FolioDriver Changes

Well, it's been a while since there's been an update here, but that doesn't mean all's been quite within FolioDriver. Quite the contrary actually, things have been quite busy in regards to FolioDriver. The reason things have been quite on the blog and few updates have been given recently is that all the new changes are strictly back-end changes, so there's really nothing for the average user to see or notice.

But now that these changes are well underway, and still have a ways to go before they're finished, I decided to give a small update to let everyone know that we're still here and still working on the site.

The changes being done are a complete, but gradual, rewrite of the entire code base powering FolioDriver. Once this is done the same thing will be done on the front-end. All the HTML, JavaScript and CSS will be redone to make it more compliant and to make sure it validates as properly coded CSS and HTML. Although this section of the changes will be to the front-end there will be few, if any, visual changes made. The purpose of this re-write is to reorganize how things are done. Doing so brings two big benefits to the table that users will notice later on.

1. Speed. The new CSS, HTML and Javascript will be noticably faster loading on the front-end and the back-end changes will also make the site faster and allow us to scale the site better so more users won't mean a slower site.
2. Expansion. The new code base is being structured and organized in such a way as to make improvements in the future much easier and quicker then they were with the current code base. This means adding new features and improving existing ones can be done much quicker and more more often as there is much less effort in doing so.

While we understand that, to many of you, these changes don't really mean much we feel it is important to emphasize these two points. All these changes that have been going on for the past several weeks will enable us to provide a faster, more robust FolioDriver to you with all the bells and whistles you want and need.

Themer v2 Launched

Today marks the launch of the FolioDriver Themer v2. When Themer was first released the original idea behind it was to allow users to customize the color selection of their portfolios. Now with v2 this is finally possible. The v1 release laid the ground work and provided the ability to select from pre-built color schemes, but now all the colors on a portfolio can be customized.

To access Themer you simply have to select the 'Remember Me' option when logging into FolioDriver and then visit your portfolio. At the top of the page will be a 'Show Themer' button you can use to reveal Themer.

Customizing a color scheme can be done in one of two ways. The first is to select one of the pre-built color schemes and then select the Custom option on the far left of Themer. This will release a series of text boxes, one for each color on the portfolio. Select a text box will cause a color picker to appear that you can then use to select a new color for that area. Select 'Save Color Selection' will then save the currently selected colors.

The second way is to open Themer and go straight to Custom. At this point all the text boxes will be blank, allowing you to customize only the specific colors you want.

Tell Us What You Think

Today a new link was added to the footer on FolioDriver that links to a feedback page powered by the User Voice service. The page can be found here as well as in the footer on all FolioDriver pages. Any feedback you have can be entered here and every item will be reviewed. One of the nice things about this service is that it also allows you to vote on existing items so more popular requests can be done before all the others.

You can also contact us through the Contact form on the site and through the comments section of this blog. All ideas and feedback is welcomed and will be read and considered.

New Design

Over the past few weeks FolioDriver has gone through several design changes in an effort to come up a design that is both easy on the eyes and easy to use. We feel that the latest design, the one currently on the site, meets both of these rather basic requirements. However, in addition to matching both these requirements it is also flexible enough to meet the continuously changing feature set of FolioDriver. Any feed back on this new design is welcomed and appreciated.

Testimonials

Joining the the themer on the list of new features this week is portfolio testimonials. When adding or editing portfolios users will now find an option labeled 'Enable Testimonials Page'. Turning this on will open a new screen in the Portfolio Manager, as well as create a new link labeled 'Testimonials' on the portfolio. The screen on the Portfolio Manager will allow users to manually enter testimonials they would like to have show up as well as re-order them using simple drag-and-drop functionality.

Testimonials are automatically styled before being displayed so users do not need to worry about adding quotes to the testimonials. Proper, typographically correct, "smart quotes" are used instead of regular "dumb quotes" as well.

Plans are already under way for a full feature set for this new setting to enable users to edit every aspect of this page to make it more customizable. Any updates to this feature, or any other feature on the site, will be provided on this blog. As always, feedback and suggestions are welcome in both the comments section or through the contact form on the site.

FolioDriver Themer

One of the most requested things from people so far has been to be able to change the colors of the portfolio templates, or to at least have more colors available. It is because of those requests that the FolioDriver Themer has been released today. The themer is here to help solve this problem, and is just one of the many parts of FolioDriver designed just for you that will be constantly evolving to become easier to use and better.

How Do I Use The Themer?
Unlike other features the themer is not available in the back-end with the other settings. Instead the themer shows up on your portfolio, but only when you're logged into your FolioDriver account. First login, then go to your portfolio, and a 'Show Themer' button will appear at the top of the page, on every page. Clicking this will expand the themer, allowing you to change the color selection of your portfolio.

How Does The Themer Work?
When you expand the themer you will have a set of pre-built color schemes available. If you hover of them you can preview how they look on the current page. You can also click one to lock it on, allowing you to close the themer and see how the current page looks. This also allows you to see things like the hover state of links and navigation items. Once a color set is locked the only way to preview others is to lock them as well.

Simply locking or hovering over a color set will not save that color set to your portfolio, it is only a preview. Next to the pre-built color sets is a 'Save' button, once a color set is locked this button will become active and can be used to save the selected color set.

So Where Do We Go From Here?
Like all other parts of FolioDriver, the themer is just one piece of the big picture. Many other features are being worked on, with updates to be provided on this blog. But, like all the other existing features, the themer will also be getting continuous updates as well. The first set of updates is simply going to be more and more pre-built color sets. With plans to allow users to build their own pre-built color sets as well.

The idea of real-time edits being made to portfolios is one that will be explored further into other areas, besides just colors. Such as entire portfolio templates, updating/editing content, re-ordering home page blocks, re-ordering folders, updating/editing folders and home page blocks and more. This is just the first set of many many features to be put into the themer and have big plans for it.

Feedback on such features is always welcome in the form of both comments and emails.

Portfolio Templates

The most important part of FolioDriver is the portfolios, obviously. And the most important part of the portfolios is how they look to the people who will be seeing them. To this end, the most important part of FolioDriver is the portfolio templates. The templates control how the portfolios look, so care needs to be taken when building them. Currently there are only a handful of templates to choose from, but but more are being worked on and more will always be worked on. One of the things about FolioDriver is that it will never be done. It will also be getting new features, updated to existing features, and new templates for portfolios.

The purpose of this post is just to explain some of the things that go into designing the templates.

• Color scheme. The color scheme used needs to be both pleasing, but also different if possible. All the templates can't have the same color scheme, so any time possible the colors need to be mixed up.
• General layout. Just like the same color scheme can't be used for every template, neither can the same layout be used for every template of a different color scheme.
• Feature Set. Every portfolio, though displayed differently needs to contain the same set of features. This means when new features are added, they have to be added to every template set currently in the system.

While new templates are being worked on constantly, these three points are what dictate the templates that get added and the difficulty of adding them. The third point is the most important one and the one that needs to be handled the most carefully. When there are only a handful of templates, like there are now, adding new features is easy. But when the time comes that there are dozens in the system, adding new features becomes time consuming, slow and difficult.

Portfolio templates are important to FolioDriver and you, it's users. But they also must be done carefully and properly. Not just added, in bulk, to the site, or things down the road will get messy. If you don't see any you like, or would like one(s) you don't see, feel free to let us know. We are always working on new ones.