7th march 2007

wow. clonefish.

currently doing a site with *a lot* of forms on it, and as i'm using php i had a look around for something that could help me out a bit. came across a product called clonefish and i have to tell you, i'm very, very impressed.

put basically, this is a php form class that takes all the tedium out of producing, often very repetitive, html forms. as well as obviously being able to produce the necessary form elements, it easily adds any optional html to your tags (class attributes, title attributes, whatever), can add code before or after each element (e.g. "required", "password must be 6 characters long", etc) and - best of all - adds validation right there and then. you can use ready made validation techniques ('required' tells the class that user input on that element is... well, required), or your own custom validation in - get this - *either* javascript or php! does it get any better? well, maybe - it can also hook up to your mysql database - using native php/mysql connectors, pear db or, my current favourite, adodb - to do things like outputting a select options depending on records from your db, or db validation ("select password where user ..."). you can style everything in the normal way, and it's down to you - not the class - whether you output valid xhtml.

more than that, the clonefish support has been fantastic. i've had a couple of queries/requests and they've done everything to help me out, even sending over new, updated files to suit my needs. better than "look, that'll be available in the next release, ok!?!".

if you're messing about with php and loads of forms, i really recommend you take a look.

related:

css,

javascript,

php,

sites

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/07/03/07/wow-c...

5th january 2007

aja. (another) future of web apps?

look, you know i haven't posted for ages, i know i haven't posted for ages. but i think we're all big enough to forget that, and move on. yeah? good.

so, interesting article on phpit, regarding using ajax without the x. yup, using ajax without the - can be - troublesome xmlhttprequest. not had the opportunity to really try this out yet, but looks good.

take a look at the article yourself.

related:

ajax,

javascript,

php

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/07/01/05/aja-a...

14th september 2006

bow down, for i am... the master

it's about time i got some credit for... well, anything really. lady and gentleman, i have just been awarded the title of "master" for my javascript knowledge on the ever excellent, and must have bookmark, experts exchange. not bad i reckon after only 12 weeks. if i keep this up, i'll be a "guru" in another 24 weeks.

related:

blog,

javascript,

sites

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/09/14/bow-d...

24th july 2006

blimey, javascript powered css hacks

rafael lima has created a js library that allows for browser specific css classes. it means that you can prefix your style classes with a browser code (it covers ie, ie5, ie6, gecko, opera, konqueror and safari), and that specific css will only be picked up by that specified browser. i guess this is still a hack, and it obviously won't work if javascript is disabled, but it's still a cool idea.

why not take a look for yourself?

related:

css,

javascript

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/07/24/blime...

5th july 2006

ajaxessibility

as well all know, the theory says that ajax and accessibility go together like a horse and minefield, but thanks to max kiesler you can shove that theory where the sun don't shine. perhaps anyway.

maxkiesler.com has an article titled "how to make your ajax applications accessible - 40 tutorials and articles", and you'd be right if you're thinking that it might be links to 40 tutorials and articles that'll make your ajax applications accessible.

i would write more about it but i'm off to copyright the title of this post.

related:

accessibility,

ajax

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/07/05/ajaxe...

28th june 2006

look at this beast

tom lee, on his blog at tl on pl, has come up with a way of faking the css property max-width in internet explorer - ie5.5 and ie6, in strict mode, to be exact.

it uses microsoft's dynamic properties and it's possibly the most ugly thing you'll ever see - and i know ugly, you should see some of the clubs i've been in - but looking at his test page, it seems to work.

i've had varied success using:
width: expression(document.body.clientwidth > [insert width]? "[insert max width]": "auto" );
for a couple of years now, but it looks like this may be better.

anyways, you can read about it at max-width in ie using a css expression.

related:

css

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/06/28/look-...

20th june 2006

<sup>er line height fix

firstly, sorry for not posting for ages, but there is a football tournament going on in germany that it's fair to say i'm relatively interested in.

secondly, mzajac of - the fountain of knowledge that is - wikipedia has come up with a very nice way of preventing <sup> and <sub> text from completely ruining our nice line heights. i did an online annual report for a major pharmaceutical company a few weeks ago, and some of the chemical names, will all those <sup> or <sub> 2, 3 and 4s, really messed up some of the presentation. looks like this will fix it nicely.

take a look at mzajac/monobook.css/superscript fix for yourselves.

related:

css

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/06/20/ltsup...

5th june 2006

oh lordy, it's the scrutinizer

the scrutinizer has 'bookmark' written all over it. it's a home for all of the tests that we - developers - should be doing on everything we build. these tests include code validation tests, accessibility, search engine optimization and browser compatibility. very, very handy.

just try to ignore the design as it screams "web2.0!!!" at you continuously.

visit the scrutinizer.

related:

accessibility,

css,

standards,

web

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/06/05/oh-lo...

10th may 2006

have you tween this!?

philippe maegerman from belgium has created an amazing motion tween library - yeah, as in flash's motion tweens - completely in javascript that is really worth a look. the documentation and examples are superb, and it looks so simple.

whenever i see things like this nowadays i always think back to how it used to be. anyone remember brent gustafson's assembler.org? i know it's still there, but i mean the black one that had several beautiful javascript experiments, using coloured atari style blocks, at the beginning of the century? that was my favourite site for years, and probably still is. i spent so much time (excuse me brent) hacking around that code, and learnt so much about javascript, but creating those types of effects was so complex and, often, very difficult. you needed a masters degree in mathematics.

nowadays of course, it's pretty much all done for you. what with scriptaculous and maegerman's motion tween engine (and prototype of course), you call a few lines of other people's code, and it's all done for you. i'm not bitter by the way - i think it's brilliant (for a start, the testing has been done for you). however, i am glad that i attacked javascript in the late 90s early 2000s as i think a lot of developers today know how to embed scriptaculous and make a div magically appear, but would struggle if they were just asked to do something dirty like quickly validate a form or create a date object for example. also, i fell in love with javascript, and many today miss out on that. ahh, the walks on the beach with flanagan's definitive guide; watching the sunset with the pocket reference; sharing a private joke with a print out of gustafson's assembler source code; those where the days my friend.

related:

blog,

javascript

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/05/10/have-...

4th may 2006

next gen php frameworks

nice little round up of 5 of the best next gen php frameworks over at the web 2.0 dev.

it briefly discusses symfony, cakephp, zend, agavi and the horribly titled php on trax.

apparently they'll make you "want to create apps just for the hell of it". gosh.

take a look for yourself.

related:

php

permalink:

http://www.oneplayer.co.uk/06/05/04/next-...

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