Welcome to Yitwail's Portfolio

This website is closely patterned after a production Joomla 1.0 Content Management System website by a reputable, local web development firm. Unlike that site, this one uses only HTML, PHP, JavaScript, and Ajax. Please test drive it and send me an email if there are any questions*. You can see my resumé elsewhere on the site, but I'll tell you upfront that I am just an aspiring web developer at this point. (That's why I've directed you to a simulated production website instead of a portfolio of actual sites.) On the other hand, I'm an old, former silicon valley peon with a ton of application design experience.

I have tried to minimize the non-HTML content of every page on the site. The scrolling marquee on the right and a scroll down Demos menu at the top are the only dynamic components of this page. The Demo pages for Page Editor, Gallery and Content have considerable dynamic content.

The site uses client-side PHP for file and database access and Javascript and Ajax for behavior and dynamic content. To anyone unfamiliar with Ajax, it's a method of requesting dynamic content from the server. For example, the marquee gets a list of images from the server in this way, so there is no hardcoded list of images to display. Another common use of Ajax is in form validation. If a user submits a form which fails server validation, an alert box can indicate the error and allow the user to correct it and resubmit the form without retyping anything else because with AJax forms can be submitted without navigating to a new page.

The JavaScript degrades gracefully, which is to say, the site works with JavaScript disabled, albeit more slowly. The only exception is Page Editor, since it's written in JavaScript.

For comparison purposes, I also have a companion website that closely resembles this one, except that it's built with the Joomla 1.5 CMS. That site will be more sluggish than this one because it lacks Ajax.

*I can answer one question you may have even without your email. My domain name is pronounced white whale. I'm fond of both Moby Dick and belugas, although belugas are closer to dolphins than whales, I believe.