50 Posts Found

These days, Firefox and Chrome are both excellent browsers that can greatly aid your Web development efforts. That is thanks to their built-in developer tools. If you use the Inspect Element option (right-click) you can see a great depth of options. Modify CSS to see how changes you want to make will look real-time. Having JavaScript errors? You can track those down. Want to see … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Platform & Development Tools, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

MySQL Tools

• phpMyAdmin – without a doubt the leading script for managing your MySQL databases. It can do almost anything you want and more.
• automysqlbackup.sh – A script to take daily, weekly and monthly backups of your MySQL databases.
• BigDump: Staggered MySQL Dump Importer – a script to stagger the import of large and very large MySQL Dumps to avoid problems

… [ Read more ]

Subjects: Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.), SQL

Update (January 1, 2017): I have now switched to using a modified version of code found in the font resizer WordPress plugin, but the code below is still useful on its own and as a tutorial on the topic.

A useful and common accessibility feature is a text size switcher. This is a tool that allows users to alter the size … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Fonts, JavaScript, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Update (Jan 1, 2017): Since the time I wrote this back in April 2007, WordPress has continued its march toward CMS dominance and I now run all my sites with it. There may still be some good reasons to consider alternatives, but for most DIYers I think WordPress is the way to go.

In order to develop a web site there are some core decisions … [ Read more ]

Subject: Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Regular expressions (abbreviated as regex or regexp) are used by many text editors, utilities, and programming languages (in our case, PHP) to search and manipulate text based on patterns, most notably the presence of particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Regular expressions are somewhat archaic in appearance and can be very intimidating to those not experienced in their use, but once you see how … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.), Useful Code, Tips & Tools

Do-It-Yourself Logo Design

I haven’t done research recently, but several years ago I was interested in making a logo by myself and I checked out quite a few DIY logo making software programs. In the end I chose The Logo Creator and I have since used it quite successfully many times. It’s not free, but it is inexpensive (US$47) and while I can’t say … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Graphics and Images, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Update: If you are using WordPress, I have written what I think is the most comprehensive tutorial on optimizing PageSpeed for WordPress sites. Give it a read.

A key site design consideration is how big your page is since that will have a direct affect on how quickly it loads in visitors’ browsers. Slow load times are a primary cause of people abandoning a … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.), Site Optimization

There are quite a few good, free resources out there to help with your webmaster needs. Many are fully web-based. Some of the better ones I have come across include:

• iconifier.net
  This simple but useful site lets you upload a JPG, PNG or GIF image (up to 500KB) and then have it generate Apple and Favicon icons. This is one of my go-to sites,

… [ Read more ]

Subjects: Graphics and Images, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

If you are working with certain non-English languages, you will invariably have to consider the issue of character encoding. I myself run a website for Japanese language study, so I have dealt with this issue a bit, though I am far from truly knowledgeable about it. Still, maybe some of what I have learned will be of use to you.

Encoding Basics

Note: Most of … [ Read more ]

Subject: Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

• Remove or replace a block of text with definable starting and ending pattern.

  $temp = preg_replace(“‘

  ]*?>.*?

  ‘si”, “”, $temp);

• Modify group of links.
  This could be useful, for example, if you have links to multiple articles on a website that then redesigns and thus all its URLs change.

  $temp = preg_replace(“/(.*)/i”, “3“, $temp);

• What’s the easiest way to remove characters from the end of a

… [ Read more ]

Subjects: PHP, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

• The JavaScript Source (formerly JavaScripts.com)
  The JavaScript Source is a repository of free “cut and paste” JavaScript code, nicely organized by category. Some tutorials are available as well.
• Create a multi-state image toolbar on your Web site with this JavaScript guide
  This document guides you through the process of using JavaScript and the DOM to build a three-state toolbar that accurately and

… [ Read more ]

Subjects: JavaScript, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Noupe offers up a nice selection of useful online tutorials for those interested in designing mobile friendly websites.

Subjects: Designing for Mobile Devices, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

In the article, “What Screen Resolution Do You Design For? Using the Less Framework,” Michael Rohde discusses the Less Framework, “a cross-device CSS grid system based on using inline media queries.” Simply put, the framework recognizes the visitors screen resolution and sizes your web page accordingly.

Subjects: Designing for Mobile Devices, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Marc Plotz has written a useful and interesting article, “Ten Awesome Things Most People Don’t Know About PHP.” Even though I have been using PHP for years, it was a useful read for me.

Author: Marc Plotz | Source: “HTML Goodies” | Subjects: PHP, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

In the article, “Five Things to Think About Before You Launch Your Next Website,” Jonathan Kranz encourages you to consider the following points:

1. Take your eyes off your competitors and put them where they belong: on your customers
2. Your Web presence is much bigger than just your website
3. What’s the underlying business model?

… [ Read more ]

Author: Jonathan Kranz | Source: “MarketingProfs” | Subject: Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Web developers who are just getting started often ask, “How can I upload images using PHP” The Web Developer How To – Upload Images Using PHP tutorial looks at the basics and shows you how you can install such a script on your website.

Source: “HTML Goodies” | Subjects: Graphics and Images, PHP, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

HTML elements are positioned the same way they are written in the HTML code, from top to bottom and left to right. Elements displayed this way are called static elements. CSS positioning allows you to position HTML elements anywhere you want on the screen. These can positioned in a fixed location or flow with the screen as the browser window size … [ Read more ]

Subjects: CSS, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Proper use of image compression can make a huge difference in the appearance and size of your website image files. But compression is an often-misunderstood topic, partly because there’s a real lack of understanding on what the different types of compression are good for. If you don’t understand which type of compression to use for different types of images, you’ll … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Graphics and Images, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

In 2009, more than 63 million people in the United States accessed the Internet from a mobile device. It’s forecast that by 2013 there will be more than 1.7 billion mobile Internet users worldwide. With those kinds of numbers, it’s imperative that web designers and developers learn optimal development and design practices for mobile devices.

For the most part you won’t need to learn any new technologies … [ Read more ]

Subjects: Designing for Mobile Devices, Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)

Here are some useful online tools to help you work on color issues for your site:

• Easy RGB Color Harmonies – Options such as color matching, searching for a tint, a color calculator and monitor calibration add value to this easy to use free online color tool.
• Whats Its Color – Some of us have a great eye for complementary colors and matches–and

… [ Read more ]

Subject: Site Design (Architecture, Coding, UI, etc.)