akamike switches to HTML5 and Movable Type
Yesterday, I soft launched the new version of akamike. If you're viewing the site in a browser, you'll first notice a new design, but if you dig deeper and look at the source, you'll find something far more interesting!
Version 4 of akamike has been marked up in HTML5, taking advantage of some of the new elements for improved semantics and document structure. Writing at HTML5Doctor, and my own general interest, has had me involved with this new standard for quite some time. Redesigning akamike was the perfect opportunity for implementing it, and has found me reviewing what I previously thought about some elements in HTML5. Dig around in the source and feel free to ask in the comments about how it has been done.
The redesign also gave me the excuse to change content management systems. For a while now I have been drifting away from Wordpress and my work at Lift is primarily with Movable Type, so it makes sense for me to use a system I can develop far faster in and honestly enjoy working with more. It was quick and easy to move content across, and integrating the site into MT was very easy.
I am using MT to run multiple sites on my server space, including another which has also recently launched in HTML5. But more on that another time ;) I am looking to take advantage of more of MT's functionality in the near future, such as the user sign-in options. Keep an eye out for little tweaks here and there!
As well as some new functionality, I will still be tweaking the design over the next couple of weeks and correcting old posts, some of which have some formatting issues from the content transfer. If you spot any issues, or just have some general comments, let me know! :)
7 Comments
Jack Osborne
Weird that I didn't notice this post when you pushed the redesign live? Anyway, as I said previously I love the new look, it's certainly a step away from previous designs.
Looking forward to seeing the new site that utilises HTML5 :)
Cecily
Hi Mike,
I hope you don't mind me asking this, but I've not been able to find documentation on this anywhere...
How did you manage to get the URLs generated by MovableType to match the WordPress style, cruft-free URL format? Presently my WordPress URLs are styled like yours, but if I move to MovableType, all my URLs will have the .html extension on the end, which means tons of broken links.
Thanks in advance for any links/tips.
Mike Robinson
@Jack: Thanks mate! The feed was acting a bit funny so I don't know if it has actually been pushed out by feedburner. I'll keep an eye on it when I publish my next post :)
@Cecily: You can set the entry archive mapping to use "/category/entry-basename/index.html" which is essentially the same thing as it will look for index.html by default if you browse to "http://your-site.com/entry-category/entry-title/". Hope this helps!
Cecily
Thank you so much for this, Mike.
David Myers
Looks great mike. I'm a big fan of this simple redesign.
Omar Reyes (Dog Care Journey)
"For a while now I have been drifting away from Wordpress" - your design looks nice and clean. Although, I am still an avid Wordpress users :(.
Omar
Mike Robinson
Ironically, the latest version of MT has an interface very similar to WP. Oh well, I didn't ditch WP for the admin panel, it was the functionality of MT and the fact I am always using it at work that made me decide to switch. :)