Australian Made and Owned

Processing PHP Code in CSS files to Improve Productivity and Browser Cross-Compatibility (using Apache)

Posted 2010/02/26

It’s possible that you’re thinking, “Processing PHP in CSS? That’s plain stinks.,” just from reading the heading. It does stink, but so does maintaining two CSS files, updating your colour scheme manually (or even by sed), changing common dimensions, and all the other crap that goes with static files. Think about it this way – would you build a site out of many HTML files or would you use some kind of template system (like Pretty Smarties)? By now I hope you’re less sceptical. If you’re interested, please read on. (more…)

Pretty Smarties 0.5 – Pretty URLs, Smarty Templates and Faster Web Design

Posted 2009/06/07

Pretty Smarties

Pretty Smarties

This is the simple PHP template system which integrates Pretty URLs and Smarty Templates. The release is only two months later than I said, but I’ve made the release fairly decent. Here’s a rundown on the system: (more…)

Introducing the Lovely Caption Maker

Posted 2008/06/19

Lovely Caption Maker CSS Transparent OverlayA recent trend I’ve noticed on some Australian media websites has been evoking my interest for a few months now. Sites like The Age and Fox FM have started overlaying a lovely coloured banner with a caption over feature images. The great thing is, they’re not rendered but glorious SEO-friendly and accessible HTML and CSS. I’m not surprised, however, since The Age and Fox FM have always been trend early adopters. The ABC still beats them, though.

Unfortunately, this effect can’t be achieved without knowing and entering the width and height of an image – making it kind of tedious to implement. After deciding that I’d like to use it with wordpress posts, it was decided that a tool should be built. And then The Lovely Caption Maker was born. Here’s an example of Lovely Caption Maker’s glory: (more…)

Filed under: CSS,SEO,tools,Web Design — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Tim @ 07:35

Adding, Removing and Editing Elements Dynamically using JavaScript

Posted 2008/01/19

Using Javascript to Dynamically Add and Remove Elements While working myLookAgain (the second attempt), I’ve had to use a little bit more AJAX through JavaScript. One of the reasons was that I needed to allow users to add as many ‘pieces’ to each look and delete them if they want – preferably without reloading.

In JavaScript terms, I needed to be able to add (or create) and remove (or delete) elements, within another element, the form. After a little bit of research on the internet, I had what I needed to do just that. See a basic example of javascript dynamically adding and removing elements… Here’s how to do it:
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Filed under: Javascript,Web Design — Tags: , , , — Tim @ 13:54

Accessible, Valid Dropdown Menu or Popup Menu using CSS and Semantic HTML

Posted 2007/12/28

CSS and HTML Only Menu - Using Suckerfish SolutionWe’ve all seen dropdown / popup menu lists on websites before, and generally they’re extremely useful because they save space, but offer extra functionality. Sometimes, though they’re tricky to implement. I remember doing a image-only popout menu for the Lonsdale Views, who offer accommodation in Point Lonsdale and it was more difficult than expected – First, there was Internet Explorer’s lack of support for “:hover” and then there was Internet Explorer’s z-index issue. Now that I’ve got a blog, I thought I’d publish a how-to guide for valid, accessible semantic HTML and CSS dropdown menus… (more…)

Extract GET Variables from URL String to Array – PHP Function

Posted 2007/12/22

While making the YouTube Music in MySpace tool, I coudln’t find a function that reads an input URL then makes an array with the GET variable names and values. I needed this to get the video id from the YouTube video URL – so I made it, and now I’m sharing it. (more…)

Filed under: PHP — Tags: , , , , , , , — Tim @ 01:25

MySpace – Convert Text to HTML

Posted 2007/12/04

Put in your text, choose MySpace Comment Color, MySpace Comment Font and MySpace Comment Size, click "Change to HTML" and we will style it and convert it into HTML for you :)

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Filed under: MySpace,tools — Tags: , , , , , , — Tim @ 18:31

Choose MySpace Comment Colors, Fonts and Sizes

Have you ever seen comments with different colors (colours) and fonts left on your or somebody else’s profile in MySpace? Maybe you’d like to be able to change your comment color, too… If you do, it’s easy. All you need is a little bit of HTML code, and I’ll tell you how to do it

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Filed under: MySpace — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Tim @ 17:23