Archives
August 2, 2006
Beginners book on using Dreamweaver 8 – but not for beginners to web design.
Web Design with Dreamweaver 8 teaches how to use Dreamweaver to build modern, standards-compliant websites.
This is a great book if you are a web designer (with some experience) ready to take the next step in terms of understanding modern web design methods: as you learn to use Dreamweaver, the author gives concise coverage of various modern web design practices like CSS for layout, semantic web design etc …
Project driven for much of the book, you are guided through a series of common web design task:
- Styling links with CSS
- Laying our pages with CSS.
- Creating and styling forms.
… and much more.
Each project covered, is representative of something you would want to do in the real-world, but not so big to bore the hell out of you …
A good book for anyone who wants to learn how to use Dreamweaver 8.
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August 2, 2006
This book should probably be on any web designers/developers desk.
Web design has changed drastically since this book’s first edition came out … and thankfully Web Design In A Nutshell has been updated accordingly.
As with all of Oreilly’s ‘Nutshell’ books, Web Design In A Nutshell covers each topic in a concise and yet complete manner making it both a great learning title (for people with some web design skills,) and a great reference.
Some of the topics covered:
- CSS – basics, page layout methods, hacks, tricks etc
- HTML, XML and XHTML
- Accessibility
- Web graphics
… and so much more.
Besides the core coverage of the material itself, this book is also packed with great references to web sites and other good books on web design.
Get the book.
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July 31, 2006
When I am talking about ‘stickiness’ (in the context of a website,) I am talking about how long and how often people visit your website.
When you have a real ‘sticky’ website, people will spend more time on it, come back often and will bookmark (add to favorites) your site.
If your website is not sticky, it’s almost pointless to make any effort to get traffic to it.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE A WEBSITE STICKIER?
It comes down to a few things:
- Keep the website layout simple.
- Keep the website layout consistent throughout the site.
- Have concise and clear writing.
- Have interesting and entertaining content.
- Stay on topic.
I think the first 4 points speak for themselves – we all know that you should have your ‘home’ button and other navigational elements in the same spot on each page …
That said, I think point #5 needs to be expanded on a little.
WHY STAYING ON TOPIC IS KEY.
One mistake website owners can make, is to try and cover many diverging topics on the same website. This may seem like a good idea, but all it does is confuse your visitors, presents a bigger challenge in terms of organizing the content and finally, it dilutes search engine traffic.
I AM GUILTY OF THIS ERROR
I knew about staying on topic years ago and because of this, I started creating micro-sites that were topic specific. But then, I went nuts …
Killersites.com started to grow in all kinds of directions … soon I had:
- PHP articles
- Photo galleries
- Web design articles
- Web site monitoring
- Page Rank meters
… and all kinds of other stuff.
I should have kept it clean and simple and concentrated on the thing that killersites.com was all about: web design and creating killer websites.
MICRO-SITES
Because of the content-creep found in killersites (it has too much stuff buried in deep dark holes,) I’ve started to create my new and topic specific micro-sites.
Each web site deals with a particular topic and does not diverge. So far I have these websites out:
- www.killerphp.com -> teaches web designers php.
- www.killerajax.com -> teaches you how to use ajax.
- www.killeractionscript -> teaches, yep … Flash Actionscript.
… I still also have the classics:
- www.how-to-build-websites.com
- www.csstutorial.net
- www.secretsites.com
MICRO-SITES ARE ‘STICKIER’
To prove my point, I can share one very interesting web statistic with you: the percentage of people who bookmark my websites.
Consider these numbers:
- killersites.com -> 18%
- how-to-build-websites.com -> 33%
- killerphp.com -> 90%
- csstutorial.net -> 92%
There are many factors that go into affecting these numbers, but a major factor is found in the focus of the content.
For example:
The majority of people bookmark (add to favorites,) killerphp.com because the website is ONLY about php … and that’s why they are there.
Contrast this to killersites.com, where a relatively small number of people bookmark it … we get too many people looking for too many different things … the content is too divergent.
MAKING KILLERSITES.COM STICKIER
It’s not going to be easy, but I am now cleaning things up, moving things to micro-sites, simplifying the pages – sometimes spring-cleaning comes in late summer!
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July 25, 2006
The Pragmatic Programmers’ Guide
This is the famous ‘PickAxe’ book that Ruby nerds talk about. A very well written book that is concise and to the point.
A COUPLE OF COMMENTS:
This is one of those books that reads very well. I had a hard time putting it down even though the coverage was deep – you’ll learn a lot about Ruby and maybe more about programming in general.
I never give the TOC of a book (that you can easily look up,) but I should mention 2 major divisions:
- Part 1 is a tutorial that leads you through the core Ruby language.
- Part 2 goes into the Ruby environment – the tools that you have available with Ruby. There’s a lot and they work well.
There is much more (advance Ruby concepts, Ruby reference) but I will leave that for you to look into.
FINAL COMMENTS:
What can I say … if you are using Ruby or you want to learn Ruby, you need to get this book.
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July 19, 2006
Not a bad book for people who have a little PHP knowledge … but if you are a total programming novice, you will need to get another book … or better yet, my php videos for novices! I don’t usually plug my own stuff … but what the heck.
The thing that stands out for me, is the way the author is able to cover various PHP topics in a concise manner. He has also chosen topics that I think would interest most PHP programmers – they are practical.
Some highlights:
- The section on string manipulation is very good.
- Great coverage on the powerful sprintf function – something you don’t see often.
- HTML form processing (chapter 5) shines.
My only complaint:
… though the book says that all you need to know is HTML, this is clearly not the case. Most web designers will have problems if they try to tackle this book from scratch.
Final comment:
If you have a little PHP background, this is a good book to get. I’m happy to have it on my nerd-book shelves.
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July 15, 2006
Killersites.com was first made famous about 10 years ago (1996) when it taught web designers to use design principles when building websites.
In those days, dancing mice and ‘under construction’ animated gifs were common …
Years later (2002-2003,) web designers started to become very aware of the importance of good code, separation of styling (CSS) from structure (HTML/XHTML), usability, accessibility etc…
This may be surprising to some (who may be new to web design) but before then, most web designers barely understood HTML!
WHAT IS THE NEXT STEP?
Today I think the next challenge for web designers, is to learn to program.
I know, I know … many of you are probably have a 1000 reasons why you have no need, and no interest in learning a programming language like PHP or JavaScript.
But consider these few simple points:
- Learning even a little programming will open you to a whole new world of possibilities with your websites.
- Learning to program will teach you to think in new ways that can have great benefits in all aspects of life.
- Learning to program will improve your understanding of web design – it will deepen considerably.
Besides what is listed above (with each being reason enough,) learning to program will give you a very marketable skill … you’ll be worth more!
MY GOAL
I’ve been dancing around the whole programming thing for a while with: the occasional article, video or podcast.
I’ve been slowly ‘priming’ you guys for the big move … the move into highest level of nerdom: programming.
…
My goal is to teach total non-nerd and artsy web designer types, how to write PHP. Not theoretical stuff; useful PHP that you can use in your own web projects.
Don’t worry, I am going to take it slow and do everything in my power to avoid nerd jargon. Or as I like to call it: ‘nerd-speak’.
KILLERPHP.COM LAUNCHED
To get the ball rolling, I’ve created what I call a ‘micro-site’ – a website dedicated to one narrow subject.
In this case, www.killerphp.com is dedicated to teaching web designers (not programmers) how to create database driven websites with PHP.
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July 3, 2006
WHAT ARE DATABASES?
Databases are programs that are built to store and manage information. You can think of a database as a virtual filing cabinet – with extra bells and whistles.
Types of databases:
There are several types of databases used today. The most common being:
1. Relational databases.
2. Object databases.
3. Flat file databases.
You can think of each type of database as a different way (conceptual and practical) to store and manage information.
Each type of database has its advantages and disadvantages. That said, by far, the most popular database type is the ‘relational database’. That’s why we concentrate on them here.
WHAT ARE ‘RELATIONAL’ DATABASES?
As I hinted at above, each database type has a different concept on how data/information should be stored and organized.
A relational database stores (and organizes) its data/information by creating relationships between different pieces of information (stored in virtual containers) that are … uh, related to each other.
To illustrate the point: if you had a brother, your mother would be the ‘key’ that forms the relationship between you and your brother.
With this analogy in mind, we can say that a relational database stores and tracks data by establishing relationships by using ‘keys’ (in this case, your mother) that are consistent between two pieces of information – you both have the same mother.
Popular relational databases include:
· MySQL (often used with PHP because it’s free)
· Oracle
· Microsoft SQL Server
WHAT ARE VIRTUAL CONTAINERS?
We all know that it’s much easier to store and find stuff/things (in your home) if you put the stuff into boxes and then label the boxes … much better than just leaving all your junk on the floor.
Though naturally a messy bunch, nerds have picked up on that fact, and realized that computer information should also be stored in boxes (virtual containers) that are labeled. In a relational database, we call these ‘boxes’: tables.
In a nutshell: the virtual containers in relational databases are called ‘tables’ and information is stored in tables.
MORE ABOUT TABLES
Database tables are virtual containers designed to hold and organize data. In many ways they look like spreadsheets where database tables have both rows and columns.
The difference between a spreadsheet (like Excel,) and a relational database table, is that the spreadsheet is designed (has built in capability) to manipulate data for the purposes of presentation – creating charts and reports etc.
Where on the flip side, a database table is designed (has built in tools/capability) to organize and maintain information and it can hold much, much more information than a spreadsheet.
So yes, you can store information in a spreadsheet, but it lacks many capabilities (and capacity) that you would find in a database.
We will learn more about the makeup of a table (purpose of the rows and columns) when we actually build one.
THE ‘RELATIONSHIPS’ IN RELATIONAL DATABASES
As I mentioned above, a relational database stores information in tables (the virtual containers) and then creates relationships/connections between the tables (and thus the data that is stored in the tables.)
This system/method of storing information (by creating relationships,) is efficient because of a few reasons; the most important being is that this style of storing information (in tables that are related to each other,) helps to prevent information from being duplicated needlessly.
A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF DATABASE DESIGN
One of the fundamental rules in database theory/design, is that information should not be duplicated:
… if you have multiple copies of the same information floating around, it takes up more disk space and can easily become a nightmare to organize.
By storing information in different tables, and linking that information to each other (that are related,) you avoid duplicating information. This will become clear when we actually build our first database … I know (that for now,) many of you are probably unclear about a few things … have faith, it will come!
Part 2 coming out soon …
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
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July 3, 2006
I hope all the American readers are enjoying the 4th of July holidays – happy holidays!
–
On to things nerd-like: PHP
I’ve managed to put out another video on PHP for you guys. It’s longer than the others (19 minutes) and it goes into getting your computer set up for learning PHP.
Because I am gearing up on PHP (don’t worry, we have the cool gang on the forum taking care of the HTML and CSS questions,) I decided to set up a new site specially for PHP. Naturally it’s called:
www.killerphp.com
Ok, not too original but I figure it fits.
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FLASH ACTIONSCRIPT VIDEO
It has been a long time in coming, but finally, we have our ‘Killer Flash ActionScript’ video!
This video continues from where we left off in the first flash video and leads us into the true power of Flash – the scripting / programming. I should have several samples out this week.
…
You might have noticed a general trend here at killersites.com -> programming. I believe that every web designer (and soon everyone,) should learn to program .. at very least, some basics.
It is such a powerful tool to own (programming that is,) that I figured we would tackle it from both the PHP and Flash perspective. More on that later.
Let me know what you think of the videos!
Thanks,
Stefan
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June 27, 2006
In this video, I explain some fundamental concepts about programming:
- What is a programming language?
- Why are there different programming languages?
Basic Programming Concepts
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June 25, 2006
A collection of AJAX hacks (recipes) coupled with intelligent discussions. A good book to buy for anyone interested in AJAX and modern web application development.
The book begins with a great introduction to AJAX and then provides a useful grab-bag of commonly needed AJAX applications.
For example:
- Processing Web forms.
- Validations: credit card numbers, email addresses etc …
What are AJAX ‘hacks’?
AJAX ‘hacks’ are concise code samples that can be used as ‘components (if you will,) that you can plug into your own work.
Besides the usefulness of having a reusable collection like this, you can learn a lot from the ‘hacks’, since each one is coupled with a good discussion.
Some highlights:
- Ruby on Rails and AJAX discussions
- Examination of the open source AJAX libraries like Scriptaculous and Rico.
- The concise and clear coverage of AJAX basics.
As with all O’reilly books, the writing is clear and concise and well presented.
Note: this is not a beginners tutorial … you will need to be able to work with and understand JavaScript.
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