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International School in Africa: http://acst.net/newsite

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:38 pm
by TerryKing
I'm working with an International School here in Tunisia, North Africa.  The existing site was drab and static (see acst.net)

We're about to go live with this site: http://acst.net/newsite 

This is Joomla 1.0.12 with ExtCal for the customized events calendars you see, AjaxRotator for the Top Slide Show(s),
and simple added modules for the News and Weather.  Notice how the calendars and some Top Slide Shows are customized to the page you go to (SPORTS, or Upperschool Library for example)..

The template is a modified RocketTheme VersatilityII. 

**CREDITS** To Steve O (WellsCSD in New York) who was an invaluable resource in getting us started a couple of months ago. We are still collaborating, and will try to document what we learned about SCHOOL websites at http://www.openedweb.com

Much still to be learned; trying to integrate Coppermine Photo Albums next....

Re: International School in Africa: http://acst.net/newsite

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:15 pm
by H13
Nice but I think, the font size is to small (Firefox 2) and on the mainpage there is a lot of articles.

Re: International School in Africa: http://acst.net/newsite

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 7:49 pm
by TerryKing
H13, Thanks for the comments....

I'm not sure about you, but I like your dogs...  :-)

I struggled with size issues a lot. This is a complex site and the school has many different departments. I did NOT want a side menu because lots of users find them confusing, and they take up space. Here, you can get anywhere from any page. And menu's take up little of the active page until you rollover..

The things users wanted the most were --Lunch Menu --News & Weather -- Current news -- Upcoming events
So I tried to make them right in front of them on the first page....

I had less articles on the front page, but users here in Africa said that because of the no-so-good ISPs here, whose Domain Name Servers often take 3 hits to resolve a name, they would rather have everything they need on a daily basis on one page...

I'm still tuning that up!! 

Thanks for your response.
 

Re: International School in Africa: http://acst.net/newsite

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:46 pm
by H13
I you know why you did it in such way, it's all right  :)