Code Clarity (TM) offers handcrafted and elegant Small Business Websites and Web Applications. We ar Web Development and Design firm based out of Boulder, Colorado. We specialize in W3C Standard complaint websites, SEO Marketing, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and much more. We also contribute to many open-source projects with interest and passion for Linux and Android.
With our current project load it is insanely hard to keep up with the Simplified Source Blog. As of right now I will be trying to post either resources/code snippets that are helpful or a weekly summary of articles and resources in regards to Web Development and Design. I hope that these articles are helpful. Each week I can say that I have a different interest than the week before. Therefor this article takes a turn each week from SEO to Wordpress to CodeIgniter to Social Marketing to Android and so on. Enjoy.
Google is trying to get developers interested in Dart with a technology preview of the Dart VM in Chromium, better known as Dartium. The plan is ultimately to include the Dart VM in Chrome itself, but no timeline has been given yet for that.
Google has been pushing pretty hard to move Dart forward. The company released a Rosetta Stone for JavaScript programmers called Dart Synonym at the beginning of February. However, developers have had to compile Dartium from source or find unofficial builds to test the code.
Now it’s much easier to get ahold of a browser with the Dart VM. If you’re using Linux or Mac OS X, you can download Dartium today. Windows builds are not available yet, but should be available “soon.” [Continued]
(Author: Joe Brockmeier)
Navigation is certainly a very important element in web design, especially if we keep in mind that the navigation of a page is there to orient and guide the user. I believe we know that it’s extremely important that users understand navigation options to better explore a website and that is why today we are showcasing examples of navigation menus, to show how websites are presenting menus to their users. From the traditional header menu to side bar menus, footer menus and much more, you will see that there are a variety of ways to present your navigation options. So check it out and let us know which one you like most. [Continued]
(Author: Gisele Muller)
Developers have a love-hate relationship with CSS vendor prefixes. They allow us to use bleeding-edge technologies at the expense of long-winded declarations:
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#fff, #000); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#fff, #000); background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(#fff, #000); background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#fff, #000); background-image: linear-gradient(#fff, #000);
It works well in theory but consider what happens in the wild:
You’ll often find sites using the -webkit prefixes alone — even if other browsers support the property or it has widespread availability without a prefix (such as border-radius). Chrome and Safari therefore look better than competing browsers — and the other vendors aren’t happy. [Continued]
(Author: Craig Buckler)
noty is a jQuery plugin for creating user-friendly, “JavaScript-alert alternative”notifications very easily It has built-in support for alert, success, error and confirmation messages and they can either be displayed as HTML elements that fade in/out or as modal boxes. [Continued]
(Author: WebResourcesDepot)
At the age of 15 I started with this web design stuff. Here I am, almost 7 years later and I wish I knew a lot more about this field rather than learning just by my own mistakes. But you don’t have to pass through all of this, dear Padawan.
There are a few particularities in our field that unless you have a geek dad you would never think about… So if you are aware about what you need to do you can have a much simpler, more productive, and happier freelance life.
The crazy thing is that success is not (just) about coding skills alone. You have to build a whole environment to compensate the instability that you probably won’t face in a regular job.
Finally, here we’ll see a few tips for novice and experienced freelancers, ranging from controlling your finances to networking. And I really want to hear your advice and tips after reading this, because we always have something to share, right? So, let’s rock! [Continued]
(Author: Rochester Oliveira)
Although Apple devices have been getting a lot of attention there is plenty of great stuff to focus on with Google’s Android project. Their open source mobile operating system features a similar app store where developers can publish their ideas quickly and effortlessly. There are sincerely dozens upon dozens of fantastic apps to guide web developers & designers in completing project work.
This small gallery below contains 18 such examples of my favorite apps. Android users will love to try these out and see what kind of functionality can benefit designers, developers, and freelancers of all types. If you have similar apps of your own be sure to let us know in the post comments area. [Continued]
(Author: Jake Rocheleau)
Annual reports are important for presenting information to a company’s investors, so having an annual report that looks professional and presents a good image can certainly help the cause. The design of the report is, of course, secondary to the content, but still important.
In this post we’ll showcase some examples of annual report design for your own inspiration. These samples come from the Behance Network, and in most cases you can see more images from each annual report by clicking on the image and following the link to Behance. [Continued]
(Author: Vandelay Design)
It’s no secret that there are thousands of tools available for search engine optimisation beginners and experts alike. They were all built with two things in mind; Making life easier and automation. Without them the work of an SEO would be slow and incomplete. It’s too easy to miss out steps in a procedure that has been put together, but tools that have been built to this prevent that happening.
Some tools are very simple and serve only a single purpose, such as extracting meta tags, checking for H1 and H2 tags or simply checking the page for its analytics code. But imagine extracting all of this information manually. The time it would take for each site is significantly longer than just entering a URL into a box and hitting go. However there are some tools which have been built to provide a multitude of information in one shot. These are the real time savers.
One good public example of this is the David Naylor Playground. This is a JavaScript pop-out which works with any website. It provides a range of information from hosting location to the number of links and keywords on the page. Another great site is Open Site Explorerprovided by SEOmoz. This tool provides you lots of off-page information that you can use as part of your off-page campaign, from links on the page to links pointed at the domain. Some information requires a subscription but the free version still provides plenty of useful data. [Continued]
(Author: Andrew via SEO Consult)
I’ve been using SASS for pretty much everything I do recently. Here’s some musings on the journey. From hold-ups, to trip-ups, to turn-offs. From apps and teams to workflows and syntax. [Continued]
(Author: Chris Coyier)
Update (January 14, 2012)
After some brief research I stumbled upon a PDF Article related TOR Connections and preventing them and reasoning behind it. Don’t get me wrong, I actually think the TOR concept is a good one as I am one for anonymous online activity but there are people who mis-use the network which can effect us Developers. (Just my opinion, don’t crusify me for that). Here is the PDF Link, dsgnit.tk/….
Now, this is a code snippet that I ran across by Johan Adriaans (@snipt.net/johan_adriaans/detect-tor-requests/). I have been thinking about this kind of code— something that detects a proxy or TOR network. It’s really hard to get accurate Google Analytics stats when your dealing with users over a TOR Network (their IP address obviously are not accurate, making their city, country and other stats in accurate).
I’m playing around with this code to fit some of my current work. Feedback and constructive critisism is always welcome. I’m sure we could all debate the Google Analaytics example I brought up but I’m sure there are 100s of ways this code could be used.
Just sharing with the @Forrst Community.
Author- Johan Adriaans
URI- snipt.net/johan_adriaans/detect-tor-requests/
<?php
print isTorRequest() ? "Yep" : "Nope";
function isTorRequest() {
$reverse_client_ip = implode('.', array_reverse(explode('.', $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])));
$reverse_server_ip = implode('.', array_reverse(explode('.', $_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR'])));
$hostname = $reverse_client_ip . "." . $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'] . "." . $reverse_server_ip . ".ip-port.exitlist.torproject.org";
return gethostbyname($hostname) == "127.0.0.2";
}
?>
(Source: forr.st)
I love my jQuery. I love my jQuery Plugins that I have worked so hard on the last many years, I love it’s extensibility, it’s accessibility, and about 100 other things about jQuery. MooTools also sparked my interest for awhile. I remember first learning Javascript, a long time ago, and when jQuery stumbled into the scene I realized that it was smart to include it in my projects just for the reason of making some of that crazy long Javascript nothing more than a few lines. Foundation gives you a starting point with a CSS Grid along with ease-of-use using jQuery. (Includes Orbit and Reveal jQuery Plugins). I have given Twitter Bootstrap a try and when it comes down to it, Foundation has more to offer and feels more clean and well-rounded. (Note: That last statement comes from a user comment on this post in which I did not mention the Twitter Bootstrap and gave the misconception of this replacing jQuery which in fact it does not).
Well, I read my daily Web Development & Programming News (along with Graphic Design, Linux & General Technology) every single day. I stumbled up Foundation a little while ago— to my knowledge when ZURBwent public with it on GitHub in October 2011. This Framework was developed with the _developers in mind and jQuery included, it’s well documented, very beautiful and easy to work with. I have been impressed and even started to play around with it on some personal projects of mine. (I believe @artur has been doing the same thing, with his post on @Forrst at forrst.com/posts/…).
Great Framework, worth a look for you UI Devs.
What’s in Foundation? So much good stuff, girl. We’ve built Foundation to help you quickly get a site off the ground and to a state where you can easily adapt and modify it into a release. […Continue]
- Global- Foundation’s global styles include Eric Meyer’s rock-solid reset, tested styles for typography, links, lists, tables and more.
- The Grid- You’re gonna like this. Within global.css you’ll find The Grid (not the one from Tron), a layout framework that works on mobile devices, small screens and full-on modern desktops. It’s a twelve column, semi-liquid, mobile-scaling grid of awesomeness that you’re gonna love. It even supports arbitrary nesting.
- Buttons- We love buttons at ZURB. Foundation includes two base styles, three sizes, and several colors that are preconfigured and super easy to modify.
- Forms- Hate forms? So do we. They’re a pain. Well, we’re simplifying that by creating two base styles for forms that are tested, include validation styles, have proper spacing…all the good stuff. We even included custom radio buttons, checkboxes and select lists so you can style up every form element. They’re easy to modify, like everything else.
- Orbit- That’s right - Orbit, the awesome way to put image or content sliders on your page, is packaged in with Foundation. It even works on mobile.
- Reveal- Finally, we’ve created a whole new plugin for modal dialogs in Foundation. Reveal is easy to call, supports several intro animations right out of the box, and is completely stylable. It also works on mobile.
