Use Google Code to Speed Up Development
Use Google Code to Speed Up Development
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Web development has gotten more complicated.
You’ve got to worry about a plethora of new issues that you’ve never thought about when you started doing this business: data asset management (DAM), you’ve got to build and code websites in no time fast, competition is fierce & everybody has their own web development company, you’ve got to keep your costs to a minimal, etc.
We’re here to give you one of those ideas that’ll do all of those things all at once. It’s pretty easy to do. It took me forever but i’ve finally discovered how to use SVN via TortoiseSVN (TortoiseSVN seems to be the easiest way to do SVN. Update, commit, merge files are easily executed with 2-3 clicks). If you do not have the pleasure of owning a windows machine there are many other SVN alternatives for MAC. Such a syncrosvn and versions.
What’s TortoiseSVN?
TortoiseSVN is just a open source program that manages file versions. At 3 Point 7 Designs, we discussed some methods to collaborate and keep our files updated so redundancy didn’t happen. At much of my discovery, we discovered that we can use this to also host some of our template files that we use to speed up development.
We decided that we’d host and feature our companies css/xhtml boilerplate to foster collaboration and version tracking on Google Code (code.google.com). In addition to this beautiful solution, it allows google to host our redundant files that we use for every project. Google hosting has got to be the best hosting on the internet. You can’t beat anything faster than google; they practically run and own the internet.
We just link the files to the google code repository and voila we are up and running.
Featuring 3.7 Designs Boilerplate!
We’re big fans of css frameworks. CSS frameworks are great providing quality control. It provides us the ability to get our job done quickly, efficiently and more consistently.
The 3.7 Design Boilerplate contains the file structure and the files needed to quickly start coding. It might take a while to get a hang of our id/class usages. Nonethless, it’s pretty KISS and makes sense.
Folders Structure
The following are some folders and they’re pretty self explanatory
/css – CSS files
/images – Images
/js – Javascript Files
/clientfiles – PSD, .ai, etc files go here
/concepts – concepts – currently and eventually will be moved to client files
/copy – contains word documents or text for the content of the website
CSS Files Explained
Reset.css – Some things that we commonly practice is resetting stylesheets so that they’re all at a beginning point. This is something that Eric Meyer’s blogged about.
Grid.css - We’ve added a set of grids that you can use. It’s actually a gride from 960.gs. You’re welcome to switch out any grid stylesheet here.
helper.css – This file gives you a running start if you’re prototyping a page. You can quickly using classes move block elements around with margins or padding. An example class : “ml-5” adds 5px of padding to the left side. “mh-10″ adds left and right padding. “padr-5” provides 5 px of padding on the right side, etc.
This file also contains the very important class: clearfix. If you’re not familiar with it it just primarily solves the problems of container div’s that don’t totally addup the total height of all of the child containers.
main.css This file allows is to create a base file from the reset to provide some type of consistency and legibility to the type. Often after type is reset the type is too small to read.
style.css This last file you’ll have to use locally because it’ll be key and important in customizing your website. All the other files you can link from the google code repository. This file is the file that will contain your site specific and context specific css code.
Download Boilerplate: Latest 2.0.zip
Put it all together
With all these things put together we are providing you with a starting point. If you don’t like the way we do things; that’s totally understandable. We’re hoping to inspire others to create their own or contribute to our project.
The best part of hosting your css files is that once you add more or append to your files it’ll effect all the websites that might be linking to your files.
Hope this has been most helpful.
Similar Posts
- Documents
- Client files
- Copy
- Proofs
- Staged/Development area (folder for a “clone of the site” where you can make changes and get sign off)
- Downloads
- reset.css
- main.css
- structure.css
- typography.css
- print.css
- helpers.css
- More consistant rendering due to reusing ideal CSS techniques
- Easier editing and maintenance as you can better recall what names mean
- The start of code that can be saved and reused every time
- A class that floats an image left / right and gives it some margin
- The structure for an unordered list navigation
- The structure for a form
- external link, pdf and download icons
- clearfix
- png fix
- Typeography baselines and hierarchies
- etc…
- Font sizing (all normal text is 12px, featured text is 14px bold)
- Margin’s (normal margin is 10px between elements, margin between two content blocks is 40px, etc…)
- All navigation tabs will have 15px height and 13px font
- etc…
- You want to offer a “stylish” low-contrast and an easy-to-read high-contrast version of your site.
- You have many low-vision readers and want to give them easy access to a customized stylesheet with a larger typeface.
- Your site is schizophrenic and you want to be able to change the look quickly.
8 methods to bring your front end coding to rockstar levels
There are a lot of good front end developers out their right now. If you fancy yourself as a front end editor then you really should be looking at how you can differentiate yourself from the rest. Yes there are lots of “good” front end developers, but there are not a whole lot of excellent front end developers.
1. Improve Your Semantic Names
If you work in a team or ever revisit your code and need to update it then you should think about the quality of your class and ID names. It is not uncommon for developers to use class names like “box”, “wrapper”, or “container.” While you may think that these naming conventions or “semanitc enough” none of them describe the content that is inside them. Instead consider using HTML5 spec’s such as “content-sub”, “section”, “content-aside” or “content-sup.”
You and your team will have a much easier time sorting through code that describes the content than trying to remember the details of “box.”
Read more about semantic naming from Andy Clarke and A List Apart.
2. Improve the Organization of Your Files
I think it is reasonable safe to assume that most developers have at least started to organize their files by type (ie: a folder for images, css, javascript, etc…). You can go a step further and improve the organization even more, particularly any folder that is going to have a lot of files (such as Images in particular and CSS as a secondary.)
I find it best to create sub folders with in images and separate images based on design structure, buttons, headlines, photos, etc…
There are plenty of other folders you may want to create to keep the updating and growth of a site easy and efficient, including:
The Elements CSS Framework does a great job of organizing files based on the normal client/provider workflow.
3. Use Commenting in Your XHTML
Any time you end up developing complex layouts you are bound to use a lot of <div>s in your markup. This can be particularly confusing to go back and edit as it becomes hard to figure out which div is being closed where. You may see three </div>s all in a row.
To combat this simply add some coments at each </div> (or any other closing element if you find that it will be helpful) to let you know what element was just closed.
<div id="header" class="section">
<div id="header-logo">
<h1>HTMLiZER</h1>
</div><!--/#header-logo-->
</div><!--/#header-->
If you find it useful you can take it one step further and comment the primary area you would be editing (such as the main content area, sidebar, etc…)
4. Segment Your CSS
For small 4 – 5 page brochure sites your CSS will be pretty manageable even if you don’t spend the time and effort you should into organizing and commenting. Once you start developing web applications or large sites with a vast array of design “modules” you should make sure that you organize your CSS in way that is easy to manage.
I recommend splitting your css into logical different files for better organization, such as:
This way you don’t have to sort through all of the typography styling to find the area where you defined the size of the header. Likewise if you want to adjust the headings it is pretty simple to find it through a small typography.css file rather than a huge file that has everything.
5. Create a TOC With Comments in Your CSS
Every CSS file you plan on editing and extending over time should have a table of contents at the begining and a headline seperator at every section. This will allow you to easily jump to a section using “find” rather than scrolling for that one area that had the CSS you are hoping to modify.
EX
/***********
TOC:
=1: Header
=2: Content
=3: Footer
=4: Navigation
=5: Portfolio
****************/
/* ********* =1: HEADER *********** */
#header { … }
6. Compress and Combine Your CSS files
Even though it is easier to work on a site when you segment and organize your css into several different file names, it actually causes your site to load slower. The more calls the browser has to make to the server for additional files the slower it will load.
Before deploying your css files you should combine and compress them. Compressing them removes any uncessary whitespace, comments, etc… that is unnecissary when the site is live.
There are several handy tools to do this including this online version.
7. Create your own framework (or improve on another one)
As you get more experience under your belt you will find that you use the same methods and naming conventions over and over. This is helpful for several reasons and it should be encouraged. It has lots of benefits including:
Chances are that you end up rewriting the same type of code over and over again, simply because you don’t have it stored somewhere. Some examples may be:
Rather than reusing these bits of codes write modules into your own CSS framework (or you could imrpove on another one). This way you can streamline the development process so it takes less time and improve the consistancy of your work.
8. Develop your CSS to be modular or “object oriented”
You could assign every bit of code an unique ID or adjust the margins and padding per instance. Lots of coders do this to try and get the CSS as close to the designers comp as possible. However this is inefficient in development time and file size. Establish a set rule for differnt types of content and how they should be styled, this should include basic things such as:
This way you don’t have to rewrite the code for every new item added to the site. Additionally it will keep the site feeling consistant and well balanced visually. If all elements and every page follows the same rhythm it will feel more unified as a whole.
Some call this object oriented css, it is worth looking into for rockstar like front end coding.
rotate.css – amazonwidget – Google Code
… Changes | Source Path: svn/ trunk/ rotate.css. r4 r5 ” 1. 2. 3 … View raw file ©2008 Google – Code Home – Terms of Service – Privacy Policy – Site Directory …CSS Tutorial – Padding
… CSS – External CSS – Inline CSS – Class CSS – Background CSS – Font CSS – Text CSS – Padding CSS – Margin … CSS Padding. With CSS Padding you will be able to change the default padding that …The No-Code Way to a Pure CSS Horizontal Drop-Down Menu with Expression Web
… create a Pure CSS Drop-Down Menu pretty much without … Now you can place styles in the external drop-down.css file from within the menu.html file. …development/css_introduction – Web and dedicated hosting tutorials by …
a public resource for all things web hosting, systems administration, and dedicated server management.A Simple jQuery Stylesheet Switcher
There are lots of reasons you might want to offer your users more than one CSS file for your website:
Whatever the reason, it’s amazingly easy to create a function that swaps between multiple stylesheets using jQuery.
The first step of course is to build several different CSS files, which we’ll then swap between. Once that is done, we can dive into the XHTML and jQuery that makes the magic happen.
The XHTML
First, we need to create a set of links that will allow the user to swap between CSS files. You can make this as simple or as fancy as you’d like. For the sake of brevity, my links are simple:
<ul id="nav"> <li><a href="#" rel="/path/to/style1.css">Default CSS</a></li> <li><a href="#" rel="/path/to/style2.css">Larger Text</a></li> <li><a href="#" rel="/path/to/style3.css">Something Different</a></li> </ul>
Here I have three links, each with a “rel” attribute indicating which CSS file the link will load. Technically, I could have just as easily put this information in the “href” attribute, but I didn’t want to for one specific reason: if the user has JavaScript disabled and the CSS file is listed in the href, then clicking the link will send the user to the CSS file directly (not loading it like we intended). But our way, if JS is disabled, the user gets nothing at all: which is certainly preferable to the less savory alternative.
The jQuery
Like I promised, the jQuery is really simple:
$(document).ready(function() {
$("#nav li a").click(function() {
$("link").attr("href",$(this).attr('rel'));
return false;
});
});
This function waits until the document is loaded (generally an important step when interacting with the DOM), then attaches a click function to each of our nav anchors. The function basically says, “when someone clicks on this link, replace the link (stylesheet) tag’s href attribute with the contents of this link’s rel attribute.” The “return false” at the end just stops the browser from trying to follow the link.
Of course, you might have to get more detailed if you have more than one link tag, for example, but that’s easily done by giving the link tag a class (”changeme,” for argument’s sake), and writing something like this:
$("link.changeme").attr("href",$(this).attr('rel'));
And while this stylesheet switcher is already complete, we might want to give it some memory: after all, your users might get annoyed if they have to switch their styles back to their preferences every time they visit your site. For that, we’ll need to set a cookie. And to make that easier, I’ll use the jQuery cookie plugin (which I’ve talked about previously when building a popout ad).
With the plugin loaded, we can modify our jQuery thusly:
$(document).ready(function() {
if($.cookie("css")) {
$("link").attr("href",$.cookie("css"));
}
$("#nav li a").click(function() {
$("link").attr("href",$(this).attr('rel'));
$.cookie("css",$(this).attr('rel'), {expires: 365, path: '/'});
return false;
});
});
Now we have two statements. The first one checks as soon as the page is done loading to see if a cookie called “css” has been set. If so, it sets the stylesheet to be the one indicated in that cookie. Otherwise, it does nothing.
Our click function is much the same, except after we set the stylesheet, we also set a cookie. This cookie doesn’t expire for an entire year (and each time the user changes their stylesheet preferences, it would reset this timer), giving them a good 365 of CSS bliss.
Fine Tuning
There is one minor annoyance with this stylesheet switcher: there’s generally a flash of the “default” CSS when the user loads the page. That’s because the script waits until the document is “ready” before switching the link’s href. There is a way around this: moving the first “if” statement outside of the document ready function, like so:
if($.cookie("css")) {
$("link").attr("href",$.cookie("css"));
}
$(document).ready(function() {
$("#nav li a").click(function() {
$("link").attr("href",$(this).attr('rel'));
$.cookie("css",$(this).attr('rel'), {expires: 365, path: '/'});
return false;
});
});
Generally speaking, you don’t want to run any jQuery until your document is ready. However, so long as your jQuery comes after your link tag in your document structure, like shown below, this shouldn’t be a major concern:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style1.css" /> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" language="javascript" src="jquery.cookie.js"></script> <script>... your jQuery goes here...</script>
This means your jQuery will run before the document is done loading, and thus your link tag’s href will be swapped before your CSS has been applied. As I said before, it’s generally a bad idea to manipulate the DOM before document ready, but because we know the exact tag we want to manipulate and can place our jQuery below it in the DOM, we should be safe in this one specific instance.
Here’s an example if you would like to see this technique in action.
How to Fix WordPress Feedburner Plugins After Converting to Google Feedburner
I ran into (yet another) Feed Count + Feedburner problem recently, shortly after writing my last article on accounting for Feedburner’s subscriber count mistakes. And since I heard from a few people who are also using the Feed Count plugin, I thought I should share this info.
The Backstory
As I’m sure all you Feedburner users out there are well aware, Google purchased Feedburner quite some time ago. But until recently, that didn’t mean much: the same people were working on the code, your information was stored in the same place and was represented the same way, and so on.
But recently Google has begun bringing Feedburner more fully into the fold. As a result, all Feedburner users are being required to convert their Feedburner accounts into Google accounts. That created quite a few headaches for lots of people (including myself) right off the bat, as it took a good week for Google to nail down my subscriber numbers with any accuracy – one day I would have thousands of subscribers, the next I might have zero, and the day following only a few hundred.
A New Problem
However, even once Google started reporting my Feedburner numbers correctly, I still had a problem: my Feed Count plugin no longer grabbed my subscription statistics. Now, this wasn’t as huge a problem as it could have been, because I had my jQuery Feeburner fix in place… but I still wanted my real subscriber stats back at some point.
After a bit of digging, I found the problem: as part of their conversion from Feedburner to “Google” Feedburner, Google changed the location of their API. Thus, any plugins that used the old Feedburner API ceased functioning once that user’s account was successfully ported to Google.
The Solution
Long-term, the best solution would be for the plugin developers to update and release new versions of their plugins. But as of now, the Feed Count plugin has not been updated – and since it hasn’t seen an update since last July, I’m not going to hold my breath on a new version. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and edit my copy of the Feed Count plugin.
Note: this solution is specific to the Feed Count plugin, but any brave souls out there could probably modify and use this information to update other plugins as well.
I opened up my copy of the Feed Count plugin file (feedcount.php) and found this function:
function mapelli_fc_get_defaults() {
return array(
'map_fc_feedurl' => '',
'map_fc_queryurl' =>'http://api.feedburner.com/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=',
'map_fc_lastcount' => 'N/A',
'map_fc_lastupdate' => 0,
'map_fc_updateinterval' => 60, // 1 h
'map_fc_error_updateinterval' => 5, // 5 min
);
}
This function mostly sets all the plugin defaults, but it also sets the “queryurl” – the website that the plugin hits to find your subscriber count information. This URL is not customizable anywhere inside WordPress, and since this URL has now changed, we’re forced to edit the plugin itself.
All I had to do was change the “map_fc_queryurl” line to read this instead:
'map_fc_queryurl' =>'https://feedburner.google.com/api/awareness/1.0/GetFeedData?uri=',
Then I saved the plugin, uploaded it to my server, and my stats started showing up again! However, it’d still recommend putting something like this JavaScript fix in place for those random times when Feedburner drops the ball (and your subscriber count).
Note: Your stats probably won’t start showing up again instantly. You’ll have to wait for the duration of your “update interval,” which can be configured in WordPress under Settings -> Feed Count:
If you’re using a different plugin and have run into this same problem, please give this solution a try and let people know in the comments if it worked. Thanks!
Diagonal Lines in CSS – Four Shapes
Four Shapes web development company. Creating design, code and style – home … <div class=”box”><h1>Diagonal Lines in CSS</h1></div> …5 Ways To Optimize Your CSS
Recently I have been working on a social networking site that was experiencing downtime due to the amount of stress its users were putting on the server. I spent a good amount of time looking for ways to improve the speed of the site, and one of this was through CSS optimization.
Structure your CSS and HTML elegantly
“CSS” Stands for Cascading Style Sheets. Notice the first word, “Cascading”? The power of this language is readily available, and it is up to you, the designer, to maximize its use. It is an interesting concept that is not too difficult to grasp. Try to find instances wherein this can be applied.
For example, the code below:
<p class="someClass">First</p>
<p class="someClass">Second</p>
<p class="someClass">Third</p>
<p class="someClass">Forth</p>
<p class="someClass">Fifth</p>
Can be rewritten this way:
<div class="someClass">
<p>First</p>
<p>Second</p>
<p>Third</p>
<p>Forth</p>
<p>Fifth</p>
</div>
But what if our code looks like this:
<p class="firstClass">First</p>
<p class="someClass">Second</p>
<p class="someClass">Third</p>
<p class="someClass">Forth</p>
<p class="someClass">Fifth</p>
We can take advantage of CSS by rewriting HTML this way:
<div class="someClass">
<p class="firstClass">First</p>
<p>Second</p>
<p>Third</p>
<p>Forth</p>
<p>Fifth</p>
</div>
Then, cascade rules defined in “firstClass” to overwrite styling principles in “someClass”.
This is just one simple example, and I hope you understand what I’m trying to get at. Just keep in mind the concept of cascading rules and it won’t be long before things like this become second nature and automatic.
Re-structure your CSS
I am a huge fan of single line CSS style. Not only does it save up space, it is also more readable. The readability bit is debatable, though. Simply put, I find it easier to locate relevant tags if the tag names are all on the same left-hand side and I do not have to scroll so much to find what I need to change. After all, designers are only concerned with CSS selectors, not the rules that are applied to it.
Optimize Your CSS
Some time ago, I wrote an article about improving website performance using CSS optimizers. I still use CSS Optimiser up to this day. For very large CSS files it is a quick and easy way to rewrite things that may otherwise prove too time-consuming to optimize manuallyt.
Use CSS Shorthand Rules
When I was still learning CSS, I found shorthand rules to be quite daunting and confusing at times. But I strived to learn the shorthand syntax for every rule simply because I am lazy and do not want to bother typing the same thing over and over not to mention having to memorize all the rule names.
Compare the example longhand its equivalent shorthand below.
Original longhand:
#someid {
background-attachment: fixed;
background-color: #000000;
background-image: url(images/image.png);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: left bottom;
}
Shorthand version:
#someid { background: #000 url(images/image.png) no-repeat fixed left bottom; }
The folks over at SitePoint has a good introduction to the art of CSS Shorthand that I can recommend to anyone who’s willing to learn.
Server-side Compression
Server-side compression techniques have long been put to use by large scale applications for two main reasons. First, bandwidth is precious and expensive. Second, it does not require having to modify code for it to work. What it does require, however, is supported server software (or hardware). Hence the term “server-side”.
One such solution can easily be deployed on Apache servers. Once again SitePoint has written an introduction to server-side compression using Apache and mod_gzip.
The drawback to this is increased CPU load. Indeed, server-side compression is a double-edged sword, but usually the pros far outweigh the cons.