to go. At the same time, I’ve been researching various CMS solutions (content management software) to figure out which would be the best to run the site on. I’ve looked at Drupal, Typepattern, Joomla and many others. That took a significant amount of time; learning about the pro’s and con’s of each system, searching through the forums to figure out which would be easiest for me to work with and which would be able to grow with the site the best. In the end, I decided to go with Expression Engine by pMachine. It’s a great piece of software, with an unbelievable amount of control, options and flexibility. The system itself has the ability to do pretty much anything you can imagine on the web, but what really sold me on Expression Engine was that it was a lot easier to code in than something like drupal. The downside is that I still need more time to learn the ins and outs of the software, however, that’s not going to stop the new design from going live. Before the Expression Engine version of this site goes live, I’ll be using wordpress to power the site. There are a couple reasons behind this, but it’s a bit too boring to go into all of that - I’ll just say it’s the easiest way for me to make the transition, while also being able to get the new site up quickly. The site design will be the same; in fact the screenshot above is from a live wordpress server I’m currently using to develop the new version of the site.

So what else?
Well, there are a couple of quick updates I just did which I think make it more user friendly. The first one is a quick revamp of the photo gallery. Go Check it out, and let me know what you think on the messageboard - I have a poll running there right now (in the whatevah section) just so you guys (and gals) can let me know what you think of the new framework.

The video section got an update today as well; I created a new section just for archived videos I’ve found on the web. This will make it easier for you to find specific videos instead of scrolling through the front page.

There will be a whole new photo gallery category going live in the next few days that will focus specifically on our favorite artists, fabricators, welders, painters and leatherworkers. Keep an eye out for that.

So that pretty much does it for now in terms of website news. The website will continue to be updated on an almost daily basis and you can definitely expect lots of new content to be posted over the next few days…

Now back to our regularly scheduled program…