RapidWeaved interviews RapidWeaver Classroom

Just this past Friday I had the opportunity to talk to Ryan Smith of RapidWeaver Classroom, the original, longest running RapidWeaver tutorial/screencasting website. In light of the recent relaunch of RapidWeaver Classroom for it's 1st anniversary, I thought it would be nice to sit down with Ryan and talk about the last year and what the future has in store for the popular resource.

seyDoggy: When did you start RapidWeaver Classroom?

Ryan Smith: May 1, 2008. So it's just been a year

seyDoggy: What was your initial inspiration?

Ryan Smith: I had been doing one-on-one training and consulting with RapidWeaver users for about 6 months at the time. I thought there had to be a better way to teach users without having to do it individually and scheduling meeting times. I picked-up on the screencasting idea soon thereafter and it took-off from there!

seyDoggy: Tell me then what RapidWeaver Classroom has to offer RapidWeaver users?

Ryan Smith: RapidWeaver Classroom's video tutorial library is currently at around 130 screencasts totaling about 17 hours of instruction. I cover every feature of RapidWeaver (versions 3.6 and 4.0) in detail, and my approach is to assume that there is no familiarity with any of it. This is so a brand new RapidWeaver user, with no website design experience, can get very comfortable with the application, having each feature thoroughly explained. Beyond the program itself, I cover the 3rd-party plugins and even some 3rd-party themes. Most of the major plugins are already available, though I am posting weekly updates with new plugin screencasts.

Beyond the instruction available through the website, I want to provide a service that has great value, where with little expense, a person can learn how to create and maintain their own website, or even offer website design as a service. I want everyone who subscribes to become confident in their abilities to use RapidWeaver and design a website.

seyDoggy: Do you handle certain tutorial requests, and if so, what are some of the most frequently asked questions?

Ryan Smith: I do have subscribers request specific tutorials on occasion, and I keep a list of these for future consideration. I am most likely to fulfill requests on subjects that I receive more inquiries on. For example, a popular subject is SEO, and so I am planning an entire section on the subject. For those who have very specific project-specific needs, it doesn't make sense to publish a screencast on the topic, but I do still provide my consulting service, and I can even create personalized screencasts for those individuals.

seyDoggy: In the last year RapidWeaver has seen a lot of changes and the user base has grown significantly. How has this effected your overall approach?

Ryan Smith: I think it confirms the approach I take as I create my tutorials. Instead of just "showing" how to do something, my intention is to actually teach. So it's not about seeing how something works, but seeing and understanding why. With all of these new users adopting RapidWeaver as their development platform, it's important to me that they understand the value of the application, its strengths and capabilities. This is also why I continue to release tutorials on the 3rd-party plugins and themes, to help users understand how RapidWeaver can be enhanced to do even more for them.

seyDoggy: I have heard many users say you have a measured, patient approach and your technique makes no assumptions as to the users ability. What are the things you try to keep in mind about your students when preparing a new video?

Ryan Smith: That's great you've been told that, because that is absolutely my intention. I have an I.T. support background, and I.T. support people have a tendency to be too technical when speaking with the average user who is needing support. I think through that experience I developed my methods of explaining and teaching - to make no assumptions and to explain things accordingly, without antagonizing someone at the same time. So this is my approach as I create my tutorials. I might provide too much detail for some users, but I'd rather be accused of doing that then take the chance of skimming over crucial details.

seyDoggy: So you've recently relaunched your site and service in celebration of 1 year in service. What was the motivation for this?

Ryan Smith: In all honesty, when I first launched RapidWeaver Classroom a year ago, I was more focused on the content (screencasts) and didn't put enough effort into the design of the website. I think the original design of the website was average, and since I am teaching people how to use RapidWeaver, I needed to do a better job of showing-off its capabilities. I spent a lot of time in choosing the design, the layout of my content and which plugins I should utilize to achieve what I wanted. I'm especially thankful to you for your help with the theme, and to Isaiah (YourHead) for the Stacks plugin - which I have used heavily in the new design.

seyDoggy: How has the decision to make some tutorials available on DVD been received and will you make the rest available at some point?

Ryan Smith: There have been some sales of the DVD, but it's not "flying off the shelves" by any means. The intended audience for the DVD is those who have bandwidth restrictions imposed by their ISP, those with poor or unreliable connections, or those who travel a lot and don't always have Internet access. I am always open to feedback from students and visitors, so I am kind of "playing it by ear" in regards to the DVD.

seyDoggy: What great things can we expect from RapidWeaver Classrooms in the next year?

Ryan Smith: Lots of things, and I hope they are considered great! There will continue to be the weekly updates of new screencasts, with the goal of exceeding 200 screencasts by the end of 2009. In addition, I am in the planning stages of something completely new, and I expect to have an announcement on this by the end of June.

seyDoggy: What are some of your favorite RapidWeaver innovations since you've started using RapidWeaver?

Ryan Smith: Well I absolutely loved the entire overhaul that was done to the interface with the 4.0 upgrade. Browsing themes became so difficult with the narrow theme drawer and the horizontal scrolling in 3.x, so the theme drawer in 4.0 was a very welcome improvement. I think that the overall usability really improved with 4.0, though the built-in pages haven't seen many major changes. The 3rd-party community has really taken the application to a whole new level since I started with RapidWeaver back in November of 2005. Blocks and now Stacks, PlusKit, Accordion, Carousel, Collage, e-commerce with PayLoom, GoogaLoom and the new RapidCart, and ExtraContent-enabled themes now take content layout to a whole new level. I don't know what RapidWeaver would be without the 3rd-party developers - I don't even want to imagine it!

seyDoggy: And one final question... you are stranded on a tropical island and have to choose between a hot model or a Macbook Pro (solar powered of course). Which one gets sent packing?

Ryan Smith: I suppose my wife is not with me so I'd have to take the MacBook Pro to communicate with her. There's also that email thing that could probably be beneficial in getting me off the island. Besides, how would I keep RapidWeaver Classroom updated without a computer?

10 Questions: Chris of Varsis Studio

Chris of Varsis Studio has been busy developing the highly anticipated CoverFlow plugin for RapidWeaver. Well-known for their 3rd-party theme offerings, Varsis Studio has their first plugin in the late stages of beta testing. Chris was kind enough to field some questions for this RapidWeaved interview. Enjoy!

RapidWeaved: To my knowledge you are the first developer of both themes and plugins for RapidWeaver. What do you enjoy about developing for RW?

Chris: I am not the only, but only one to make a somewhat sophisticated plugin. Josh Lockhart made a Yahoo search plugin [RapidSearch].

I enjoy everything about developing for Rapidweaver. I don't have to handle much on the back end but it has been a large learning experience, from beginning to start. I started doing themes a long time ago, and enjoyed that. I like mostly the large community and helpful people, I know how much help it is for people to get one-on-one experience and I like to do the same for customers and for my themes. Also, I enjoy others doing the same respect for me. I love doing this, and being a part time job has paid off a fair bit for me, as I don't have too many large, long breaks it helps to be doing this.

RapidWeaved: What was your motivation to branch into plugin development?

Chris: I wanted to learn something new, and I did and I still am learning. I have learned a lot on the way.

RapidWeaved: Before you started the CoverFlow project you asked the community what plugin they'd like to see. What was it about CoverFlow that made you decide to take it on?

Chris: CoverFlow seemed to be something new and innovative. It also was the most popular request I noticed, and I happened to find a lot of helpful stuff in creating the plugin; also got an experience in Flash which I did learn awhile back but never used it. It [Flash] has evolved a lot in the last few years.

RapidWeaved: Not only did you involve the RW community in deciding your first plugin, you've made everyone a part of the entire development process. You've made the betas public from very early on and have possibly the longest thread on the support forum! How has the experience been with making this process so public?

Chris: I have enjoyed it. I wish I could do themes like that, unfortunately there is no way to secure development on a theme, unlike a plugin. I like to implement what the community wants, not what I want, and it does seem to be very helpful to work, and also giving people the public beta gives them a chance to tell me what they would like or need.

RapidWeaved: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the feedback and requests?

Chris: Sometimes, yes. It has been overwhelming in-between school and this. But I try to get back on everything, and fulfill as many requests as I can though some are hard to do, or are almost impossible to do within coverFlow.

RapidWeaved: What makes you consider and address one feature request over another?

Chris: I try to weed out the impossible ones over the possible ones. It is hard because most of them are possible, but I try to get the most needed ones, or most requested.

RapidWeaved: What are some of the challenges you've faced during development?

Chris: I have had to learn how to replicate the users experience, but I have had to learn how to fix the problems. This is technically my first project, and learning the RapidWeaver API is like learning a new language. I've had to learn how to do everything just about from top to bottom.

RapidWeaved: Any projections on when CoverFlow could go final?

Chris: I hope to be getting close to the final here. With Flickr going to be supported in the next version, I hope the requests will finally slow down.

RapidWeaved: Have you started to consider what your next plugin might be?

Chris: I have considered it, but I haven't found any ideas which I will enjoy as much as this one yet.

RapidWeaved: Final question: Ben vs. Dan in a sock wrestling match. Who do you put your money on?

Chris: Who's the bigger guy? LOL I have never met them in real life so I don't know, but just for the sake of it, I would say Dan!

BlocksBox & JonasThemes

I've recently had the pleasure of working with the BlocksBox theme and talking with its developer, Jonas of JonasThemes. BlocksBox is probably the most unique of all the available RapidWeaver themes in that it is a blank slate -- no menu, no content containers -- and pretty much relies fully on the Blocks plugin from YourHead. The power of Blocks, combined with BlockBox and its variations, allows the RapidWeaver user to essentially develop their own theme and website with little limitation beyond their own imagination.

BlocksBox is literally a blank page when you first bring it up in RW's Preview mode, but there are categories of variations that allow you to quickly style the layout for your website. The variations in the Theme Inspector include: background color using the color picker, a custom background image, background image position, background image repeat (horizontally, vertically, or both), top spacing, header logo, font, font size, text color and styling using the color picker, photo album styling, blog styling, file sharing styling and contact form styling. These variations let you define some constants throughout your website, but everything else can be as dynamic as you wish since it is all added through Blocks.

RapidWeaver users are so accustomed to the navigation menu being one of the defining features of a theme that it can be a bit awkward to envision a theme without a navigation menu. The Blocks plugin provides the flexibility to create your menu with BlocksBox -- using plain text, image text or images you've collected or created yourself. Blocks' mouseover feature for images presents some particularly exciting options for your navigation menu where you can create some really cool hover effects for the menu options.

For my testing I created a splash page for a website using BlocksBox. I used a repeating image horizontally and vertically for the background of the site and placed the logo in the top left-corner of my Blocks page. I then added some text in a text block and added some text images I created in Photoshop for the menu options. Using the mouseover feature I animated the menu links by having them change colors on hover. In about 20 minutes I had a nice-looking splash page that doesn't look like something normally created in RapidWeaver. The BlocksBox-included variations made it especially easy to accomplish an attractive background without knowledge of CSS.

As it exists in its current version, BlocksBox is quite a powerful tool for creating a completely original website. The limitations I noticed were on account of what is expected to exist in a "normal" RapidWeaver theme. Typically a Blocks page will be the content area of your website that fits into a structured content container, but in the case of BlocksBox the Blocks page is the website, so that means that you will need to create the containers and divisions of your site's layout using lines and/or graphics if that's what you want. Graphic designers or people with some graphic skill will benefit when using BlocksBox -- not to say that BlocksBox users need to have graphic design skills to create something impressive. By the way, there is a nice showcase at the JonasThemes website that will give you some examples of the power behind BlocksBox.

Jonas has given me a beta version of his next update to BlocksBox, and at first glance it appears the new features will address some of the perceived limitations. At the least the update presents options that will make the design process even easier, so I look forward to the public release of this update in the future. And speaking of Jonas, I asked him to answer a few questions for me and so I will close-out this article with some insight from the BlocksBox Man himself!

RapidWeaved: How did your idea for BlocksBox come about?

Jonas: At first I build websites using the standard RapidWeaver themes. But after making about three websites I wanted to be able to have more influence on the layout. Because of the predefined layout in RapidWeaver I was forced using iWeb instead. But then I missed all the great page-styles and plug-ins, so I switched back and found the solution in using really minimal themes in combination with Blocks. I still wondered why there was no theme made specially for Blocks. I contacted Isaiah from Yourhead and he was shocked as well that no theme-developer created it yet. At that moment I never wrote a single line of code but three weeks later the first (not so stable version) of BlocksBox was launched to my own surprise.

RapidWeaved: What were some of the challenges you faced while developing the theme?

Jonas: The biggest challenge was to learn all the necessary code (.plist xhtml and css) and at the same time writing the BlocksBox-theme. I learned a lot during the development. And actually I still do not like writing codes but that's why I wrote BlocksBox.

RapidWeaved: How dependent is BlocksBox on the Blocks plugin? Can the theme be used without Blocks?

Jonas: BlocksBox has been written with Blocks in mind. BlocksBox can't function normal without it. Due to page-blocks most other page types can be imported into the Blocks pagestyle. BlocksBox makes Blocks a lay-out editor instead of just a content editing plug-in.

RapidWeaved: Since you started with a virtually limitless theme, do you see yourself creating more themes in the future?

Jonas: I am having some more theme ideas but at the moment I want BlocksBox to be better and more customizable first.

RapidWeaved: What are your plans concerning updates/upgrades for BlocksBox?

Jonas: I am currently working on a major BlocksBox upgrade. In the new version people do not need to enter the theme if they want custom background and it will also be possible to use the standard RW menu-system. Due to my study it may take some more time then originally planned but it will be sweet. Besides the theme the website will be updated as well with a lot more information.

Gary and the venerable RWT

seyDoggy: RapidWeaverThemes.com (RWT) is one of the original, if not THE original third party developer of RapidWeaver themes; what's it like to be able to fly that banner?

Gary: Well, to be completely honest I try not to fly that banner very often. As you know Dave Cantu was the original owner of RWT and I feel a little funny about claiming to be the first.

seyDoggy: For those that don't know, Dave Cantu cut his theme dev teeth on the now defunct Site Studio (a forerunner of sorts to todays RapidWeaver) before he founded RWT. How did you come to be in the captains chair at RWT?

Gary: Well, where do I begin ... way "back in the day" when RapidWeaver was still in version 3.0, I began using it for some small personal sites. In those days there were not very many 3rd party developers (only Dave, Charlie, Michaelangelo and Scott) so I was naturally intrigued with their themes. But around June or July of 05 there was some pretty strong dialog on the forums about 3rd party themes and how you could and could not use them etc... So much of it seemed really stupid to me so I decided to start my own little business developing themes. I was already familiar with html and was learning the ins and outs of css pretty fast. In the early days, it was seyDoggys' "abLe" theme, RapidIdeas "Diamond" theme and Multithemes themes that really opened my eyes as to what could actually be done with an RW theme. After some time, Dave approached me about buying him out and things just fell into place.

seyDoggy: For a while you ran both Pioneer Themes (your "own little business") and RWT in parallel. Is this still true today or has RWT pretty much absorbed Pioneer themes?

Gary: Originally my intentions were for it to be the other way around. I wanted for Pioneer to be the "mothership" and eventually do away with RWT. But I soon realized how powerful a name can be. (example: I could sell the exact same themes on Pioneer and RWT and the sales from RWT would be 10 times what Pioneer would be)

seyDoggy: You and I have seen RapidWeaver come up from being a small time app with a great community, to a critically acclaimed app with an unbelievably vibrant and lively community. Do you think you would be developing themes today if RapidWeaver were just as big but without the great community?

Gary: I seriously doubt it. A great part of what makes it so rewarding is the RW community. Dan and Co. have done an outstanding job of creating a RW "ecosystem".

seyDoggy: You probably have the most extensive theme library of any pro 3rd party developer. What drives you most to be as prolific as you are?

Gary: The monthly bills I have to pay ... lol, but seriously, usually it goes something like this. I see a website that I like and I say "ooh, I bet I could do something like that" and so I will sit down and try. A lot of times I will get an e-mail asking for a particular type of theme and I try to oblige.

seyDoggy: Where do you see RapidWeaver and RWT one year from now?

Gary: Boy I wish I knew ;). I am they type to always see the big picture. As I see Apples market share growing more and more that tells me that Realmac and RapidWeaver will only grow. They have a strong product and a great community. I think that that will bode well for the developers who have stuck it out. (You and me would be included in that list) As far as RWT ... there are so many things I would like to do with RWT but the but we're a prisoner to the name. Our Name will always be "RapidWeaverThemes". Where we go has a lot to do with where Realmac goes. If version 4 brings us some much needed changes then there will be a lot of room for expansion. If version 4 is pretty much the same then it will be harder to expand.

seyDoggy: What changes in RapidWeaver have impressed you the most since RW 3.0, and what changes do you think are still needed?

Gary: Well, the most obvious change would be the addition of the Color Choose that 3.6 brought. I would also have to say that the 3rd party plug-ins that are now available have been the most welcome change. I would like to see RW add native support for more navigation menu's as well as native support for 2 sidebars. Being able to do more in the footer area would also be a welcome addition. Gone are the days when RW was just a good "bloggers" web app. It has become so much more and I would like to see RW incorporate those into version 4+.

seyDoggy: Final question, I promise... wings or drumstick?

Gary: Drumsticks for sure.

An Interview with "Sundog"

Larry "Sundog" Pollock was kind enough to entertain some questions for my latest interview. Sundog is well-known for his contributions to the RapidWeaver community, including outstanding support, the inside RapidWeaver website, a book and a new theme called Squeeze. Enjoy!

RapidWeaved: First off I'd like to ask a couple of questions concerning your involvement in the RapidWeaver community. When did you begin using RW and what was your previous experience with website design?

Sundog: I started to notice RW in the summer of 2005. I was using Dreamweaver but had become frustrated with the time it took to make changes to a site. But I had a hard time at first understanding how RW worked. Also, at that time the number of themes was very limited. When RW 3.2 was released in the fall I finally purchased a copy. But it still took me a month to really let go of the DW way. RW revitalized my desire to learn, build and expand my knowledge of all things "web". It made it fun again.

RapidWeaved: You are the lone "Prodigy" in the forums with an absurd amount of posts -- a majority of which are answering questions or providing some type of support to users. What drives you to be so involved and help so many people?

Sundog: LOL, I had no intent to get involved with the Forum at first. I tentatively posted a few times when I saw something I thought I understood. It was not until Tom Beardmore, the big Kahuna at that time, and a group of other folks announced they where going to take some time away to build a Learning Center on RW that I said I would step up to the plate as best I could and take on the support questions. At that time everyone thought that might be 30 to 60 days. I thought "I can do extra support for that time". As it turned out Tom had to take care of LIFE and has been unable to return.

I quickly found out that I really enjoy helping folks. But if everyone knew this one thing, they would all be trying to help: "The Teach Always Learns More Than The Students!". When folks ask a question I get the opportunity to say to myself "how would I do that?" Then I get try it out. Especially in the first 1.5 years. But the learning continues. Bottom line, I get back more than I give.

RapidWeaved: You created inside RapidWeaver as another resource for the community. How did you come up with the idea for the site and how did it evolve?

Sundog: I had shied away from doing anything that might require my support and add to my work load. I have a business that is in 5 countries already that is outside of the tech community. It was on a trip in July driving from Seattle to San Diego that I woke up and told my wife I was going it write books about RW and how to use it. I started writing ideas down as fast as I could write. It just sort of happened all at once, I had the desire and clarity and just "knew" I was ready to do this. I mentioned this to Nik (Sarge) and he offered the domain he had been sitting on and transferred it to me.

Since I had not built a theme from scratch and wanted a special look for Inside Rapidweaver I ended up having ADHD Graphics do some mock ups and the rest is "history".

RapidWeaved: RWcss, a book you wrote about modifying themes, took your support a step further. Can you describe the process of writing the book?

Sundog: That is interesting. I have written marketing pieces and ads for years. But, I had never written a book. Let alone a technical manual! I truly felt I have so much to learn my first pause was "who are you to write a how to book?!". Finally I thought "if not me, then who?!"

The way my mind works is to just sleep on it for a few days and then let an outline flow out on paper. I keep adding notes and thoughts about what RWcss should be like. Then I just simply start writing! I know it may sound strange, but I sort of let it flow out without edits at first. While doing this I start to get more ideas and see what may be missing.

RapidWeaved: What was the most difficult part of writing RWcss?

Sundog: The real hard part for me, and the part that takes the most time, is editing and perfecting. You have no idea how many times I looked it over, had it looked over by 3 other folks and then by me again several times. It is a process very much like reading code, word by word, line by line. I start with a larger scan of each page in hard copy making notes and then I go very slow over it again, and again... And much like software, it is never perfect but at some point you have to release it into the "wild" and then you will get the rest of the info you need to perfect it.

RapidWeaved: You recently took another step and entered into theme development. What has been your experience with that so far?

Sundog: First off I have to give huge Kudos to all the Developers who have been doing this for a while. It is a very different process from doing modifications of existing themes. I have modified lots of them. But starting with a blank theme SDK, CSSEdit, PlistEdit Pro and Textwrangler is a different animal for sure. I really found out my weak areas of understanding and had some frustration at times when I hit a wall and could not solve an issue. IE6 and 7 gave me some pause but I managed to get over it with some sage advice from Gary Byrd at RapidWeaverThemes and Chris over at Varsis Studios . I also received some nice advice from Giuseppe Caruso at Bonsai Studio and Henk Vrieselaar . OK, I drop their names and URLs as they deserve the acknowledgement!

I'm ready now to do more. Squeeze is a foundation theme. Next I will start doing some with interesting images and graphics. Hope to find a niche and style of my own.

RapidWeaved: What, if any, reservations did you have as you considered developing your own themes?

Sundog: Support. Do I have the time to do the support needed? Also I had to ask the same question as I did with the book, "do I know enough to write good quality themes?" The answer is one I have known for years. "You will never know it all until you are involved". In other words, there never is a time before before diving in that you will have enough information to feel totally comfortable. It's the old "arm chair quarterback" thing. It is easy to give advice and criticize from the sidelines but you truly won't have the knowledge unless you're on the "field".

RapidWeaved: How has the response to Squeeze been so far?

Sundog: Just fine. I would say moderate sales right now. Hey, it's the Holidays, there are lots of themes on the market and Holiday Specials going on too. Folks prioritize their $. I think in the long run it will sell well.

RapidWeaved: Any further ambitions you're considering for 2008?

Sundog: Weelllll, YES! But if I told you, I would have to kill you! (lol, not really). I do have a project in the works that will be announced in the next month I believe. It is a joint venture with a well-known person in the community. It will be something that will evolve and expand a lot over 2008.

I will do more themes and get more books out too I hope.

And I hope to keep up on some of the support on the Forum too. The Forum has matured nicely and I find I am needed less and less as there are more and more folks who can answer the questions. This is good. As my post count shows, I was doing a lot almost everyday. Now I get to let the community take it on. I am sure others who have been doing support for the last few years along side me feel the same too. We can be more selective and jump in where needed. One more thought on this, as RW grows and matures further I think you will see folks like myself being more specialized. I love CSS but have a few other areas I would like to expand my knowledge on.

RapidWeaved: Last question. It's summer in Arizona and you have to choose one: your hat or your sunglasses?

Sundog: Sunglasses! Definitely. Keep me away from the sunglasses counter. Keep Maui Jims away! I am a sucker for nice looking SGs. Hey, the difference between you and me is, I make these look goooooood!

A moment with Dominique and RapidTable

Despite the Atlantic ocean and 7 hours separating us, I had the pleasure of talking to Dominique of MEGE-SERVICES about his new RapidTable plug-in. Dominique lives in France so the interview was conducted via instant message and despite a bump in the road or two (both of us typing at the same time) it was a fun and enlightening experience.

I started the interview out by asking what the reason was behind developing RapidTable. Dominique explained that he wanted a way to list all of the wines he has in his personal collection on a website. He already had a MySQL table of his collection on his Mac and just needed a way to list them on a webpage. He also wanted to develop for fun. Being a wine lover myself, I expressed my envy of all the wines listed on the RapidTable demo pages. Dominique confided that he doesn’t actually own all those wines listed. It’s just part of the demo.

Back on topic, I then asked him who he thought the target audience for a plug-in like RapidTable would be. He thought that in addition to using it for displaying things like the contents of a wine cellar, anyone needing to display a list of things like events, addresses, and links, would find RapidTable useful.

“RapidTable is a simple thing. It’s not very powerful but it’s doing the job.” says Dominique.

He then went on to say that he developed the plug-in for himself but thought that others might be able to use it.

I asked Dominique how long, from inception to official release, did it take to develop RapidTable. He wasn’t able to give me an exact answer since the process consisted of many stages and was a culmination of many other technologies, all of which Dominique had to learn in the process. He started out wanting to learn MySQL and SQL, then learned to develop in PHP using the CakePHP framework, PHPMyEdit and PHPBuilder. Finally, he turned to the RapidWeaver SDK (Software Development Kit).

“I’m still learning and it’s hard for me because I don’t like Cocoa ;-).”

Ultimately, Dominique estimated that it took him about a month to create the actual plugin.

With all of his recent plug-in releases, RapidTable, RapidGuestbook, RapidMap, I was surprised to find out that Dominique doesn’t develop software for a living. When I asked him what kind of response RapidTable was receiving, Dominique stated that this was the first time he’d developed software for sale but is happy so far.

Finally, I asked him if there was anything else he was working on that he’d be able to give us a hint about. He stated that he's working on something that would integrate existing internet software like forums into a RapidWeaver site. He’s also exploring CMS (Content Management System) as well as RapidWeaver themes.RapidTable is available from MEGE-SERVICES for €11.

I want to express my thanks to Dominique for taking time to talk to me about RapidTable. This was the first time I’d ever done an interview via instant message and it was an interesting experience. I learned a lot about his great new RapidWeaver plug-in, RapidTable. I also learned that even a short interview takes a long time when you’re instant messaging.

Inside YourHead

I had the pleasure of contacting Isaiah of YourHead with some questions about RapidWeaver plugin development. YourHead has been a staple in the RapidWeaver development community over the past 2 years, and has just released a Public Beta of its newest plugin, Kwix, which is sure to be another great success in the tradition of YourHead offerings. Enjoy!

RapidWeaved: Last month you celebrated 2 years of developing for RapidWeaver. What's been the best part for you?

YourHead: I think my favorite thing is when I bump into a random web page generated with one of my plugins while browsing. I really enjoy seeing what people build with my tools.

RapidWeaved: If you had to choose, which YourHead plugin would be your favorite?

YourHead: Oh, that's easy, Collage. It was my first plugin, and the plugin that I needed myself. Plus I like its simplicity.

RapidWeaved: Which plugin has been the most difficult to develop?

YourHead: Blocks is by far the largest, most complex, and most time consuming. I've spent more time on single pieces of the Blocks interface code than on whole other plugins.

RapidWeaved: What factors come into play as you consider a new plugin idea?

YourHead: I like things that will have a wide appeal to a variety of websites. I really like that the base plugins that come with RapidWeaver aren't targeted at one specific type of web page and I like to make things that further that tradition.

RapidWeaved: Blocks is, in my opinion, the most indispensable of all 3rd-party RapidWeaver plugins. Has there ever been a conversation about including it in the RW package?

YourHead: I think for one single day you could buy a RapidWeaver and Blocks package deal. It didn't last very long, mostly just for logistical reasons. I think things will remain that way for a while yet. But I work very closely with the RealMacSoftware guys, now. More closely all the time.

RapidWeaved: You partnered with yabdab to create PayLoom, perhaps the most widely-requested plugin. How did that partnership come about?

YourHead: I met Mike at a MacWorld right after releasing Collage. He had been asking some questions about plugin development while working on PayLoom. At some point, I'm not sure I remember how, we decided it would be fun to team up. I think Mike figured it would get to market a bit faster with me on board and I figured that the first e-commerce plugin was pretty important and I wanted to be a part of it. It was fun and our skill sets complimented each other. It definitely sped things along.

RapidWeaved: Your newest plugin, Kwix, is now in Public Beta. How has the response been so far compared to previous releases?

YourHead: Very positive. Lots of downloads so far. I'm already surprised at the wild things people have done with it.

RapidWeaved: Kwix won't replace a theme's menu "out-of-the-box," but do you foresee that as a possibility in the future?

YourHead: Plugins really only change the "content" area -- so it's not possible for a traditional plugin. But Javascript makes nearly anything possible -- so you never know.

RapidWeaved: Any comments on what might be in-store for YourHead in 2008?

YourHead: I think RapidWeaver 4.0 will bring big changes to everyone. I don't really have any inside info, but I think that will be the biggest news of 2008.

RapidWeaved: Last question. Steven Seagal or Chuck Norris?

YourHead: Another easy question. Answer: Bruce Lee, of course.