Update to site look and feel

All,

Attorney Directory:
The new count for the attorney listing directory isn't working properly(off by one). This should be fixed in the next update. Also, it looks like some of the 'bread crumb' menu links in the attorney directory sometimes will give a page not found error. This should be addressed soon as well. Finally, the remaining listing count will be implemented for the lawyer listings before work on the Law Student directory begins.

Website styles:
Some changes were made to the web site's look & feel. Content was often contained(especially on the front page) in a colored box. The color of the box was a dark blue to match the sites menu bar. However, some users found the content difficult to read. So, we changed it! Let us know what you think.

Mark - LOP Principal Engineer

Updates for Lawyer Directory

All,

Finally had some time to update more Attorney Directory features.

Users may now access the Attorney Profile creation area without logging in. Of course, users will not be able to log in and update information due to listings no longer being associated with a login. We will be adding this ability to registered users later. Perhaps this functionality will only be available to premium members. This is of yet undecided.

In addition to the creation access, the county profile page will now show a listings count. Currently we have counts for the initial practice area listing screen. If you select a practice area, you will navigate to the State listings page for that practice area. These listings do not have counts next to the names. However, if you select a State you will navigate to county listing for that State and Practice which now have listing counts next to the name. The count for the State listing page will be added soon. Please test it out and send feedback to developers@lawofficeportal.com or post in the forums.

Mark - LOP Principal Engineer

Fixed Forum / Opening up Attorney Directory

All,

The bug that crashed the forums after I implemented the new security feature has been fixed. The forums are now open and available for use.

The Lawyer and Law Firm directory is now for Attorneys only. We are in the process of opening up the directory for submissions without having to log in. There will be limited fields available for this open submission. It should be ported over in the next day or two.

That's all for now!
Mark - LOP Principal Engineer.


Law Office Portal is built using Java Technology. If you are interested visit the java site at http://java.sun.com for more information.

Forums re-opened...for now

All,

We added yet another anti-bot update to the forum registration. We're hoping this will help keep the spamming by bots down to a minimum.

Anyway, the Mass Torts and General forums are now open again. We had to delete all 216 users because we couldn't really tell what was a bot and not. Anyway, we're going to see how this works.

The Law School listings will be going up in the next week. We will also be finishing off the listing support for the Lawyer and Law Firm directory.

Mark - LOP Principal Engineer

New Lawyer / Law Firm Listing Count

All,

The Lawyer / Law Firm directory now has a listing count next to the practice area links.

For example; Administrative Law(5).

The '5' indicates that there are 5 listings in the area of administrative Law within the directory. An individual listing may actually be under multiple practice areas(depending on the practice areas selected in the listing creation).

Under each practice area the listings are broken up by states. We will be adding counts to the state links soon. Of course, under the state there are county links which hold the actual listings. We will be adding counts to those links as well.

There will be a slight change to the listings. In order to open up the directory to as many individuals as possible the listing creation page will be limited to basic information. This basic listing can be submitted by anyone without logging in. However, the listing will not show up in the directory listings until the link has been verified by a LOP editor. This will help us keep the directories as clean as possible.

There will not be a link or fee for these basic lisings. However, we will encourage users provide links to the Law Office Portal as a courtesy. Once we get the directories working well, LOP will offer those who wish premium listings. More on this later.

Mark - LOP Principal Engineer

Directory Listings now available What's next?

All,

The lawyer profile directory is now active. The listings that are returned are not quite what they will be yet, but they're on their way to getting there. Initially, there will be one active profile per account. The listings will provide the basic information entered when the profile was created. There is still some work to do on the profile display and listings, check back for improvements.

Next on the list will be to finish off the listings and start work on the next directory which will be for law students. Once the directory is complete for law students there will be a third directory for vendors and legal related marketing firms.

In addition to continued work on the profile directories we will be adding a small resource directory for law schools. So check back in the near future for new stuff.

As always, we are working on additional content, resources, and tools to add value for our portal users.

Do you have an idea for a tool? Let us know!

Mark - LOP Principal Engineer

Legal Directory Update

All,

The directory is almost there. Just working out a couple of glitches and it will be opened up to submissions.

The first release will allow for some simple listings and profile pages. As requested, we are considering offering a premium listing profile that will allow for more feature. There hasn't been a decision on that one yet.

Once we open up the first directory(attorneys), we'll post here on what's next on the agenda.

Thanks,
Mark - LOP Principal Engineer