Transcendent Design - freelance web developer and web designer Richard Lee - Marietta Georgia - Roswell Georgia - Metro Atlanta

myTip v.1 – with jQuery 1.4.1 & JSON

richard — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:09:54 +0000

I wanted to experiment with jquery 1.4.1 so I started building a tool tip and just kept going with it. A few things before we get started.

DOWNLOAD THE DEMO AND FILES

Uses the wonderful jQuery 1.4.1
It does not use code in the bottom of your content
hoverIntent (not the jquery plugin) NEW
can set feature to stay open
Can utilize JSON to insert code snippets for fancy tips NEW
It use the rel and rev attributes
works in all the popular browers (even ie6) NEW
Can add plain text to the rev attribute.
It’s w3c valid
It’s SUPER easy!

Here are some examples:

Top Left
Top Right
Bottom Left
Bottom Right
Center Right
Center Left

OMG WAIT…

I forgot to tell you… You can put just about anything you can code into this tool tip (I tried an iframe and it worked great!) It is pretty powerful for a tool tip eh?

Live Links
Or Dead Links
Here is an img
Here is a vid
(you can link images to a tool tip too)

DOWNLOAD THE DEMO AND FILES

The Tricks

Basic Use

add rel=”mytip” to any link you want the tip to work on.
Just add your text/code to the rev attribute.

Advanced Use

to set the width and location would look like this you can set all, some, or only one of these values: rel=”mytip [width:500px; height:300px; center right leaveopen get]” possible values here
using get will cancel out the rev tag so make sure your id=”tip1″ has the same value as your JSON object ie ‘tip1′.
to leave the tab open and insert a .closebutton just add leaveopen in the brackets
you can add classes and attributes like you would in normal code.
You can change the offset from the mouse in the JS
You can modify the span wrapper to auto include something more if you want to do something fawn-cay.
You can change the css on the .mytip class

experiment… what can you not do? Let me know your feedback or if you find some bugs. PLEASE because I don’t want to pollute the web.

Blessings,
Richard Lee

DOWNLOAD THE DEMO AND FILES

Learning jQuery: myTip .3 Beta

richard — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:30:47 +0000

You can read this if you want but the real v.1 is here

I decided to try and create a custom tool tip and it worked out pretty well. I had to utilize a funny attribute to make it work (the rev attribute… WHAT??? that’s what I said. go ahead check w3c ( ; )… But it Does. I just need to work on customizing the positioning. so if the browser isn’t wide enough or to pop out to the left instead of the right etc.

I am using a Google hosted jQuery 1.4 take a look below.

This is some Anchor Text Hover over it

you can make the link do nothing too! but I have a tip! just set the href to #

This is out it works

You must be careful with quotes ” ” you must make sure you use ‘ ‘ instead of ” ” use the opposite of what you are using for your attributes.

It works in all the browsers as far as I know… (I haven’t tested in chrome or opera though)

While researching other custom tool tips they all require you to add a chunk of code to the bottom of your content who has time for that???

With this solution all you have to do is set the rel=”mytip” and then put whatever you want in the rev=”" attribute for your tip. It requires jquery 1.4, the code I wrote to make it happen, and then a .mytip class for css

you can view the source below this sentence to cut and paste the .js and .css (all of it i’m linking to googles jquery)

Blessings,
Richard Lee

Why Use Wordpress as a Content Management System?

richard — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:54:42 +0000

Maybe you have a website already or are considering getting your first website; which ever the reason you want a new website I’d encourage you to consider using word press as a content management system for your website. I am going to give you 5 good reasons why you should use Wordpress as your content management system. (I could give you plenty more but these seemed to be the most important)

1. It is easy to learn. Wordpress is like learning to ride a bike, you can learn the basics and start off with training wheels and also learn how to do some cool tricks as you become more familiar with it’s capabilities. There is a wide spectrum when it comes to the capabilities of web users. Some people are afraid to touch a keyboard… some people are afraid to let others do things for them. Wordpress is great for both! Because of it’s popularity there are a countless number of tutorials and resources that teach people how to use their Wordpress blog / cms. If it is support you want, have no fear… there is plenty of it.

There are thousands of 100% free plug-ins

2. You can maintain it yourself. Have you ever wanted to make a lot of changes to your copy and you had to call your web guy… every other day. Well guess what? Not any more! you can maintain your own site with ease; not to mention you don’t have to pay the web guys for correcting your typos any more either, or to add a new page. Wordpress empowers you to be more independent you can be as independent as you feel comfortable being with wordpress. You can upgrade, install plugins (enhancements for your website), and manage your content all on your own! Wordpress has made this easier for you to do.

3. It’s Very Flexible. If you just want a blog, a website with a blog, or even a website without a blog… wordpress is a great choice. Also from a developing standpoint it is a lot more efficient and effective for achieving these goals. You can even incorporate some e-commerce features utilizing plugins that will help you sell your products. You can do just about anything you want.

4. Free plug-ins (enhancements) galore. There are thousands of 100% free plug-ins that allow you to do many things some of which are: easily displaying YouTube and videos, creating payment buttons for PayPal, a booking calendar, rotating testimonies in the sidebar, receive mail from forms filled out on your website, SEO ehancements, run polls, social networking tools / facebook / twitter… The list goes on and on. Best of all they are easy to integrate!
See all the Wordpress plug-ins here

5. Its SEO Friendly. Who has a website that doesn’t want to get found? It is important for people to find your website! Wordpress is extremely Search Engine Friendly there are a ton of features and plug-ins that you can utilize to help people find your website via the search engines. You can easily customize meta tags and title tags with out having to delve into the code. You can customize your urls / permalinks to include your key words. I worked for an SEO firm for a little while and we used wordpress for all of our sites. When I asked the owner why we used wordpress he said, “Wordpress has always stomped the search engines… always has… always will”

Wordpress is great I have been using it for over 2 years and it continues to get better! I encourage anyone interested in creating a website to use Wordpress. If you are interested in a custom wordpress website please feel free to contact me.

Website Makeover or Redesign?

richard — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:32:29 +0000

we really grow as people and in life and just like children we grow out of old clothes and then it is time to get new clothes, or if you are the fashionista type you get new clothes because your’s are just look’n last year/decade for some. The same goes for web companies as you grow as a company what worked before just isn’t going to work any more maybe because you’ve become more professional, or you have grown, or the new has warn off the old site and it’s time to refresh which is perfectly o.k. God created seasons and people he likes variety and diversity too!

I decided to remake my website yesterday and it took about all day after testing and debugging. I didn’t even have a concept I just changed the background and kept making changes until it look right. No planning, no compositions, just going with it. I really like the results and I feel it is more alive than my previous skin. I’m glad I stuck with my current layout because it took forever to code this site and I am really please how the make over went.

I don’t think this would qualify really as a redesign because I feel like you change the layout and recode a lot in a redesign. This is why I think it qualifies as a makeover because it is the same site/layout just with a different look.

Here is a how the previous site looked. I had a to dig around for a picture I should have just taken one before I started making changes but I guess I didn’t know I was going to do the redesign until about half way through lol.

(Click to Enlarge)

5 Reasons to Research Your E-Commerce Solutions

richard — Mon, 18 May 2009 07:23:13 +0000

When Investing in your E-commerce solutions now adays it is important to do your homework. You must be wise when picking one out and not choose something because it is convenient and easy. Here are some reasons I believe it is smart so spend a little time investing in research.

1. Privacy – You will be giving the people your personal information cc numbers, account numbers, address, and possibly your social security number.

2. Reputation and Quality – If the company you choose doesn’t have a good reputation with the public it could quickly decrease your reputation on the web. (search them on google, if they have double charged tons of people and their are a lot of nasty reviews on the web about them don’t choose them. You will see that rarely is there a company without bad reviews but pick the one with good reviews and only a couple bad… accidents do happen and these are excusable but there needs to be explanation.)

“There are an array of things to look out for concerning safety with your’s and other’s money on the web.”

3. Ease of Use – It needs to be easy to use and to integrate into your website. (I have left websites because it looked sketchy on their e-commerce. Generally if your site stinks and so does your e-commerce solution I don’t buy from you plain and simple may sound mean but I can afford to take the risk.)

4. Protection – What happens when there are faulty charges or orders, or somone rips you off… Will there be reimbursement etc? (check out how they handle these things)

5. Security – How does the e-commerce company claim to protect / encrypt transactions and your sensitive information. Can they prove it?

There are an array of things to look out for concerning safety with your’s and other’s money on the web. Recently I ordered a product and the company double charged me for it, I find out it is their e-commerce solution and it seems to be a pretty popular situation and they are a pretty popular e-commerce company both with big companies but also with complaints about charges that are questionable. (It’s called DigitalRiver.com if you were wondering). Working as a web designer I want to know who your e-commerce solution is and if they are reliable… because you CAN get charged now a-days for just typing your cc info before you push any buttons some companies start processing ASAP and seem to give you a way to stop in the process but really they have already determined to charge you even if you cancel.

Working Locally and Globally

richard — Sat, 09 May 2009 17:44:32 +0000

As a web designer who works remotely in Marietta Georgia and it being a densely populated area I tend to get several calls a month from local business in the Metro Atlanta area. I haven’t really even been marketing myself to these companies nor have I been trying to get business locally. Most of my business has been done for other in different states and International Clients.

My point being I have been receiving much business from an audience that I wasn’t necessarily targeting for an array of reasons. A main one being I didn’t feel like I could compete with the local businesses search engine wise, Google mainly, so I didn’t think anybody would be able to find me. Well they did find me but not the way I thought.

“market locally, and globally…”

There are some freelance companies that I use to bid on projects through and people tend to search on those databases and then contact me directly and they live with in a 20 mile radius. There is a lot of local business. I am trying to make my site more findable to local companies in Marietta Georgia or in Metro Atlanta area so that I might get more local business seeing that I have been getting a lot of it lately.

One thing to take away would be. market locally, and globally… Remember David and Goliath, it’s not about your competition it’s who you trust.

5 things you can do today to make your site a little bit more findable
(You could probably knock this out in a day or two)
1. Write your content then go back through and make sure you included key words in the content and headings that you know people would search for that are relevant. (just sprinkle them through out don’t pour them on… you can get penalized)
2. Use Key words and relevant text in the ‘title’ tag of the page, in your meta data ‘key words’ and ‘description’, and in your markup your ‘title’ and ‘alt’ attributes.
3. Create a Google XML Sitemap and submit it to google through webmaster tools… and Verify your website while your at it.
4. Submit your site to Yellow pages type sites, directories
5. Submit your site to other search engines mainly yahoo and msn.

There are a lot more in depth things you could do but at least you now have your foot in the door and are more findable.

BuddyPress

richard — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:10:59 +0000

Wordpress has come out with buddypress it’s basically facebook. I recently interviewed with a company that was interested in creating an application like this for their clients. I hope they pick this up instead of trying to create their own app. I’m excited because clients are always wanting to create facebook like solutions and now I can help them create those with buddypress.

In order to use buddypress you must first install a version of wordpress MU. This is not your regular wordpress and you will probably need to download it and upload it manually (it’s not in your fantastico deluxe for those of you who install through your host) Here is a link to the wordpress MU… and here is the link to buddypress… have fun!

I am installing it soon and going to give it a test run and hopefully will be able to start offering it to my clients.