Audio Sermons

Last couple of days I have been working on a system whereby Father Vin will be able to upload sermons from his dictaphone onto the website.  These will be similar to the sermons he delivers at Mass and will not only be useful for members of our Parish who are unable to attend Mass, but also for anyone around the world who is interested on what Priests say during the Homily part of the Mass.  

The sermons are in Windows Media Audio, not the universally-used MP3 I would have preferred, it is the only format that Father's dictaphone records with.  This format is playable on Windows Media Player for PCs and if you have a Mac like myself, you can download the Flip4Mac plug-in that enables you to play WMA files on your browser. 

Last night I got as far as uploading audio files onto the webserver (where the website is stored) successfully.  The problem I was having was enabling users to download the stored file off a webpage. Once I worked that out earlier this evening, the only problem I had was making the date display correctly so users would be able to tell which sermon corresponds to which mass week. All the file information is stored on a database so each sermon is listed tidily on the Audio Sermon section.  This includes the date that the sermon was submitted.  In order for the date to be printed correctly on the webpage, the date on the database had to be converted into something that the programming language that displayed information liked.   Once I worked out how to do that I was quids in and it was sorted.

If you go on the website now you may be wondering why it isn't up yet.  The section will not be live until there are some genuine sermons uploaded.  Once Father gets round to doing that the section will go live.  What's the point in having a blank page on there?

I've added another banner to the website as requested by Father.  He asked me weeks ago to put a link on the website about the Lourdes Grotto and how you can visit it online by using the webcam section of the Lourdes website.  There is now a Banner that will take you straight through to that webcam section for you to check out.  It is part of a random banner generator that loads up a different banner everytime you open up the home page.  If it doesn't come up first time you will have to press your refresh button  (See above picture for what a refresh button looks like) until it does come up.   

The 21st Post

I would have put in my last post that it was my 20th. But seeing as I forgot to make an issue out of it a 21st will have to suffice, which does have its own significance in human years.

We got some new pictures in the Events Gallery. 3 new events have been posted. My favourite being the Rock 'N Roll night, most likely because out of the three, it was the one I was present. Not that it was solely good because I was there. The music was brilliant by Elvis Priestley and Alive and Kicking. But it was also great to see a lot of our Parish turn up to enjoy the evening with one another and support the Pilgrims going to Lourdes. It's fun taking pictures of all the happenings but I am now starting to think that pictures are not enough to fully portray the shenanigans of an event. I really do need to get that Video section sorted. Watch this space. And the website of course.

The other two events are significant in their own way. A milestone moment was documented with Father Vin preparing Primary School children for their first confession. We all need to think about what we have done wrong sometimes (not all the time or you will never live) and then go about putting it right, with the help of our Lord and his redemption.

Holywell and Pentasaph looks like a beautiful place and somewhere I would like to go on a pilgrimage to one day. The person who took the photos was rushed into hospital the week before the pilgrimage. He's come out fit as a fiddle and taken some great pictures for the website. Never underestimate the power of prayer and the love of God. It never ceases to hold me in wonder at what can be achieved. Thanks very much for the pics, Matt, and glad to hear you are better.

History in the making

Please excuse the pretentious title. It seemed to fit like a glove, as Jim Carrey/Ace Ventura would say.

This evening has been a fairly productive web session. The Parish History has now been completed, with both pics and text accessible to visitors. Hopefully the distinct lack of photos (I had to add some from my childhood to make up the numbers a bit more) will inspire my fellow parishioners to send me a deluge of photographic memories. Here's hoping.

I have displayed the pics in a different way compared to pics in the Gallery section. I have attempted to gauge the popularity of this new technique via a poll which is at the bottom of the homepage. Please let me know what you think of the new method. It uses Picasa's own slideshow that can be embedded (put) on any webpage to show off pics. They come in different sizes but the next size up appears to interefere with the design of the site. You can easily traipse your way through the pictures and look at larger versions of the pictures by clicking on them. All is explained in the History Pics section itself.

Don't forget to send me your Parish pics and textual anecdotes so we can make history together.

Photos

After watching Holland stroll to another victory in Euro 2008, I have found the time to do a bit of web work, including this blog.  

I have been experimenting with a new way to present the pictures in the gallery.  I can say the test was successful and I now need to find a way to overhaul the section with the minimum of time expenditure.  I have the workings of it in mind already.  Check out the gallery section soon to survey the imminent changes.  

Finished scanning the images for the Parish History.  There aren't as many as I had hoped as some of the pics have bad distortion on them that ruin the photo completely.  I am going to have to do the rounds at the masses to try and get more photos for the history section.  We also need to beef up the text part.  Anyone with any particularly significant recollections associated with the parish that aren't in the history, drop me a mail on webmaster@vianneyhalewood.co.uk.  Maybe you have an amusing anecdotes about any of the priests that have graced this parish or you feel there is something we have missed out.  You'll be seeing me around about it anyway.

Uploaded some pictures onto my beautiful iMac and now just need to get them on Picasa.  I will do that later this week as I am going to bed in a minute.  Need my eight hours or I turn into the webzombie, no mastery involved whatsoever when that state falls upon me.   

A couple of potentially sharp objects

The above title is more of a metaphor than the severity of what I am about to type before you.  It of course refers to a couple of POINTS I am going to make about what I have said before. 

You may have wondered what is going on with my 11 point plan.  That then decreased to an 8 point plan as objectives were accomplished.  It was quite foolish for me to come up with one cast-iron plan as there are always things that can be added to the site to make it better and more varied.  It could be applicable to say that the website should only stop growing when its subject matter dies.  The parish of St. John Vianney is never going to die (although it may shift shape over time) because God won't, so whomsoever continues this website when I kick the bucket (or emigrate) will always have plenty of material to work with. 

From now on, no more point plans.  That was a bad idea to take off David Moyes.   I'll just let you know what IS happening to the site and will occasionally state my intentions but not in a numbered list.  The funny thing is, I am going on about this point plan and I didn't even tell you what was on it, just thought I'd make the sharp object anyway.  

The second point I wanted to make before I am off out is about the Parish History section.  I have built that section of the website so it can be updated to document the salient events of the Parish as it grows and develops.  Any section of the history can now easily be added to.  If someone thinks we are not saying enough about any particular priest or event that happened, email me, father, or Carolyn and we will update it if Father agrees it should be in here.  He is the big cheese and cares about how we are represented electronically as a Parish, he should have the final say.  

    

 

History

It's been a fairly productive last couple of days after a big change in my working environment.  That being the purchasing, configuring and finally using a brand new iMac for my web development needs.  It is truly amazing.  It has solved a lot of problems that I'd had with my previous, dated kit.  I had to get all the necessary files off my old Mac and transfer it onto the new one.  This didn't take too long as most of the necessary files were online as I reuse a lot of code for various purposes.  

Once my iMac was ready for action, I got started on the Parish History.  Finished it this evening.  It is not in its perfect form but at least it can now finally be read by all.  I need to finish scanning the pictures I have for the history section, then I will be able to give you lucky visitors two options:  either read the history, or see it in picture form through various photos taken throughout the parish's development.  My plan is to use Picasa to present the pictures of the history section.  It hasn't let me down thus far so why start looking elsewhere now.  It's so quick for me to get pictures on there in a nice, presentable format.  

Another plus for my new, beautiful iMac is that I now have enough processing power to edit the Virtual tours of all the churches and social clubs.  The Video section will soon be born, I promise.  HAHAHAHA.  

One dilemma I did encounter whilst using my new Mac is that I didn't have a decent image-editing software app like Photoshop to create graphics for the website.  I did some research whilst at work (without breaking work's Electronic Media Policy of course) into cheaper alternatives and found a great alternative called Pixelmator.  It was only £40 (as opposed to Photoshop's thousands) and does all I need.  Absolute bargain and will be a worthy assistant in the site's development.  

I am curious about what is everyone's favourite way to navigate the site.  Whether you are a regular visitor to the site or not, please take the time to vote on the poll at the bottom of the homepage.  If there are enough votes for the Drop Down Menu, then I will come up with something different for the homepage.  Don't worry you Icon lovers, they will always be there in some capacity.  

  

Finally, I uploaded another set of pictures to the Events Gallery.  Check out everyone having a good time at the Halewood Lourdes Association Evening.  

Remember Me?

Uploaded some more pics to the gallery this evening.  They are from the thanksgiving devoted to our two lovely pastoral assistants, Sr. Clarissa and Sr. Ideojima (apologies if I misspelt).  It was a lovely way to spend the morning and early afternoon.  It was also a rare opportunity to get up early on a Saturday.  Doesn't happen very often at all.  

I've also been messing about with a new toy.  I bought Father a dictaphone for him to record an audio message for the website.  I have tested it thoroughly this evening and it works a treat.  I have also tried putting some recorded files online to see how they sound and how slow they download.  It passed with flying colours so I will be passing the dictaphone to father for him to start recording his messages.  By the time I get the section online there should be plenty of audio morsels for you to devour. 

Another thing I have been experimenting with tonight is a music player that can play MP3s on a website.  This venture has been the least successful aspect of this evening.  I can get the player to display online, but it won't play the music file on there.  All in an evenings work for your webmaster and you, my readers, will be first to know when my experiment has been deemed successful.  

For now, tatty filarious!!!