
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006
CMX Weekly Newsletter News Fun and Freebies Recent CMX Content Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats Check the News! The Latest Community MX Element: Iodine Our CMX design sorcerer, Gordon Mackay, is back with another CMX Design Element in our series of fully developed Fireworks design comps that you can slice and code in any way that fits your page specs. If you enjoyed Carbon, Krypton, Gold, and Mercury, you'll surely be happy to know that now there is CMX Design Element Iodine. Gordon created Iodine so that it could be conceived as either a fixed-width or fluid layout. If used in a CSS layout, this design would respond well to the use of background images in DIVs and wrappers. Whatever way you use it, however, it is easily customizable in the well organized Fireworks PNG. Here is what the CMX Design Element Iodine package includes: A Gordon Mackay chemistry lesson ;-) The complete Iodine design in a Fireworks PNG file, organized into logical layers according to best practices Bundled articles that will guide you in the use of included design techniques such as importing an .STL, slicing and exporting, and using gradients A companion article that includes documentation on topics not covered by the bundled articles Iodine form controls A color scheme palette An STL file that will allow you to re-apply all the Fireworks Styles used in Iodine's design via the Styles Panel Full support via our forums CMX Design Element Iodine article for nonmembers CMX Design Element Iodine article and file download for members and those who would like to purchase Iodine now. So Will Their Conferences Henceforth Be Known As Ozzfest? According to this press release at Microsoft.com (and they would know), Bill Gates will gradually be taking on less responsibility at Microsoft. During the next two years, Gates will start handing over the brunt of his responsibilities to Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie. Bill will be focusing his efforts on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which benefits global health and education programs. While Ozzie wil report to Gates over the course of the next couple years, he will start reporting to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer after the transition has taken place. What a crazy train... Now It's Time For: "Let's Learn ColdFusion", With Your Host, Adrian Senior Adrian Senior -you may know him as Jojo - is an author for Community MX. He has written scads of articles for Adobe's DevNet, as well as being a jetset trendsetter. He just released a FREE tutorial which is the first part of his "Let's Learn ColdFusion" series. Part one details the installation of the ColdFusion testing server. This tutorial assumes the user has no knowledge of ColdFusion, so it's very much for the newbies among us. This tutorial is a great place to start if you've ever wanted to get into Coldfusion. So far it's been a very popular article, and has livened up our CMX forums a lot. It's great to see people learning and having fun in equal amounts. Good job, Adrian! Just For You PhotoShop Users Running OSX 10.4 AutomatorWorld.com has a link to the Photoshop Action Pack, which takes advantage of the Automator application built into the latest Mac OS. What can you automate, exactly? Quite a few things. Among them: Flip Photoshop documents, create new documents, open images, resize images, rotate images, save images and a few other handy things. We found out about this handy item from the Unofficial Photoshop Weblog at WebLogsInc.com. What's Taking Windows Vista So Long? It's coming. Real soon. Honest. It will be here. Er... maybe. At least that's what Microsoft's been telling us for several years now, and it seems like each time we hear it's several months off, it gets pushed back just as many months. Why does this happen? For the inside scoop, you'd have to talk to folks who work at MS. Or just read their blogs. Philipsu (his blogging name, we're guessing) is a software development manager on the Tablet PC team at Microsoft, and has a few words to those who are bemoaning the setbacks that Vista has faced. Check out his blog at Blogs.MSDN.com.
Satisfied Customers Speak Out! "Finally, What I have been waiting for, I cannot wait till the next parts, this is worth my money, Keep Up The Great Work Mate." CMX Subscriber Faisal A., commenting on Adrian Senior's FREE article "Let's Learn ColdFusion: Part 1 - Installation and the Testing Server" 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: "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." — Samuel Johnson Five Year-Old Designs Media Conglomerate Portfolio Site At least, that's how it looks to us. WDDG.com has done some great web development. Their websites for Altoids.com and CandyStand.com are something that WDDG can be proud of. For their own site however, WDDG seem to be going for a different effect. Something along the lines of "prebuscent chat maniacs on dope." We know everyone's looking for something to set them apart, but we think that a lot of potential clients would have no clue what is going on with the WDDG website. It's still pretty funny though. Watch it, plx, at WDDG.com. This Is Crappy Are you a programmer? Do you spend weeks, months, maybe even years building a high-end application only to find that the dopes around you can't use the application correctly? Look on the bright side: Maybe those people aren't dopes. Maybe you're just a crappy programmer who knows nothing about how people use software. Of course, we're sure that's not true in your case. You're cool. But those other programmers, they might want to read Damien Katz's "Signs you're a crappy programmer (and don't know it)". NetFlix, You're Our Hero NetFlix announced plans to deliver movies to their customers in a whole new way. Instead of returning a movie and waiting for your next movie to arrive, you'll be able to get a box from NetFlix that connects to the internet and downloads the next movie from your queue, making it available for viewing the next day. NetFlix already has a remarkable turnaround with their DVD's, but to be able to view your movie the next day? We're flabbergasted. And we're not easily gasted, let alone flabbered. Read more about it at Variety.com. Gadgets... Of The FUTURE! What's going to be the "Next Big Thing"? TecheBlog.com has a list, with pictures and movies of the proposed products, and some of them look promising. Who would not want a urinal that is also a video game? Or a transparent toaster? OK, those sound just a bit "off", but there are a couple of promising gadgets, such as the "All-Terrain Motorized Board" which looks like a high-tech snowboard worthy of Marty McFly's attention. Check them all out at TecheBlog.com. This Is a Work Space We Can Relate To The Dynamic Graphics Project (dgp) at the University of Toronto is onto something. They recognize that most people don't think the same way a computer does. For instance, we try to keep everything organized just so on our computer, but our desk is riddled with piles of papers. The funny thing is, most people know what each pile represents and how to find what they need. What the DGP has created is a desktop that lets you move documents around on your desktop in the same way you'd place papers/documents on your desk: Toss a document across the desktop, and it displaces any documents it hits. You can crumple up items and delete them. You can create "tidy piles" or one big disorganized mess. Describing it doesn't do it justice though, so check out the (pretty dang big) video at Honeybrown.ca.
CMX MapLink v1.0 - Server Behavior The CMX MapLink Server Behavior creates a link to Google Maps. You can use static values, or dynamic values from the data sources palette. The behavior creates a link around a selection (text, image, etc...). The only parameters are: Address, City, State, Zip. US Addresses only (sorry international users). ASP Server Behavior Only. Check out this Extension by CMX Partner Joel Martinez
Fun and Freebies Got Time On Your Hands? What better way to spend some down-time then to pimp your Rubik's Cube? Instructables.com shows you how. Brains Are Funny Designs that play tricks on your eyes pop up on the internet every once in a while, but we really liked this one for it's "oooh, neat-o" factor. This one involves staring at a picture for thirty seconds, and then mousing over the image, and then... well, we won't give away the surprise. No, this is not a trick where Linda Blair jumps out of the screen screaming, or anything goofy like that. Just enjoy this illusion from JohnSadowski.com. If You're Self-Employed and You Enter This Contest, You Need Serious Counseling Working for a living is one of those necessary things in life, at least if you plan on eating and keeping a roof over your head. Your boss can make a big difference in how you view your job. A bad or just plain lame boss can make your life miserable. If you're one of those with a bad boss, you can at least get some consolation via a free vacation from WorkingAmerica.org. Detail the many ways in which your boss sucks, and if your story is voted as the favorite among readers, you could win a free vacation and get away from that stooge for a couple of weeks.
All About CSS Drop Shadows - Part One Do you like drop shadows on your page elements, but haven't a clue how to get them on your pages? Maybe you do know a bit about creating drop shadows, but a refresher on the modern methods would be welcome? Do you want to learn the very latest cutting edge tricks? If you are any of these, don't go away because we now begin a series on drop shadows for HTML elements. At the start we'll keep it simple, and as we progress in the series the methods will become more advanced and effective. At the end you will be treated to a brand new method so advanced that it must wait for IE7 to arrive before you can use it properly. This free article by CMX Partners Holly Bergevin and John Gallant can be found here.
Weekly Content Listing Realtime Searching with CMX Table Sorter Rob Williams The CMX Table Sorter extension allows you to give your users the ability to sort any HTML table in both ascending and descending order in realtime, without the need to reload the page (or even the table) from the remote server. The latest version of this extension goes one step further though and allows you to perform realtime searches on tabular data, giving users the ability to reorganize the entire table to more quickly and effectively find what they're looking for. In this article we'll take a look at how this new "tabular search" feature works, and just how easy it is to implement on your own web pages. Creating a Registration Page: Part 3 Tom Muck Dreamweaver contains many built-in tools to aid in quickly building dynamic sites. Part 1 of this series showed the Record Insertion Form Wizard to set up a simple user registration form on a web site. The registration form allows a user to register for a site. Part 2 showed validation and the user agreement, using more built-in tools of Dreamweaver and a little rudimentary JavaScript. The tutorial will apply equally to PHP, ASP, ColdFusion, and JSP using built in tools. Part 3 will show how to pass registration details to Paypal or other payment processor for a paid membership-type of site. The Creating a Registration Page Series: Creating a Registration Page: Part 1 Creating a Registration Page: Part 2 Creating a Registration Page: Part 3 Making the Right Business Choice! Paul Davis Selecting the right business type for your business can mean the difference between keeping and losing your house. It can also save you thousands of dollars. Reflections on a Theme in Fireworks Kim Cavanaugh It's a little hard to say who started the design trend that features objects that appear to be sitting on top of a mirror, but it's safe to say that Apple has made the most of this particular look. If you make a visit to the Apple site you'll see that almost all of their products are displayed as if they are sitting atop a mirror with the screen captures, text, boxes of software, and hardware reflected below. It's a design element that lots of others have emulated, and whether or not Apple started the trend, they've certainly be responsible for making it popular. And Lord knows, it is popular. Not to say that popular isn't good, as you can get some striking effects for your products or even simple text by duplicating, flipping, and fading an object as you see in the example below. Let's Learn ColdFusion: Part 1 - Installation and the Testing Server [FREE] Adrian Senior Welcome to the first in a series of articles aimed at providing an extensive overview of the ColdFusion language to newcomers to server-side development. The series will start at the beginnning with a look at the make-up of the language and progress to basic server-side development allowing you to build on your knowledge with each new addition to the series. Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 3: Filters, Plug-ins & Scripts Thomas Pletcher In this wrap-up of our 3-part GIMP series, we look at some of the program's more impressive and versatile filters and also take a look at some GIMP plug-ins and scripts. In addition, we modify a script -- using Script-Fu -- to create a new, transparent instance of the Sphere script (along with a new GIMP menu item for it), and close by reviewing a few GIMP variants you might want to try, one of which emulates Photoshop. The Quick Guide to The GIMP Series: Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 1: Basic Tools & Program Layouts Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 2: Editing Basics & Web Tips Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 3: Filters, Plug-ins & Scripts Batch Processing in Fireworks 8 [FREE] Jim Babbage I've lately seen a few posts on the Adobe forums and here on CMX about batch processing in Fireworks. Considering the Fireworks 8 Batch Processing utility had some noteworthy revisions, I thought it would be a good idea to go over the wizard in detail. Streamlined and enhanced file renaming, the ability to check file dimensions when scaling during a batch process and the addition of a status bar and log file are the most notable improvements to Batch Processing. There are many articles here on CMX that touch on Batch Processing, but they are geared towards specific goals. In this article, we'll examine the utility itself piece by piece. In a nutshell, you can do the following with Batch Processing: Convert a selection of files to another format. Convert a selection of files to the same format with different optimization settings. Scale exported files. Find and replace text, colors, URLs, fonts, and non-Web216 colors. Rename groups of files by any combination of adding a prefix, adding a suffix, replacing a substring, and replacing blanks. Perform commands on a selection of files. File Uploading in ASP.NET - Part 2 Heidi Bautista In this tutorial, we'll extend the file uploading paradigm to include simultaneously updating the database to record the name of the uploaded file. Of course, it only makes sense to update the database if the file upload was successful. So we'll first upload the file and then update the database, if appropriate, using the Insert Record server behavior. Code is presented in C# and VB. The File Uploading with .NET Series: File Uploading with ASP.NET File Uploading in ASP.NET - Part 2 Introducing CMX Jumpstart Orlando [FREE] Sheri German Orlando, Florida. It's every kid's dream vacation spot. It's warm and sunny, and makes the world of school seem galaxies away. It's got theme parks galore that take them to galaxies far away. When most people think of Orlando, they probably think of Disney, Epcot, MGM Studios, and Sea World. Now there is also CommunityMX JumpStart Orlando to add to the list of Orlando attractions. Orlando was designed by Chris Flick and coded by Zoe Gillenwater. Orlando uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design for which you may wish to use it. Orlando is a two-column elastic layout that also features a subhead area, a styled list as a navigation menu, and floated images. CMX JumpStarts: Orlando Zoe Gillenwater Mention Orlando, and most people immediately think of theme parks, laughing kids, warm sunshine and palm trees. Our Orlando JumpStart captures this spirit of Orlando perfectly, from its imagery to fun masthead font to bright colors. As do all our JumpStarts, Orlando uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Orlando is a two column elastic layout, which means it expands in width based on the user's font size. This allows the overall proportions of the page to stay intact no matter what window or font size the page's visitors are using, as well as making the design very accessible. The design also features a subhead area, a styled list as a navigation menus, and floated images. The graphic and code techniques used to create Orlando are explained fully in the 11 tutorials that we've included in your download, as well as this article. We also include the four style sheets needed for this design (including an extensively commented one you can use for reference), the XHTML files for the layout, the two source Fireworks PNGs, and a Dreamweaver extension that allows you to create new pages based on Orlando easily. If you'd like a more detailed look at the Orlando Jumpstart, as well as seeing a modified Orlando design, check out Sheri German's CMX JumpStart Orlando: An Introduction. Otherwise, click the link below to dive right into this JumpStart!
Making Full Use of Bindings The Dreamweaver bindings panel has a lot of uses beyond a place to build recordsets and stored procedures. Many people don't realize that when you add session, request, and application variables to the panel manually, you get some visual advantages — the ability to drag items to the page into design view, the ability to use variables as filters, and the ability to add formatting functions to design view. This article will explore the bindings panel and its advantages. Because we are discussing core Dreamweaver functionality, the article will apply equally to all server models in Dreamweaver, although some server models have better bindings panel support than others. Check out the Article by CMX partner Tom Muck
Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats! This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of CMX partner Tom Green Changing Cue Points in Your FLV 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. 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 Latest Community MX Element: Iodine

Our CMX design sorcerer, Gordon Mackay, is back with another CMX Design Element in our series of fully developed Fireworks design comps that you can slice and code in any way that fits your page specs. If you enjoyed Carbon, Krypton, Gold, and Mercury, you'll surely be happy to know that now there is CMX Design Element Iodine.

Gordon created Iodine so that it could be conceived as either a fixed-width or fluid layout. If used in a CSS layout, this design would respond well to the use of background images in DIVs and wrappers. Whatever way you use it, however, it is easily customizable in the well organized Fireworks PNG.

Here is what the CMX Design Element Iodine package includes:

A Gordon Mackay chemistry lesson ;-)
The complete Iodine design in a Fireworks PNG file, organized into logical layers according to best practices
Bundled articles that will guide you in the use of included design techniques such as importing an .STL, slicing and exporting, and using gradients
A companion article that includes documentation on topics not covered by the bundled articles
Iodine form controls
A color scheme palette
An STL file that will allow you to re-apply all the Fireworks Styles used in Iodine's design via the Styles Panel
Full support via our forums

CMX Design Element Iodine article for nonmembers

CMX Design Element Iodine article and file download for members and those who would like to purchase Iodine now.

So Will Their Conferences Henceforth Be Known As Ozzfest?

According to this press release at Microsoft.com (and they would know), Bill Gates will gradually be taking on less responsibility at Microsoft. During the next two years, Gates will start handing over the brunt of his responsibilities to Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie. Bill will be focusing his efforts on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which benefits global health and education programs. While Ozzie wil report to Gates over the course of the next couple years, he will start reporting to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer after the transition has taken place. What a crazy train...

Now It's Time For: "Let's Learn ColdFusion", With Your Host, Adrian Senior

Adrian Senior -you may know him as Jojo - is an author for Community MX. He has written scads of articles for Adobe's DevNet, as well as being a jetset trendsetter. He just released a FREE tutorial which is the first part of his "Let's Learn ColdFusion" series. Part one details the installation of the ColdFusion testing server. This tutorial assumes the user has no knowledge of ColdFusion, so it's very much for the newbies among us. This tutorial is a great place to start if you've ever wanted to get into Coldfusion. So far it's been a very popular article, and has livened up our CMX forums a lot. It's great to see people learning and having fun in equal amounts. Good job, Adrian!

Just For You PhotoShop Users Running OSX 10.4

AutomatorWorld.com has a link to the Photoshop Action Pack, which takes advantage of the Automator application built into the latest Mac OS. What can you automate, exactly? Quite a few things. Among them: Flip Photoshop documents, create new documents, open images, resize images, rotate images, save images and a few other handy things. We found out about this handy item from the Unofficial Photoshop Weblog at WebLogsInc.com.

What's Taking Windows Vista So Long?

It's coming. Real soon. Honest. It will be here. Er... maybe. At least that's what Microsoft's been telling us for several years now, and it seems like each time we hear it's several months off, it gets pushed back just as many months. Why does this happen? For the inside scoop, you'd have to talk to folks who work at MS. Or just read their blogs. Philipsu (his blogging name, we're guessing) is a software development manager on the Tablet PC team at Microsoft, and has a few words to those who are bemoaning the setbacks that Vista has faced. Check out his blog at Blogs.MSDN.com.

Satisfied Customers Speak Out!

"Finally, What I have been waiting for, I cannot wait till the next parts, this is worth my money, Keep Up The Great Work Mate."

CMX Subscriber Faisal A., commenting on Adrian Senior's FREE article "Let's Learn ColdFusion: Part 1 - Installation and the Testing Server"

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:

"Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." — Samuel Johnson

Five Year-Old Designs Media Conglomerate Portfolio Site

At least, that's how it looks to us. WDDG.com has done some great web development. Their websites for Altoids.com and CandyStand.com are something that WDDG can be proud of. For their own site however, WDDG seem to be going for a different effect. Something along the lines of "prebuscent chat maniacs on dope." We know everyone's looking for something to set them apart, but we think that a lot of potential clients would have no clue what is going on with the WDDG website. It's still pretty funny though. Watch it, plx, at WDDG.com.

This Is Crappy

Are you a programmer? Do you spend weeks, months, maybe even years building a high-end application only to find that the dopes around you can't use the application correctly? Look on the bright side: Maybe those people aren't dopes. Maybe you're just a crappy programmer who knows nothing about how people use software. Of course, we're sure that's not true in your case. You're cool. But those other programmers, they might want to read Damien Katz's "Signs you're a crappy programmer (and don't know it)".

NetFlix, You're Our Hero

NetFlix announced plans to deliver movies to their customers in a whole new way. Instead of returning a movie and waiting for your next movie to arrive, you'll be able to get a box from NetFlix that connects to the internet and downloads the next movie from your queue, making it available for viewing the next day. NetFlix already has a remarkable turnaround with their DVD's, but to be able to view your movie the next day? We're flabbergasted. And we're not easily gasted, let alone flabbered. Read more about it at Variety.com.

Gadgets... Of The FUTURE!

What's going to be the "Next Big Thing"? TecheBlog.com has a list, with pictures and movies of the proposed products, and some of them look promising. Who would not want a urinal that is also a video game? Or a transparent toaster? OK, those sound just a bit "off", but there are a couple of promising gadgets, such as the "All-Terrain Motorized Board" which looks like a high-tech snowboard worthy of Marty McFly's attention. Check them all out at TecheBlog.com.

This Is a Work Space We Can Relate To

The Dynamic Graphics Project (dgp) at the University of Toronto is onto something. They recognize that most people don't think the same way a computer does. For instance, we try to keep everything organized just so on our computer, but our desk is riddled with piles of papers. The funny thing is, most people know what each pile represents and how to find what they need. What the DGP has created is a desktop that lets you move documents around on your desktop in the same way you'd place papers/documents on your desk: Toss a document across the desktop, and it displaces any documents it hits. You can crumple up items and delete them. You can create "tidy piles" or one big disorganized mess. Describing it doesn't do it justice though, so check out the (pretty dang big) video at Honeybrown.ca.

CMX MapLink v1.0 - Server Behavior

The CMX MapLink Server Behavior creates a link to Google Maps. You can use static values, or dynamic values from the data sources palette. The behavior creates a link around a selection (text, image, etc...). The only parameters are: Address, City, State, Zip. US Addresses only (sorry international users). ASP Server Behavior Only.

Check out this Extension by CMX Partner Joel Martinez

Fun and Freebies

Got Time On Your Hands?

What better way to spend some down-time then to pimp your Rubik's Cube? Instructables.com shows you how.

Brains Are Funny

Designs that play tricks on your eyes pop up on the internet every once in a while, but we really liked this one for it's "oooh, neat-o" factor. This one involves staring at a picture for thirty seconds, and then mousing over the image, and then... well, we won't give away the surprise. No, this is not a trick where Linda Blair jumps out of the screen screaming, or anything goofy like that. Just enjoy this illusion from JohnSadowski.com.

If You're Self-Employed and You Enter This Contest, You Need Serious Counseling

Working for a living is one of those necessary things in life, at least if you plan on eating and keeping a roof over your head. Your boss can make a big difference in how you view your job. A bad or just plain lame boss can make your life miserable. If you're one of those with a bad boss, you can at least get some consolation via a free vacation from WorkingAmerica.org. Detail the many ways in which your boss sucks, and if your story is voted as the favorite among readers, you could win a free vacation and get away from that stooge for a couple of weeks.

All About CSS Drop Shadows - Part One

Do you like drop shadows on your page elements, but haven't a clue how to get them on your pages? Maybe you do know a bit about creating drop shadows, but a refresher on the modern methods would be welcome? Do you want to learn the very latest cutting edge tricks? If you are any of these, don't go away because we now begin a series on drop shadows for HTML elements. At the start we'll keep it simple, and as we progress in the series the methods will become more advanced and effective. At the end you will be treated to a brand new method so advanced that it must wait for IE7 to arrive before you can use it properly.

This free article by CMX Partners Holly Bergevin and John Gallant can be found here.

Weekly Content Listing

Realtime Searching with CMX Table Sorter

Rob Williams

The CMX Table Sorter extension allows you to give your users the ability to sort any HTML table in both ascending and descending order in realtime, without the need to reload the page (or even the table) from the remote server. The latest version of this extension goes one step further though and allows you to perform realtime searches on tabular data, giving users the ability to reorganize the entire table to more quickly and effectively find what they're looking for. In this article we'll take a look at how this new "tabular search" feature works, and just how easy it is to implement on your own web pages.

Creating a Registration Page: Part 3

Tom Muck

Dreamweaver contains many built-in tools to aid in quickly building dynamic sites. Part 1 of this series showed the Record Insertion Form Wizard to set up a simple user registration form on a web site. The registration form allows a user to register for a site.

Part 2 showed validation and the user agreement, using more built-in tools of Dreamweaver and a little rudimentary JavaScript. The tutorial will apply equally to PHP, ASP, ColdFusion, and JSP using built in tools.

Part 3 will show how to pass registration details to Paypal or other payment processor for a paid membership-type of site.

The Creating a Registration Page Series:
Creating a Registration Page: Part 1
Creating a Registration Page: Part 2
Creating a Registration Page: Part 3

Making the Right Business Choice!

Paul Davis

Selecting the right business type for your business can mean the difference between keeping and losing your house. It can also save you thousands of dollars.

Reflections on a Theme in Fireworks

Kim Cavanaugh

It's a little hard to say who started the design trend that features objects that appear to be sitting on top of a mirror, but it's safe to say that Apple has made the most of this particular look. If you make a visit to the Apple site you'll see that almost all of their products are displayed as if they are sitting atop a mirror with the screen captures, text, boxes of software, and hardware reflected below. It's a design element that lots of others have emulated, and whether or not Apple started the trend, they've certainly be responsible for making it popular.

And Lord knows, it is popular. Not to say that popular isn't good, as you can get some striking effects for your products or even simple text by duplicating, flipping, and fading an object as you see in the example below.

Reflected text

Let's Learn ColdFusion: Part 1 - Installation and the Testing Server [FREE]

Adrian Senior

Welcome to the first in a series of articles aimed at providing an extensive overview of the ColdFusion language to newcomers to server-side development.

The series will start at the beginnning with a look at the make-up of the language and progress to basic server-side development allowing you to build on your knowledge with each new addition to the series.

Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 3: Filters, Plug-ins & Scripts

Thomas Pletcher

In this wrap-up of our 3-part GIMP series, we look at some of the program's more impressive and versatile filters and also take a look at some GIMP plug-ins and scripts. In addition, we modify a script -- using Script-Fu -- to create a new, transparent instance of the Sphere script (along with a new GIMP menu item for it), and close by reviewing a few GIMP variants you might want to try, one of which emulates Photoshop.

The Quick Guide to The GIMP Series:
Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 1: Basic Tools & Program Layouts
Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 2: Editing Basics & Web Tips
Quick Guide to The GIMP - Part 3: Filters, Plug-ins & Scripts

Batch Processing in Fireworks 8 [FREE]

Jim Babbage

I've lately seen a few posts on the Adobe forums and here on CMX about batch processing in Fireworks. Considering the Fireworks 8 Batch Processing utility had some noteworthy revisions, I thought it would be a good idea to go over the wizard in detail.

Streamlined and enhanced file renaming, the ability to check file dimensions when scaling during a batch process and the addition of a status bar and log file are the most notable improvements to Batch Processing.

There are many articles here on CMX that touch on Batch Processing, but they are geared towards specific goals. In this article, we'll examine the utility itself piece by piece.

In a nutshell, you can do the following with Batch Processing:

Convert a selection of files to another format.
Convert a selection of files to the same format with different optimization settings.
Scale exported files.
Find and replace text, colors, URLs, fonts, and non-Web216 colors.
Rename groups of files by any combination of adding a prefix, adding a suffix, replacing a substring, and replacing blanks.
Perform commands on a selection of files.

File Uploading in ASP.NET - Part 2

Heidi Bautista

In this tutorial, we'll extend the file uploading paradigm to include simultaneously updating the database to record the name of the uploaded file. Of course, it only makes sense to update the database if the file upload was successful. So we'll first upload the file and then update the database, if appropriate, using the Insert Record server behavior. Code is presented in C# and VB.

The File Uploading with .NET Series:
File Uploading with ASP.NET
File Uploading in ASP.NET - Part 2

Introducing CMX Jumpstart Orlando [FREE]

Sheri German

Orlando, Florida. It's every kid's dream vacation spot. It's warm and sunny, and makes the world of school seem galaxies away. It's got theme parks galore that take them to galaxies far away. When most people think of Orlando, they probably think of Disney, Epcot, MGM Studios, and Sea World. Now there is also CommunityMX JumpStart Orlando to add to the list of Orlando attractions.

Orlando was designed by Chris Flick and coded by Zoe Gillenwater. Orlando uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design for which you may wish to use it. Orlando is a two-column elastic layout that also features a subhead area, a styled list as a navigation menu, and floated images.

CMX JumpStarts: Orlando

Zoe Gillenwater

Mention Orlando, and most people immediately think of theme parks, laughing kids, warm sunshine and palm trees. Our Orlando JumpStart captures this spirit of Orlando perfectly, from its imagery to fun masthead font to bright colors.

As do all our JumpStarts, Orlando uses valid XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1 markup and follows WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines to provide you with a solid foundation for any design you may wish to use it for. Orlando is a two column elastic layout, which means it expands in width based on the user's font size. This allows the overall proportions of the page to stay intact no matter what window or font size the page's visitors are using, as well as making the design very accessible. The design also features a subhead area, a styled list as a navigation menus, and floated images.

The graphic and code techniques used to create Orlando are explained fully in the 11 tutorials that we've included in your download, as well as this article. We also include the four style sheets needed for this design (including an extensively commented one you can use for reference), the XHTML files for the layout, the two source Fireworks PNGs, and a Dreamweaver extension that allows you to create new pages based on Orlando easily.

If you'd like a more detailed look at the Orlando Jumpstart, as well as seeing a modified Orlando design, check out Sheri German's CMX JumpStart Orlando: An Introduction. Otherwise, click the link below to dive right into this JumpStart!

Making Full Use of Bindings

The Dreamweaver bindings panel has a lot of uses beyond a place to build recordsets and stored procedures. Many people don't realize that when you add session, request, and application variables to the panel manually, you get some visual advantages — the ability to drag items to the page into design view, the ability to use variables as filters, and the ability to add formatting functions to design view. This article will explore the bindings panel and its advantages. Because we are discussing core Dreamweaver functionality, the article will apply equally to all server models in Dreamweaver, although some server models have better bindings panel support than others.

Check out the Article by CMX partner Tom Muck

Tips, Tricks and Dirty Cheats!

This week's Tip, Trick or Dirty Cheat is courtesy of CMX partner Tom Green

Changing Cue Points in Your FLV

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.

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!