I think it is high time to change the layout of this blog and make it a bit different and maybe more excifing (at least for me). Today I started to work on a new template or rather to say arranging elements in Photoshop. Maybe I should give you a little hint and show the latest design…or…maybe not.

Well maybe I should start with disclamer and say that this template will look completely different in the next week or two – this is only the begining of this creative process.

Please tell me if you like it or not.

Last few weeks I work on the project for PhD student in England. She needs a reliable online survey application which will reside on her web server. It should be open source, php based system and it should support MySQL database with the possibility to give each repondent his/her own username and password. I first tried out LimeSurvey, but it uses tokens for restricted access which are not sufficient for this poject. Later I found phpESP and as far as I have tested it, it should be perfect for the job. However, I found it will be harder to make it look good. Cross your fingers!

After a month of sticky, hot days I would like to share the most recent news.

I finally bough several paintings. Two are here on the picture and another one will lose it’s magic if I disclose it’s looks :D

Uporabi.net has become even prettier. I have made it more useful (stacking all introductions of recent posts on the front page), adding ToboAds, a visually appealing quote and making all CSS and XHTML valid. Take a look!

I also had a dilemma about weather to buy a new camera or a new mobile phone with (better than average) camera. Of course mobile phone won as it is easier to carry it around at all times.

So I’m waiting for Nokia N73 to come in the next few days.

What’s wrong with America by Melissa Etheridge

America
What happened to us? The last thing I remember I was in 8th grade…

People were doing things back then, because it was America, and people were doing things. people were standing up when there was an unjust war…

And you know what else happened? I remember when I was a kid, I remember when we had a president who was a criminal. Do you remember that? I remember America rose up and said “uh-uh.”

…What happened to us? Maybe it’s that we don’t have time…I remember when the 70s and 80s came and I felt like it was really important for me to work really hard. To have a job and have a credit card, that was important…So maybe back then when they got rid of that president, maybe when they stopped that unjust war, maybe they weren’t in debt. Maybe they had time. Maybe that’s whats different – is our undying need to CONSUME and CONSUME and create things that people can CONSUME. I don’t know, what happened to us? I want to know. I want to know, ’cause I think that we can do better than that Amerca! I KNOW that we can do better than that. I know! I know that tomorrow morning we’re going to do better than that. I know that Monday morning when we all go back to work, we’re going to be looking for the truth. ‘Cause truth is what sets us free, and truth is what rises to the top. And when justice is being obstructed, Americans rise up and speak the truth – I know that about my country. Yeah, imagine that. Imagine all of us rising up on Monday morning and saying Enough! Enough! I don’t care if my credit cards are maxed out. I am stopping now and saying Enough! I am changing! That’s right, imagine that, baby, imagine that!

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…I have achieved the American dream – the big beautiful American dream is mine. And that’s no easy feat, ’cause I’m different. At least that’s what they say – they say I’m different, but you know what? As of today I’m done. I’m done being different, OK? Alright? Because I think that’s how they have kept us down for so long. I think that that’s what happened – we stopped thinking about ourselves as Americans, and we started to look at all the differences – they’re a different color, or maybe they’re a different age, or maybe they have a different sexual preference…

…you know what the American dream is – the American dream is freedom! Freedom!!…

Tomorrow, you pick yourself up, you say “from now on I’m going to tell the truth! …and the truth is I am not different! I am not! I am an American, and you know what? …I am an American, which makes me a citizen of the whole wide world! …we’re going to show how to speak the truth, no matter how inconvenient it is, because there is no difference between us and them…I believe, I believe, I believe in love.

M.E.

I got some new books to read this summer! I would rather not say that the winter stack is still not cleared … but here is another one. More creative and even more interesting than all books about web usability and accessibility (I’m not saying that these don’t matter!).

Here is the top 5 list:

1. Web Standards Creativity
2. Microformats Empowering Your Markup for Web 2.0
3. HTML Mastery: Semantics, Standards and Styling
4. Web Development Solutions Using AJAX, APIs, Libraries and Hosted Services
5. Textpattern Solutions: PHP-Based Content Management Made Easy

Among the books currently in my hands these pearls are worth buying:

1. Transcending CSS – The Fine Art of Web Design by Andy Clarke
2. CSS Mastery – Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd
3. Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman

As only few hours a day and weekends are considered as my free time I often spend them studying web, making web pages, testing applications, exploring the web and Web 2.0 world.

I can imagine you might want to know how a web page gets created, which are the steps that work for me and maybe you’ll get a simple tip on how to make web design more pleasurable. Today I would like to describe how my last web site was made – in a week.

When I got the offer to make a web site, the content was already written, so I began with coding the content of the index page with correct XHTML markup. That was done in approx. 10 min and the next step was CSS.

Design of the index page

I usually begin designing the layout of the page either in PhotoShop or in CSS (usually when I already have the content). This is the time to decide which colours to use, how many columns will be used, where the navigation will be … In this case I had:

- logo or branding info

- main navigation,

- three boxes of information about the company and

- footer with copyright information

For the purpose of lighting up the design, and breaking chunks of content I also used a picture (which was made in PhotoShop).

While coding in CSS new divs were created in XHTML to accommodate all the content in appropriate groups. Therefore divs like #wrapper, #header, #main, #action, #bottom, #legal were used and stiled with CSS.

At the end of this process a picture of the mock-up web page was created and sent for approval to the client.

When, a few days later, the design was approved I have began to seriously think about how to make this web site work. The first changes had to be made with design. I have tried several options and was finally content with the outcome.

As I have checked the design only in Mozilla Firefox browser I was “just a bit” surprised to see it in Internet Explorer – a bit broken. So another hour or two went by the time I managed to fix all inconsistencies.

Design of sub-pages

After the first page was done, sub-pages became my main interest. I knew the basic structure will be taken form the index page, however the layout had to be somewhat different as the content will more vertical than horizontal. I have therefore decided to put the box form the main page in sidebar and leave 2/3 of the page for text – headers and paragraphs.

Sidebar was then placed to the right side and a picture at the top of the sidebar was added (to lead eyes across the page). Then I had quite a hard time with header styles. Both h2 and h2 made some problems as they didn’t look so good (as in the final version) and still I think I might find even better solution someday, however this one will also do.

Design is ok

When design was finalized I began to save sub-pages as new files and changing the content. At the end I had six pages with content, but a form that didn’t work.

The contact form

At first the form fields were written of the paper, then coded in XHTML and the the search for the right script began. I wanted to use only php and no CGI scripts as php would be easier to implement on the server. Finally I found the php script that would satisfy my needs (I have no idea how to code the whole thing however I manage to adapt them pretty well). So I spent the next hour to code my form right, to make a thank you/you have a problem page, make it look nice and add additional fields for telephone and test it at least 20 times.

Additional tasks

So now everything works on the test server and it is time to open an account on Google Analytics and add tracking code. This is the best way to have some meaningful statistics!

Then metadata was added – description, keywords, robots.

And all pages were again tested and checked with HTML and CSS validator.
Here is the end result I am so proud of:

http://www.odvetnik-grebenc.si/

Another tip on how to make backup files. As all html files have to have the same name all the time to work properly the best way is to make copies of the root folder. If you can make a doc file versions Word001.doc, Word002.doc … name folders as Web01, Web02, Web03 … (or any other name instead of Web). The number of zeros can be one, two or more – depends on the number of versions you need to make. In the folder I advise you to include PhotoShop files with the versions of images that are in the current version of HTML and CSS files. This can save you a lot of time!

The first place / 42,93 hours (a nice record) :D