More Questions Than Answers

Updating text descenders getting cut off in IE

OK – so I am updating text in a page by using jQuery cycle. There’s 3 divs contained within another div that show one after another as per the jquery settings.

Anyway, the problem was, as the text updated the descending characters disappeared, but only in Internet Explorer. I found a few references, especially this one from Typekit: Descenders cut of in IE

So, the solution seems to be if the text is updating in a div, give a height and vertical space in the div to allow for the descenders even when they’re updating.

Wholly Goat website and store launched

DJA has played a big part in the build and launch of the new website for a company called Wholly Goat who launched their product range this week. The site at www.whollygoat.com features lots of high quality photography by Amy Murrell and Nathan Pask which can be seen from the front page through to the store which offers a range of cashmere scarves and shawls imported from Nepal. The website is built on Cubecart and WordPress.

Tags: blog, cashmere, cubecart, e-commerce, store, wordpress

WordPress white screen

I just spent two hours trying to get a new WordPress installation working on a test server. After reinstalling “everything” I checked back with tail -f /var/log/php_error.log and started to see some familiar messages about missing includes files:

PHP Fatal error:  require() [<a href='function.require'>function.require</a>]: Failed opening required

Relating to /wp-includes/load.php’ and wp_settings

To cut a long story short, if you get a white screen on a new WordPress installation it’s probably *not* showing you the error that’s appearing in a logfile. And if that’s the case, try re-uploading all your files first before giving up.

Tags: error, installation, wordpress, wordpress 3.01

Vary WordPress templates for different pages

It never hurts to read a manual, an FAQ or a Help page now and again. Whatever you know about a piece of software you’d be surprised what you can find out by going back over some instructions, maybe with a specific task in mind. My task was to create a number of templates for a WordPress-based website. Each template differed slightly from the other and would be used for pages in different categories.

So in WordPress it’s common to work with one theme or layout, with the front page possibly showing a newsfeed and then some other “pages” displaying less time-dependent content. So you might add a differing layout to the index and page elements of the theme. But then it’s possible to add other themed pages. reading the WordPress Codex page on Pages – http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages a useful tip is to add a couple of lines of code at the top of the file:

<?php

/*
Template Name: TemplateFile
*/

?>

Where TemplateFile is the name of your template. Add some other code and formatting such as the content, then the magic. Go into Pages > Add New and there’s now an option in Page Attributes for a Template in the dropdown list.

Tags: faq, template, theme development, web development, wordpress

WordPress 3.0 menus

I’ve been working with several websites that have upgraded to WordPress 3.o and I’m loving the menu options that you get now. As with every bit of software, what is difficult in one version quickly improves in subsequent versions. I started using Flash when it was at version 3 and though I still use Flash CS3, it’s a much improved program. And so with WordPress. There’s a whole raft of improvements that you can read about at the WordPress Codex Version3.0 page.

The questions people always ask are about making navigation that highlights when on a particular page, and making navigation for pages that have been created. So in WordPress 3.0 this is possible, using a combination of methods.

This article at Think Vitamin ( http://thinkvitamin.com/dev/getting-started-with-wordpress-custom-menus/ ) goes into a lot of detail, but I’ll go into a little of what I know here.

With WordPress 3.0 it’s possible to create a theme which is menu-enabled. This can be as simple as inserting something like the following in the functions.php script file for the theme:

add_action( 'init', 'register_my_menus' );
   function register_my_menus() {
         register_nav_menus(
            array(
                 'menu-1' => __( 'Menu 1' ),
                 'menu-2' => __( 'Menu 2' ),
                 'menu-3' => __( 'Menu 3' )
           )
      );
}

Within the header, or wherever you want to place the menu add something like:

<?php
     wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'menu-1' ) );
?>

This refers back to the menu you’re going to create in WordPress.

Finally, in WordPress, goto Appearance > Menus and create your menu. Some advantages also lie in using the new Custom Menu widget from Appearances > Widget whereby it’s possible to create menu groups and hierarchies. And with some CMS – specifically using the current-menu-item and current-page-item classes, you can start contextual formatting so the user knows which page they’re on from the selected menu item.

There’s a lot more to WordPress 3.0 I’m still exploring, but this has been an exciting development.

Don’t forget to read the article at http://thinkvitamin.com/dev/getting-started-with-wordpress-custom-menus/ as well!

Tags: creating menus, menu, menu howto, menu widget, wordpress 3.0

Mozilla Add-Ons workshop

I got to the Mozilla Add-Ons workshop at the Hub in Kings Cross, London. Great venue, free bar, plenty of friendly developers.

I’m not developing Add-Ons at the moment but I am interested in Mozilla’s view that everyone wants a different experience when using the internet. So having Add-Ons that will provide those experiences, whether through accessibility, price comparison, bookmarking, helps everyone enjoy the experience.

Some of the coolest stuff was the talk on HTML5 and the use of SVG graphics, embedding video and canvas.

I didn’t take notes, but listened intently. But one man who noted, videoed and in part contributed to the evening was Chris Heilman whose notes appear on his website: www.wait-till-i.com / http://is.gd/dbeDP

No idea what the Mozilla cocktail tasted like – it went too quickly!

Tags: firefox, firefox 4, html5, mozilla, mozlondon10

New online prescence

I’ve been working hard at building the web development business, first as a freelance and now with my company, DJA Online Services. There’s many ways to get people to find your business: tell all your friends, get business cards made, create a website, spend money on advertising and very importantly go and find people who want your services. That’s harder, where do you start? What’s your market? Who are you selling to? I have an idea. But once you’ve found them, they need to know about you. So I’ve been making links to the new website by using other people’s.

Here’s some places you can now find DJA Online Services Ltd, provider of internet and web services to small businesses in London and the UK:

The company website: www.djaonline.co.uk
A listing on the BT Trade Space website: http://djaonline.bttradespace.com
A twitter page for announcements: twitter.com/djalondon

We’ve got lots of new work to show off soon as well. Keep watching.

Tags: dja online services, twitter

HTML5 defined – it’s not CSS3

This has been reported elsewhere, but it’s useful to bear in mind. ExtJS has a blog entry on how people are confusing the upcoming HTML5 spec with things like CSS3. And they say this is the same confusion that brought the overuse of AJAX and Web2.0 terms. The spec is just a “broad collection of next generation technologies”.  And it lists them as:

• The HTML5 spec
• Cascading Style Sheets Version 3 (CSS3)
• Web Workers
• Web Storage
• Web SQL Database
• Web Sockets
• Geolocation
• Microdata
• Device API and File API

Read the whole article at: http://www.extjs.com/blog/2010/05/23/html5-now-with-20-percent-more-internet/ and find out some useful terms, and what HTML5 is *not*.

Update: I like this a lot “Finally, HTML5 removes many presentational markup elements that littered earlier HTML specs, like <center> and <font>. It also disallows direct table styling, instead, requiring the use of CSS. Frames are also officially eliminated.” Maybe one day, when tidying someone else’s code all these things will be a distant memory.

Tags: ajax, extjs, html5, web2.0

Sibelius music notation software training

Sibelius notation software training in the UK is now available from Richard Payne at Double Sharp Training – www.doublesharptraining.co.uk. He’s also created an iPhone app called Sibelius Essentials 1 available from the Apple App Store.

Tags: avid, doublesharp, sibelius, training

The 3D tv money tree

After this recent recession and the decline in consumer spending, it’s heartening (after a fashion) to see a new technological money spinner in the form of a “3D Ready” television. In the wake of Avatar, Beowulf and Alice In Wonderland at the cinema there will be the inevitable (quietly accepted as the better alternative to HD DVD) Blu-Ray releases in stores. Raising the other inevitable question – how to enjoy the cinematic experience in your own home?

Electronics companies like Samsung, JVC and Sony are already touting tv’s capable of 3D presentation and a quick Google reveals 3D monitors and projectors.This Sony 22in KDL22S5500U HD Ready Digital LCD TV for example, boasts a 3D Digital Comb Filter – the 3D readiness we can now trumpet, given the success of a couple of movies.

Over to TechRadar(What makes an HDTV a 3D Ready TV?): “But what does ’3D Ready’ mean, and what defines a 3D Ready TV? Samsung’s 3D-capable 7000, 8000 and 9000 Series HDTVs, for example, will include a proprietary 3D processor and emitter. These are designed to be compatible with multiple 3D standards, including half/full HD resolution formats and the recently finalised Blu-ray 3D specification.”

In addition to the movies we already have offerings from Sky in the form of 3D football in pubs and with their HD service (Sky to launch 3D TV in 2010 following record Sky+HD growth) and Google Streetview is offering a 3D view of your neighbourhood, provided you wear your glasses while looking at the website. This is a 3D rendering of an image however, so what about the world’s first 3D website?

Tags: 3d, blu-ray, movies, television