Evolution: A Weblog by Third North Creative

We are proud to announce the launch of the Puck Systems V2 demo site. Stop by the site and check out the new “Add a Page” and “Edit Page” functionality. The demo site is a sneak-peak of what Puck Systems clients can expect in the upcoming V2 release.

V2 represents a total overhaul in functionality and design and truly brings professional internet communication tools to the youth sports realm. Since the inception of Puck Systems we have had the great fortune of working with incredible clients. Clients who are as passionate about their youth sports organizations as we are about web development. It’s these passionate clients that have provided an incredible amount of inspiration during the current development cycle… and ultimately influenced a number of great enhancements and features that will be present in the final release of V2.

Please experiment with the demo, add, edit or delete anything you want. Brief instructions can be found on the “Instructions” page. After you play with the demo, stop back and leave a comment- these comments will serve as valuable input as we put the finishing touches on V2.

UPDATE 2/14/07: We have launched a new Puck Systems Demo Site at: http://demo.pucksystems2.com/

We took a break yesterday morning and headed down to the Local (a fantastic Irish Pub on the Nicolette Mall) to watch the USA face off against Ghana in World Cup action. Unfortunately the US came up short, but never-the-less we headed outside to enjoy the amazing day and to try and forget the loss.

There’s just something invigorating about downtown Minneapolis during the summer months. The hustle and bustle of the streets and sidewalks, the vendors selling fresh fruit and flowers, and the warm sun peaking past the skyscrapers- inspiration comes standard in a city like this.

We happened to have the 360 photography gear with us, and dodging traffic and timing stoplights I managed to capture the scene. Over the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to shoot a wide variety of these photographs for our clients at some gorgeous locations and have posted a selection in the Third North Photography Portfolio for your viewing pleasure.

UPDATE: Another gorgeous summer Minneapolis location, the Lake Harriet Bandshell for an evening concert. This particular shot was taken during the Minnesota Sinfonia performance a couple of weeks ago. The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board keeps a useful online schedule of all Lake Harriet concerts and events for anyone interested in spending some quality time down by the lake. Impressively, during the summer months, there is something going on just about every day.

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the defining features in Puck Systems V2 will be the ability to drag, drop and order content at will. Gone will be the days of alpha ordering and the little tricks of the trade that are necessary to manipulate that order.

For example: currently if your association webmaster wants to change the order of the board members on the BOARD page, they have a couple different options. The best option is to position your cursor in the Last Name Blank and hit the space bar to create a space before the last name starts. The more white space, the higher that individual rises on the list. This is a work-around for the current alpha ordering.

While those work-arounds get the job done in the short term, they are not a great long term solution. That is why we’ve created the ability for drag and drop ordering. Using a combination of the Javascript, AJAX and RoR programming languages, all Puck Systems websites will soon have this feature. The attached photo shows the Goal Line website “board” section as the webmaster would see it when logged in. To reorder those names using the drag and drop, the webmaster simply needs to click on the little gray bar above the name and move it up or down accordingly.