Underscore.js is a tiny JavaScript utility library that makes working with some of the common data structures used in JavaScript much easier. Minified and GZipped it weighs in at less than 4Kb and where possible it delegates functionality to native browser implementations for performance. It has no other dependencies and so adds very little overhead to your total script assets. It can be used on the client or server with equal ease. Using Underscore is extremely easy; it isn’t tightly bound to the...
If you're reading this post, chances are you're familiar with WordPress and its role in the web world as a blogging platform, content management system, multisite administrator, and much more. While WordPress can be a viable solution for any small business website or blog right out of the box from a fresh install, you can harness the true value of WP by diving into the code and creating Custom Post Types. What Is A Custom Post Type? ... WordPress ships with two default post types, Posts and Pages. By default,...
In our last session, we finished writing the PHP class file that would control all the ad banner functions. This week, we look at the presentation layer for the administration of these functions. The ads_list.php page lists the current banner ads. First, we must include the class file so that the page can instantiate the class call the functions: <?php require_once("class.ads.php"); // instantiate ads class $oAds = new ads; Next, we fill the $aAds array with the data from the ads table and get...
Anyone who has played, watched friends play, or briefly saw video games that were released in the 80’s and 90’s is familiar with parallax scrolling. Think of games like Mario Bros, Streets of Rage, Kung Fu, Turtles in Time, or the original parallax scrolling game, Moon Patrol. Parallax scrolling is when there are multiple layers of images all moving at different speeds, causing a 2D image to have a 3D-like effect. Why am I talking about retro video games on a web development site? Well, the simple...
A challenge that many website owners face is how to supply continuously fresh content for new and repeat visitors to peruse. It can be a very time-consuming task to manually upload regular updates. Fortunately, there is an easy way to showcase free, readily available news content on a wide variety of topics. We will examine a quick and effective method of incorporating RSS (Really Simple Syndication) coding in order to add news content to any site. First, let’s look at what RSS is, and how it works....
Coda by Panic bills itself to be "one-window web development." I have been a web developer (or at least playing with code) for the past six or seven years, and purchased Coda about a year ago. It took me almost this long to realize the beauty that lies within the code editor when you truly use it as a one-window web development system. Today, I'm going to walk you through setting up your next WordPress site so you can develop locally, deploy to your live server, and maintain the code base and providing site maintenance....
With HTML5 and JavaScript, you can implement native drag and drop functions within the Web browser. This is one of the emerging HTML5 tools that promises to make websites more interactive without relying on additional technologies such as Flash. In this tutorial we will create a simple page with images the user can drag and drop into designated areas. Create an HTML5 Web Page ... Create an HTML file for your drag and drop function. Use the following basic outline, with sections for JavaScript and CSS...
Savvy web developers often use vendor prefixes to try out the latest browser styles before the styles have been approved by the W3C and turned into a standard. By specifying a browser or vendor prefix within your CSS stylesheet or style property within a JavaScript function, you can gain control of how an element will render within a specific browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE, etc.). This gets you access to these browser’s newest and coolest styles and elements. This article will illustrate how to...