the russian version of shca.com

we love wordpress, we really do. we love working with the platform and all the things it can do. we just finished a pretty complex build that required a lot of customization. about a year ago our friends at 4corners, designed and built a site for their client Swanke Hayden Connell Architects at shca.com.

they also love wordpress  - as you can tell by their cool site too -  and they did a great job of pushing all the data into a flash front end using the WP cms.  this year they asked us to help them translate shca.com to russian. the task was pretty daunting as the request was to use a single admin login to update both russian and english versions simultaneously. since the site is graphics heavy - with images shown in multiple places and in multiple sizes we had to make sure that all relations were kept AND doubled to display in both version.

the english and russian input fields

first chris implemented qtranslate and had to go through and make sure all the tags were compatible with wp2.5 of the original build. qtranslate is a great plug in and we highly recommend it for anyone looking to do a multi-language build.  we then had to enable russian text fields for every variable entry and hand code whatever wasn’t. the media upload area was particularly difficult, but with some custom plug-ins and general hacks it all came together.

overall radian said that once he learned ‘all the hooks in wordpress’ it wasn’t that bad. we think it came out really good. but if any of our russian friends find any mistakes let us know. and now, if only shca can resolve their dns and have their web address show up in the url bar instead of their ip address, it’ll be even better.

http://www.bringdownie6.com/

in february, 2009 norwegian website administrators started a grass roots movement in an attempt to force the web world to relinquish it’s grip on the past - only 8 in IT years -  and stop using internet explorer 6 as a browser. it seems that the movement has caught some momentum with .net magazine joining in the protests. if you don’t know .net magazine, check it out. it has more than just .net development news.

when IE6 was released in august of 2001 IT departments around world installed it corporate servers and there it has lived untouched  - save for a few upgrades - for years. and don’t get me wrong, when it was first released it was a decent browser for it’s time, but now it’s a dinosaur and it should be put to rest. trust us, we know. we’re still dealing with corporate IT depts that utilize it and we have to develop additional code that may or may not parse properly in it’s antiquated engine. it doesn’t even read css 2.0 properly.

so today we’re joining the cause and will not support developement for internet explorer 6.0 anymore - and we urge our other web friends to do so too. long live safari 4 - and mozilla too of course - woot!

thanks vin for the heads up  to the bring down site.

bringdownie6.com