
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
CMX Weekly Newsletter News Fun and Freebies Recent CMX Content Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats Check the News! The Newest CMX JumpStart: Malé I'm sure we all have places we haven't been to, but would really love to visit. For me, it is the Maldives. I can just see myself sitting at the front of one of the water bungalows, feet dangling in the sea with the sun setting on the distant horizon, where the sky meets the Indian ocean. Bliss. One day I'll be there, but for now, I guess I'll have to make do with the beautiful banner image of the Malé JumpStart. The Malé JumpStart is a fixed-width two and three-column layout. It has a right column that can be shown, or hidden, on a page-by-page basis without the need to delve into the code. The centre column is our main info area, while the left column features a CSS based flyout menu. This is a menu design that owes some thanks to Peter Nederlof for his work on the csshover.htc script that allows the menu to function in versions of Internet Explorer that don't support the hover on non-anchor elements. Coupled with this JumpStart is an excellent introductory tutorial written by John Gallant and Holly Bergevin that explains the set up of the menu. Malé is one of our most flexible JumpStarts to date, with its fixed-width two and three column layout. You can show or hide the third column on a page by page basis without having to delve into the code. The left column features a CSS based flyout menu that you can customize with sub levels on as many buttons as you like. CMX JumpStart Malé article for nonmembers and members who would like to read more about its features. CMX JumpStart Malé article for members and for those who would like to purchase Malé now. Photoshop CS4 64-Bits And Pieces Adobe Photoshop product manager John Nack has a pretty interesting post at his blog at Adobe.com. Owners of the 64-bit version of Windows will be pleased, but everyone else... not so much. According to Nack - and we're pretty sure that he'd know - Photoshop CS4 will ship as a 64-bit Windows application. Mac users will apparently have to wait until CS5 rolls along to see a 64-bit version of Photoshop. Why no 64-bit for Macs? Nack points the finger toward Apple, who moved from working with Carbon for their 64-bit technology to Cocoa, which in turn caused Adobe to spin on an apparently large dime to accommodate Apple's change in plan. Nack makes clear in his post that Adobe doesn't see this development as an upset, and understands that Apple needs to devolop their OS in whatever way they determine is best for the end user. Will Mac users be upset over this bit of news? Possibly, but more likely, they'll be happy that Adobe is being forthright and honest about making sure that they deliver the best products they can to all of their customers. A Great Example of JumpStart Adaption Simon Douglas took our Playa Blanca JumpStart and created a really sharp-looking website at SiDouglas.net. Here's what Simon had to say about adapting Playa Blanca to his needs: "For my website I used the Playa Blanca Jumpstart because of its clear tab sub navigation. I also borrowed from CMX Jumpstart Kansas City the horizontal band css technique that seems to be quite popular these days. I knew that the content was going to the most laborious process for making my journal site, so the Jumpstarts sped the whole process up. I also used a nice php breadcrumb function from CMX author Gordon Mackay for the journal, sIFR techniques for the headings, videoMaru components for the flash player. All of these are covered at CMX. When I got stuck the CMX experts, especially Rob Williams, would be happy to help me out." To check out or purchase any of our JumpStarts, go to Communitymx.com and look at the sidebar on the right side of the page which contains links to all of our recent JumpStarts. MacBook Air = Terrorist Tool? Remember the beginning of "2001: A Space Oddysey"? That's what we're envisioning when airport screeners see the MacBook Air. This article at MacUser.com helps to more fully paint that picture. It seems that while we're all eager to see innovation in the laptop industry, it throws some of the airlines into a tizzy when they see a computer that has no optical drive and less peripheral possibilities than what they're used to seeing. So take heed, Air owners: If you're taking your laptop through airport security, disguise it as a DVD player. How's That For Proof Of Concept?! Photoshop Express is now available online as a Flex application. Adobe has put their money where their mouth is and created the richest online photo editing application you'll find anywhere. With Photoshop Express, Adobe is not only providing a great little online photo editing service where you can store and share up to two gigabytes of photos, but they're also selling people on the Flex platform and reaffirming their dedication to Flex. If you test drive Photoshop Express, you'll notice pretty quickly that it is not exactly "Photoshop online." Hey, what do you want for free? You can change the brightness and contrast of photos, make color corrections, remove red eye, clone out blemishes and some other basic editing functions, and for many, this will suit their needs just fine. It's the most sophisticated and easy to use online application of this type, and since it's still in beta, Adobe is looking for feedback from users. So if you have any suggestions, let them know! Here is Adobe's press release.
Satisfied Customers Speak Out! "Looks great, I'll buy it!" - Andrew H., CMX customer, shortly-but-sweetly commenting on CMX JumpStart: Sydney. Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!
Great Quotes: "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." — Ralph Waldo Emerson Catch Up To Web 2.0. Then Look Forward To Web 3.0, Or Whatever We Decide To Name It. David Pogue wrote this article at NYTimes.com where he lays out the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 by simply stating - and we're paraphrasing here - that today's web is socially driven and interactive, rather than just a bunch of pages to look at. OK, so that is not exactly a revolutionary point of view, but it encapsulates the evolution of the web so far... or at least the incremental labeling of the web so far. So we had 1.0, now we have 2.0... what could possibly be next? Yeah, we thought it was web 3.0 too, but CMX author Joseph Balderson threw us a curveball by giving us the following: Web 2.0: RIP 2004-2008 What's next? The RIA-Web, of course. Or you could call it the Rich Interactive Web. Interestingly enough, Joseph provided a URL to support his point, but the page would not open in Firefox without downloading a plugin. That means that the RIA-web is either not viewable in Firefox or it's a metaphor having to do with the elusive nature of the web in general. While we contemplate that, why not just sit back and enjoy Web Now.0? Comcast Makes Nice With BitTorrent Comcast, one of the largest Internet Service Providers in the US, has received a lot of flack for allegedly blocking torrent content to its customers. In an effort to retain their position as a leading ISP - the "P" being the most important intitial in that acronym - Comcast has started discussions with BitTorrent relating to what they can do to better serve their customers and at the same time, get the FCC off their back. While BitTorrent and Comcast seem pretty pleased with the direction these discussions have taken, the FCC still seems a bit wary and will be monitoring Comcast to make sure they're not discriminating with regard to the content they provide their customers. More on this at nwsource.com. Were They Picking Their Noses? Google Map's "Street View" is under scrutiny once again due to a lawsuit waged by a couple who say that this cool little Google Maps feature "violated their privacy, devalued their property, caused them mental suffering and caused their dog to experience a feverish relapse into drugs." OK, so we made up that last one - consider it a leftover from April Fool's day. According to Aaron and Christine Boring, the plaintiffs in this case, Google impeded on the Boring's rights when they took photos of the Boring's private property for use on their website. Our take? We think the only people who might use Google Maps to find the address of the Borings would be people looking for a Boring party, a Boring get-together, or a uniquely Boring time. Yes, we jest, but it's difficult to pick a winner in this horse race. Read more about it at Boston.com and draw your own Boring conclusions. Contribute Killer? Since it was released a few years back, Adobe Contribute has been the only simple way to give your clients control over the content on their website without having to create a complete content management system. Contribute offers a pretty big bang for its buck, and there is not much of a learning curve. How could it be simpler? Well, it could be more cushy. To be more specific, you could try CushyCMS. With Cushy CMS, all you need to do is add a "cushycms" style to an element on a page, and that element becomes an editable portion of that page. Check out the 3-minute "how to" video at CushyCMS.com to learn how Cushy CMS works. Is it better than Contribute? Ehhh... uhhhh... we'll let you be the judge, but it certainly looks purposeful for those with simple CMS needs. Especially for free. If You Blieve In Blogs Times.com has posted their first annual Top 25 Blogs report. It's a pretty diverse listing that includes political blogs, techy blogs, religious blogs and of course blogs that contain general musings that others find interesting. We're glad to see Engadget.com make the list since it's one of our favorite go-to tech blogs, Many of the other selected blogs were new to us, and it was pretty neat to add a couple of bookmarks to our daily web perusing that we didn't previously know about. So many blogs, so little time...
CMX Google Maps Extension Getting a Google Map on your site just got a whole lot easier! This extension for Dreamweaver v8 and CS3 with your Google Map API key and a few key strokes later you have a Google Map with your location all ready to go! No need to know JavaScript to use Google Maps! Take a look at this Dreamweaver Extension by former CMX Partner Paul Davis
Fun and Freebies! Well, At Least We'll See Better-Looking Rap Websites m0serious has put a few videos up on YouTube.com where he raps about coding, design and web standards. Very imaginative stuff that we got a kick out of. Check out his videos at YouTube.com. In the same vein, but not quite as hip, there is Philip Kerman, who has a bunch of "Why" videos up at YouTube.com. Like "Why Adobe Updater" and "Why SEO?" But That's How I Got My Last Job Another lesson on things not to do when trying to land a job. Sorry, But This Is Always Funny Call us juvenile - you wouldn't be the first - but seeing any celebrity video that has been slowed down 30% makes us crack up every time. This one has to do with Jeff Goldblum pitching the iMac back in 1999. Posted at Macenstein.com.
Creating Smoke in Flash CS3: Part 1 Ever wanted to add steam hissing out of a vent or smoke rising from a smoldering log in Flash? Read on... This free article by CMX Partner Tom Green can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing CMX JumpStart: Malé Adrian Senior The Malé JumpStart is a fixed-width, two and three-column layout. It has a right column that can be shown, or hidden, on a page-by-page basis, without the need to delve into the code. The centre column is our main info area while the left column features a CSS based flyout menu. This is a menu design that owes some thanks to Peter Nederlof for his work on the csshover.htc script that allows the menu to function in versions of Internet Explorer that don't support the hover on non-anchor elements. Coupled with this JumpStart is an excellent introductory tutorial written by John Gallant and Holly Bergevin that explains the set up of the menu. Read and enjoy. Introducing CMX JumpStart Malé [FREE] Sheri German I grew up at the New Jersey shore, and spent my childhood playing in the surf and sand. I felt, and still feel, a bliss and peace there that I feel no where else in the world. So, when I first viewed Adrian Senior's latest JumpStart design, CMX JumpStart Malé, I was immediately smitten. CMX JumpStart Malé, one of our most flexible JumpStarts to date, is a fixed-width two and three-column layout. You can show or hide the third column on a page-by-page basis, without having to delve into the code. The left column features a CSS based flyout menu that you can customize with as many levels as you need. Of course Malé meets the W3C standards for CSS and XHTML, as well as the WAI accessibility requirements, too. Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page Part Three Sheri German In the first two parts of the Baltimore CSS Starter Page series, you created a comp for the design we are naming after the city of Baltimore. You analyzed the graphics in relation to the fixed-width, two-column, centered layout CSS Starter Page, and developed a slicing strategy. Finally, you exported the graphics to the defined Baltimore site. You now should have the following documents in the site folder: mockup.html, the XHTML page (with the CSS rules in the head of the document) an images folder with the exported graphics for the site In this third part of the series, you will apply the exported graphics to the existing sidebar and mainContent columns, using the CSS Starter Page as your launching pad. This tutorial includes a starter folder and a completed exercise folder in its download. The Developing a CSS Starter Page: Baltimore Series Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part One Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Two Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Three Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Four Coming Soon Quickshot - Detecting a Mobile Device in ColdFusion [FREE] Ray West With the increase of smart phones, PDAs and other handheld devices that can display web content, more and more sites are looking to include Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Wireless Markup Language (WML) content on their websites. Even if you do not try to replicate your content, often important pieces of your site can be delivered in a format that is easily readable and usable by the smaller screen of a mobile phone or other device. Interactive Flash Maps [FREE] Derrick Ypenburg When a client approached me to develop an application that maps out the waterways of Ontario for boating, services, towns, attractions, accomodations, etc, I was "on board" for the task. As we got deeper into the project and ran into limitations of the custom mapping application I was drawing and programming vs. the costs to overcome them with the custom mapping utility we were creating, it was time to look for other possible solutions. That's when I found UMap, a universal mapping component developed by the folks at Advanced Flash Components (AFC). Code Igniter Introduction [FREE] Paul Davis Code Igniter, a PHP framework that cooks, cleans and does the dishes. Even comes with a kitchen sink! Code Igniter will spoil you with flexibility, usability and functionality—and then you'll see the manual and never again be satisfied with other product's "documentation"... Digital Photography - Home Studio DIY Concepts [FREE] Scott Valentine Welcome to the first in a series of articles about setting your own home digital photography studio, and doing it cheaply. The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 4 [FREE] Tom Green We all tell stories. Every night my wife and I sit down and, over dinner, tell stories about our frantic lives that day. What my wife and I do is no different from what web developers do every day. The only difference is web developers tell stories to a global audience. In fact did I tell you the one about being mugged by a werewolf on a site I was surfing..... The Interactive Storyteller Series: The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 1 The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 2 The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 3 The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 4 The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 5 Coming Soon Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Two Sheri German In the first part of the Baltimore CSS Starter Page series, you developed a Fireworks composite to use with the two-column, fixed-width, left sidebar CSS starter page. In this second tutorial, you will slice the composite and export the slices to the Baltimore site you created in Dreamweaver. I will also take you "behind the scenes" in the methods I used to enhance the image of the US Constellation that is in the header of the document. Approximate download size: 1.8MB The Developing a CSS Starter Page: Baltimore Series Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part One Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Two Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Three Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Four Coming Soon The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3 Tom Muck If you use ColdFusion you should be using ColdFusion Components (CFCs). One of the more perplexing parts of developing CFCs for the beginning ColdFusion developer is how to define variables and properties. The proper use of variables is important for memory consumption and data integrity. You don't want variables hanging around that aren't needed, or accessed from areas that they should not be accessed from. The first part of this series explained some of the differences between local and global variables as they apply to CFCs. This second part of the series showed a simple CFC framework component. Part 3 shows a CFC that extends our base component. These first three parts are usable in any ColdFusion site wtih any database. Part 4 will focus on SQL Server. The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties Series: The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 1 The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 2 The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3
Image Maps: Creating a Client-side Image Map with Illustrator If you have an overwhelming urge to embed Cue Points into an FLV file's metadata you have most likely discovered that once they are embedded they can't be removed or changed. Here’s a little trick that will bail you out of a rather tricky Cue Point situation: Let’s assume you discover, when testing the video in Flash, you have screwed up the timing for the first Cue Point. Relaunch the Encoder. You will notice that the video just encoded is still in the interface. Select the video and then select Edit >Reset Status. The settings will open and you can then make the change in the Advanced Settings.Recompile the FLV and you have changed a cue point. If the video has been removed - you selected the video in the Encoder and clicked the Remove button - you are out of luck. Check out the Article by CMX Partner Steven Seiller
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats! This week's first Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Tom Green, Community MX author Taming The Time Machine When using OSX Leopard I am inevitably informed by Time Machine, the back up utility for Leopard, that the disk is full. Being the "cheap" sort buying a big honking external HD solely for this purpose doesn't make sense. What I have started doing is deleting backups that are greater than 30 days old. To do this: 1) Open the drive where Time Machine stores your backups. 2) Locate a folder on the drive with the name of Backups.backupdb. Open it and you will see a folder with the name of your computer : Tom Green's Computer 3) Open this folder and you will see a whack of dated folders. These are the backups. 4) If today's date is March 31, 2008. I will drag all folders with names of 2008-01-31 or earlier to the Trash. Problem solved. Just be aware that any important files in those folders will be erased from existence and can't be restored. Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com. That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!

CMX Weekly Newsletter

News
Fun and Freebies
Recent CMX Content
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats

Check the News!

The Newest CMX JumpStart: Malé

I'm sure we all have places we haven't been to, but would really love to visit. For me, it is the Maldives. I can just see myself sitting at the front of one of the water bungalows, feet dangling in the sea with the sun setting on the distant horizon, where the sky meets the Indian ocean. Bliss. One day I'll be there, but for now, I guess I'll have to make do with the beautiful banner image of the Malé JumpStart.

The Malé JumpStart is a fixed-width two and three-column layout. It has a right column that can be shown, or hidden, on a page-by-page basis without the need to delve into the code. The centre column is our main info area, while the left column features a CSS based flyout menu. This is a menu design that owes some thanks to Peter Nederlof for his work on the csshover.htc script that allows the menu to function in versions of Internet Explorer that don't support the hover on non-anchor elements. Coupled with this JumpStart is an excellent introductory tutorial written by John Gallant and Holly Bergevin that explains the set up of the menu.

Malé is one of our most flexible JumpStarts to date, with its fixed-width two and three column layout. You can show or hide the third column on a page by page basis without having to delve into the code. The left column features a CSS based flyout menu that you can customize with sub levels on as many buttons as you like.

Photoshop CS4 64-Bits And Pieces

Adobe Photoshop product manager John Nack has a pretty interesting post at his blog at Adobe.com. Owners of the 64-bit version of Windows will be pleased, but everyone else... not so much. According to Nack - and we're pretty sure that he'd know - Photoshop CS4 will ship as a 64-bit Windows application. Mac users will apparently have to wait until CS5 rolls along to see a 64-bit version of Photoshop. Why no 64-bit for Macs? Nack points the finger toward Apple, who moved from working with Carbon for their 64-bit technology to Cocoa, which in turn caused Adobe to spin on an apparently large dime to accommodate Apple's change in plan. Nack makes clear in his post that Adobe doesn't see this development as an upset, and understands that Apple needs to devolop their OS in whatever way they determine is best for the end user. Will Mac users be upset over this bit of news? Possibly, but more likely, they'll be happy that Adobe is being forthright and honest about making sure that they deliver the best products they can to all of their customers.

A Great Example of JumpStart Adaption

Simon Douglas took our Playa Blanca JumpStart and created a really sharp-looking website at SiDouglas.net. Here's what Simon had to say about adapting Playa Blanca to his needs:

"For my website I used the Playa Blanca Jumpstart because of its clear tab sub navigation. I also borrowed from CMX Jumpstart Kansas City the horizontal band css technique that seems to be quite popular these days. I knew that the content was going to the most laborious process for making my journal site, so the Jumpstarts sped the whole process up. I also used a nice php breadcrumb function from CMX author Gordon Mackay for the journal, sIFR techniques for the headings, videoMaru components for the flash player. All of these are covered at CMX. When I got stuck the CMX experts, especially Rob Williams, would be happy to help me out."

To check out or purchase any of our JumpStarts, go to Communitymx.com and look at the sidebar on the right side of the page which contains links to all of our recent JumpStarts.

MacBook Air = Terrorist Tool?

Remember the beginning of "2001: A Space Oddysey"? That's what we're envisioning when airport screeners see the MacBook Air. This article at MacUser.com helps to more fully paint that picture. It seems that while we're all eager to see innovation in the laptop industry, it throws some of the airlines into a tizzy when they see a computer that has no optical drive and less peripheral possibilities than what they're used to seeing. So take heed, Air owners: If you're taking your laptop through airport security, disguise it as a DVD player.

How's That For Proof Of Concept?!

Photoshop Express is now available online as a Flex application. Adobe has put their money where their mouth is and created the richest online photo editing application you'll find anywhere. With Photoshop Express, Adobe is not only providing a great little online photo editing service where you can store and share up to two gigabytes of photos, but they're also selling people on the Flex platform and reaffirming their dedication to Flex. If you test drive Photoshop Express, you'll notice pretty quickly that it is not exactly "Photoshop online." Hey, what do you want for free? You can change the brightness and contrast of photos, make color corrections, remove red eye, clone out blemishes and some other basic editing functions, and for many, this will suit their needs just fine. It's the most sophisticated and easy to use online application of this type, and since it's still in beta, Adobe is looking for feedback from users. So if you have any suggestions, let them know! Here is Adobe's press release.

Satisfied Customers Speak Out!

"Looks great, I'll buy it!"

- Andrew H., CMX customer, shortly-but-sweetly commenting on CMX JumpStart: Sydney.

Whether you're just starting out or need advanced support, Community MX will give you answers and ideas to work through your tough issues. Don't miss out. Learn more about CMX or sign up for a free trial today!

Great Quotes:

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Catch Up To Web 2.0. Then Look Forward To Web 3.0, Or Whatever We Decide To Name It.

David Pogue wrote this article at NYTimes.com where he lays out the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 by simply stating - and we're paraphrasing here - that today's web is socially driven and interactive, rather than just a bunch of pages to look at. OK, so that is not exactly a revolutionary point of view, but it encapsulates the evolution of the web so far... or at least the incremental labeling of the web so far. So we had 1.0, now we have 2.0... what could possibly be next? Yeah, we thought it was web 3.0 too, but CMX author Joseph Balderson threw us a curveball by giving us the following:

Web 2.0: RIP 2004-2008
What's next? The RIA-Web, of course.
Or you could call it the Rich Interactive Web.

Interestingly enough, Joseph provided a URL to support his point, but the page would not open in Firefox without downloading a plugin. That means that the RIA-web is either not viewable in Firefox or it's a metaphor having to do with the elusive nature of the web in general. While we contemplate that, why not just sit back and enjoy Web Now.0?

Comcast Makes Nice With BitTorrent

Comcast, one of the largest Internet Service Providers in the US, has received a lot of flack for allegedly blocking torrent content to its customers. In an effort to retain their position as a leading ISP - the "P" being the most important intitial in that acronym - Comcast has started discussions with BitTorrent relating to what they can do to better serve their customers and at the same time, get the FCC off their back. While BitTorrent and Comcast seem pretty pleased with the direction these discussions have taken, the FCC still seems a bit wary and will be monitoring Comcast to make sure they're not discriminating with regard to the content they provide their customers. More on this at nwsource.com.

Were They Picking Their Noses?

Google Map's "Street View" is under scrutiny once again due to a lawsuit waged by a couple who say that this cool little Google Maps feature "violated their privacy, devalued their property, caused them mental suffering and caused their dog to experience a feverish relapse into drugs." OK, so we made up that last one - consider it a leftover from April Fool's day. According to Aaron and Christine Boring, the plaintiffs in this case, Google impeded on the Boring's rights when they took photos of the Boring's private property for use on their website. Our take? We think the only people who might use Google Maps to find the address of the Borings would be people looking for a Boring party, a Boring get-together, or a uniquely Boring time. Yes, we jest, but it's difficult to pick a winner in this horse race. Read more about it at Boston.com and draw your own Boring conclusions.

Contribute Killer?

Since it was released a few years back, Adobe Contribute has been the only simple way to give your clients control over the content on their website without having to create a complete content management system. Contribute offers a pretty big bang for its buck, and there is not much of a learning curve. How could it be simpler? Well, it could be more cushy. To be more specific, you could try CushyCMS. With Cushy CMS, all you need to do is add a "cushycms" style to an element on a page, and that element becomes an editable portion of that page. Check out the 3-minute "how to" video at CushyCMS.com to learn how Cushy CMS works. Is it better than Contribute? Ehhh... uhhhh... we'll let you be the judge, but it certainly looks purposeful for those with simple CMS needs. Especially for free.

If You Blieve In Blogs

Times.com has posted their first annual Top 25 Blogs report. It's a pretty diverse listing that includes political blogs, techy blogs, religious blogs and of course blogs that contain general musings that others find interesting. We're glad to see Engadget.com make the list since it's one of our favorite go-to tech blogs, Many of the other selected blogs were new to us, and it was pretty neat to add a couple of bookmarks to our daily web perusing that we didn't previously know about. So many blogs, so little time...

CMX Google Maps Extension

Getting a Google Map on your site just got a whole lot easier! This extension for Dreamweaver v8 and CS3 with your Google Map API key and a few key strokes later you have a Google Map with your location all ready to go! No need to know JavaScript to use Google Maps!

Take a look at this Dreamweaver Extension by former CMX Partner Paul Davis

Fun and Freebies!

Well, At Least We'll See Better-Looking Rap Websites

m0serious has put a few videos up on YouTube.com where he raps about coding, design and web standards. Very imaginative stuff that we got a kick out of. Check out his videos at YouTube.com. In the same vein, but not quite as hip, there is Philip Kerman, who has a bunch of "Why" videos up at YouTube.com. Like "Why Adobe Updater" and "Why SEO?"

But That's How I Got My Last Job

Another lesson on things not to do when trying to land a job.

Sorry, But This Is Always Funny

Call us juvenile - you wouldn't be the first - but seeing any celebrity video that has been slowed down 30% makes us crack up every time. This one has to do with Jeff Goldblum pitching the iMac back in 1999. Posted at Macenstein.com.

Creating Smoke in Flash CS3: Part 1

Ever wanted to add steam hissing out of a vent or smoke rising from a smoldering log in Flash? Read on...

This free article by CMX Partner Tom Green can be found here.

Weekly Content Listing

CMX JumpStart: Malé

Adrian Senior

The Malé JumpStart is a fixed-width, two and three-column layout. It has a right column that can be shown, or hidden, on a page-by-page basis, without the need to delve into the code. The centre column is our main info area while the left column features a CSS based flyout menu. This is a menu design that owes some thanks to Peter Nederlof for his work on the csshover.htc script that allows the menu to function in versions of Internet Explorer that don't support the hover on non-anchor elements. Coupled with this JumpStart is an excellent introductory tutorial written by John Gallant and Holly Bergevin that explains the set up of the menu. Read and enjoy.

Introducing CMX JumpStart Malé [FREE]

Sheri German

I grew up at the New Jersey shore, and spent my childhood playing in the surf and sand. I felt, and still feel, a bliss and peace there that I feel no where else in the world. So, when I first viewed Adrian Senior's latest JumpStart design, CMX JumpStart Malé, I was immediately smitten.

CMX JumpStart Malé, one of our most flexible JumpStarts to date, is a fixed-width two and three-column layout. You can show or hide the third column on a page-by-page basis, without having to delve into the code. The left column features a CSS based flyout menu that you can customize with as many levels as you need.

Of course Malé meets the W3C standards for CSS and XHTML, as well as the WAI accessibility requirements, too.

Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page Part Three

Sheri German

In the first two parts of the Baltimore CSS Starter Page series, you created a comp for the design we are naming after the city of Baltimore. You analyzed the graphics in relation to the fixed-width, two-column, centered layout CSS Starter Page, and developed a slicing strategy. Finally, you exported the graphics to the defined Baltimore site. You now should have the following documents in the site folder:

mockup.html, the XHTML page (with the CSS rules in the head of the document)
an images folder with the exported graphics for the site

In this third part of the series, you will apply the exported graphics to the existing sidebar and mainContent columns, using the CSS Starter Page as your launching pad.

This tutorial includes a starter folder and a completed exercise folder in its download.

The Developing a CSS Starter Page: Baltimore Series
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part One
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Two
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Three
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Four Coming Soon

Quickshot - Detecting a Mobile Device in ColdFusion [FREE]

Ray West

With the increase of smart phones, PDAs and other handheld devices that can display web content, more and more sites are looking to include Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Wireless Markup Language (WML) content on their websites. Even if you do not try to replicate your content, often important pieces of your site can be delivered in a format that is easily readable and usable by the smaller screen of a mobile phone or other device.

Interactive Flash Maps [FREE]

Derrick Ypenburg

When a client approached me to develop an application that maps out the waterways of Ontario for boating, services, towns, attractions, accomodations, etc, I was "on board" for the task. As we got deeper into the project and ran into limitations of the custom mapping application I was drawing and programming vs. the costs to overcome them with the custom mapping utility we were creating, it was time to look for other possible solutions. That's when I found UMap, a universal mapping component developed by the folks at Advanced Flash Components (AFC).

Code Igniter Introduction [FREE]

Paul Davis

Code Igniter, a PHP framework that cooks, cleans and does the dishes. Even comes with a kitchen sink! Code Igniter will spoil you with flexibility, usability and functionality—and then you'll see the manual and never again be satisfied with other product's "documentation"...

Digital Photography - Home Studio DIY Concepts [FREE]

Scott Valentine

Welcome to the first in a series of articles about setting your own home digital photography studio, and doing it cheaply.

The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 4 [FREE]

Tom Green

We all tell stories. Every night my wife and I sit down and, over dinner, tell stories about our frantic lives that day. What my wife and I do is no different from what web developers do every day. The only difference is web developers tell stories to a global audience. In fact did I tell you the one about being mugged by a werewolf on a site I was surfing.....

The Interactive Storyteller Series:
The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 1
The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 2
The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 3
The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 4
The Art of the Interactive Storyteller - Part 5 Coming Soon

Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Two

Sheri German

In the first part of the Baltimore CSS Starter Page series, you developed a Fireworks composite to use with the two-column, fixed-width, left sidebar CSS starter page. In this second tutorial, you will slice the composite and export the slices to the Baltimore site you created in Dreamweaver.

I will also take you "behind the scenes" in the methods I used to enhance the image of the US Constellation that is in the header of the document.

Approximate download size: 1.8MB

The Developing a CSS Starter Page: Baltimore Series
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part One
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Two
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Three
Baltimore: Developing a CSS Starter Page - Part Four Coming Soon

The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3

Tom Muck

If you use ColdFusion you should be using ColdFusion Components (CFCs). One of the more perplexing parts of developing CFCs for the beginning ColdFusion developer is how to define variables and properties. The proper use of variables is important for memory consumption and data integrity. You don't want variables hanging around that aren't needed, or accessed from areas that they should not be accessed from.

The first part of this series explained some of the differences between local and global variables as they apply to CFCs. This second part of the series showed a simple CFC framework component. Part 3 shows a CFC that extends our base component. These first three parts are usable in any ColdFusion site wtih any database. Part 4 will focus on SQL Server.

The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties Series:
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 1
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 2
The Mystery of CFC Variables and Properties - Part 3

Image Maps: Creating a Client-side Image Map with Illustrator

If you have an overwhelming urge to embed Cue Points into an FLV file's metadata you have most likely discovered that once they are embedded they can't be removed or changed. Here’s a little trick that will bail you out of a rather tricky Cue Point situation:

Check out the Article

Steven Seiller

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's first Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of Tom Green, Community MX author

Taming The Time Machine

When using OSX Leopard I am inevitably informed by Time Machine, the back up utility for Leopard, that the disk is full. Being the "cheap" sort buying a big honking external HD solely for this purpose doesn't make sense.

What I have started doing is deleting backups that are greater than 30 days old. To do this:

1) Open the drive where Time Machine stores your backups.
2) Locate a folder on the drive with the name of Backups.backupdb. Open it and you will see a folder with the name of your computer : Tom Green's Computer
3) Open this folder and you will see a whack of dated folders. These are the backups.
4) If today's date is March 31, 2008. I will drag all folders with names of 2008-01-31 or earlier to the Trash.

Problem solved. Just be aware that any important files in those folders will be erased from existence and can't be restored.

Would you like your tip published? Submit it to tips@communitymx.com.

That's it for this week. Stay tuned for the next CMX newsletter!