Accolade 3 is being released just in time for the new WordPress 3.3, and everything is working great. I would like to thank everyone who was involved in the making of this accomplishment. Please expect one more release (3.1) shortly after 3.0, which will address any final issues with 3.0, if there are any at all.

The Future of Accolade

Accolade 3 is special, because it’s going to be my second to last release (3.1 will be the final release) while still at NMSU. I graduated this month, and will be moving out of the state to Arizona to continue my career. It has been my pleasure to be a contributor to Accolade to help NMSU and the many friends I have made along the way.

I, and others, created Accolade because we really feel WordPress is the most suitable, usable, extendable (through plugins), and powerful CMS platform for NMSU staff and faculty. Since it is open source, issues with bugs and software are addressed in a timely and finely-detailed manner. Another benefits of being open source is that it will always be standard, user friendly, and filled with modern features. I really feel that WordPress is easy to use and learn, and many of the faculty and staff that I have worked with can attest to that. WordPress also isn’t limiting, it’s real power comes from it’s plugin feature. Plugins allow WordPress (and Accolade) to accomplish many various tasks when WordPress or Accolade are limited. It is it’s excitability that allows not-so-savvy staff and faculty to meet college and departmental requirements without the need to hire technical staff and/or violate NMSU branding initiatives.

I won’t be here for the 2012 year to try and move WordPress and Accolade forward with NMSU as a CMS. I am personally requesting that anyone who reads this blog, or has used Accolade with WordPress, please do everything you can to create awareness about Accolade in 2012. Accolade 3 has been created for NMSU, for you, as a gift for everyone who would like to create websites at NMSU. It has been in the works for over four years and is a complete and robust product perfected in over five different departments at NMSU, of which Accolade has more than met their individual and overall needs. Accolade has been used at the Provost Office, the College of Business, the Honors College, Human Resources, WERC, and the College of Latin American and Border Studies because it is a good product.

The Future of NMSU

I know that NMSU will be moving forward with it’s websites and CMS technology soon, and I have only heard rumors as to what that future looks like. It is my hope that Accolade, as a gift, fully available to all at NMSU, will be properly considered (and represented) as a product that might help NMSU as a whole. It’s code is scalable, fully commented and documented, and fully customized to meet future needs and changes (HTML5, RSS, Blogging, Browser Compatibility, etc). It’s written in HTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript, languages familiar to NMSU developers and IT personnel so that the learning curve for the code is soft and easy to scale.

I have modified Accolade 3 specifically to meet any final concerns and requests from NMSU Developers, University Communications, and IT operators. It fully complies with NMSU branding specifications, and has been reviewed and scrutinized numerous times by staff and faculty in order for it to meet the requirements of editors and content authors as well NMSU as an entity.

It is my hope, and request, that Accolade have a part in the future of NMSU. I created Accolade out of a need, which put emphasis the user-friendliness of creating NMSU websites. It is this need that Accolade directly addresses, a need NMSU has failed to address in the past, otherwise I would not have created. As a professional in the Web industry, a person with a confident skill-set and knowledge of websites, coding, and design, and a proud Aggie-alumnus, Accolade can meet the requirements of this need, because it already has.

Please help the Accolade cause by sharing this post in your Facebook, Yammer, and Twitter accounts and/or submitting testimonials below in the comment section. This products future, a gift to you and NMSU, is in your hands.

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-Aubrey Portwood

So, I’ve been planning on the release of Accolade 3. Per a few meetings/discussions with NMSU staff and University Communications, about some concerns with Accolade, there will be a few changes in Accolade in version 3. Version 3 should be the last version I will be releasing before I graduate (I graduate in December this year). I would like to see Accolade involved in any NMSU sites that are powered by WordPress when I leave. This whole time I have been developing Accolade, it has been for NMSU as a whole.

In some meetings a few concerns have come up. Mainly having to do with:

• Rotis font features & consistency
• Body font changes, and again, consistency
• And, the previous menu

So, in Accolade 3, I have decided to:

• Turn off Rotis font features being on by default; It is not recommended that you turn it on, since other sites do not use Rotis fonts. This will hurt the overall consistency between sites. Though, I feel, there is plenty of inconsistency to begin with, I think it is a good move to disable Rotis by default. Once NMSU decides to go forward with any Rotis font embedding, Accolade will be ready for the switch.
• Change the body font to Lucida Sans; Again, for consistency.
• Leave the Previous Menu off by default (can be used at your discretion); The previous menu has mixed reactions. Thought breadcrumbs serve as a reverse navigational feature, it is often ignored. So, by default the Previous Menu will be off by default. Though, because it has been found to be useful, it can be used if you choose by enabling it.

These concerns are the only concerns that have to be changed. The rest of Accolade’s features and design will remain untouched, such as fixed width, to-the-top button, and better breadcrumbs. Also, a few new features will be added to Accolade (details coming soon!).

So look forward to Accolade 3 in the near future!

There is a bug in WordPress 3.2.1 that when “WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically” is enabled causes the HTML of bullet lists to become jumbled. To fix this, disable “WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically” in Settings>Writing of your WordPress dashboard.

This option should be left on, but for now you will have to disable it to use bullet lists in your posts and pages. I will post an update when this has been fixed.

The bug has been filed at: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/18312

A new feature to be added to Accolade 2.0.3.1! Just thought I would share a walk-through of how it works and how to enable it. I will be releasing Accolade 2.0.3.1 soon, once I finish up a few things with HTML5 (yep, it’s HTML5 ready!).

Currently this release will only be available for current installs only. If you have any questions about why it is only for current installs, please contact me: aubrey@nmsu.edu

The demo below uses the class=listcolumns method. Use an inspector and check it out for yourself.

• Demo
  • Item 1
  • Item 2
  • Item 3
• Demo 2
  • Item 1
  • Item 2
  • Item 3
• Demo 3
  • Item 1
  • Item 2
  • Item 3
• Demo4
• • item 1
  • item 2
  • item 3

On Accolade Help:

Be careful with the Uncategorized Category; How to remove bulk items from Uncategorized

Temporarily all Accolade Downloads must go through your @nmsu.edu email address. This will ensure that all use of Accolade will be restricted to NMSU use only.

I need to come up with a more compatible way to do this, as the current way took some custom coding. I would like to code this in natively; possibly a feature for the coming version of Accolade 2.0.3.

I have updated these restrictions.

I spent today working with the IEE department on modifying the tiled style for displaying posts with great results!

Scroll around the screenshot above, or go here for the image, and let me know what you think.

Through the help of IEE, I found that blip.tv offers a good alternative to YouTube to avoid linkbacks and related video problems.

Check this out in the Help Section »

Frontera Norte Sur, a project of Latin American Studies, that provides on-line news coverage of the US-Mexico border, has joined the Accolade family.

Frontera serves primarily as a blog. Early on, this possibility, of using Accolade strictly as a blog, was integrated into Accolade 2. Modern editing and mobility were key features which led Latin American Studies to consider WordPress and Accolade. In a single day I was able to install WordPress, move a database, install Accolade and give them a feature rich site that will help their on-location authors publish more engaging material easily!

I just wanted to welcome them to Accolade, and hope they benefit from it.

Since releasing Accolade 2 some important visual bugs were reported and found. These have all been fixed in 2.0.2, which is available for download.

ChangeLog

2.0.2

• Fixed search area being white.

2.0.1

• Fixed print stylesheet not working.
• Updates and Ajax calls removed due to cross domain problems.