Raible Designs

No Fluff, Just Stuff

In the interest of no fluff, just stuff, I've altered my theme. The old theme was 162.7 KB for this entire frontpage (in Mozilla: File -> Save Page As...), while the new one is 101.8. So I've reduced it quite a bit, considering that there's around 50K of pictures from posts and such. Thanks to all who suggested reducing the page size. I don't know how long I'll keep this theme intact, at least until the end of the month probably - in hopes of saving some bandwidth. I hope you like it, and if you don't - let me know why - and then help me improve it.

• IE ignores the "max-width" CSS property, so you might get a width over 1024px for the body - causing the heading background image to look funny.

I'll add to this list as feedback rolls in. If you'd like to add to the list of available stylesheets for this theme, send me an image (1024 x 150) and I'll add it. Here's a simple stylesheet that you can alter to override settings in the basic one (simple.css). This theme has the stylesheet switcher integrated, so it's easy to change to a different stylesheet.

.NET's built-in tools and controls generate invalid XHTML and CSS

Mails we've received, forum discussions, and recent Splorp posts all complain that .NET's built-in tools and controls generate invalid XHTML and CSS. The workaround? Don't use the built-in tools and controls. The value of .NET without those built-in tools and controls? Not much.

.NET is Microsoft's platform for web services. It derives it power from XML, a web standard. A product based on one open standard should support others, not break them.

When Microsoft does the wrong thing, developers feel helpless. You are not helpless. You have a choice of development platforms. [Zeldman]

(emphasis mine) The choice is simple, use J2EE ~ where the flexibility is free!

[Display Tag] Now we're talking...

We're starting to get some real activity over on the display tag library project. I have to admit, I've done nothing - which is why it's even cooler that other folks are. Mathias joined the team and went on a rampage squashing bugs and formatting code. Then along came a guy named Fabrizio (no blog) who re-wrote the whole thing ~ demo. Even better - it's XHTML and CSS compliant.

There's even an editable table prototype being looked at. John York (no blog) has also done a lot in re-writing the library, and has his own version that I'm hoping to post soon. Nice work gents!

Add Accesskeys to your webapps

Are you a keyboard monkey that hates using your mouse? If so, you can bet your webapp's powerusers feel the same way. How about giving them the power to navigate your app using keyboard shortcuts? It's easy to do by adding an "accesskey" attribute to your links and form elements, but how do you tell your users they exist? Zeldman's got the goods:

In Issue No. 158 of A List Apart, For People Who Make Websites: All your favorite applications have shortcut keys. So can your site, thanks to the XHTML accesskey attribute. Accesskeys make sites more accessible for people who cannot use a mouse. Unfortunately, almost no designer uses accesskeys, because, unless they View Source, most visitors can't tell that you've put these nifty navigational shortcuts to work on your site. In "Accesskeys: Unlocking Hidden Navigation," Stuart Robertson unlocks the secret of providing visible accesskey shortcuts. Dig in and have fun.

Wiki Improvements

I made a few wiki improvements today. Most notably was upgrading to the latest and greatest cvs snapshot (2.1.38-cvs). Yeah, that's right, I like to run all the beta or in-cvs software =80). Call me silly, but I'm doing it because I want the latest features (i.e. XHTML syntax and an RSS Feed) and I want to keep up-to-date as possible. It actually works quite well, and I'm in the midst of making my Redman theme into a contribution for JSPWiki. I still have lots of improvements to make, but it is currently in it's own templates directory.

New today - a short howto for configuring Tiles' definitions to include certain .css and .js files on a page-by-page basis. Also, thanks to Dave for the press!

Customizing JSPWiki

I've installed JSPWiki on this server in order to better support collaboration among developers. In particular, I hope to get user's tips and tricks for my demos and downloads. However, JSPWiki out-of-the-box is ugly. Dave has done a good job in making Roller's Wiki look good. So here's my question: How did you do it Dave? Rather than digging for CSS files and what not - can you hook me up with the info. I'll try to document my customization process when it ensues.

New Theme Switcher

I finally decided to replace my old theme-switcher with a more standard one. Switch themes all you like with the drop-down below the search box. If the text is too small right now, try the sunset theme, I think you'll like it. I noticed the Aqua theme needs a little work on the date bar, but I'm guessing no one uses it, so I'm not too concerned. Future enhancements (in the next 6 months - 1 year) include adding this to the X2 theme in Roller, as well as changing the drop-down to a slick "customize" button like the one found on Netscape's DevEdge (top right corner). Let me know if you experience any issues.

My main reason for doing this was so I could validate my CSS, which obviously needs some work!

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home just a couple of hours ago - and boy is it good to be back in the land of no humidity. Julie's skin is itching already (it loves humidity) and mine is loving life. I don't plan on detailing all the blogging events I missed, but since nothing earth shattering appears to have happened - it looks like it was a good time to relax and get away. There are, however, some things worth mentioning:

• These CSS Tabs are wicked cool and at first glance, I think I can create a tabbed menu for struts-menu with a bit of CSS and the ListDisplayer.
• The pseudo-class selector :hover can be used on a paragraph to create a cool effect and I might have to use it... someday.

It's good to be back - and was one of the most relaxing vacations I've ever had.

Change the entire look and feel of your site with CSS

Dave Shea of Mezzoblue recently unveiled his CSS Zen Garden, intended to demonstrate how CSS can be used to present the same content in beautifully different ways. Dave was inspired by Chris Casciano's similarly experimental Daily CSS Fun and the recent Hack Hotbot contest. Currently, one or two of Dave's layouts display incorrectly in Safari, but they work perfectly just about everywhere else, and Safari workarounds are apparently in the works. [Zeldman]

The CSS Zen Garden rocks IMO!

CSS Tabs and Cool Designs

I found some great stuff over at Zeldman's place this evening. First of all, I'm definitely going to bookmark this page at Webgraphics. It has a bunch of tabbed interface experiments using CSS - which will be very handy when integrating Roller's tab-based menu into struts-menu.

The second ultra-cool item of business is the very cool sites Zeldman lists in the following quote. If any of you Roller users are looking to design a new theme - I'd love to see any of these integrated into Roller.

Repeating background patterns, once the shame of web design, have recently made a tasteful comeback. (Background patterns are new grey.) If you can't design your own patterns, Squidfingers offers over 120 lovely background patterns you can use on your site. Go get 'em. If you can design your own backgrounds, K10k has launched a Pixel Pattern Exhibition and invites you to submit your designs.