The ramblings of a developer
WeaverPix, the little slideshow plugin that could, has been rapidly growing. 2011 proved to be a strong year for the plugin where we saw a lot of fun and exciting new features. For instance, 2011 brought new Flickr enhancements (v2.7.0 due soon!), the ability to generate thumbnails from warehoused images (v2.7.0), and automatic thumbnail resizing for Picasa and Flickr (v2.5.0). WeaverPix is ready for 2012 and I am excited to deliver improvements and features to the (dare I say, best?) slideshow plugin for RapidWeaver.
WeaverBox has been making steady strides to be the best drop box solution for RapidWeaver. Version 2 officially debuted on January 4th with an entire rewrite that included a new uploader, customized email receipts, admin page, and themes. The new uploader supports file chunking the ability to upload files in pieces which are then reassembled on the server. This gets around a lot of PHP installations and allows users to upload large files (750MB files have been tested successfully with a theoretical limit of 2GB!).
WeaverBox will be seeing a lot of new updates and improvements in 2012. Look for some of the first updates to roll out early in the year!
WeaverFM hit a huge milestone in 2011. Version 1.5.0 added support for an entirely new and improved front and backend. WeaverFM is now easier to use, has more security features baked in, and compatible with more hosting environments.
I look forward to continuing work on weaverFM in 2012. Version 1.5.0 will allow me to add more features that were never before possible!
This year the RapidWeaver community has seen a Stacks explosion. Stacks v2 debuted and has taken the community by storm. My Stacks (Image Box, Image Expander, Image Magnifier and Image Slider) have all been updated to take advantage of the new Stacks API. Best of all, these updates are free for existing users!
Although Image Box and Image Slider are the only new Stacks for 2011, additional Stacks are planned for 2012 (and some are already in the works!). Stay tuned!
One of my more exciting projects of 2011 is JavabeanHosting. JavabeanHosting aims to be a new take on shared web hosting. Gone are the days of slow servers, restrictive PHP settings, and NO you cant do that from your host. Javabean aims to bring the essential services that you need for hosting speed, reliability, great customer support (hello, its a RW developer answering your emails!), daily backups and GZip Compression (the ability to send compressed versions of your site for faster load times. [1] [2]).
Whats in store for 2012? Id love to tell you but this is uber secret. Sorry :)
Personally, 2011 was a very busy year and Id like to take a moment to say thanks to those who made it great: