CommunityMX.com

Flex Power Tools: Using Flex Builder and FDT in The Same Workflow

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In my everyday programming as a Flex and Flash Platform developer, it's up to me to keep tabs on the best tools to enable me to do my work with the greatest ease and with the most efficiency. In other words, call it lazy or efficient, I just want to be able to code with the greatest of ease so I can focus more on building and less on typing.

In this tutorial, we're going to solve the challenging task of getting two of the most impressively featured Flex IDEs, Flex Builder and FDT, to work seamlessly in the same workflow, in the same eclipse installation, and even in the same project. The Flex coding workflow holy grail, one might say. So that when you're coding a Flex project, you have a choice of using the incredible code intelligence features of FDT, or the native features of Flex Builder, in the same project.

Note: this is an advanced tutorial, so you need to be familiar with using Eclipse-based tools.

Look Ma, FDT compilation with Flex Builder design view!...

Infra Red and Adobe Camera Raw Are Great Friends

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I'm sure most of you who have been with photography for awhile, still remember the painstaking process of creating an Infra Red (IR) image from scratch. Along with the issues of focusing an IR image, you had to be concerned with ambient temperatures and film processing techniques to end up with what would, if everything went right the first time, a spectacular scene consisting of a stark sky with puffy white clouds and the general landscape of trees and grass taking on a surreal cotton candy fairyland appearance. The entire scene was rendered in bold tones of black and white. Those were the days, tedious at times, but eventually it was all worthwhile.

Well today you can still achieve all the splender of an IR image effect with a lot less effort and a lot more control. Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) combine together to give remarkably brilliant IR effects from any color image you might have kicking around. It's quick and easy. ...

New From Acrobat.com: Tables

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

When Adobe acquired Virtual Ubiquity?the company responsible for the great online word processor Buzzword?there was an awful lot of speculation about where the company would take these technologies and what sort of additional services might be offered. In the two years since the acquisition was announced Buzzword has been rolled into the online sharing platform found at Acrobat.com and the programmers have been hard at work on other applications.

Recently two new services were announced that extend the services of Acrobat.com but that hold to the same principles as the original Buzzword application?focusing on the ability of users to share information and collaborate on documents in a real-time environment. In my previous article on the new features at Acrobat.com Labs we took a look at the new Presentations service that allows you to make slide-show presentations in an on-line environment.

In this article we'll look at the similarly simply-named Tables application service that provides you with a means to share a document that has the most common features that real people use spreadsheets for?the simple organization of information. Both of these software as services applications are in beta testing as this article is being written at Labs.Acrobat.com, but they are slated for a wider release into the Acrobat.com service in the future. ...

Quickshot: Enforcing Case Sensitivity in SQL Server

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

If you are paying attention to security in your online applications, then you are likely encouraging your users to select strong passwords that contain numbers, special characters and letters that are both upper and lower case. Without special attention to your database settings, however, SQL Server will treat upper and lower case characters as equivalent to one another, causing you to loose a significant part of the strength of your passwords.

In this article, we will show a quick and simple way to have SQL Server enforce case sensitivity....

Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 3: Workflow

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Adobe Fireworks CS4 has quite a few cool features, but, if you're completely new to the program - or new to web design, you might be wondering where to start in Fireworks. In the Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book, my goal was to introduce the complete novice to Fireworks and by the end of the book, leave them with a wide range of skills and a solid grasp of what Fireworks could - and could not - do.

In this four part series, you will find PDF excerpts from the book, complete with some of the working files to help you along.In this, the third part of the series, you will learn how to create an animation symbol, share a web layer and share a layer to multiple pages.

Approximate download size: 4.2MB

Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts Series
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 1: Bitmap and Vector Tools
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 2: Text and Image Optimization
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 3: Workflow
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 4: Advanced Prototyping Coming Soon...

jQuery Quickshots - Summarizing Form Data

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

jQuery is a great tool for helping to make your JavaScript and AJAX applications easier to develop and maintain. One of the hardest things about it though, is that it introduces so many new and amazing possibilities that aren't always clearly obvious on the surface.

These "quickshot" articles are intended to act as hints, or inspirations, to some of the more creative or unknown problems that jQuery can help you tackle. Today we're going to look at a neat approach to summarizing form data so the user can review it before actually submitting....

Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 3: Creating an Order Report Graph

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Cartweaver is an online shopping cart system available from www.cartweaver.com for PHP, ColdFusion, and ASP. It is intended as an easy-to-use solution for building an online store. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the more pricey carts available, but with a little coding, many new features can be added.

Part 2 showed how to add a low-stock warning to the Cartweaver admin for ColdFusion. This part will show a simple order graphical report. SQL will show how to write the query for SQL Server, the most popular ColdFusion database. Other databases will have similar syntax.

The Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods Series:
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 1: Creating a Low Stock Warning for PHP
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 2: Creating a Low Stock Warning for ColdFusion
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 3: Creating an Order Report Graph...

Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 6: Isolation Mode & Creative Suite Services

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

For those of you who are familiar with Illustrator the following are key points of the new Illustrator CS4. Adobe CS4 has done a great job of enhancing old favorites and introducing long awaited new features; below is a list of features now available in Illustrator CS4. As you will see from the impressive list, this release of Adobe Illustrator CS4 really does have something for everyone. Long time users, I am sure will be pleased with the results.

The Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features Series:
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 1: The New Interface - Multiple Artboards
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 2: Gradients, The Gradient Panel and the Blob Brush
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 3: Live Color, Color Guide, Live Color Dialog, Type on Path, Bleed Support
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 4: Preview
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 5: Appearance and Graphic Style
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 6: Isolation Mode & Creative Suite Services...

The CSS Starter Page Series Part 7: Adding A Spry Menu Bar

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In this installment of the CSS Starter Page series, we are going to segue into exploring Spry widgets by continuing where we left off - that is with trying out different navigation schemes. We're going to add a Spry Menu Bar to the Photo Gallery page of our layout to accommodate the numerous sub categories of images we might have in that section of the site.

This tutorial will take you through the following tasks:

Setting up a site definition - very important for ensuring that the Spry Widget works once you upload the files
Inserting the Spry Menu Bar widget
Customizing the menu items (link text) for each link and its sublinks
Styling the menu

...

Extending Dreamweaver CS4: Part 3 - Phatfusion SortableTable

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In Part 3 of this series on Extending Dreamweaver CS4 we will be looking at the Phatfusion SortableTable widget from the Adobe web site. The Phatfusion SortableTable widget provides your end users with a method to sort an HTML table by clicking on the column headers. This functionality allows your users to sort a table to meet their requirements thus making the information they need far more accessible than trying to retrieve it from a static table. As with all the spry 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! Coming Soon...

Embedding Flash Content, Demystified - Part 5: Optional Parameters Concluded

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

There are numerous ways to embed Flash content in a website, from Dreamweaver's Insert > Media menu (for SWF files, Flash Paper, FLV files, and more) to the publishing templates provided by the Flash authoring tool itself. In spite of these varied options ? or perhaps because they're so varied ? many people lack confidence when it comes to marrying Flash content with an HTML document. If this strikes a chord with you, then lay your fears to rest. In this series, you'll cut through the complexity, find out what your application's auto-generated embedding code actually means, and learn to avoid a handful of common Flash-related pitfalls.

Here in Part 5, we'll investigate a final round of optional embed parameters. These are the ones not displayed as choices in the Flash authoring tool's Publish Settings dialog box, but available if you know them.

The Embedding Flash Content Demystified Series:
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 1: Introduction
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 2: The Traditional Approach
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 3: Optional Parameters
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 4: Optional Parameters Continued
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 5: Optional Parameters Concluded...

Review of Balsamiq, a Wireframe Software Package

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Mockup software is expensive - this little gem of a program makes quick work of mockups and costs less than you would expect!...

Photoshop?Invisible Ink and Decoder Rings

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Over the years we've gone over a lot of different tutorials using Photoshop and they've, for the most part, been very practical and creative solutions to everyday situations as well as unusual situations. Everything from complete digital make-overs in Photoshop to Pasta Verde?Wait a minute, Pasta Verde is what I'm having for dinner tonight. Suffice to say, all work and no play makes Jack or Jill a dull Photoshop user, so I thought this next tutorial might want to bring out the secret agent in you.

Using some very simple tools, such as the Text Tool and Levels in Photoshop, you'll learn how to encrypt a secret message in one of your photographic images which you could send off to another secret agent. Let's begin....

New From Acrobat.com: Presentations

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

When Adobe acquired Virtual Ubiquity?the company responsible for the great online word processor Buzzword?there was a great deal of speculation about where the company would take these technologies and what sort of additional services might be offered. In the two years since the acquisition was announced Buzzword has been rolled into the online sharing platform found at Acrobat.com and the programmers have been hard at work on other applications.

Recently two new services were announced that extend the services of Acrobat.com but that hold to the same principles as the original Buzzword application?focusing on the ability of users to share information and collaborate on documents in a real-time environment. This article will take a look at the first of these new services known simply as Presentations and discuss some of the trends ahead and speculate a bit on where Adobe might ultimately take these services. ...

Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 2: Text and Image Optimization

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Text Basics
Optimization and working with previews
Creating a simple rollover

Approximate download size: 6.5MB

Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts Series
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 1: Bitmap and Vector Tools
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 2: Text and Image Optimization
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 3: Workflow
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 4: Advanced Prototyping Coming Soon

...

QuickShot: Making HTML Tables Sortable

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Sometimes there is just nothing you can do except point in the direction of a great little piece of code.

We have all had it driven into our developer pea-brains that tables are for tabular data and not for layout. Well, if we are all using tables properly for tablular data, then more often than not somebody is going to ask ?Can you click the table to sort all of that?? If it is tabular data, then it could probably benefit from some sorting, so your answer needs to be yes. ...

Fiery Photoshop Soap Bubble - Part 1

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I've seen fire, and I've seen rain... er... soap. But not at the same time. Until now! Break out those latent 3D skills and come with me as we bend Photoshop to our will and place a little lick of fire into a soap bubble! This tutorial is aimed at intermediate to advanced users, and goes really quick. But don't let that scare you - the steps are all there, and we have forums to help you with the details and concepts. Photoshop CS4 Extended has brought 3D well into the realm of every user. So let's go burn some soap!...

File Uploads with PHP - Part 1: Form and File Handling

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

To handle file uploads, use built-in PHP functionality. File uploads can be integrated in applications such as form submissions, file sharing, image uploads or FTP replacement. PHP features a superglobal array specifically for uploaded files as well as specific functions for handling uploaded files.

Part one of this script will demonstrate how to set up an HTML form for file uploading as well as a PHP script example for processing uploaded files. This demonstration script can be used as an FTP replacement, providing a method for laymen to upload files to the server without access to an FTP client....

The CSS Starter Page Series Part 6c: Adding Navigation Schemes Part Three

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Extending Dreamweaver CS4: Part 2 - jQuery UI Calendar

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In Part 2 of this series on Extending Dreamweaver CS4, we will be looking at installing a date picker widget from the Adobe web site. The date picker is one of many jQuery UI widgets that are available in the Adobe web site's widgets section. A date picker is a very useful option to have in your armoury and one that can be deployed in several different ways to enhance your web site's functionality.

In this tutorial, we will look at how the date picker can be used and how it can be changed from the default American style of date format to the UK date format.

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! Coming Soon...

CSS For Absolute Beginners - Part 31: The background Shorthand Property

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Extending Dreamweaver CS4 - Part 1: The TNC Lightbox

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Dreamweaver has a little gateway hidden within it that leads to the land of magic! Have you ever used this gateway? Do you know where it is? If the answer to those two questions is no then you should read on and be prepared to meet the first of our free items of treasure.

When you buy Dreamweaver you buy so much more than what comes on the disk. You can become involved in some great communities like CMX, and you can access widgets and extensions that will make your work flow faster and therefore make you more productive and cost effective in what you do.

Not all widgets and extensions come with a price tag, as we shall see as we set off on a series that will introduce to some of the fantastic functionality that can be added to Dreamweaver in no more than a couple of clicks of your mouse! Read on...

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! Coming Soon...

Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 2: Creating a Low Stock Warning for ColdFusion

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Cartweaver is an online shopping cart system available from www.cartweaver.com for PHP, ColdFusion, and ASP. It is intended as an easy-to-use solution for building an online store. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the more pricey carts available, but with a little coding, many new features can be added.

Part 1 showed how to add a low-stock warning to the Cartweaver admin for PHP. Part 2 will show how to add a low-stock warning to the Cartweaver admin for ColdFusion.

The Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods Series:
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 1: Creating a Low Stock Warning for PHP
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 2: Creating a Low Stock Warning for ColdFusion
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 3: Creating an Order Report Graph...

Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 3: CSS Layout Backgrounds

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

CSS Layout Backgrounds, of all the CSS visual aids this is probably my favourite. Activating this option de-clutters design view completely, it takes you right down to the bare bones and really lets you get to grips with the structure of the layout. If I am having a problem with a layout this where I go to, it just makes everything very easy to see. Background images are removed and all your layout elements are given random background colours, it is uncanny how this de-cluttering makes everything so easy to read in design view.

The Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features Series:
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 1: CSS Layout Outlines
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 2: CSS Layout Box Model
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 3: CSS Layout Backgrounds ...

The Adobe BrowserLab Web Service

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

For my students, the single most daunting aspect of putting together CSS layouts is the inconsistency in how browsers render pages. Many of you may have heard of, or have even used, services such as Browsercam (subscription) or Browsershots (free, but very public) to view your pages in browsers you don't have on your own system. Now Adobe has launched a public beta of its own diagnostic browser service, which it has named Adobe BrowserLab.

In this article you'll find out what you'll need to run BrowserLab, learn more about its features, and watch a sample page go through the BrowserLab paces....

jQuery Quickshots - Dependent Selects

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

jQuery is a great tool for helping to make your JavaScript and AJAX applications easier to develop and maintain. One of the hardest things about it though, is that it introduces so many new and amazing possibilities that aren't always clearly obvious on the surface.

These "quickshot" articles are intended to act as hints, or inspirations, to some of the more creative or unknown problems that jQuery can help you tackle. In today's article we'll look at how to conquer one of those "should be a lot easier than it really is" common tasks in web development: dependent select lists....

Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 1: Bitmap and Vector Tools

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Adobe Fireworks CS4 has quite a few cool features, but if you're completely new to the program - or new to web design, you might be wondering where to start in Fireworks. In the Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book, my goal was to introduce the complete novice to Fireworks and by the end of the book, leave them with a wide range of skills and a solid grasp of what Fireworks could - and could not - do.

In this four part series, you will find PDF excerpts from the book, complete with some of the working files to help you along.

Approximate download size: 3.9MB

Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts Series
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 1: Bitmap and Vector Tools
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 2: Text and Image Optimization
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 3: Workflow
Fireworks CS4 Classroom in a Book Excerpts - Part 4: Advanced Prototyping Coming Soon...

Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 5: Appearance and Graphic Style

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

From Jumpstart to Composition Demo in Fireworks CS4

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

One of the great new tools that comes with Fireworks CS4 is one that is easy to overlook?the ability you now have to take a composition and publish all of the visible elements to a Flash-based demonstration of your design. Using this new feature along with the Master Pages that are part of Fireworks you can quickly create a design composition and publish it to your server for client review.

In this tutorial you?ll be provided with the source Fireworks PNG file that was developed using Sheri German's original design for the Baltimore Jumpstart series as its base.

This source file has been broken up into multiple pages to demonstrate how a comp might be prepared that shows multiple layouts, color schemes, and page elements. From there you?ll learn how to use the incredibly easy Demo Current Document command to publish all of the pages into one tidy package that you can upload and provide to a client by way of a link. ...

Appcelerator Entourage - Part 4: Expressions

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In the fourth article on our series about Appcelerator Entourage, we take a look at the basics of Entourage's expressions. Expressions can be used for event handling and applying sophisticated logic-based behaviour to your application and its user interface.

The Appcelerator Entourage Series:
Appcelerator Entourage - Part 1: An Overview
Appcelerator Entourage - Part 2: Getting Started
Appcelerator Entourage - Part 3: The Message Queue
Appcelerator Entourage - Part 4: Expressions...

Introducing CMX JumpStart Siberia

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

It's almost summer, so don't make me think. You may have read the book by Steve Krug, a book about web usability, that uses this phrase as its title. If "don't make me think" is your philosophy, then you're going to love the latest JumpStart, CMX JumpStart Siberia. From its completely neutral color scheme that will easily adapt to any color choices you make, to its ready-made inclusion of the Spry Accordion Widget, to its brain dead method for switching from two to three column layouts, Siberia won't make you think, or certainly not much. ...

CMX JumpStart: Siberia

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Siberia is, of course, renowned for its freezing temperatures, and the colour theme is based around the coldness of the region. Siberia is a design that sits easy with me - it is understated in appearance yet provides a powerful and flexible interface on which you could base just about any design you could imagine. From the inverted sliding door navigation and the accompanying sub navigation system to the built in accordion and flexible column choice, Siberia has it all.

The main construction of Siberia consists of liquid outer divs, while maintaining a fixed inner content width to ensure that the design fills out the users browser width, while still maintaining a good line reading length. The content, as always, is created with accessibility in mind. Siberia comes complete with an extension to install the design into Dreamweaver, making the creation of new pages a breeze. It also comes complete with a series of tutorials that explain in-depth how the design elements have been put together.

...

Dreamweaver's Built-In CSS Help Features: Part 2 - CSS Layout Box Model

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the CSS Layout Outlines. While this option provided us with clear demarcation by setting a border against our elements, it didn't provide any feedback on the layout itself.

In Part 2 we will be looking at the CSS Layout Box Model option. The CSS Layout Box Model visual aid is a very useful feature, a feature that provides both a method of selecting individual elements and gaining feedback about the CSS rules set against the selected element. All this information can be accessed directly from within Dreamweaver's design view and is available in text and visual design formats.

The Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features Series:
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 1: CSS Layout Outlines
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 2: CSS Layout Box Model
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 3: CSS Layout Backgrounds ...

Embedding Flash Content, Demystified - Part 4: Optional Parameters Continued

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

There are numerous ways to embed Flash content in a website, from Dreamweaver's Insert > Media menu (for SWF files, Flash Paper, FLV files, and more) to the publishing templates provided by the Flash authoring tool itself. In spite of these varied options ? or perhaps because they're so varied ? many people lack confidence when it comes to marrying Flash content with an HTML document. If this strikes a chord with you, then lay your fears to rest.

In this series, you'll cut through the complexity, find out what your application's auto-generated embedding code actually means, and learn to avoid a handful of common Flash-related pitfalls.

Here in Part 4, we'll explore the remainder of the optional parameters displayed in the HTML tab of the Flash authoring tool's Publish Settings dialog box.

The Embedding Flash Content Demystified Series:
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 1: Introduction
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 2: The Traditional Approach
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 3: Optional Parameters
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 4: Optional Parameters Continued
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 5: Optional Parameters Concluded...

The Joy of Easing

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Feeling like a "Lazy Animator"? How about creating animations without animating anything and letting Flash CS4 do the heavy lifting for you.

Approximate download size: 13.2 MB...

JpGraph: PHP Graphs & Charts On-The-Fly

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

JpGraph is an object-oriented PHP library for creating graphs on the fly with your selected data for display on web pages. The library features a wide range of graph types with which you can draw with your own data. You can supply data from a database, a text file, a form or even with a GET query string.

Generating web-based graphs for display on web pages can be useful for business intelligence or marketing collateral. The advantage of creating a graph dynamically from data is that the visitor always sees an up-to-date chart which reflects current data.

This tutorial will briefly give you an overview of the installation procedure and how to create several graphs, including the source code. The JpGraph library is easy to use, features a wide range of customization options as well as many graph types....

CSS For Absolute Beginners - Part 30: The background-attachment Property

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

End of a Rainy Day

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Have you ever tried to recreate those dramatic beams of light which sometimes happen after a brief rain storm has passed your area? They can be quite spectacular to photograph too, but even if you didn't have your camera with you at the time, you can still get this effect anytime you want using a few tools and techniques in Photoshop. Let's begin....

Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 1: CSS Layout Outlines

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Dreamweaver, over the last version or two, has included some very nice CSS help features. The features I'm referring to are termed Visual Aids and can be found within the Visual Aids drop-down menu that can be accessed from the document toolbar. There are several different CSS features within this area and we will look at them one by one to gain a good understanding of each and see how they can benefit our workflow.

The Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features Series:
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 1: CSS Layout Outlines
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 2: CSS Layout Box Model
Dreamweaver Built-In CSS Help Features - Part 3: CSS Layout Backgrounds ...

Text Overlay Effect

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

I'm betting you have some pictures that you really enjoy, that you'd like to share with others, but are tired of the same old thing... Here's a little trick using some text that will take those favorite shots and make them presentation pieces!...

The CSS Starter Page Series Part 6b: Adding Navigation Schemes Part Two

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

In the last installment of the CSS Starter Page series, we added vertical navigation to the sidebar. We used CSS to create the look of buttons for a set of links within an unordered list. This time around we're going to add horizontal navigation in the form of tabs. We are going to use the famous Sliding Door technique, taking our code from Adrian Senior's CSS Tabbed Navigation Sets for Sliding Doors Navigation.

This tutorial includes all the files you'll need to play along at home, as well as a completed layout folder in case you need to compare your work.

The CSS Starter Page Series:
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 1: Faux-Column Images
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 2: More Background Images
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 3: Three-Column Fluid Background Images
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 4: Rounded Corner Background Images
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 5: Shadows and Rounded Corner Background Images
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 6A: Adding Navigation Schemes
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 6B: Adding Navigation Schemes Part Two
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 6C: Adding Navigation Schemes Part Three
The CSS Starter Page Series - Part 7: Adding a Spry Menu Bar...

Best Practices for Creating Custom Web Site Search Functions - Part 2: Pre-Filled Text in Search Box

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The fourth of 11 Things I Hate About Web Site Search Functions is when pre-filled text is not automatically cleared when the visitor clicks in the search field. Having some text showing in the search box to prompt a visitor is only helpful with the rudimentary onFocus JavaScript snippet which clears the field when a visitor clicks on it. To not have a search text box clear itself of its pre-filled text is just lazy programming.

While the onFocus snippet is easy to implement, it is not the full solution. On one of my web sites, I noticed in the search statistics that the pre-filled text is by far the most common search query. What this means is that, for some reason, visitors are clicking the submit button before entering a search term. Recently, while building a new client site I decided to prevent this problem with a more deluxe version of search box management.

The Best Practices for Creating Custom Web Site Search Functions Series:
Best Practices for Creating Custom Web Site Search Functions - Part 1
Best Practices for Creating Custom Web Site Search Functions - Part 2: Pre-Filled Text in Search Box...

A Beginner's Guide to Spry - Part 5: Spry Menu Bar

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The Spry Menu Bar provides a means of inserting a flyout menu system into your web site layout that is both easy to build and easy to edit. All maintenance is completed from within Dreamweaver's Property inspector and can be completed in a just a couple of clicks. It really is that simple.

If you haven't used the Spry Menu Bar you really need to take a good look at its capabilities and flexible options, I think you might be pleasantly surprised!

The Beginner's Guide to Spry Series:
A Beginner's Guide to Spry - Part 1: The Spry Tooltip Widget
A Beginner's Guide to Spry - Part 2: The Spry Collapsible Panel
A Beginner's Guide to Spry - Part 3: The Spry Accordion
A Beginner's Guide to Spry - Part 4: Spry Tabbed Panels
A Beginner's Guide to Spry - Part 5: Spry Menu Bar ...

Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods Part 1: Creating a Low Stock Warning for PHP

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Cartweaver is an online shopping cart system available from www.cartweaver.com for PHP, ColdFusion, and ASP. It is intended as an easy-to-use solution for building an online store. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the more pricey carts available, but with a little coding, many new features can be added.

In Part 1 of this series, we will show how to add a low-stock warning to the Cartweaver admin.

The Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods Series:
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 1: Creating a Low Stock Warning for PHP
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 2: Creating a Low Stock Warning for ColdFusion
Cartweaver Admin Hints and Mods - Part 3: Creating an Order Report Graph...

The Fireworks Master Page - In Detail

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Ah, the Fireworks Master Page. Misunderstand, perhaps maligned and arguably somewhat limited, but I'm here to change all that. Well the misunderstood part, anyway. We're going to examine the Master Page in detail in this article, so by the time we're done, you will just what you can - and can't - do with it....

Motion in Flash CS4 with No Keyframes

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

How would you like to create a Flash CS4 animation that "dippsy-doodles" all over the screen? Sound like fun? How would you like to do the animation with zero keyframes? If that caught your attention, then this video tutorial is for you.

Approximate download size: 9 MB...

Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 4: Preview

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Adobe CS4 has done a great job of enhancing old favorites and introducing long awaited new features; below is a list of features now available in Illustrator CS4. As you will see from the impressive list, this release of Adobe Illustrator CS4 really does have something for everyone. Long time users, I am sure will be pleased with the results.

Gradients ? Enhanced
Appearance Panel ? Enhanced
Smart Guide ? Enhanced
Live Color ? Enhanced
Clipping Mask ? Enhanced
Isolation Mode ? Enhanced
Type on Path ? Enhanced
Key Alignment ? Enhanced
File I/O ? Enhancements in TIFF
Graphic Style Panel ? Enhanced
Glyph Panel ? Enhanced
Multiple Artboards ? New
Blob Brush ? New
Owl 2.0 ? New
Bleed Support ? New
Separations Preview ? New
Color Blindness Preview ? New
Create and Update Unique ID?s for assets ? New
Metrics ? Roman Only Kerning ? New
Text Shuffling Performance ? New
UI Cleanup ? New
Creative Suite Services ? New
Contact Now ? New
Kuler�2.0 ? New
Connections ? New
New Sample Art, Tutorials and Libraries ? New

The Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features Series:
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 1: The New Interface - Multiple Artboards
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 2: Gradients, The Gradient Panel and the Blob Brush
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 3: Live Color, Color Guide, Live Color Dialog, Type on Path, Bleed Support
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 4: Preview
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 5: Appearance and Graphic Style
Adobe Illustrator CS4 New and Enhanced Features - Part 6: Isolation Mode & Creative Suite Services

...

jQuery Quickshots - Creating Your Own Selectors

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

jQuery is a great tool for helping to make your JavaScript and AJAX applications easier to develop and maintain. One of the hardest things about it though is that it introduces so many new and amazing possibilities that aren't always clearly obvious on the surface.

These "Quickshot" articles are intended to act as hints, or inspirations, to some of the more creative or unknown problems that jQuery can help you tackle. Today's article will show you just how easy it is to extend jQuery by creating your own custom selectors. ...

Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 7: Editing Themes with Fireworks CS4

Fri, 29 May 2009 05:00:00 GMT

The goal of this series of articles is to show you how to take what is already an awesome package?including an almost limitless supply of free design themes?and customize the look and feel of a WordPress site to meet your goals. Through this series you'll be learning how to use some of the design tools from Adobe, such as Fireworks and Dreamweaver, as well as free open source browser plugins to modify the design of a WordPress installation.

In this, the seventh article in the series, you'll learn how to use Dreamweaver and Fireworks together to capture the essential information needed for customizing a WordPress theme then take that information into Fireworks to completely customize the look of your blog. This article will show you how to capture a theme that you've opened in Dreamweaver and how to setup your Fireworks document to make the customization quick and easy.

The Customizing a WordPress Blog Series:
Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 1: Editing Header Images
Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 2: Examining WordPress Themes with the Firebug Extension for FF
Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 3: Examining WordPress Themes with the Web Developer's Extension
Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 4: Creating a Testing Environment Using MAMP and Dreamweaver
Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 5: Editing WordPress Themes in Dreamweaver CS4
Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 6: Using the Snapshot Technique for Editing WordPress Themes
Customizing a WordPress Blog - Part 7: Editing the Themes with Fireworks CS4...

Embedding Flash Content, Demystified - Part 3: Optional Parameters

Fri, 29 May 2009 05:00:00 GMT

There are numerous ways to embed Flash content in a website, from Dreamweaver's Insert > Media menu (for SWF files, Flash Paper, FLV files, and more) to the publishing templates provided by the Flash authoring tool itself. In spite of these varied options ? or perhaps because they're so varied ? many people lack confidence when it comes to marrying Flash content with an HTML document. If this strikes a chord with you, then lay your fears to rest. In this series, you'll cut through the complexity, find out what your application's auto-generated embedding code actually means, and learn to avoid a handful of common Flash-related pitfalls.

Here in Part 3, we'll continue our investigation into the original two-tag ( and ) approach to embedding SWF files. In this article, you'll learn how to control certain aspects of your embedded Flash content with optional HTML parameters, a topic that will span several articles.

The Embedding Flash Content Demystified Series:
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 1: Introduction
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 2: The Traditional Approach
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 3: Optional Parameters
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 4: Optional Parameters Continued
Embedding Flash Content Demystified - Part 5: Optional Parameters Concluded...