Improved Searching and Tagging, and 20 New Designers and Developers
I think this is the last time I manually assemble the weekly list of new folks to join ByFolio... I'll have to write some code to do it for me, because this list just took about 30 minutes to gather together!
- 108 Digital - Fyshwick, ACT, Australia
- 1stOmni - Natick, MA, United States
- Agency3 - Lexington, MA, United States
- APOK Technology - Ofallon, MO, United States
- CBlackburn Consulting, Inc. - Overland Park, KS, United States
- Chrobis Web Designs - Leeds, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
- Computerminds - Clifton, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Digital Loom, Inc. - Cambridge, MA, United States
- Epicsea - Boston, MA, United States
- Gravitate Design Studio - Vancouver, WA, United States
- IMAGEX MEDIA - Surrey, BC, Canada
- Latent Motion - Brookline, MA, United States
- Lighthouse Technology Group - Lake Oswego, OR, United States
- MBA Team - Littleton, MA, United States
- Mediacurrent - Alpharetta, GA, United States
- Monsoon Company - Berkeley, CA, United States
- Palmer Huang - Boston, MA, United States
- Port City Web - Portsmouth, NH, United States
- Scott Jehl - Boston, MA, United States
- squareFACTOR - Boston, MA, United States
I had a chance this week to also make some great improvements to the search and tagging features. Ian from Civic Actions pointed out that clicking on links in the tag cloud on the main page didn't do what he expected for searching... he expected to see the results right away. Originally, I had each click on a tag append the term to the search box, and then you would have to actually click "Search" to perform the search. I believe Ian's expectation for how the search should behave is far more common than my original expectation, and I'm happy to say that this is fixed.
Now, clicking on each tag will immediately start the search for that tag. Clicking on additional tags will further refine the search. Since the site's built using AJAX techniques anyway, it ends up being a very smooth search process for the user, and the search results update in real time with each click. People can of course just type in their own search queries and click "Search", but the tags give a quick starting point for common search terms.
Here's an example where I've click on the tags for Boston, 1 or 2 people in the organization (i.e., a loose definition for "freelance" developers and designers... more to come on this), and cms (content management system):
The first click on Boston refines the results in real-time to Boston, the second click on the organization size further refines, etc. Clicking "Reset Folios" restores the display to like it was before the search.
I've also improved things for the developers and designers specifying the tags for their folios on their account pages. They can now just click on some of the common tags, and they'll be appended to the field (very del.icio.us like). Of course, they can write them in on their own if they'd like as well. Here's an example from the account page:
Posted at 02:44PM Apr 03, 2008 by Cory in Announcements | Comments[0]
Hugo Saves the Day for Java Image Resizing
Many thanks owed to Hugo over at Component House for his article on High-Quality Image Resize with Java. Since creating ByFolio, I've been unsettled about the quality of the smaller thumbnails created for the main showcase page. Particularly, text looked absolutely abysmal.
Here's an example of the medium size thumbnail generated from this original image:
Yuck, yuck, yuck. This atrocity was accomplished with a simple AffineTransform operation in Java to scale down from 525px x 525px to 275px x 275px. I had previously played around with setting aliasing values during the scale operation, but did not get significant improvements. As an added bonus, that black line along the right-hand side of the image is an artifact of the scaling operation when done incorrectly. All in all, I was left pretty disappointed by the results, but was forced to move on.
Hugo's article filled in the missing piece of the puzzle: blur the image, then do the resize! Here's the result:
Much better! I also took the opportunity to fix the black-line bug, and wrote a quick script to go back and fix all of the folio images that were already created. There's still room for improvement, but I can now table this until I have the time to go back and write a more universal image processor that can handle formats other than JPEGs.
Thanks Hugo!
Posted at 05:59PM Mar 31, 2008 by Cory in Development | Comments[1]
Welcome to Our 8 New Designers
We've had a busy week, and here are the latest web designers and firms to join us on ByFolio:
- Avidus Media - Newton, MA
- DutchMoney - Providence, RI
- Internal Matters - Newport, RI
- Kenmore Design - Boston, MA
- Nashua Web Design - Nashua, NH
- One Pica - Boston, MA
- Ripcord Design - Waltham, MA
- Web Depiction - New York, NY
Your work looks great, and we look forward to seeing more of it!
Posted at 08:46AM Mar 26, 2008 by Cory in Announcements | Comments[0]
Building ByFolio
I've gotten a number of inquiries on the framework behind this site, and how it was built.
To put it in concise technical terms, the ByFolio interface is an XML SOAP web service client written in JavaScript, and employing AJAX techniques. The web service itself was written in Java, using Axis2, running in the Tomcat6 servlet container.
I'm sure there are other folks out there that are also building production web applications on top of SOAP web services. I don't know of any, so if you do, I'd love to hear from you!
Now, for the actual story behind this approach, we'll have to go back to the motivations that had me looking at web services to begin with. You can read Part 1 of this story on my professional blog Standing on the Brink.
Posted at 11:11AM Mar 21, 2008 by Cory in Development | Comments[1]
Welcoming Hull Creative, Technivant, and Velvet Blues to ByFolio
I'd like to extend a welcome to our latest Boston and Chicago web designers to join ByFolio:
- Hull Creative Group - Brookline, MA
- Technivant - Cambridge, MA
- Velvet Blues - Chicago, IL
Posted at 02:55PM Mar 19, 2008 by Cory in Announcements | Comments[0]
Tired of People Looking Good On Paper, But Doing Bad Work
We're up and running! Here's the official press release:
BOSTON, MA (March 18, 2008) – Cory von Wallenstein today unveiled ByFolio.com, showcasing over 100 of the best web sites that were designed and developed in Boston. Those looking to hire a marketing agency, design firm, or an individual designer can now choose people to work with based first and foremost on the quality of the work they've already done.
"Being burned one too many times myself in hiring folks for creative services, I know first-hand the tedious process of scouring through A-Z directories of local companies, inspecting each of their portfolios, and calling each of their references," said Cory von Wallenstein, President of ByFolio.com, "only to come across someone who would have been better for the job after the project was completed. My wife and I decided to do something about it."
ByFolio.com enables users to browse through local work, and even search for specific tools, technologies, or techniques they would like to see used in upcoming projects. Users then choose the work examples, called folios, that appeal to them, and can then get in touch with the designers to learn more about working together.
"It's the work that matters most, and now it comes first," continued von Wallenstein.
More than 40 Boston-area firms are currently signed up for the beta, showcasing work done for clients, both public and private, including fashion designers, Ivy League universities, gourmet coffee and tea purveyors, and boutique hotel hotspots.
ByFolio.com is owned and operated by a husband and wife team, Cory von Wallenstein and Jessica von Wallenstein. The team plans on expanding service next to New York and Los Angeles for web designers, followed by additional creative service markets including photography, interior design, graphic and print design, and architecture.
Posted at 05:43PM Mar 18, 2008 by Cory in Press | Comments[0]