Posts by autocrat

Okay... after a quickscout around...

It is not possible (apparently).

That said... you do have alternatives;

If keepig it as Checkbox/Radial is important, then you may need to re-order the form code so that clickig the vlaue label will act the same as clicking the item (being the heckbox/radial).

Following the above, you can apply a visual marker to indicate the active area's, (so for the value label, apply a class and either add a subtle border or apply a background-colour).

An alternative approach isto replace the Checkbox/radial with a dropdown list. For Checkboxes you can apply multi-select, for the Radial a single option only is equal.
Though visually different, these will have exactly the same results.

To be honest... I didn't thik it was possible to alter certain form elements.

By applying font-size/line-height, you can alter the size of Text-inupts etc... but things like checkboxes I believe are "standard only" in compliant browsers.
(Will double check and get back to you on that though!)

For the mean time, if you make it a bit more accessible, it means people can click on the label for the checkbox/radio button and get the same result as clicking the "box".

Okay... you won't like this... but you might want to "rebuild" it.

The problem you have is that it is to constricted to start with.

It is a major issue that normally starts with "design"... and limits the "scalability" and "flexability" of a site.

Because you are usig single images of a set size, your text will always break out.
Because you hae iamges in blocks of set sizes, things will never shift to permit expansion.

For example...your Tabs could isntead be comprised of 2 parts... look for "Slidding Doors".
(basically, two containers - Link + Span, and two images..the Left/Right... both taller than they need to be, one a thin side strip, the other wider than needed).

The same principle applies to the Header block and the Search Block.

If you want things to move and stretch, you have to either use bigger images, more parts... or both!

I would recommend...

HAving a containing block... set to be Relative.. no Height!
In that you then need to hae a block for hte Blue, a Block for the Green, a block for the Tabs and a block for the login etc. links.

As they are in a parent block with position:relative, you can position them absolutely. if you set heights in em's, it means that they can expand.
So you put in the blue, pos:abs, and tel it to be 2em from the top.
…

novel!

okay... if you are in windows, you can change the option to view file Extensions... and replace whatever it is called with ".txt" or ".css".

Alternatively, if you right click on the file and go to properties, you should have an option to change association... so change it from FF to notepad.

Alternatively, you can right click on see ifyou get a menu option for "open with"... notepad may be in there... or you can then opt for "choose" and scroll down to notepad

Let me know if it works.

Well, not really :)

The problem with small details is that it leaves things uncovered,whichleadsto either assumptions or misunderstandings...

Still, the gyst of it is as follows;

There are many different ways to construct an Ecommore system, ranging from "lite" and simple through to complexand permiitting many variants of Products and options.

Yet there should be a way to seperate out the different aspects of an ecommerce system, and modulise it...
Thus you haev Cart, Products, Categories, Shipping, Checkout etc.
You could also hae Customers, Suppliers, Orders/Cancellations, Related Products, Recommended products etc. too.

All of these should be seperate from each other, yet be able to relate...
.. and ...
...be "expandable" - meaning that you can add more data/details/info to it as required (thus Products could be as simple as
ID/Name/Price...
or as complicated as
ID/Name/Type/Option1/Option2/Price...
or even...
ID/Name/MainType/SubType/Option1/Price-for-Type+Price-for-Option1 etc...

Does that make more sense?

Basically, I'm asking what others think about ecommerce in general, and how they would tackle such a thing - whether they can foresee modulisation as being sensible/workable, or if it all ahsto be more closely tied together etc.

Okay... you could look around some of the threads 'till you see "cscgal" as a poster... simply click on the name (cscgal), and a little dropdown should appear... oneof the options is "send a private message to..."

You should be able to figure it from there :)

Hmm... okay.

You hae a nice bit for Accessibility... but you do realise that it will break when text-size is increased!

I would actually suggested doing it again, (seems a shame to have one set of accessible features, only to have the pretty design break over another!).

Yet you are faced with issues due to the background image...

You may want to consider not using Spacer images as well (particularly as you are using css.. so no real need).

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So with all of that said, you'll have to redo some of the graphics, providing top/bottom images for each (being overly tall, so that when text size increase, the bg will continue being visible).
That means you can then use multiple blocks, sectioning off the header so that when things change size, they stretch their containers... the containers remain "in the flow", so as the top-most block gets taller, those beneath it move downwards... so no overlaps or breaks).

lol

Eventually, you'll barely need it.

The Text File is more than a little complex... considering the php stuff in there...
Also, it was more a link to the CSS and the output page data what would help...

XHTML
!!!Above!!!

CSS Location
http:// www . woocha . com / style . css

Will play with it shortly and see what I get.

green -> environment

Well, by putting in the links, you started with the link-building - always one of the most powerful ways to get visitors, if done correctly.

As for getting listed on Google, it is possible to do so within less than 24 Hours (though I'm often told otherwise).

But yes, giving things away and linking back to your site to do so is always a clever thing, as it validates to visitors why they are going to lok (curiosity is not enough :) )

Glad :)

... Hosts ...

So many out there, and most of them are resellers of resellers of resellers...

Avoid "Virtual" setups - they are not only limited in capability, many are poorly setup and tend to be a pain as far as support goes.
(Though they may be ideal for your first few sites as they are also ddamned cheap).

You can get "Shared" - they tend to be a bit more expensive, but you often get a full Cpanel option with it (I myself hate Plesk), so you have more control.

UH-hosting was my original set (now part of ecliple?) - fantastic support!
Fast-Hosts are also an alternative - not fantastic... but fairly priced.

Just find some, lookat the packages and prices... keep an eye out for things like SSH... you may not use it or need it - but it is a good sign that at least one person there knows there job :D

Why not just organise something in the central UK region (such as London).

Not all the hotels are extortionate in room rates... and some will do fairly priced convention hall bookings... jsut watch out for additional prices for things like using plug sockets (£30+ rental, not including the hourly fee!).

If you scout around and pre-book by 4 Months+, you can get some damn good rates!
I attend martial arts seminars quite often (last year it was 2 a Month)... pick off-season and you are laughing - they are desperate (Desperate I say!) for your money at that time... and hint that this is the first of many... with a regular venue being idle, and you may just find the being incrediably friendly!

Good thinking...

maybe a word with "dani" (the ever so helpfuland enlightened cscgal?)... you could maybe do a "live walkthrough" of someone coming into the area of web design, and sort of "blog-it" - should be pretty cool to see how things change!

Never be afraid to ask for som e assistance... and if you like, we can always give you some of the basic setups/starts that folk use quite often (I myself have basially used the same techniques/tricks for the last year).
Once you have learnedsomething, youthen need to enhance it and pratice it...then it becomes second nature - no thought, no looking thungs up etc.

It will come with much time and effort... think of it this way...there are many out there that claim the title of being a "web-designer"... (I'll get shot for this!), but as far as I'm concerned, most of them are simple liars... using software to do all the work for them, with little or no understanding of what does what, why or how are not designers!

But so long as you are learning... you are earning :)

Not a problem, best way to learn is to ask questiosn and practice correctly (if you learn bad tricks now, you'll use them later too... trust me, not nice!).

Best of luck, and look forward to seeing your results.

lol... no wonder I couldn't see a reference, I was looking at CSS 1/2 specs... not xhtml!

Thank you for the extra clarification :)

number -> prime

Fantastic!

So glad that didn't come across as "uppety", "harsh" or plain old "nasty"... (I re-read it and kind of squirmed!).

So thak you for being so understanding and showing such willingness to learn!

Istarted with HTMLDOG myself... along with Mezzo... learn the basics... as they are what will et you through... and pay attention to Bugz and workarounds (you seldomly really need a \/*_>>Hack ... a single extra Div, correct DocType and applying the correct style in the right place will often solve many an issue (or applying a style that has nothing to do with it will fix some IE issues to! *You'll learn!*).

Best of luck

lol - just reinforcesx the point of learning good coding practice :D

... MidiMagic ...
The reason I mentioned it...
" being dodgey "
...is that some browsers aren't 100% on it, (i.e. some simply won't show it if it is the TD that is styled, rather than the TABLE TR / TABLE TD / TABLE TR TD or use of classes etc.).

Simply fore-warning them and trying to make sure they get the best result across browsers (ok, most modern ones are fine, but I know NN and some Opera's are iffy on it).

Also, can you please confirm about the UPPER/lowercase for CSS...

* I thought that you shouldn't use _ (underscore) due to some browsers not liking it (added for CSS2 after release) (NN was an issue).

* You shouldn't use a Numeric value at the begin (not due to CSS, but due to DocTypes).

* You can use UPPER/lower/MiXeD case in ID and CLASS, so long as the same is used in both the DOC and the CSS code, (but you are correct about things such as TABLE should be table (I think)), thus...

<div id="rabbitone"> #rabbitone
<div id="rabbitOne"> #rabbitOne
<div id="rabbit1"> #rabbit1
<div id="raBBitone"> #raBBitone
<div id="raBBit1"> #raBBit1

should work fine...
where as

<div id="Rabbitone"> #Rabbitone
<div id="rabbit_one"> #rabbit_one
<div id="rabbitone"> #RABBITONE
<div id="RABBITONE"> #rabbitone

shouldn't work (or won't work on all browsers!)

???

If you know of an official doc on this, …

Ah - Well, I'm not gonna respond to all of them ;)

Well, due to some of the addresses being stripped, I cannot help with the css... but I can tell you did not validate!

You need to validate as you code... otherwise it will not do as you think.
Additionally, you eed to test in other browsers as you build, as it saves a lot of time being wasted making something good in 1 Browser, and then realising you have to redo half of it for the others... (or worse!).

Still, if you validate, you can correct half the problems instantly... such as :
not <br>... but <br /> for XHTML.
not <img></img> (which you missed!)... but <img />
If using DL, where is DD?

So, make the validation, make the corrections (hell, W3C even allow you to use HTML Tidy (or TIDY HTML?) to clean up and correct the code for you when it validates!!!

http://validator.w3.org

So do then, then come back and let us know if it helped.

also play around with providing a link to the site page for us to see live.

Okay.. please sit back and think.

You have come to a internet community, that like many others, is built up of the professional, semi-professional, the hobbyists and the amatuers.

All the people in any such community are there due to a willingness to learn and a want to develop.... to some extent or another.

Then you go and ask if we can point out cool sites that you can take snippets from... which is plagarism, copyright theft, intellectual right theft and in breach of several other such things that are nigh impossible to police but considered blatantly rude by anyone who has bothered to invest time and effort in making something themselves.

Now, taking a lighter and less pessamistic view, I assume what you really meant to say was something along the lines off...

... " hi folks, I'm new to this whole thing, and fancy getting a good head start on learning things properly - could anyone be kind enough to point out some sites with good tutorials, fine examples and better explanations of the asics... along with some others that demonstrate some of the more clever and advanced techniques I can learn ? " ...

Which of course would get you results like;

http://www.pmob.co.uk
http://www.htmldog.com
http://www.alistapart.com
http://www.mezzoblue.com
http://www.cssplay.co.uk

All are damned fine, most provide stuff for beginners to advanced etc...

At the end of the day, you need to …

Okay - I'm more than a little confused by your response.

Though obviously heartfelt and sincere, I do not recollect nor see, (and I have re-read my post), anything that would have suggested any such content that you feel as annoying, (and I am more than inclined to agree with you!).

Instead, i refer to things such as, (re-iterating the above) things such as menu behaviours or minor visual occurences based upon user interation (such as :hover, :focus and :active).

Is that clearer?
I do not mean in any way shape or form the inclusion of animation, splash screens or even "pop-up windows"; I personally think such things should be band, or have a specific tag in there context so that browser devices can be set to ignore them.
I refer to menu's, visual indicatiosn of state and some forms of "collapsing/expanding" content (such as clicking a linkto dispaly more of an FAQ entry or the entire document instead of just the intro.).

Better?

Hoep that is clarified.
If so, I am more than itnerested in your comments.

Certain I made a post to this the other day!

Try looking up JPGraph.
It's php, and will take data values and generate graphs from it.

In regards to the site, you are going to need to build your own DB system with Input forms, some form of Feed receiver and input conversion, a searchfunction (query) and then build display pages that will either show the results of searches, or of data-sets which will generate the graph.

If you are new to this, you are in for a very rough,tiring, frustrating time filled with a lot of swearing....
but
you will learn a ton of things, develop amazing skill over a short time and get one of the biggest buzzs of your life with a little success.

Personally, think hard aobut doing this project - either you will need to build it from scratch (a lot of learning), or use something else asa start point and modify it (probably jsut as much learning!).

I use Xaraya, and know that it has DynamicData that lets you build your own tables, supports basic queries through the CMS, handles XML feeds etc...
Something like that may help - but seriously, this is ot what I would call a "starter" package.

best of luck though.

Okay - never tried... but after a little research....

1) Try using : after size ?
You have put "size landscape;"... try "size: landscape;" instead

2) Try it on a Single line.
@page {size: landscape;}

3) For Reference - 1...
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/bmerkey/examples/landscape-test.html

4) For Reference - 2...
http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/Landscape_Print_in_IE.asp

Hope that helps.

Not 100% certain you can put "background" in a TD... I know that it is also dodgey trying to colour a TD...

So you have two options.
1) Put a Div inside the TD and apply the BGIMG to that
2) Use full on selectors.... #TABLEID TR TD {} and see if that works.

To be honest... probably best going with (1)... and is the Table for content... or layout ?

Okay, may cause a minor arguement - but am dying to know what others think...

Should we be using CSS to create special effects and behaviours on websites?
The whole point of CSS is apparently to help seperate Content from Style... but a third piece is missing, Behaviour!

Now, I know I have done it in the past, am actually doing it on two current projects too... I'm using CSS for fancy Dropdown/Slideout/Popup/whatever-you-call-them menus.

I've done a few galleris too... hover over the thumbnail, and get a nice pop-up of a larger version.

But should this sort of thing be done with CSS?

Strictly speaking, it is not "styling", it is behaviour.
Additionally, from an Accessibility point of view, it tends not to make a lot of sense;
You have a Thumbnail, then a larger version of it .... next to it!
The menus end up presenting a huge list of links on larger sites.... which few of use would ever have dreamed of doing before hand... we would have done "click-through" navigation in stead (making them click through the levels the old fashioned way!)... instead some sites present well over 100 links ina big chunk!

So, what are peoples thoughts on this?
Should we seperate things and keep it "pure"...

• x/html for Content
• CSS for Styling
• JS/Flash for Behaviour

Or do you deem it perfectly fine to use CSS in such a manner …

No difference - it should always, and I mean always, be well coded, and in almost all circumstances, accessible.

I have seen so many sites with damned clever bits.... and but for ignorance or laziness, it fails to be highly usable and not the slightest accessible.

I admit, I'm not perfect, took a while before I thought of making form elemnts measued in EM for height etc... but so many people claim to be web-site-develoeprs/designers/builders... and have not got a clue.

Still, at least there are some who are willing to learn and improve - such as people on forums such as this!
(Thank god for communities :) )

what? You where here when I posted it :)
ah well, let us know ... if I missed anything, I may simply build a demo and point you to it... easier for me to build than theorise ;)

Well, does that work for you ?

sorry for the typo's etc.

Okay, thats a pretty big box...

so is your text going to "fit" inside that box exacctly?
(If so, what happens if the user changes text-size or your styling doesn't cover all browsers corretly? It will look broken straight away!)

If it is to be fixed width (all ways easier), then you can cut the image into 3 horizontal strips... the very top 10px, 10px from the middle and the last 10px.
Then you can make a Div, suing the Middle strip for the BG and tell it to repeat-y... and insert two spans.
The first span you put before the text, the second goes after.

...so something like...

<div class="prettybox1">

<span class="topofbox"></span>

Contents goes here

<span class="bottomofbox"></span>

</div>

...then try something like the following...

.prettybox1
{
margin: 0;
padding: 10px;
width: NNNpx;
position: relative;
background-color: #ffffff;
background-image: url(images/pretyboxbg.jpg);
background-repeat: repeat-y;
}

.prettybox1 span
{
position: absolute;
left: 0;
display: block;
height: 10px;
width: NNNpx;
}

.topofbox
{
top: 0;
}

.bottomofbox
{
bottom: 0;
}

that means that no matter the amount of text, it will alsways remain in the box, and it will always look pretty (bigger text resutls in the box shrinking in height, but the images move with it.

Alternatively, if you want the …

Wouldn't have a clue - there are many "little" ones that appear all the time, but they tend to be either severly limited in function, or just plain useless...

Drupal
Mambo
Joomla
simpleCMS
easyCMS
Xaraya

All of those are pretty popular and been around long enough to have major bugs beaten out of them!

If you are going to want to add additional fields or data types, you could look at Xaraya (http://www.xaraya.com).

I've built more than a few sites with that ssystem, all of them custom.... but you can use it out of the box... and make moderate tweaks without needing to code (it will add the new cotnent into the pages for you).

hmmm...

You oculd try using and animated gif/png file....
use a Static image for the initial, and replace it with the animated file on hover, (may not work in all browsers!).

You could use JS to fade in an image using some of the JS effects, (try not to use IE only ones though).

Flash is an alternative - but probalby not worth the effort (as you should provide a fall back if Flash is disabled or not present = otherwise the links will be covered over by the "no Plugin" detail!)

Not quite sure what you are asking for here...

If your text is in a container, such as a Div, then you can apply a Background to that.
You then have the options of the background Not Repeating, or Repeating along the X, the Y or both XandY axis...

If you are wanting it to appear "framed", such as a pretty box with curved corners, there are multiple ways of doing this, but I still prefer to sue either several nested Divs or a parent Div with several Spans to hold the images as backgrounds.

If you can supply more information, I can supply more details!

Technically, Frames are often considered bad for the internet.... they tend not to be SE Friendly, not particularly good to Screen/Text-Readers either.

That said, if more for a "Web-Application", such as on an Intra-net, then I'm not so sure as to the bad poitns being so important (though accessibility could be an issue!).

I would suggest possibly rethinking things abit.
You need to categorise and segregate into groups to make things faster.
Even if they are all as important as each other, you still need to make them smaller groups, as this will ifact speed up the user looking for things...
instead of showing all records A-Z, try showing A-C, D-F,G-I etc... and let the user go to the relevant group, then get the most likely data.
Much faster

Okay...
I myself have not used OSC, but I know it is heavily template driven.

There should be a Cart Link visible automatically on the default theme. if you view the source, you should beable to locate it, and from there you can dig through to find thetempalte that uses it...
I hate to suggest it... but Dreamweaver my be of use to you for this, as it has the ability to signal the start/end of tempalte files!
It will help you see what files load where, and you can then alter them.

Additioanlly, I also know they hve their own support forums with dedicated help... you may get better answers there!

... compengr ...
No offence, but what .. MidiMagic .. has said is very true - this is no little project you hae decided to go for.

That said, so long as you have the correct tables with the corret data in it.... it shouldn't be overly difficult, so long as you really know how to play with data-sets and use the right methods (otherwise you will produce incorrect graphs!).

As for the Graphs... you have two options...for simple things you can use CSS (simply create a div whose width would equal 3px times the value of the Stock%... so Stock % =20... x 3px, = 60px width, and set the colour to red... then for the next, you set the colour to blue etc.)

Alternatively, there are several little PHP libraries or API sets that will take data nad generate images from data for you... look for something like jpgraph or google for php graph generator.

Of course... if you do not know how to program in php/mysql... or asp or what ever you intend to use, it is not likely to happen - such things are not "simple" or "easy" to learn like that.

Best of luck though

Basically, there are several "parts" to getting better Rankings.

The importance of each part depends on the Search Engine... but all should possess some significance.

1) Keywords and Description.
Though considered "oud of date", and some search engines apparently don't use them, it doesn't hurt to include them, (as far as I know!).
They should be specific... you may want a few that appear through most of the site, but there should be "unique" or "targeted" keywords for each page, along with a distinct description that is informative.
So think of having 2 sets of Keywords and Descriptions; the first set are the Unique/specific one, the second set are the generic that appear throughout the site.
Try to include the Keywords into the Description.

2) Title Tag.
This is apparently more important to Google than the Keywords.
It is meant to be an indication of the page content.
I tend to make it hold the Site Name (Company Name), and the Page Title. Some people suggest attaching a few Keywords to it as well, (I disagree with this, but it may actually work!).
Making the Title match the Keywords / Description phrase would help.

3) Use Header Tags.
The inclusion of Header Tags, (H1 etc.), seems to helpa fair bit.
There should only be a single <H1>... I make this consist of the Site Name... though you may want to include the Site Name and Page …

hippies -> pacifiscm

tired -> Old Jokes

okay -still no reply to the browers...
Does it work on Opera, what about Konqueror etc. ?

Additioanlly - that is fine for Fixed Width - what about those of us that build Dynamic sites... with no idea as to what page will be added, the length of the ames etc.... and what happens when text sizes are increased?
if the menu links wrap rows... what happens then ?

Still, most impressive and useful tutorial.

Erm, why is it that when ever I see one of those "steps you take to build a website"... SEO/SES is always near the end?

Wrong! SEO starts wit hthe first line of code, as does Validation and Accessibility!
If you're leaving it till near the end, you've wasted far to much time!

Worse, those things are always generic, and tend to be written from a "media" perspective - not from a sales, personal, presentational manner. Nor do they cover niche sites etc.
If you have a site designed and developed for surrealism, I should damn well bet my haddock that it doesn't follow those guidelines! (Unless I'm a sock).

Of course, just to really rock the boat here - anyone been following posters links and checking whether they have money where their mouth is?
Have a go - it's kind of funny!
(Actually, not funny, kind of depressing).

09/11 -> Boy Band

Nuclear-technology -> Atomic

India -> Asia

confidence -> assurance

(there, back on track)

Sorry.
For somereason, my post came in more than a little late...

Please continue from

Post 6389
pride--->confidence

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