CommunityMX.com

CMX Masterpiece Photo Collection 12: To Autumn

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Autumn is now in full bloom, and the leaves are sporting their most vibrant colors. Winter will be here in a little over a month, so let's enjoy the gorgeous scenery while we can. This new collection of ten high resolution photos should give you plenty of choices to use in your projects.

Approximate download size: 69MB...

Introducing Masterpiece Photo Collection 12: To Autumn

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

We are excited to introduce the CMX Masterpiece Photo Collection 12: To Autumn, based on the poem by William Blake (November 28, 1757 - August 12, 1827).

This article includes thumbnails of the ten high resolution images you get in the subscriber's CMX Masterpiece Photo article by Jill Kossin....

Make Your Own Planet

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Just because a planet doesn't have your name doesn't mean you can't make one. Mix together Fireworks, After Effects and Flash and you are able to build your own solar system....

Professional Adobe Flex 3: The Flex 3 Ecosystem - Part 2

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In May 2009, Wrox released a ground-breaking book: Professional Adobe Flex 3, written by Joseph Balderson, Peter Ent, Jun Heider, Todd Prekaski, Tom Sugden, Andrew Trice, David Hassoun and Joe Berkovitz, (ISBN 0470223642). This landmark publication consists over 1400+ pages of Flex reference material, covering a multitude of topics ranging from beginner to advanced, from the fundamentals of the Flash Platform technology ecosystem to the intricacies of the most advanced Flex-related frameworks and server products, in a breadth and depth found nowhere else.

In a Community MX exclusive, the following is an excerpt from Chapter 2: The Flex 3 Ecosystem:

Before diving into the specifics of any technology, it helps to know the terrain. You may have heard terms such as the Flash Player, Flash runtime, Flex, Flex framework, virtual machine, Flash Platform, Flex ecosystem, and various Adobe server products. The previous chapter defined a few aspects of this ensemble of technologies but perhaps not enough for the uninitiated to get a grasp of how they are related. What else is there? And how do they all fit together? This chapter will attempt to categorize and enumerate as many aspects of the ensemble of Adobe and related technologies that we call ?the Flex ecosystem? as possible. These technologies are divided into the following categories:

Runtimes
Languages
Development tools
Frameworks and APIs
Data communications
Servers

In Part 2 of this excerpt, we will continue our coverage of the Flex and Flash Platform development ecosystem of technologies, with Frameworks and APIs, Data Communications and Servers.

The Flex 3 Ecosystem Series:
Professional Adobe Flex 3: The Flex 3 Ecosystem - Part 1
Professional Adobe Flex 3: The Flex 3 Ecosystem - Part 2

...

Send Link to a Friend for PHP - Part 2

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

This article will show how to create a simple "send link to a friend" form for a PHP web site, which is a frequently requested topic. Part 1 created the basic form and email functionality using the CMXMail email class shown in this article. The mail class is also included in the support files download for this article, but you can reference the previous article to understand the functionality better. Part 2 adds some validation to the fields using Spry, built into Dreamweaver.

The Send Link to a Friend for PHP Series:
Send Link to a Friend for PHP
Send LInk to a Friend for PHP - Part 2...

Create Your Own Custom CMX Fireworks Course - Updated

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Since March of 2009, we've added more than 40 Fireworks or Fireworks-related articles to the Community MX content list. Now, as of November 2009, there are over 400! I figured it was about time to yet again update what we have available for my favorite imaging application. This learning guide will group articles into categories, guide you in determining their levels, and help you design your own custom Fireworks course. This article will break down the various FW articles into several areas, from the basics of the Fireworks interface, to creative design and production techniques....

How to Apply Smart Filters to an Image in Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Part 2

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Applying a Smart Filter to a photo in Adobe Photoshop CS4 is as easy as 1.2.3., adding an effect is even easier. Join me in the tutorials to find out how.

The Applying Smart Filters to Images in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Series:
How to Apply Smart Filters to an Image in Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Part 1
How to Apply Smart Filters to an Image in Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Part 2...

When Your Camera Let's You Down

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

There are times in my photography and I'm sure in yours too, when I'm a bit disappointed because what I saw with my eyes and what the camera recorded are two different things. The colors might not be as bright, the contrast might be too flat and with all of this there might be a lack of detail in the image as well. While there are a lot of controls to fix these conditions in Photoshop, sometimes you don't need a sledgehammer to drive home a thumbtack, so to speak. Sometimes a simple Highlight Mask will solve these problems in a few short steps. Let's begin....

HTML5 Canvas - Part 5: Image Scaling and Cropping

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Description: The upcoming HTML 5 specification promises to add support for a wide range of new and exciting web technologies. In this series we're going to focus on one of the major new players, the Canvas element, which allows for direct rendering and manipulation of vectors and images from within JavaScript.

Today we're going to continue our exploration of images by looking at how we can scale and crop them on canvas elements.

The HTML5 Canvas Series
HTML5 Canvas - Part 1: Introduction
HTML5 Canvas - Part 2: Basic
HTML5 Canvas - Part 3: Advanced Drawing Techniques
HTML5 Canvas - Part 4: Images
HTML5 Canvas - Part 5: Image Scaling and Croping ...

Apache Fancy Indexing Directory Listing with PHP

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

This script lists the contents of files and directories in the Apache Web Server. While Apache has built-in functionality to list files and directories with the FancyIndexing directive, the functionality is limited and the icons are outdated.

This script lists the contents of any directory or sub-directory into which the script is placed for the purpose of browsing, viewing or saving files. It features contextual icons for file types and only list files and directories found within the structure of the script's directory. You can even add your own style sheet to the listings.

It is possible to directly alter the Apache configuration to display listings with your preferred style, but you need root access to the underlying levels of the Web server and advanced knowledge of the configuration. If you have root access, you can also simply change the default icons provided with Apache which is limited in terms of file types. Since many developers do not have root access to their Web server nor wish to muck about in the configuration, this script provides an easy alternative to customizing directory listings.

This tutorial will demonstrate how to use this directory listing script and show you the one line of code which (possibly) needs to be customized for your Web server. You will also be shown how you can customize the script to incorporate your site design, data display and how to implement the configuration on a site-wide basis. Advanced and developing PHP programmers can also explore the functionality of:

reading directories of files
reading file attributes including date, extension, and size
sorting arrays
formatting the file size to human readable display
working with server path and links

...

Loading SWFs Randomly - Part 1: JavaScript

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

With Flash, interactivity isn't always about the content itself. Sometimes it's understated. Sometimes, for example, it's merely about picking a SWF at random when the user decides to reload the HTML page ? regardless if the Flash content is programmed or not. You might use an approach like this to randomly display a set of Flash banner ads or cartoons, just to keep the page "fresh."

Whatever your intent, if you've ever wanted to try something like this but didn't know where to begin, this article is for you. The free SWFObject embedding solution, and a few lines of custom JavaScript, are all you need....

Happy Veteran's Day

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Happy Veteran's Day!

The partners of Community MX would like to thank all the members of our armed forces, past and present for their service to our country.

We will be back tomorrow with new content...see you then!

...

The CMX JumpStart Catalog Update 2009

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Our last JumpStart Catalog was published in 2008, and of course we've released quite a few new JumpStarts since then. It's almost 2010(!), so it's definitely time to update and put all our JumpStarts more conveniently at your fingertips.

Hard as it is to believe, it is five years - almost to the day - since we published our first JumpStart, CMX JumpStart Paris, on Oct. 28, 2004. Long live the CMX JumpStart!

This catalog will start out by breaking down the JumpStarts into categories such as fixed-width, fluid, horizontal band, and number of columns. It will then list the special features that can be found in various JumpStarts, such as galleries, widgets, typography enhancements such as sIFR, Flash MP3 players, forms, and many more. Finally, we'll get to the actual catalog of every JumpStart we've published over the last five years. There will be a picture, a list of features, and links to the JumpStart itself, as well as the free article that describes it....

Drama in a Soft Spotlight

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

This is an excellent technique when you want to focus on some unique portion of an image. Standard techniques in Photoshop for doing something similar include selecting a new layer above the Background Layer of the image, feathering the selection, then inverting the selection, and then filling the inverted selection with a color, thus creating a sort of vignette. The method I'm going to show is a lot less task oriented and uses the Lighting Effects Filter in Photoshop. Let's begin....

Never Lose Any File Ever Again, SVN Compare!

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

When working with a repository, you can do a compare on prior versions of a file to see what has changed. It isn't difficult to do and you can check on changes in prior versions pretty quickly.

The SVN Tools Series:
Never Lose Any File Ever Again!
Never Lose Any File Ever Again, SVN Compare!...

Batch Processing Photoshop or TIFF Images Using Fireworks

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

There are a lot of things you can do with the Batch Process wizard in Fireworks. With a bit of planning, you can take larger JPEG files or non-web files - like TIFF or PSD or Fireworks PNG files - and create a custom batch process to to resize, sharpen, rename and export these files for use in a web site. Perhaps you are creating an image gallery from some original photos or artwork. Or you might want to take a series of original JPEG files that were shot with your camera, and convert them to a non-lossy format like TIFF, so they can be edited and saved without concern of losing any image data.

This tutorial walks you through the steps of converting some PSD images to images more useful in a web site. The same concept could be applied for graphics destined for a mobile or Flex or AIR application....

Autumn Leaf Brush

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Need a leaf brush for your Autumn projects? Here's a quick way to get a stylized custom Photoshop brush to fit all your Fall needs....

Email 3a: Accessing Email On Your Web Server

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Generally you will want to download emails you receive to Outlook, iMail, or some other program that reads email locally on your computer. Sometimes, however, you may not have access to your computer. In this tutorial we look at reading emails online, directly on your web server, via your control panel.

The Email Series:
Email 1: Creating New Email Addresses on Your Server
Email 2: Creating Email Forwarders
Email 3a: Accessing Email On Your Web Server...

Send Link to a Friend for PHP

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

This article will show how to create a simple "send link to a friend" form for a PHP web site, which is a frequently requested topic. Part 1 will create the basic form and email functionality using the CMXMail email class shown in this article. The mail class is also included in the support files download for this article, but you can reference the previous article to understand the functionality better. Part 2 will add some validation to the fields using Spry....

HTML5 Canvas - Part 4: Images

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The upcoming HTML 5 specification promises to add support for a wide range of new and exciting web technologies. In this series we're going to focus on one of the major new players, the Canvas element, which allows for direct rendering and manipulation of vectors and images from within JavaScript.

Today we're going to begin exploring the use of images within Canvas elements.

The HTML5 Canvas Series
HTML5 Canvas - Part 1: Introduction
HTML5 Canvas - Part 2: Basic
HTML5 Canvas - Part 3: Advanced Drawing Techniques
HTML5 Canvas - Part 4: Images
HTML5 Canvas - Part 5: Image Scaling and Croping Coming Soon...

Editing JumpStart PNG Files

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Community MX JumpStarts provide you with an instant layout and design, they also include tutorials on how you can apply the techniques used to create them into your own work. At their heart, JumpStarts serve two main purposes: they are an ideal tool for learning how to lay out standards compliant CSS driven designs and allow you to experiment with the code and CSS. For the more experienced designer they will allow you to quickly redesign and adapt the visual look and feel of the core design to a look that is unique to your client with minimum effort and often without any core code changes at all. At the heart of this rapid development is the JumpStarts PNG file. The PNG file contains the core design images and it is here that this tutorial will be focused

We will be looking at how you can make changes to the Stelvio Pass - Gallery JumpStart PNG file and export those changes to alter the look and feel of the original JumpStart....

How to Apply Smart Filters to an Image in Adobe Photoshop CS4 - Part 1

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Applying a Smart Filter to a photo in Adobe Photoshop CS4 is as easy as 1.2.3. Join me in these tutorials to find out how.

The Applying Smart Filters to Images in Adobe Photoshop CS4 Series:
How to Apply Smart Filters to an Image in Adobe Photoshop CS4
...

CMX JumpStart: The Black Forest

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Welcome to The Black Forest JumpStart!

The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-W�rttemberg, in southwestern Germany. It is a region that has vineyards, river valleys, sunny peaks, wide panoramic views, calm forests, revitalising spas, exciting family destinations and a cuisine that is the most elaborate in Germany.

The Black Forest JumpStart uses the Digg This! widget to provide current and up to date information for your users, ensuring your website is always current and informative....

Introducing CMX JumpStart Black Forest

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Known for its highlands, scenery, and forests, the Black Forest in Germany is a popular center of tourism. When someone mentions Black Forest to me, however, I always think of the wonderful cake or waltzing by the beautiful Blue Danube. Now I am going to us all something else to think about, too, and that's the latest CMX JumpStart Black Forest.

CMX JumpStart Black Forest is a centered, two-column, fixed layout in the new wider width that many designers are now using. The tabbed navigation uses the popular Sliding Door technique. The header features a logo with the text placed on a circular path, and will make it easy to design an attractive logo for your site. The main content resides in the left column, and a Digg content sharing menu occupies the right column.

The JumpStart includes a main style sheet, an Internet Explorer style sheet, and a Design Time Style Sheet (in case your version of Dreamweaver makes the layout difficult to edit in Design View).

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

Emerging Typography Technologies on the Web

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Ah, typography and the web - a sore subject, especially for we designers who have our roots in print design. Most of us are sick of Arial, Verdana, and Georgia, and long to use the perfect font to convey the message. Many creative techniques for using custom fonts have emerged over the years, but none of them have been a universal or permanent solution to the problem with web typography.

This article will take you through some of the history of how we've dealt with fonts in web pages. It will also explore how our options are starting to increase with the use of technologies such as @font-face, as well as new services such as Typekit....

PHPMailer-ML - Mailing List Manager and eMessage Manager

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

PHPMailer-ML is a mailing list and newsletter management tool. It leverages the easy-to-use and powerful PHPMailer package from an online administrative center that you run on your own web server. You can use PHPMailer-ML to receive subscription requests from your website and to manage your mailing list. From PHPMailer-ML you can send emails to your mailing lists in HTML or plain text format. The administrative center allows you to create mailing campaigns, select mailing lists and create e-mails. Like PHPMailer, PHPMailer-ML is distributed for free under the General Public License (GPL). This tutorial will show you how to install and use the basic features of PHPMailer-ML.

PHPMailer-ML was originally developed to showcase the function of PHPMailer in 2008. During 2009 the project has received significant development in terms of interface, CSV import function and newsletter editing. PHPMailer is a popular, top-rated PHP class for simplifying the sending of plain text e-mail, HTML e-mail and attachments....

Lightroom 3 Public Beta Announced

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:54:27 GMT

Yes that's right. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is now available for public beta testing at Adobe Labs.

And it's very cool.

For those of you who don't know, Lightroom is literally a digital photo darkroom. Where Photoshop has many workflows - digital imaging, creative design and pre-press - Lightroom has a truly singular workflow: digital photography.

It combines many features of Bridge, Camera RAW, and digital image correction/enhancement in a very slick package. It ......

Using JSON with ActionScript 3.0

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Flash developers have been using XML for data exchange for years now. XML is a great choice: it's extendable, easy to format, and in common use practically everywhere. ActionScript 3.0, with its E4X syntax, makes XML even easier to use than ever before. But there's a new kid in town ? a lightweight alternative called JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) ? that you're likely to run into nowadays when shuttling data between your SWF and server side code. Sadly, Flash Player doesn't feature a native JSON parser, but thanks to a free Adobe class library at Google Code, this omission won't get slow you down. In fact, the ActionScript 3.0 JSON parser is so easy to use, it can easily be covered in a single article.

...

Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 6: Phatfusion Rounded Corners

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In Part 6 of this series on Extending Dreamweaver CS4 we will be looking at the Phatfusion roundedCorners widget from the Adobe web site. The Phatfusion roundedCorners widget is an automated click of a button widget that will provide with rounded corners on both your divs and images.

A default set of images are provided to get you up and running. You can, of course, create your own and change the radius of the corners. As with all the widget add-ons in this series, the widget is free, you need only download the widget in extension form and install it through your Extension Manager.

The Extending Dreamweaver CS4 Series
Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 1: The TNC Lightbox
Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 2: jQuery UI Calendar
Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 3: Phatfusion SortableTable
Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 4: Digg This!
Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 5: Phatfusion Image Menu
Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 6: Rounded Corners...

(Not so) Scary Ghosts and Goblins - Part 7

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Well it has been a loooong time since I've done a holiday themed tutorial, and I thought to myself, "Self, Halloween is coming. Surely you can come up with some sinister plan to yet again use Fireworks for scary and creepy purposes."

With the gauntlet thus thrown, I took up the challenge. In this tutorial you'll take a regular photo and a scary photo, combine them with some Fireworks effects to create a scary Gif animation or SWF file. The end result will look like this:

Read on Dear Reader . . . if you dare . . .

The (Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins Series:
(Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 1
(Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 2
(Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 3
(Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 4
(Not So) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 5
(Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 6
(Not so) Scary Ghosts 'n Goblins - Part 7...

Pick Videos at the Drive-In

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

How do you get three 1950's commercials to play on your web site? Did I mention they need to be posted within the next 30 minutes? Fireworks CS4 and Flash CS4 to the rescue.

Approximate download size: 31MB...

Email 2: Creating Email Forwarders

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

To look professional, you will want to use email addresses that match your domain name, instead of email addresses from free email services like Yahoo! or email addresses associated with your ISP, like Earthlink. In the last session, we learned how to create email addresses with your personalized domain. Sometimes, though, one email address isn't enough.

In this tutorial you'll learn how to create email addresses that forward to your main email address, so you can have unlimited email addresses

The Email Series:
Email 1: Creating New Email Addresses on Your Server
Email 2: Creating Email Forwarders...

Introducing Palm Breeze Cafe

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I wear a lot of different hats in my day job. As a member of the Educational Technology Team for Palm Beach County schools?one of the largest public school districts in the U.S.?I do all sorts of things from manage programs to conducting workshops and even doing the occasional web and graphic design work. But the most unusual aspect of my job is that I also get to be a television star.

OK, star might be a bit of a stretch, but I am the co-host of a weekly television show that is filmed in our school district's television studio. Each and every week during the school year we record Palm Breeze Cafe for broadcast to all 165 schools in our district as well as send the show out to local cable viewers.

But as cool as it is to serve our local community this way, from the start we've always published our show online through YouTube and other video sharing sites. This allows us to share with you (for free!) the great things we do on the show and the many ways that computers can be used for learning....

Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 10: Creating a Taxes Collected Report Using ColdFusion

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Cross Browser Image Opacity Transitions

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Adding opacity to your images becomes a realistic possibility with CSS 3, but there is reasonable support out there now for image opacity, though not to the extent that CSS 3 should bring.

In this tutorial we will look at how we can use opacity in a meaningful way on images within your page and look at some of the pitfalls you might expect to come across....

HTML5 Canvas - Part 3: Advanced Drawing Techniques

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The upcoming HTML 5 specification promises to add support for a wide range of new and exciting web technologies. In this series we're going to focus on one of the major new players, the Canvas element, which allows for direct rendering and manipulation of vectors and images from within JavaScript.

Today we're going to delve deeper into Canvas drawing by exploring custom paths and the methods that can be used to create them.

The HTML5 Canvas Series
HTML5 Canvas - Part 1: Introduction
HTML5 Canvas - Part 2: Basic
HTML5 Canvas - Part 3: Advanced Drawing Techniques
HTML5 Canvas - Part 4: Images
HTML5 Canvas - Part 5: Image Scaling and Croping Coming Soon...

Creating an Action with Adobe Illustrator CS4

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

When creating a new action, the commands and tools you use are added to the action until you stop�recording. When you play an action, Illustrator performs the entire recorded task. Find out more, join me in this tutorial.

...

Studies in Noise - Part 2

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

More noise! Check out a few more approaches to getting noise to work for you. And keep an eye out for another article which will take these skills and apply them to retouching - matching noise in a target image. Cool!

The Studies in Noise Series:
Studies in Noise - Part 1
Studies in Noise - Part 2...

Email: Creating New Email Accounts On Your Server

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Many small businesses have email addresses from free services like Yahoo! or through their ISP, such as sbcglobal or AOL. While it's vital to have an email address, it's unprofessional to have one from a domain other than your web site's. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to create a personalized email address with your domain name.

The Email Series:
Email 1: Creating New Email Addresses on Your Server
Email 2: Creating Email Forwarders...

Lomo Magic in Photoshop

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In the early days of photography a Russian camera called the Lomo was a cheap and a very popular camera for doing a lot of casual photography. Some of the unique properties of the camera revolved around how it was made and the images it produced. Technically the optics were poor and loaded with aberrations, along with a soft lens which could rarely produce too much detail. The images were inherently color saturated and contrasty. Despite all this seemingly negative stuff however, the images were hauntingly beautiful. The only analogy I can make is in typography, where for years type was very clean and stylized and then out of the blue we suddenly had all kinds of grungy and broken, distressed looking type fonts come on the design scene. This is what Lomography is to modern photography.

Lomography also takes on a philosophy towards photography style which tends to be very loose and casual. Shooting from the hip sometimes or not composing the shot at all are typical. All this develops into a kind of art form unique to a different way of creating images altogether.

Photoshop is an excellent tool to recreate this type of imagery and with a few tools such as Curves and Gradient Mapping, you'll be able to quickly render this effect. Let's begin....

The CSS Starter Page Series Part 12: Adding a JQuery Slideshow

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The new semester is under way, and my students are using this CSS Starter Page series to design their portfolio sites. As we go along, we'll be exploring various nifty ways to add the portfolios of their graphic design work. In this installment of the CSS Starter Page series, we're going to use a jQuery script to create an attractive slideshow of images with descriptive text. We'll accomplish this objective in stages. First we'll insert the slides into the HTML code so that even older browsers have access to the content. Our next step will be to style the slides with CSS, a "progressive enhancement" that will benefit most users. Finally, we'll add the pre-written jQuery script to add a little wow factor to the slideshow....

Backing Up Databases For Offline Storage

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

If you are running your own server, then many hats are needed to ensure your clients data is correctly maintained. Everything from the web site and associated files, through to any database that might be used to support the web site needs to be backed up.

In this tutorial we will look at how to efficiently back up your SQL Server Databases and copy them down from the remote server for storing in a separate location. I use hardware within my office for this storage, the databases are copied down to my main machine and then copied across to an external hard drive. This process provides the latest backup in three different locations as well as providing a backup stack of the last thirty days for each database, that should cover all the bases nicely!...

PHP Is Losing Its Magic-Get Used to It Now

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The use of Magic Quotes in your PHP scripts has long been shown to be an insecure method of security. While this function is currently in the process of being deprecated, it will finally be removed as a PHP 6. Make your transition process easier by taking the time now to assess your reliance on the Magic Quotes directive and revise your scripts if needed....

Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 7

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In one implementation of the QuickTime VR format, known as QTVR Object Movies, the user can click-and-drag an image to seemingly rotate it, as if spinning the real-life object on a lazy Susan. This simulated 3-D interactivity can improve multimedia curb appeal, and makes for a nifty way to showcase merchandise. But it doesn't stop there: the same basic principle can also bring click-and-drag responsiveness to short video sequences and even user input widgets, such as click-and-scrub input fields.

In Part 6, we migrated the ActionScript 2.0 version of our custom Scrubber class to ActionScript 3.0. This required a second class file, ScrubberEvent.as, which introduced a key difference in event dispatching between the two versions of the language. Here in Part 7, we'll conclude the series by investigating another AS3 point of interest (again related to events) ? and finally, we'll use the Scrubber class for a bit of audio/visual fun.

The Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash Series:
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 1
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 2
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 3
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 4
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 5
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 6
Building Click-and-Rotate Content in Flash - Part 7...

Happy Columbus Day!

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Happy Columbus Day!

The partners of Community MX would like to wish all of our readers a happy Columbus Day!

So that our partners can enjoy the holiday with their families and friends, we will not be releasing new content on Monday October 12th. Don't despair, we will be back on Tuesday, Ocotober 13th! Enjoy your holiday, and we'll see you tommorrow!...

Show-Hide Passwords

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Entering passwords sometimes can be frustrating since you can't see what you're typing. This quick JavaScript will make it possible for visitors to toggle between text and the password protected field for their password entry....

Studies in Noise - Part 1

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Noise!! You can't seem to avoid it in your digital images. Well, guess what? We are going to embrace the enemy! In this two-part tutorial, we'll look at the basics of using noise in creative ways. The first part talks about ways to use Photoshop's filters to generate and manipulate pure noise. The second part will take that information and start building textures.

If you do any photoretouching or need some creative sparks, read this article ;)

The Studies in Noise Series:
Studies in Noise - Part 1
Studies in Noise - Part 2...

ColdFusion Worst Practices Part 2: Abusing Pound Signs (#)

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The pound sign (#) has a special meaning in ColdFusion. It tells the application server to evaluate what is inside the matching pound signs as a variable or an expression. If the value is a variable, or can be treated as an expression or a function, ColdFusion replaces the whole thing with the result of the evaluation.

However, using # signs is not always the best choice. You should not get it the habit of using them where they are not required. Overuse of pound signs can cause the server to work too hard and eventually cause performance issues. In this article we will look at several examples of when not using the # sign is the better choice.

The ColdFusion Worst Practices Series:
ColdFusion Worst Practices - Part 1: Misuing CFOUTPUT
ColdFusion Worst Practices - Part 2: Abusing Pound Signs (#)...

Deconstructing and Reconstructing a Button in Fireworks

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Recently my good buddy here at Community MX, Laurie Casolino, reached out and asked if I could take a stab at recreating a button graphic that she'd been given by a client. Since I owe Laurie about 6 years worth of favors, and since I also had about 15 minutes of free time, I took on the job of recreating a button graphic in Fireworks. And of course, being an author constantly in search of new ideas to write about, the process I went through to make a button that matches the one Laurie had to work with became the subject of another tutorial.

I don't know exactly where Laurie got this button, but my guess is that as in most design jobs her client presented her with the image but did not have the original file that was used to create it. It would be great to have the original Fireworks PNG or PhotoShop PSD to work with, but in the real world this is an all too common occurrence.

In this quick look at how Fireworks can be used to take on this sort of work we'll see how an image can be deconstructed to determine how to remake the image you've been given to make a duplicate that you can edit and rework into a new design....

Black and White Forever

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:00:00 GMT

As much as I like color images, I still have a real passion for a well exposed and tonally rich black and white image. There are many ways in Photoshop to do this, but I'm always looking for some method which is quick, uncomplicated and will yield results which I can adjust to my taste.

In this tutorial you're going to learn a method for achieving these results using the Lab Color mode in Photoshop as well Layer Blend Modes. Let's begin....