Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Find unused CSS entries with "Dust-Me Selectors"

Dust-Me Selectors is a Firefox extension that scans the CSS files linked to the current page and works out which ones are not applicable to the page.

There's also the option to point the extension at a site map (in XML or HTML format) and have it scan multiple pages, checking which CSS entries aren't used in any of the pages.

It's been developed by "brothercake" (James Edwards) and there's a few pages about it on the Sitepoint website.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

XRefresh

XRefresh.
Automatically refreshes a web page under development when the page is changed and saved.

Allan Jardine | Reflections | Rule

Allan Jardine | Reflections | Rule.
Just as useful - if not more so.

Allan Jardine | Reflections | Crosshair

Allan Jardine | Reflections | Crosshair
Really useful.

RedBean PHP ORM

RedBean PHP ORM

Processing.js

Processing.js
Nice-looking way of creating visualisations and interactive animations using the HTML5 canvas element and JavaScript.

Home - Pencil Project

Home - Pencil Project.
Something to give Balsamiq or Visio + paper prototyping UI stencils a run for their money?

Notable – The easiest way to give feedback on your website.

Notable – The easiest way to give feedback on your website.

Itemscript.org

Itemscript.org.
One to make a note of and read up about later.
Seems like a wrapper for JSON / Ajax data transfer?

Favicon Editor

Favicon Editor

FavIcon from Pics -- free favicon.ico for your website (animated, static, text, iPod icons)

FavIcon from Pics -- free favicon.ico for your website (animated, static, text, iPod icons)

Dynamic Dummy Image Generator - DummyImage.com

Dynamic Dummy Image Generator - DummyImage.com

DHTML eXtensions - professional AJAX components for advanced Web UI - in your PHP, JSP, .NET, ASP and ColdFusion applications

DHTML eXtensions - professional AJAX components for advanced Web UI - in your PHP, JSP, .NET, ASP and ColdFusion applications.
If we ever want an alternative to infragistics then this might be worth a look?

CSS Text Wrapper

CSS Text Wrapper ... err ... may be useful ... one day?

Open NASA - When Failure is our Best Option

Open NASA - When Failure is our Best Option

Panic - Coda - One-Window Web Development for Mac OS X

Panic - Coda - One-Window Web Development for Mac OS X.
This looks great - shame I don't usually work on a Mac!

Clickframes

Clickframes is a way of defining a basic web application in xml and having a set of page specifications built for you from that xml document.

The theory is sound but it's not really prototyping as I'd see it. It seems more like a way to have people who think in xml write the spec and then translate it into a format that people who don't think in xml can understand.

Open Web Tools Directory

Mozilla has (recently) started the Open Web Tools Directory which collects together many (most?) of the useful tools, utilities and frameworks that make a web developer's job that bit more manageable.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Do URLs Matter?

As with so many questions, it depends.

Yes, there are some SEO benefits if the search engine in question can identify words in the URL that are also in the page.

However, it seems that whilst URLs matter a great deal to developers, end users just couldn't care less.

I'm also reminded of this entry in the PuTTY FAQ...

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Niceforms :: Personal projects :: Emblematiq

Niceforms is an attempt to replace the standard HTML input elements that are almost completely resistant to CSS (drop-down list boxes, checkboxes and radio buttons etc.).

Not tried it yet, but since it doesn't work in IE6 (and requires VERY specific markup) I smell trouble ahead.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

abbett.org - Updated Sketch GUI Shapes for Visio

abbett.org - Updated Sketch GUI Shapes for Visio

Smarter Copy And Paste between Pages in Visio

By default, Visio places pasted items in the centre of the view which can be really annoying if you're trying to copy and paste between pages and want the item to be in the same place on the new page as it was on the old one.
This article gives you a way to copy and paste "in place" between pages in Visio 2003 and greater.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Autumn of the Multitaskers - The Atlantic (November 2007)

The Autumn of the Multitaskers has almost nothing to do with Web Design ... except that designing websites when working as part of an organisation (especially an agency) seems to almost require that you do lots of things "at the same time".

Monday, June 22, 2009

Too Many Preferences Makes for a Bad User Interface.

This article asks "Why Can't Free Software Do Good UI?" and then suggests the answer is closely related to the mentality of adding preferences rather than fixing problems.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Here comes Squarespace

Squarespace was mentioned on SitePoint yesterday. It's a fully-featured hosted solution for building websites. There are even developer options for web designers to build sites on behalf of their clients, then give their clients appropriate levels of control over their content.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, May 29, 2009

Demo of Adobe In Context Editing

Here's the standard page ... and here's the editing page for the demo of Adobe's new In Context Editing feature.

Apparently it's a feature of Dreamweaver CS4, but it looks as if it would be difficult for Adobe to prevent anyone adding the same capability to their own website by doing manually what CS4 does automatically. OK, so it would take longer to do manually, but you still get a "free" CMS with all kinds of cool (and useful) features!

One to hack about with take a look at in a bit of downtime soon ;-)

Friday, May 15, 2009

Pingdom Web site monitoring for 100% uptime. Measure your downtime.

Pingdom Web site monitoring for 100% uptime. Measure your downtime.

LiveTimer - Web-Based Time Tracking

LiveTimer looks fairly hopeful and close to what I'm trying to develop myself ... now if only I can work out the API so that I can get it to deduct the time spent from the time allocated to a project and show me how much time I have left to do each task / group of tasks... :-)

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

PDO - the PHP Data Objects data-access abstraction layer

Introduction to Php Data Objects
This is the starting point for learning about PDO. It's not a database abstraction layer, but it does give you a consistent way of accessing data from a known, specific database i.e. it allows you to run all your queries in the same way etc.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

16 Project Management Tools That Make Juggling Easy

16 Project Management Tools That Make Juggling Easy

13 Ways to Avoid Burnout

13 Ways to Avoid Burnout

Is content first HTML really necessary? - Page 3 - SitePoint Forums

Is content first HTML really necessary? - Page 3 - SitePoint Forums

CSS Layouts: A collection of 224 Grid and CSS Layouts

CSS Layouts: A collection of 224 Grid and CSS Layouts

The Right Way to Make a Dropdown Menu

The Right Way to Make a Dropdown Menu

[brothercake] Docking boxes (dbx)

[brothercake] Docking boxes (dbx) is a (set of?) script(s) to enable drag-and-drop in a web page. Usable even with the keyboard.

MegaMenu example (SitePoint)

MEGA Shop: We sell stuff!

jQuery GalleryView (photo gallery / slideshow) - by Jack Anderson

Rather nice jQuery Photo Gallery:
http://www.spaceforaname.com/jquery/galleryview/
jQuery GalleryView - by Jack Anderson

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Flex Showcase

http://flex.org/showcase/

Recommended PHP reading list

Recommended PHP reading list

Top 7 PHP Security Blunders [PHP & MySQL Tutorials]

Top 7 PHP Security Blunders [PHP & MySQL Tutorials]

PHP frameworks, Part 1: Getting started with three popular frameworks

PHP frameworks, Part 1: Getting started with three popular frameworks

The CakePHP Framework: Your First Bite [PHP & MySQL Tutorials]

The CakePHP Framework: Your First Bite [PHP & MySQL Tutorials]

Google Trends: Zend Framework, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symfony

Google Trends: Zend Framework, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symfony: "Zend Framework, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, Symfony"

PHP String Analyzer

PHP String Analyzer

PHP-sat: PHP static analysis tool

PHP-sat: PHP static analysis tool

Pixy: XSS and SQLI Scanner for PHP

Pixy: XSS and SQLI Scanner for PHP

Blogvaria � Pixy; the PHP security scanner

Blogvaria � Pixy; the PHP security scanner

50 Extremely Useful PHP Tools | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

50 Extremely Useful PHP Tools | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

TED: Ideas worth spreading

TED: Ideas worth spreading

Friday, January 23, 2009

45 New jQuery Techniques For Good User Experience | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

45 New jQuery Techniques For Good User Experience | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

45 New jQuery Techniques For Good User Experience | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

45 New jQuery Techniques For Good User Experience | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine

WideImage Wiki: WideImage, an object-oriented PHP image library

WideImage Wiki: WideImage, an object-oriented PHP image library

formy-css-framework -

formy-css-framework -

Google Code

50 Extremely Useful And Powerful CSS Tools | CSS | Smashing Magazine

50 Extremely Useful And Powerful CSS Tools | CSS | Smashing Magazine

Project Deploy* | Choose, Bookmark, Deploy

Project Deploy* | Choose, Bookmark, Deploy

Dynamic Web Pages from your Photoshop Designs in Seconds! | psd 2 CSS Online

Dynamic Web Pages from your Photoshop Designs in Seconds! | psd 2 CSS Online

Dynamic Web Pages from your Photoshop Designs in Seconds! | psd 2 CSS Online

Dynamic Web Pages from your Photoshop Designs in Seconds! | psd 2 CSS Online

Postable | Making your code friendly

Postable | Making your code friendly

typeface.js -- Rendering text with Javascript, , and VML

typeface.js -- Rendering text with Javascript, <canvas>, and VML

How To Use Any Font You Wish With FLIR - NETTUTS

How To Use Any Font You Wish With FLIR - NETTUTS

An alternative to sIFR: Facelift Image Replacement | Breathe new life into your web pages

An alternative to sIFR: Facelift Image Replacement | Breathe new life into your web pages

Wednesday, January 07, 2009