CMS Made Simple...

Useful CMS solution for small-medium sized projects...

"CMS Made Simple provides a fast and easy way to create a website and manage its contents. Use it to make a home page for your family -- or your multinational corporation!!!"

Version 1.0.2 released

Cross browser alpha transparent PNG solution

A non-pointless gem among these is the AlphaImageLoader filter, which is supported in IE5.5+/Win. When used to display a PNG, it allows for full alpha transparency support. This code works great, with only the small drawback that it’s not part of any accepted web standard, and no other browser on the planet understands it.

Opening a new window with JavaScript

The target attribute is not allowed in strict doctypes, and since you should always use a strict doctype, the target attribute is invalid. Full stop.

Now there is a JavaScript solution to open a new window...

Quirksmode - Browser Bugs Reports

Thanks to the folks over at Quirksmode they have a useful resource on bugs reported in all major browsers. I was thinking that MS had done a good job with IE7 until I saw this...

Search reports by browser:

* (Orphaned) (2)
* Explorer 5-6 Windows (116)
* Explorer 7 beta (80)
* Explorer Mac (47)
* iCab (6)
* Mozilla (49)
* Opera (58)
* Safari (61)

80 bugs reported in IE7 (beta) already! :(

IE7 & IE6 on the same machine

Microsoft has now give us an official way to run IE7 and still have IE6 on the same machine...

"Now you can install IE7 on your main machine for development, and get all the advantages of IE7, like the RSS platform, native XMLHTTP stack, and improved security, while still running IE6 simultaneously in the VPC on the same computer. Most importantly, you don’t even have to buy an additional Windows license"

World Usability Day - 14 Nov

"Why doesn't this work right? What am I supposed to do with this now?"

World Usability Day, November 14, 2006, is for everyone who's ever asked these questions. This Earth Day style event, focused on raising awareness and visibility of usability engineering and user centered design, is currently being organized by volunteers and local event coordinators from around the world. Whether a usability professional or just an enthusiastic (or frustrated) user, each participant is making a contribution to "making life easy".

Expanse - standards compliant CMS

"Expanse is a content management system designed for creative people (like you). Expanse lets you upload your artwork and photos, create thumbnails, add press events and your latest news, as well as allowing people to interact with you and keep up to date on your work. The beauty of Expanse is that it is as standards compliant as you want. This means you can code your site to be valid XHTML 1.0 Strict, or if you feel so inclined, use tables, font tags, and even throw a blink tag in there..." :/

"Google is testing a version of its popular search engine that would allow those with vision problems to more easily use the site. Called Accessible Search, the page is different from normal Google Web search in that it also evaluates site usability in ranking results..."

What is Google Accessible Search?

Accessible Search is an early Google Labs product designed to identify and prioritize search results that are more easily usable by blind and visually impaired users. Regular Google search helps you find a set of documents that is most relevant to your tasks. Accessible Search goes one step further by helping you find the most accessible pages in that result set.

Lightbox JS

Lightbox JS is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.

Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA)

For the last four years, members of the Web community have been discussing and debating the formation of an industry Association for Web Professionals. The idea has also been discussed at numerous Web Standards Group meetings since its inception. Over the last eight months we have gradually been working towards this goal. The wait is finally over...

We are very excited and proud to announce the Web Industry Professionals Association Incorporated (WIPA) - for Australian Web Professionals.

Pure CSS vertical drop down menu

Nice work from TJK Design...

It has great browser support, it is script-free, it is CSS hack-free, it is keyboard-friendly, it is pointing device-friendly, it degrades nicely without script support, it uses semantic markup, it uses non-obtrusive Javascript and it is Web Standards Compliant and addresses Accessibility Guidelines.

Online tool to create Google XML Sitemap

Google launched Google Sitemaps as a way for webmasters to give them information they could use to better crawl their sites. This involves creating an XML Sitemap for which they provided their Google Sitemap Generator. This can be the most complicated to set up using the tools provided by Google as you need to be running Python on your server. It's perhaps the most important one too given the current dominance of the search engine.

Setting up all three types of sitemaps may seem a daunting task but luckily there are websites that take the strain out of this and you can create all three within a matter of minutes.

XML-Sitemaps.com is one such site. Originally developed to easily create Google sitemaps for webmasters without an understanding of Python, it has evolved through demand for new features.

The Complete Web 2.0 Directory...

The title says it all really...

The Complete Web 2.0 Directory

Web 2.0 Design Kit

Great article on how to get the trendy 'Web 2.0 look' including glassy gradients, reflected surfaces and even...star shapes

Browsealoud - look, click, listen

Just been to the UEFA Champions League website and they have a link to Browsealoud. Haven't heard of this new screen reader before (maybe because they're based in Ireland).

"Browsealoud reads web pages aloud for people who find it difficult to read online. Reading large amounts of text on screen can be difficult for those with literacy and visual impairments. 7 million people in the UK have literacy problems, many of whom have downloaded Browsealoud already. By subscribing to Browsealoud for your website, you will greatly increase the number of people who can access the content on your site"

There's a MAC & PC version. Download here

The Ultimate SEO Checklist

This page was getting tagged a lot on del.icio.us so I took a look and it's well worth bookmarking...

The "Hello World" of Google Maps

How to build Google Maps into your webpage...

Details here

Pub Standards

Came across this site on a blog crawl and it gave me a politically incorrect laugh so it gets an honourable mention...

"And lo, another Pub Standards was declared. Everyone to the usual gaff on Tuesday, 15th August. Once there, you should immediately start to consume beer and criticise Yahoo’s hiring of Drew McLellan. Pub Standards London meet-ups are for social web-types. Join us for beer, web-talk, and other general waffle"...

Maybe we should start a Pub Standards Down Under...?

Removing active/focus dotted link borders in Firefox 1.5

From Nathan Springs (sonspring.com):

"It is no secret, I love Firefox. I have been using it since the beta version of 0.8. Firefox 1.5 though, has a quirk that proves to be a minor irritation every time I use it. I am of course referring to the dotted outline that appears around every link. In versions previous to 1.5, the outline behaved similarly to Internet Explorer on Windows, wrapping exactly around clickable areas. Now though, it wraps completely around links that have negative value applied to text-indent."

Screengrabs & fix here

Stu Nicholls also talks about it on CSS Play

The Security Risk in Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is causing a splash as it stretches the boundaries of what websites can do. But in the rush to add features, security has become an afterthought, experts say...

"Think of it like a house," said Hoffman, who will give a presentation on AJAX security at next week's Black Hat Security Event in Las Vegas. "A traditional Web site is like a house with no windows and just a front door. An AJAX Web site is like a house with a ton of windows and a sliding door. You can put the biggest locks on your front and back doors, but I can still get in through a window."

Story here

Georgia - the trendiest font on the web(?)

Typefaces slip in and out of fashion like every other area of design, but right now Georgia is the most fashionable one on the Internet. "A few designers have mentioned that there seems to be a 'Georgia revival' going on," says Matthew Carter, the British-born, Boston-based designer who developed Georgia for Microsoft in 1996.

Full story here

Web accessibility soon mandatory in Europe?

Full article here

"The 25 European Commission member states and nine accession countries have all signed up for a plan that could make accessibility in e-procurement mandatory.

The 34 countries all signed an agreement in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday, committing themselves to the "Internet for all" action plan, designed to ensure that the most Web-disadvantaged groups can get online.

According to recent research, 81 percent of Web sites in the United Kingdom are inaccessible to disabled people, while a separate report found that only 3 percent of European public-sector Web sites met W3C accessibility guidelines".

301 Redirect - better for SEO

Use 301 redirects to let visitors know if a URL has changed. Many people still use the "meta refresh" command. This is an outdated command that has been utilised in the past for unethical purposes. While visitors can be directed to the new page the same way with either method, Google specifically mentions using a 301 redirect.

301 Redirect Instructions

If you have changed the domain name of your web site or changed the file names of pages, then you need to link to the new URLs for your visitors and search engine spiders. The 301 redirect is the most search engine-friendly method of directing users to the new URL or page.

In a .htaccess File (if you have one):

Add a new line that reads:

redirect 301 / http://www.new-site.com/

More information on how to implement this redirect can be read here...

Microsoft & Internet Explorer vs Web Standards

This is a great post by someone called Jim on 456 Berea Street...

Microsoft, by not keeping Internet Explorer up to date as web development has moved into the era of open web standards, has caused web professionals all over the world a lot of grief.

I don't think this can be emphasised enough. It's not just "a lot of grief".

It's years of being held back, knowing what you could do, knowing that it would be possible if it weren't for this one damn browser.

It's hours spent at the office instead of with your friends and family for no other reason than Internet Explorer not being good enough.

It's knowing what absolute garbage it is, and yet being utterly powerless to do anything other than babysit it.

It's knowing that there is no end to it for years to come, even now that Internet Explorer 7 is almost finished.

It's knowing that even when Internet Explorer 7 is deployed on most people's computers (my best guess the year 2010), it still won't be good enough to handle a lot of CSS 2 (published 1998).

Internet Explorer is a ten tonne weight around the neck of web developers everywhere, it's been utterly demoralising for years, and I really can't work up the energy to care that poor Chris is upset. I know he's trying to do the right thing. I know it's not his fault. But ultimately I, like a lot of web developers, have just reached the end of my tether and nothing will be good enough to stop this feeling of resentment.

Yeah, there's nothing he can do about it but put up with it. I guess after a few more years of unwarranted abuse, he'll finally understand what it's been like for us web developers"

Couldn't agree more.

Graded Browser Support

Interesting article on Graded Browser Support by Nate Koechley, Senior Web Developer Yahoo! Inc (Feb 13th 2006):

"In the first 10 years of professional web development, back in the early ‘90s, browser support was binary: Do you — or don’t you — support a given browser? When the answer was “No”, user access to the site was often actively prevented. In the years following IE5’s release in 1998, professional web designers and developers have become accustomed to asking at the outset of any new undertaking, “Do I have to support Netscape 4.x browsers for this project?”

By contrast, in modern web development we must support all browsers. Choosing to exclude a segment of users is inappropriate, and, with a “Graded Browser Support” strategy, unnecessary.

Graded Browser Support offers two fundamental ideas:

• A broader and more reasonable definition of “support.”
• The notion of “grades” of support

Evaluating Website Accessibility

Invaluable post by Roger Johansson on 456 Berea St evaluating website accessibility...

"intended to make it easier for web developers and website owners to perform a basic accessibility evaluation"

1. Evaluating website accessibility part 2, Basic Checkpoints explains accessibility aspects that can be tested with automated tools as well as some relatively easy manual checks.

   1. Validate HTML and CSS
   2. No frames, please
   3. Automated accessibility checking tools
   4. Images and alternative text
   5. Make sure that JavaScript is unobtrusive
   6. Increase text size
   7. Look for semantic markup
   8. Disable CSS
   9. Use Fangs to emulate a screen reader

Great resource collection of CSS navigation techniques. Brilliant!

http://www.alvit.de/css-showcase/css-navigation-techniques-showcase.php

'Disappearing' blocks of text & lists in IE

Good fix for an annoying IE bug which causes blocks of text to 'disappear' - usually when above or below a list (with the bullet points forced outside the div)...

Those familiar with IE's propensity to "disappear" protruding content know that applying {position: relative;} to the protruding element can sometimes make it display properly. In fact, the bullets are really still there in IE6, but that browser has a well known difficulty with showing content when it is forced outside of its container, usually as a result of applying negative margins. Although these bullets are not your typical box content, they are connected to the list items, and are clearly being forced to display outside of the DIV container, so this IE bug is at least being semi-consistent.

details here

Quirks vs Standards Mode - what's the difference?

Great post by Tedster on Webmasterworld about Quirks Mode vs Standards Mode...

" There's been some question (sometimes a lot of questions) about what quirks mode is, and the parallel question, what standards mode is.

Up until version 6 browsers, there was a lot of non-standard rendering built into user agents. A lot of this behavior didn't conform to the W3C rendering recommendations at all, but it was what we worked with and we got very used to it.

And then came the move to standards, with Document Type Declarations (DTD) and all that. But how can new browsers handle those legacy pages all, over the web that depend on "quirky" behavior in order to look good?

That became the question, and the answer is "quirks" mode.

If a browser sees a full DTD as the FIRST element of a document, including the W3C URL for the details, then it renders the page in "standards" mode. Because standards are still relatively young, there is some variation from one browser to another, but it's usually minor.

But if a browser sees no DTD, or a partial DTD, then it goes into "quirks mode", which essentially means rendering the page the wrong way, but the way we were used to up until version 6".

Microsoft will have a better search engine than Google in 6 months

Microsoft will introduce a search engine better than Google in six months in the United States and Britain followed by Europe, its European president said on Wednesday.

"What we're saying is that in six months' time we'll be more relevant in the U.S. market place than Google," said Neil Holloway, Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

"The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant," he told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.

Story here

One response from RichTC on the Webmasterworld forum:

" I do wish they would cut the PR BS. Lets see them get the basic deep indexing and half relevent serps right first - before they start claiming they can knock Google off the number 1 spot in 6 mths. Currently its all pie in the sky, the results are dire, their reach is dire and their search bot is currently next to hopeless - making a statement like that is a pure pipe dream imo and not even remotely likely in another two years let alone 24wks!"

Conditional Comments & IE7

Looks like we'll all have to become familiar with conditional comments when IE7 comes out...

In mid October, the IE Blog urged developers to stop using CSS hacks to workaround IE’s problems, and start relying on Microsoft’s proprietary conditional comments.

Good discussion on Mezzoblue on this topic too.

What Exactly Are Accessibility & Usability?

Great post on webmasterworld.com...here

"For years, accessibility and usability have been considered optional improvements. Not anymore. Many countries across the globe are passing laws necessitating a global change in how we view accessibility and usability. Companies and websites have faced legal penalties for not making their sites accessible. The legal requirements in certain countries, or for certain types of websites, obligate many of us to not only be aware of accessibility and usability guidelines, but to actively pursue and conform to them.

Accessibility deals with ensuring that everyone can access your website, regardless of browser used or whether living with certain impairments or disabilities. Needless to say, accessibility is much more than caring for people with disabilities. It is about lowering the barriers for everyone accessing the Internet, about caring for people's needs and preferences, along with writing the best possible content.

As you can see, the step over to usability is quite natural. Usability takes over where accessibility ends. If accessibility is about enabling access to your site for everyone, usability is ensuring that everyone can navigate the site in an intuitive way. Usability is about making your quality content easy to find, about ease and flexibility of navigation, about simplicity and logic.

Accessibility and Usability are two topics not to be ignored or taken lightly. Legislation and the steady increase in public demand for a better web is, luckily, going to impact how we view marketing, site design, and ecommerce -- forever...."

Google bans BMW + Ricoh

Here's a warning to all who use black hat SEO techniques to scam their way up the rankings...

Posted on Matt Cutts blog:

Remember my previous post noting that Google would be paying more attention to webspam in other countries and languages this year? This week our webspam team continued ramping up our anti-spam efforts by removing bmw.de from our index, and ricoh.de will be removed soon for similar reasons. That’s a violation of our webmaster quality guidelines, specifically the principle of "Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users."

Web 2.0

I've been hearing a lot about "Web 2.0". Here's some points from an interesting article by Frederick Townes I've just read:

Web 2.0 is a catch phrase and one that's getting a lot of attention within the e-commerce community. In the Web 1.0 world, people could access information, but not participate in its evolution. In the new age of Web 2.0, the collective intelligence of the world community becomes accessible and utile. Technology evolves. It builds on what came before. It learns from past mistakes and takes advantage of unrealised opportunities. Web 2.0 isn't a new paradigm or a revolution. It's the natural evolution of a technology that's growing at truly heart-stopping speed. What was yesterday won't be tomorrow..."

The truth about Google (post Jagger update)

Best advice I've heard about Google:

"The lesson from Jagger is, don't try and trick Google! They've got more money and more brains than virtually any company in the world. It'll only end in tears! Don't spend time and money trying to make your site look important and relevant. Instead, spend that time and money actually making it important and relevant! Content - the real content behind the optimization - is the answer. After all, whether it's an article or a web page, it's the content that keeps 'eyes on paper', and that's what it's all about"