Favicon

So i wanted to add the little icon next to my URL in the address bar so i went on a hunt for the easiest solution (kinda counter-productive as i could have just downloaded a program however I so love to find new SAAS apps online). So i finally ran across this site. This was pretty much exactly what i was looking for and it was very easy to use. I went on and created 7 icons. I ended up using the first one i made for my site, but they still all look kinda cool.

JonInEssex.com

So I've been working on this site on the side for a couple of weeks now. Ive mostly just been waiting around for content for the site. This was a different kind of site for me to create because I needed to find a way to make it easy to update for someone who has little or no knowledge about the web.

First thing I did was use photoshop to automate the thumbnail creation process. This turned out to be more useful than i thought as it also let me create medium size pictures for viewing within the site as well as very customizable watermark options. This was all part of the "Web Photo Gallery" option which basically created a little mini site on the fly. This is nice and all however if the photographer ever wanted to edit the site or add more pictures all he would know how to do is create new sites on top of the old one. This could work, however i wanted a more logical solution.

Now that I have two folders (thumbnails and images) All the client would have to do is drag the contents of the folders into their respective folders on an easily accessible ftp account I've made for them.

Next, I wrote a pretty basic PHP script that reads the contents of the folder, how many files are in it, and displays them in a 4 x 3 table with a POST variable controlling the pages. This was my first attempt at this kind of organization tool but it worked on the first try.

My next step is to generate Titles for the pics using the pics built in meta data. This is so the client can add titles and photo information from within Photoshop, making the process that much easier. Making this site has been a wonderful learning experience. Go and check it out.

Flash in the future

People are starting to steer away from using flash in their websites and I think this is STUPID. We're in the middle of an information revolution and Flash is one of our more advanced tools for making this happen. I think websites should use flash, as long as they do it right.

First off, people believe that flash is SEO unfriendly. Let me clarify, it's flash developers who make their flash SEO unfriendly. Their are multiple ways to make entire websites in flash and Search engines can and will index them accordingly. One way of doing this is by using Geoff Stearns' swfObject javascript. You just link to the main javascript file in the page head, and then call the function at the point on the page where you want your Flash movie to replace the default content. It makes it so users who don't have Flash never even have to know that they're missing something. Of course you have to make sure you have the content both on your site and in the flash movie.

Another method is by just loading the content from a separate XML. Voila, now Google can index your site.

So here is my extra two cents about the future of flash. I believe developers need to start using flash to its full interactive capabilities. By engaging the user you are more likely to entertain their presence on your site for longer and increase the productivity of your site. This can be done with interactive calendars, appointment booking systems, forums and blogging tools, Content Management Systems and whatever else your mind can conceive. The idea is to take everyday tools in life or software on your desktop and make them accessible online from anywhere via your website.

Another method of engagement, and sometimes a little harder to pull off, is personalization. Maybe a non intrusive way of using flash to make the website "Theirs". This is is being used more and more in the marketing world and can open many doors to client/company relations. For example you can display text dynamically in your flash movie according to the date/time, the users location, or even their name. You could take it farther if somehow you could get information about the user before they even came to your site. Maybe you had them fill out a discrete form on one page to access private content, then on another page the possibilities are endless.

I guess people have been doing these things for awhile i just believe they haven't been done right or creative enough. Engage your user and give your site functionality. Surprise them with what your site can do that others cant. PUSH FLASH TO ITS LIMITS. I don't mean kill the users CPU. I mean be clever. Their was a pretty cool book put out awhile ago by O-Reilly called Flash Hacks that kind of gave me a glimpse into how flash can be manipulated to do cooler things. If you haven't already, also look into AMFPHP, SWFObject and SWFAddress. All will make your flash experience 10 times better.

So that's all i have to say about that for now. Ill be the guy with the personalized flash logo.

LIghtbox++ vs XHTML Validation

So I was tying so hard to keep my portfolio XHTML valid. When i added the Lightbox++ script (which is a modified version of Lightbox) my portfolio had some errors according to the W3 standards. So after doing a little research and looking around I came to this solution.

First, the problem was that the doctype wasn't recognizing the height and width attributes i was setting in the tag.

So here was my solution.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN\" \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd\" \[

<!ATTLIST a width CDATA #IMPLIED>

<!ATTLIST a height CDATA #IMPLIED>

]\ >

The bold part being what I had to add. Hope i saved someone out there some time.

Top 5 Coolest Tricks in Flash

These are some of my favorite tricks Ive learned throughout the years in flash. Granted Ive never had a use for some of them and others only kinda half work. Nonetheless i think they're pretty cool do here it goes.

1)Right Click:

this.onEnterFrame = function(){

if (ASnative(800, 2)(1)){

/// Right click has been executed

}

}

So this is cool and everything however there is no guarantee future flash versions will support this because ASnative() is undocumented. However I have found this code useful if I was ever trying to detect whether the left mouse button is being held down. Just change the 1 to a 2. Oh and if you change it to a 4 it detect middle click.... whoda thunk.

2) Smoke effect:

This ones kinda easy. There is this method: http://www.toxiclab.org/tutorial.asp?ID=105

Basically i just use versions of that method minus the use of flash's built in blur filter. It's alot easier to just use a PNG thats alpha'd down to like 33% and have a couple of those moving over each other. This is what i got: http://www.lawjik.net/bishop/smoke.html

3) Transparent Background:
OK this one is kinda cool. http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14201
Ive never found a use for this but Ive def seen plenty of ads made like this. Im pretty sure not all browsers support this one tho so it might not be the best thing in the world to use. I think Kirupa.com goes into more detail about it somewhere.

4) AMFPHP
This is prob my favorite. This makes flash remoting sooooo easy. All you have to do is learn how to write up Object Oriented PHP scripts and flash can work with them instantly. I've used this for working with databases mostly, MySQL, but also for e-mail scripts, and other random functions. Best part is that its fast, and getting faster. The original developer gave up on it for personal reasons but its following has taken over and it continues to grow.
Check it out: http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14201

5) SWFObject
Ya I know i said coolest tricks IN flash but, come on, this is awesome. Its even better when u mix it with SWFAddress. Check them out. Basically swfobject gets rid of that whole "click to activate object" thing. It also lets you perform browser testing and the flash version. Swfaddress is just as cool. It makes it so your flash movie works with the back, forward, and refresh buttons on the browser.

So there it is. My favorites. I know some aren't as useful as others but oh well they're cool.

XML/XSL Portfolio

So i just created my portfolio with XML and an XSL style sheet. Im not gonna lie it's pretty cool. All i have to do now is update my XML, which is just a list for all you people who have no clue what it is, and the page is updated. The best part was how easy Dreamweaver made the whole process. All you do is bind the XML to the XSL sheet while your developing it and you get a live view of your page. You pretty much just drag and drop the elements of the XML into tables, images, URLs etc. Then when all is said and done i added a little CSS to make it look good. This could be the beginning of a long and prosperous relationship with XSL.

Portfolio: lawjik.net/bishop