Reducing Nesting when Browsing the Multiple Chapter Sites.

Since the new web site is composed of several web sites that reference
one another using iframes, a user may enter a site then go to another
and then back to the original causing the user to be nested multiple
layers deep in one or more of the sites.

Although this causes no real problems functionally it does reduce the
viewing space for information on the inner sites.

To help the user reduce this nesting when so desired, most iframes
will have an associated direct link to the site being iframed.

Users of modern browsers are able to right click on links allowing
them to be opened in a new window or in a new tab thereby reducing
nesting.

Use of the outer most navigation menus will also reduce nesting.

For example if you go to the portal click on the blog and then click
on the schedule link in the blog you are looking at the schedule on
the portal but are also nested portal/portal/schedule. This is why
there are 2 sets of portal menu bars.

Clicking on the outer most schedule button of the portal when looking
at the blog would have avoided this nesting. The schedule button
places you inside the portal looking at the schedule.

Clicking on the schedule enter link directly above the schedule will
place you directly in the schedule. Right clicking on this schedule
enter link and opening in a new tab provides you a portal tab and a
schedule tab.

Celebrating 10 Years on the Web

John and Sally Perkins
Salem, NH

http://arsmc.org
http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml

Van Veen Order Reminder

Van Veen orders are due in a little over a week.  If you intend to submit an order, please do so in the next week and e-mail your selections to me.  No money is due at this time.

 

Thanks!

Joe Bruso

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Announcement of Death of former member- M. Hazel Johnston

Dear Members of the Rhododendron Society,

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death of my mother,
M. Hazel Johnston, in Providence on November 5. She and my father,
Raymond Johnston, who died in 2003, received such joy and knowledge
from their association with the society and the members. My mother was
able to remain in their home, surrounded by her beloved gardens, until
the end. I write to you now to thank you for being such a large part
of their lives. If any members are interested in cutting or
air layering any of their plants (including a Best in Show one year),
please feel free to contact me. Our family, unsure of when and to whom
their gardens will pass, would be thrilled to have their plants
flourish and propagate.

With appreciation,

Christine Beehler
Amherst NH
flyoff@verizon.net

Maybe Someday Having It Your Way - The Slide Show

The Gateway site supports changing the look and feel of the site.

To get a look at what is coming in the future try the following:

Enter

http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml?p1pc1c

then

http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml?p1pc2c

noticing the header between the menu and the header has been removed

then

http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml?p1pc3c

noticing that your now have just the image with the on image text.

The good news is the style you select stays will you as you move from
page to page but beware you can remove some of the navigation options
when selecting different layouts.

To navigate you can use the buttons in the menu if the menu is present
or you can use the text on the image if the text on the image is
present. The title on the image acts as next.

Select c3c in the url then put your browser in full screen mode and
step through the images by clicking on the tiles of the images. If
your browser supports using access keys the period key can be used to
do next also. On IE this is the combination alt . followed by enter.

Note in general access keys are more trouble than they are worth
unless you are one of those people who uses them often. I personally
prefer to click on the title of the image.

Celebrating 10 Years on the Web

John and Sally Perkins
Salem, NH

http://arsmc.org
http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml

Searching for New Site Update Messages

For the first year to facilitate searching for messages about updates
to Your Portal to Rhododendrons in New England and Your Gateway to
Rhododendrons in New England sites on our Rosebay Blog, all messages
about updates to these new sites will end with the phrase

Celebrating 10 Years on the Web

So if you go to the blog using the following url

http://rosebayblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Celebrating

you should get mostly references to updates to the new sites.

This is the same as going to the blog

http://rosebayblog.blogspot.com

and entering

Celebrating

John and Sally Perkins

http://arsmc.org
http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml

Portal versus Gateway

The purpose of the Portal is to allow access to all our chapter sites.
The purpose of the Gateway is to act as a glorified slide show for our
chapter information.

In general the Portal will have few images directly in it but sites it
references may in fact contain images whereas the Gateway will have at
least one image at the top of each page.

Now the main reason you need to know which you are in is because
navigation in the Portal is supported by the buttons on the top menu
or the links on the bottom of the page whereas navigation in the
Gateway will be supported several ways. The Gateway will have buttons
on the top and links on the bottom also. For the Gateway links are
also embedded in the image supporting next, previous, and index. Plus
the Gateway supports access keys. For instance when in the Gateway on
IE the combination (alt n enter) moves one to the next page where as
on Firefox the combination (shift alt n) causes such a move. Note: If
your browser (Opera is an example) supports header level navigation
links, the Gateway provides such links in most instances.

The user will have little ability to change the look and feel of the
Portal but in the future the user will be given the ability to select
his own look and feel of the Gateway.

The easiest way to know which your using as your outer most wrapper is
to look at the bottom of the page. The Portal will say Portal and the
Gateway will say Gateway. Moreover the Portal URL will end with .aspx
and the Gateway URL will end with .xml. If you see a big image at the
top and a single set of menus you are most likely in the Gateway.

The Portal URL is

http://arsmc.org

The Portal URL for the Gateway is

http://arsmc.org/gateway_base.aspx

but you are in the Portal looking at the Gateway.

The Gateway URL is

http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml

If you have trouble opening the Gateway URL using IE right click on
the link and open it in a new window or a new tab.

Celebrating 10 Years on the Web

John and Sally Perkins

Images Improved on Gateway Entry

The images on the top level of the new Your Gateway to Rhododendrons
in New England have been updated with higher quality images that
better reflect the many breeders and growers of rhododendrons in New
England.

http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml

Remember you can navigate to the next image by clicking the next
button on the menu bar or by clicking the title on the image. Previous
is also supported by a previous button or by clicking on the location
on the image. The index button or clicking on the photographer on the
image causes navigation to the subindex for the current set of pages.

These are the first images being resized on the server for display on
the browser. In the future this will allow for thumbnail creation for
subindex and multiple sizes of the same image to be created based on
preferences set by the individual user of the site.

This is our initial step towards using the "glorified slide show" mode
supported by our new site.

Celebrating 10 Years on the Web

John and Sally Perkins

Celebrating 10 Years on the Web

On November 18, 2007 the American Rhododendron Society celebrated 10
years on the web by opening Your Portal to Rhododendrons in New
England. This new site unifies the Chapters existing online sites
while providing several new capabilities not in the older sites.

Your Portal to Rhododendrons in New England includes the following:

Your Gateway to Rhododendrons in New England
Your Rusty Gateway to Rhododendrons in New England
Rosebay Blog
Rosebay Journal
Species Study Booklet
Calendar of Events with Directions and Weather
Web Albums
Databases
Document Library
Glossary
Search
RSS Feed
External Links

The Chapter Portal can be accessed directly using

http://arsmc.org

or indirectly using

http://rosebay.org

The Chapter's new Your Gateway to Rhododendrons in New England can be
accessed directly using

http://arsmc.org/documents/gatewayentry.xml

or indirectly from the portal using

http://arsmc.org/gateway_base.aspx

The Chapter Schedule now includes directions and weather and can be
accessed using

http://arsmc.org/schedule.aspx

The Chapter Rosebay Blog can be accessed using

http://arsmc.org/blog.aspx

The complete P4M List can be accessed using

http://arsmc.org/p4mdb.aspx

The external links page provides enough many references to external
rhododendron related information and can be accessed using

http://arsmc.org/links.aspx

The Chapter Join Page now supports online enrollment for new members
and can be accessed using

http://arsmc.org/join_stub.aspx

The Chapter Library of online documents can be accessed using

http://arsmc.org/library_stub.aspx

The site works on the latest version of the 4 major browsers including
IE 6+, Firefox 2+, Opera 9+, Safari 3.

Javascript set on in your browser is required.

John and Sally Perkins

Founders Day - Final Reminder

Reminder that the deadline for reserving a spot at the Founders Day Brunch, November 18 has arrived.  If you wish to go but have not yet mailed your reservation, you can still reserve by contacting Pete Littlefield this weekend, by phone (508) 429.6470  

 

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