• Manage player / cheerleader and guardian information
• Access to practice plans
• Substitute players on game day (Basketball Coach)
• View Cheers / Chants (Cheerleading Coach)
• Keep track of star distribution for each game

The Apps are available now for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and Android devices. Visit the App Store or Google Play to download your copy today. 

"Carolina Park is a 1,700-acre master-planned community conveniently located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Shaped by the principles of “smart growth,” Carolina Park is a family-friendly place where neighbors enjoy an active, connected lifestyle and where work, recreation, education and gracious living all take place in one amenity-packed, environmentally conscious setting."

The site was designed and developed by LightningHammer in conjunction with the talented team at BrandFarmers.

Check out the site here.

We are proud to announce the launch of the newly created website for the Town of Springdale, South Carolina. Springdale is located just outside of Columbia, South Carolina, and features a small town charm, southern hospitality, and family values that have flourished in this community.

The site was designed and developed by LightningHammer with photography provided by r.g. photography.

Check out the site here.

• Consolidated events list
• Dynamic weather updates
• Updated map view with capabilities to list nearby food and accommodations
• Check-in with Foursquare

The App is available for FREE on the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. So if you're looking to have a great time at an affordable price, check out the Fountain Inn Center for the Visual and Performing Arts Mobile.

Look for a specially designed iPad interface coming soon.

Note: pages generated by blog pagination are dynamic pages and will NOT count against the page limits of your website.

To enable blog pagination, simply check the box to enable pagination and enter the desired number of posts per page. The default is 20 posts per page and the maximum allowed is 1,000 posts per page. This feature is only available on blogs that are using one of the list settings (list, list with body, or list with summary).

After you have enabled pagination, a page navigation control will automatically be added to the bottom of your blog list. This list is also very easily styled using the built in CSS files for your website. 

Setup is very simple, just go to the "Advanced" settings of your blog element and select "Ping the most common blog search services". This will ping the most common services. You can also add a list of custom services you would like to ping.

Check it out and happy blogging! Stay tuned for more LightningCMS updates.

A new buzzword going around the industry is "responsive web design".  You may have heard it, you may not have, but it's likely you have seen some websites using it.

If you have your own webpage, or your company does, you have probably come across the issue that your website doesn't work exactly how it should in every browser, every size, or every device.  It looks too small, too large, or text and images scroll off the page.  Responsive web design tries to remedy this problem, and some pretty creative solutions can be achieved using this method.

Years ago when the idea of using CSS was just starting to become more than a curiosity, it was always a good idea to make your websites "fluid", meaning whatever size you scale your browser window to, the web page content slides around to fit the screen.  It sounds good in theory, and it worked well enough for a while, but with the introduction of really large wide screens, and really small mobile screens, your content can end up looking very unsightly.  It is predicted in the next three to five years, mobile browsing will surpass desktop browsing.  That means there will be some pretty ugly and unreadable websites out there if you view them with your smartphone.

As designers, we have been making websites fit the "lowest common denominator" of screen sizes.  It used to be 800x600 pixels, now it is 1024x768 pixels.  With the wild popularity of mobile browsing, however, our need to support a wide variety of screen sizes has become a necessity.  Clients will want a site that works on desktops, but they want their site to also work on iPhones.  We design another template for the iPhone, which is a decent enough solution.  But what if they come back and say, "we now want it to work on iPad.  Or the NEW iPAD!".  Well, now we have to design 2 more templates, add more code to the site to redirect, and create potentially that many more breaking points.  To prevent from making template after template, there has to be a better way...  a way to make the websites adapt to their environment.  And thus we come to responsive web design.

The definition of responsive web design, as defined by wikipedia, is "a web site is crafted to use Cascading Style Sheets 3 media queries, an extension of the @media rule, with fluid proportion-based grids, to adapt the layout to the viewing environment, and probably also use flexible images. As a result, users across a broad range of devices and browsers will have access to a single source of content, laid out so as to be easy to read and navigate with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling."  Okay.  But what does that mean in layman's terms?  Basically, it means that the web page will "adapt" to the device or browser viewing it.  On a screen that has a lot of real estate, the webpage may show a big pretty image of your establishment, with some thumbnail images under that for each of your departments, with some nice descriptive text. 

Scale your browser down a little bit, and your page will magically scale your big pretty image, make the thumbnails smaller, and condense some of the text under the departments.  Scale that down some more, and now your title shows instead of the big image, your departments become just text links, and the page text reduces by a few points.  Show it on a smart phone, and it shows whatever will fit on the device.  However your site is viewed, the presentation is clean, consistent, and properly styled. 

Now, as the client, what does this mean for you?  Do you need to immediately update your site to this responsive thing?  Well, not necessarily-- not yet, anyway.  But, if you are considering refreshing your site, coming up with a new design, or moving to a new platform, it might not be a bad idea to consider it.  The smartphone market isn't getting any smaller, and many of your potential customers will most likely be viewing you on a mobile device sometime in the future.  As of now, this method is one of the best ways to make sure your message is received how you want it to be on each of those devices.

First, you'll notice we created a services bar for the home page so customers could immediately see and navigate to our primary services.

Secondly, we redesigned our services page to display our four main services with illustrations and a brief summary. We also thought customers would like to see other clients we've worked with in the past so we have showcased a few of them here as well.

Web Design & Development

On our web design and development page, we started over and placed an illustration of our development process. We have used new CSS3 techniques to create a dynamic pop-up menu when you hover over a stage in the process. Below our process we have listed several of our niche markets that we specialize in.

Mobile Apps

Finally, we gave our mobile apps page a complete makeover. Since mobile apps are becoming a major part of our business, why not showcase it?

We're still in the process of working on our web apps and graphic design pages so we'll keep you updated when we get those wrapped up. Until then, feel free to take a look around the site and don't hesitate to contact us.

Tailored software, previously known as Integrys IT, approached us to help them completely rebrand their company. They were looking to start fresh and refocus their service offerings. 

Tailored Software offers custom software development services specializing in Microsoft Access and Microsoft .Net.

We helped Tailored software with a complete identity package including logo design, branding, marketing materials, and a CMS powered website.

Click here to check out their new site.

B2B Media, a Vomela affiliated company specializing in fleet vehicle graphics, has launched a newly designed and developed website. They were looking for an easy to maintain system that was scalable for the future; LightningCMS was the answer. The site was designed in-house by B2B Media and developed by LightningHammer.

Check out the site here.

Often times a client would request a link in their site navigation to an external website or they wanted a parent category link that was not clickable. Before today these pages would count against the site's total page limit. This will allow much more flexibility with the LightningCMS navigation system.

More updates to LightningCMS will be coming next week. Keep the suggestions and comments coming!

Previously hosted on a Joomla! content management system, the Chamber was having a hard time keeping the site up to date. 

LightningHammer designed and created a new site that would match the new branding for the City of Abbeville's new website. Along with an easy to use LightningCMS setup, the site is integrated with a ChamberMaster software solution.

We have very much enjoyed working on projects with the City of Abbeville. It is a truly majestic old town and if you're in the area, you should stop in. You won't be disappointed.

Take a look at the site here.

The City of Abbeville had been living with the limitations of their state hosted website for a while and they were ready for an update. They enlisted us to create a custom website design for them as well as provide a CMS (Content Management System) so they could keep the site updated and fresh. 

The new fresh website the City has now is super user-friendly, beautiful easy-buttons, access to permits, an event calendar and so much more. Check it out and tell your friends! Check it out at: www.abbevillecitysc.com

Carolina Pride, a popular name in the food industry, has decided to use LightningHammer as their website provider. Customers can browse the many products offered by Carolina Pride including nutrition information and meal tips.

Plan your next meal with Carolina Pride!

Check out the website here.

LightningHammer was selected by The Governor's School for the Arts Foundation to design and develop a new website. The foundation works in collaboration with the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities to create extraordinary experiences for students, teachers, donors and the state-wide community.

We enlisted the talents of artist Allison Reich to create the new design, while the site is powered by LightningCMS. 

Click here to visit the site.

Laura Ashley, USA

In conjunction with The Bounce Agency, we upgraded Laura Ashley's USA website to a content management powered e-commerce system. Laura Ashley USA now has complete control over their website and are expanding their e-commerce offerings rapidly.

Visit the site:
http://www.lauraashley-usa.com

Frederica Living

Unique. Breathtaking. Unforgettable. These are some of the words that come to mind when asked to paint the picture of Frederica. Website design was provided by The Bounce Agency and the site is powered by LightningCMS

Visit the site: http://www.fredericaliving.com

ReturnMeTagz.com

ReturnMeTagz is an automated system to help honest people return lost items. If your item is lost, ReturnMeTagz provides a safe private method for people to contact you about your lost possession.

Visit the site: http://www.returnmetagz.com

Phillips Staffing

We upgraded Phillips Staffing a more robust content management system that allowed complete control over the website. We also facilitated the integration of social media services such as facebook and twitter.

Visit the site: http://www.phillipsstaffing.com

Want to learn more? Click here to see the details.

Do you have a mobile strategy? Contact us today to find out how we can help.

The next time you're in the downtown Greenville area, feel free to add our stamp to your Gowalla passport. Not using Gowalla yet? It's FREE and it's a blast. Give it a try and let us know how you like it.

First, our source image:

It could be anything, but luckily this had a white background so I won't have to do a lot to actually cut it out.

Next, you want to duplicate your layer, and apply color dodge in the layer control.

Next, we want to invert our layer by going to Image-> Adjustments -> Invert.

Then, move up to Filter-> Other-> Minimum and create the sketch effect. A 1 or 2 should be fine, the larger the number the heavier the effect.

At this point you can see, our Layer 1 copy is making the sketch effect appear over Layer 1.

Next, we'll make an easy cutout of the picture.  Since my background is all white, this next process will work well.  If your background is busy, you may have to use the lasso tool or quick selection tool to make your cutout marquee.

First, select the Layer 1 copy (that had the sketch effect on).  I then use the magic wand set at tolerance: 32 with antialias checked, and click on the background area.

Then, go up to Select-> Modify-> Contract 

Set the Contract by to 3, and click OK.

 You should now have a marquee around the background area that has a nice buffer around the image.  Invert the selection by pressing Shift+Ctrl+I and then copy the selected visible area into a new layer by pressing Ctrl+Shift+C then Ctrl+V.  You should now have a cutout of the image on the top layer.

Next, click the visibility icons on the layers we aren't using-- Layer1 copy and Layer1.

Then right click the Layer 2 and modify the Blending Options...

For my example, I'll set the Stroke to size 8 and color white,  but you can adjust this as necessary.

Then I'll set the Drop Shadow to 120 degrees, 5px distance, 38% spread, and 18px for size.  These will depend on your image and how deep you want the cutout to raise off the page.

At this point the icon is mostly set up.  If you wanted it to appear in natural color, you could stop right here.  However, I wanted mine to be black and white, so I'll add one more filter.

I'll add a Color Overlay and set the blend mode to Color, and pick black.

And there you have it!  A nice sketch look from the photo, with a cutout effect.   The effect of the sketch will change depending on the image size that you start with.  The smaller the image, the more pronounced the sketch effect will look.

This code is provided as is and there is no implied warranty. It is free to use in personal and commercial applications. Thanks and sorry for the lack of updates on this project.

The below method works for Android and iOS. My particular method was used to open the native twitter client.

Every app uses a unique URL scheme. If you don't know the URL scheme for the app you're trying to open, check out http://handleopenurl.com/ for a great reference of iOS URL schemes.

Let's get started. First you must have Illustrator! Now lets create a squarish blue button. Create a gradient square with no outline. You can choose any color you wish, I chose a nice blue.

Now, lets just select the square and copy and paste.

Next, place  the copied square over the other one.. should 'snap' together. so now you have 2 squares laying on top of one another. Then, select both squares... in the Illustrator menu, go to EFFECT >STYLIZE>ROUND CORNERS. For this example I chose a size of .4 as you see below.

Next, lets draw a rectangle.. slightly wider than the square. Place the top of the rectangle to about center of the square, this would be the "shine". Now, select the top square and bring it forward over the rectangle, so now the rectangle sits between both squares, as you see below.

Now we join the 2 pieces. Select the rectangle and the top square... go to your PATHFINDER window and choose INTERSECT button under "Shape Modes". Your result should look something similar to the image below.

Now here is where we concentrate on the gradient placements. Lets select the main big square and flip it so the lighter gradient is on the top. I could've done this in step one, but you always seem to end up playing with the gradients to the correct colors and shades anyway. So we want a nice, pretty light shade at the very top... almost to white, but not quite.

Now, lets select the "shine" part, the bottom section of the button. We want the gradient of that to have a dark shade at the top to a lighter shade at the bottom. This will make it pop. As I said you will have to play and adjust the gradients. The example of this is below.

Now we are near the finish line. Its time to add your text for your button. I made mine big and bold so it will stand out.

Now, since the text is part of the button, it should reflect the shine as well so it look like it's part of the button. First select the bottom "shine" part of the button, COPY, then PASTE as below.

So now we don't really want the shine to be blue. We need to show a gradient shadow effect. So take the copied bottom piece and make it a gradient of a medium  grey color to an opacity of 0. Now place the copied bottom grey gradient and lay it over top of the button over the text... so you see something like the image below:

Now, select that gradient and lower the transparency. I lowered mine to about a 9. Pretty low. All depends how dark your grey color is. So there you have it, a shiny button!

Next, you can add a border if you like or a shadow. I added a gradient border on my button. Now I just cheated and did it quickly by copying the large main square, then paste it.. create a slightly darker shade at the top.. maybe even a center shade and then a darker shade for the bottom of the square. Enlarge the square a bit to your desired border size. Place back over the button and select it, and ARRANGE it and SEND TO BACK. Y0u may have to play with centering it and sizing. But there you have it.. a shiny button with a border!

Try it out! Enjoy and Good luck!

Allison Reich of AllisonsBackstage.com and LightningHammer.com
Allison.Reich@lightninghammer.com

We're back at it again with Allison's Backstage. This time we created a new site for Joshua Jay's Unreal. Allison worked with Joshua Jay and Vinny DePonto to create the sleek design, while we took care of the HTML, CSS, and ticket sales through EventBrite.

Interested in a site like this? Contact us and/or Allison at Allison@allisonsbackstage.com and we will build the site you have always wanted!

View the site.

With the dawn of the smartphone, it is increasingly important that a website is usable not only on a desktop or laptop, but on a mobile device as well. Analysts are predicting that the future of web browsing will be dominated by mobile devices, with the personal computer taking a back seat.

Fortunately, LightningCMS is up to the challenge and easily lends itself to duplicating your website content and displaying it in a mobile friendly template. Take our site for example. If you visit our site with a standard web browser, you will see the standard website in all it's glory, including high resolution photos and animated javascripts. 

That information is too heavy for mobile browsing. Therefore, when you navigate to our site using a mobile device it will automatically redirect you to a lightweight version of our site. The graphics are scaled down and the information is designed to quickly find the most important information. This makes the mobile browsing experience much easier for the visitor.

Not sure how many people are visiting your site with mobile devices? That information is easily viewable when using Google Analytics in conjunction with your website. You can see what screen resolutions visitors are using including what mobile browsers they are using.

Don't lose customers because of a mobile unfriendly site. Contact us today and see how we can help.

Mike Super, 2011 Entertainer of the Year and winner of NBC's hit series PHENOMENON, has given us the wonderful opportunity to develop his new website.

The new design was crafted by the talented Allison's Backstage Design. Behind the scenes the site is powered by LightningCMS along with custom integration of twitter and youtube. The new site has moved away from the use of Flash and now relies on modern CSS and Javascript.

Look for more exciting work with Mike Super including online interactive applications and mobile applications for iPhone and Android.

During development of the website, we had the pleasure of seeing Mike's show live at The Peace Center. Mike is a truly talented entertainer and if you ever get the chance, check out his show. You won't be disappointed.

Click here to view case study.

The website has a new streamlined design while allowing Freedom Weekend Aloft to maintain all website content.

The mobile app is an extension of the website, allowing users to keep up with Freedom Weekend Aloft news, weather updates, browse the event schedule, see what's being said about @FreedomWeekend on twitter, and get walking or driving directions to event locations. If you've got an iPhone or android device, why not download the FREE app so you can have all the information you need directly at your fingertips.

Freedom Weekend Aloft is a great event for couples, families, and anyone in between. The event will be held Friday, May 27th - Monday, May 30th 2011. Don't forget to mark it on your calendar!

Click here to view the site.

Business has been constantly growing at LightningHammer since we opened up shop. We had a great holiday and we are pushing forward into 2011. We've been so busy designing and developing that we haven't had a chance to post a few of our recent projects.

JungWoo, USA

JungWoo, USA is an international designer and manufacturer of plastic injection mold tools.

View the site

Smoke Oil

Smoke Oil is a fueling company specializing in truck to truck and fleet fueling services.

View the site

First Health - Reid Heart Center

Reid Heart Center is the latest in a long legacy of innovation, from award-winning orthopedics, to the most advanced diagnostics, a wide variety of cancer treatment options, robotic surgery and the region’s only true open MRI.

View the site

UPDATED: "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere!" is now available on the Android Market.

LightningHammer, in conjunction with SOTA Development, has released "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere!" to the Apple App Store. "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere!" is an application that will display locations where it is currently five o'clock from your current location. Not only does it display where it is five o'clock, it also displays featured drinks from each area.

See a drink you like? You can view the mixing instructions and add it to your favorite drinks so you can go back to it later. Users can also view a "most popular" list of drinks as well as browse drinks by city and keyword.

Stay tuned for future upgrades including Google Maps integration and user added content.

Version 1.1 is now available!

Check it out on the App Store. or click here to view more details and screen shots.

Our office will be closed from Noon on the 23rd of December to Monday, January 3rd.  We will still be responding to emergency tickets and all scheduled projects will still follow their assigned milestones.  If you have any emergency issues please go to our contact page and call our toll free number or submit a web form.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

LightningHammer has just released a new revamped website for United Tool and Mold. The website has a new updated look and feel along with new updated content, photos, and integrated google maps.

• LightningCMS
• Google maps integration

Swing by the site and take a look: http://www.utminc.com

We are back at it again with Rhem Galloway of Rhem Galloway Design, LLC. Rhem approached us to take her website design for Kreative Kustom Motorsports and turn it into a site with CMS capabilities. We customized LightningCMS to provide a back-end CMS to match and maintain Rhem's highly custom design.

On top of the website, Kreative Kustom Motorsports wanted to wow their customers with a 3D Logo introduction video. We converted their Logo to 3D and created all the animation with Lightwave 3D®. Once the animation was running smoothly we teamed up with Idryonis Studios where they added sound, music, and special effects.

Site Features include:

• LightningCMS
• Custom Photo Gallery mapped to LightningCMS back-end photo gallery editor
• 3D Logo Introduction

So if you're in the market to customize your car, or if you just want to see a pretty cool website check them out at http://www.kreativekustommotorsports.com

Dare to Share - Piedmont Pride
Piedmont Pride is a website that was developed for employees of Piedmont Medical Center to share their experiences and well...pride.

The site is powered by LightningCMS and integrates several video testimonials captured by the employees. Don't forget the "Nurse Betty" video that was shot and produced by The Bounce Agency.

 Fort Mill Medical Center
The Fort Mill Medical website is an online campaign to build a new Hospital / medical center in the Fort Mill community. If you live in Fort Mill or one of the surrounding communities, why don't you stop by and take a look.

http://www.OnlyFortMillMedicalCenter.com

In conjunction with Rhem Galloway of Rhem Galloway Design, LLC, LightningHammer has launched a new website for Filter Real Estate.

Filter Real Estate offers various services and plans to serve as a hub for Real Estate news and information.

Site Features include:

• LightningCMS
• Social Media Integration
• 3rd Party RSS feed integration

Planned updates are a client login portal where files and correspondence will be shared between Filter and their clients.

View the site at: http://www.filter-inc.com

City of Fountain Inn

The site is powered by LightningCMS and has our dynamic weather and time of day system integrated. Soon the site design will update depending on the time of day and even the weather.

Launch Website: http://www.fountaininn.org

FindCarolinaDentists.com

We redesigned and upgraded FindCarolinaDentists.com with new features allowing dentists to sign up for premium memberships. The premium memberships allow for on-site advertising, photo galleries, promotions, and much more.

Launch Website: http://www.findcarolinadentists.com

Eversouth Development

Eversouth Development is a commercial real estate development company based in Greenville, South Carolina. They needed a new website to effectively showcase their development portfolio. The site is powered by LightningCMS and features a custom web design by LightningHammer.

Launch Website: http://www.eversouth.com

Rising Tide

Rising Tide offers Sports and Event Marketing. The site is powered by LightningCMS.

Launch Website: http://www.risingtideco.com

Hill Marketing and PR

Launch Website: http://www.hillmarketingpr.com

Virtual Sidekick

Launch Website: http://www.yourvirtualsidekick.com

DOWNLOAD: facePLANT.zip (264.68 kb)

It’s been a while since we touched upon the facePLANT plugin we created for Windows Live Writer. We had some people that had trouble getting it to work, so we did some testing of our own. We created some new facebook accounts, did some debugging and as it turns out facebook is now implementing some new permissions requirements when it comes to updating your status.

Facebook now requires all applications to get “Extended Permission” in order for them to update your facebook status. We did some tweaking of the code, and now it will prompt you to grant permission for the “Windows Live Writer” application to update your facebook status.

Once you have granted access, facePLANT should have no problems updating your status. So give it a download and let us know if you experience any problems.

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the Zip file from above.
2. Extract the DLL’s into your WLW Plugins directory (Ex. C:Program Files (x86)Windows LiveWriterPlugins)
3. Run Windows Live Writer
4. Optional: You may configure the default message by going to Tools > Options > Plugins > facePLANT > options button

DOWNLOAD: facePLANT.zip (264.68 kb)

Congratulations to GiraffeDiva (Dana), the winner of our $25 iTunes gift card.

Of course you’re curious of how we selected the winner. Well since we’re software developers after all, we decided we would write a program to do it. If you like you may take a look at the page we created here.

Here is how it works:

1. Input a list of names with each name on a new line.
2. Click the “Get Winner” button.

The page takes the list of names and sorts them into a random order, then it picks one of the names at random. Of course, with the more names the more random it will get.

Feel free to use our page to for your own contests, or if you would like to make your own page here is some code to get you going:

ASP.NET Code:

   1: 

   2: <asp:TextBox id="txtNames" runat="server" TextMode="multiline" validationgroup="winner" CssClass="field" /><br />

   3:  

   4: 

   5: <asp:Button id="btnSubmit" runat="server" Text="Get Winner"  OnClick="btnSubmit_Click" validationgroup="winner" /><br /><br />

   6:  

   7: 

   8: <asp:Label id="lblWinner" runat="Server" CssClass="winner" visible="false" />

C# Code:

   1: using System;

   2: using System.Collections.Generic;

   3: using System.Web;

   4: using System.Web.UI;

   5: using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

   6:  

   7: public partial class randomwinner : System.Web.UI.Page

   8: {

   9:     protected void btnSubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

  10:     {

  11:         // Get Random Winner        

  12:         List<string> names = new List<string>();

  13:         names.AddRange( txtNames.Text.Split('\n') );

  14:  

  15:         // shuffle list 

  16:         names = MixList(names);

  17:  

  18:         // Now pick a random item from the shuffled list

  19:         int count = names.Count;        

  20:         Random RandomNumber = new Random();

  21:         int x = RandomNumber.Next(0, count-1);

  22:  

  23:         lblWinner.Text = "And the winner is: " + names[x];

  24:         lblWinner.Visible = true;

  25:     }

  26:  

  27:     private List<string> MixList(List<string> inputList)

  28:     {

  29:          List<string> randomList = new List<string>();

  30:          if (inputList.Count == 0)

  31:               return randomList;

  32:  

  33:          Random r = new Random();

  34:          int randomIndex = 0;

  35:          while (inputList.Count > 0)

  36:          {

  37:               randomIndex = r.Next(0, inputList.Count); //Choose a random object in the list

  38:               randomList.Add(inputList[randomIndex]); //add it to the new, random list<

  39:               inputList.RemoveAt(randomIndex); //remove to avoid duplicates

  40:          }

  41:  

  42:          //clean up

  43:          inputList.Clear();

  44:          inputList = null;

  45:          r = null;

  46:  

  47:          return randomList; //return the new random list

  48:     }

  49: }

The code is pretty basic. There’s not a lot of error checking in there, but since we were the ones using it, it worked well.

How would you like to get a $25 iTunes gift card in your Halloween bucket? Well now is your chance. On October 31st we are will be giving away said gift card to one lucky contestant of our 1st annual Halloween giveaway. It’s easy to enter, just follow the 2 rules:

FIRST: Choose from ONE of the following:

• Become a fan of LightningHammer on facebook.

• Follow LightningHammer on twitter and post a link to this article.

• Post this article to digg, del.icio.us, or stumbleupon

• Mention LightningHammer in a post on your blog and link back to this post.

(You may complete more than one if you like, but it will not increase your chances of winning).

SECOND: Leave a Comment on this post letting us know which of the above steps you completed.

Comment

We WILL NOT send you SPAM or sell your Email address to anyone. We only need your email to contact you if you are the winner.

Once you’ve completed those 2 steps you are entered into the contest. The deadline to enter is 11:59 PM, October 31st. The drawing will be held November 1st, 2009.

If you have any problems submitting your entry please Contact us.

Happy Halloween!

Rules:

1. Only 1 submission per person will be counted in the drawing.

2. Employees of LightningHammer are not eligible. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Giveaway is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

3. Only United States citizens are eligible for this promotion.

Please welcome the two newest additions of the template gallery:

Efficiency – Deft

Efficiency – Reverie

As well as the Template Gallery, we have also added a new online signup form so you can get started with LightningCMS in 3 easy steps.

Our FREE LightningCMS sites feature:

• 3 Content Pages
• Blog (blog pages DO NOT count towards your 3 page limit).
• Calendar
• Photo Gallery
• Video
• and more…

So what are you waiting for? Sign up for your FREE site today!! This is not a trial, there are no hidden costs. Don’t believe us; view our pricing.

Click here to sign up for your free website today: http://www.lightninghammer.com/cms/signup

But if you don't feel like waiting, check out the pics and links below to view the new themes:

Dawn

Day

Dusk

Night

Midnight

Like what you see? Want to integrate a time of day theme into your website? Contact Us to see what we can do for you.

I must have researched 50 different competitors trying to see what we could do to set GreasyBlocks.com apart from the rest. Ben showed us his idea for the logo design and a light bulb went off in our heads. The development team at LightningHammer knew exactly what to do. We kept everything behind closed doors; giving Ben just enough teasers to let him know we were creating something unlike any other automotive magazine on the market.

The day finally came to send Ben the screenshot of his new magazine. I was quite nervous not knowing what Ben’s reaction would be. I sent him the screenshot through instant messenger and eagerly awaited his reply.

After a few moments the reply came through: “OMGFG{!FLJSHWM]ZCXC!!!!!!!!”

I didn’t know what to think. Did he like it? Did he hate it? The fact was that he LOVED IT. It was so far beyond his expectations that he was momentarily speechless. We had succeeded at our goal. The next step was to take this picture and convert it to something that works on the web.

Being proficient in CSS techniques is a big plus when it comes to piecing together a website with this much design detail. We worked away putting all the pieces together before handing it over to Ben so he could begin writing. Social networking played a huge part in the marketing and anticipation of this site. Through facebook, flickr, and various automotive forums the anticipation of the site launch was through the roof.

The site launched at 11:00 PM EST on Monday, September 21st and it was an instant hit. Everyone that viewed the site raved about the design and applauded Ben’s determination. We expect to have a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Ben and GreasyBlocks.com. GreasyBlocks.com has something for every automotive enthusiast; imports, domestics, euros, you name it.

Some of the site features include:

• CMS (Content Management System)
• Flickr Integration
• Partner / Sponsorship / Advertising Management

Stop by the site at www.greasyblocks.com and let us know what you think.

Interested in the development process of this site? Stay tuned to our blog. We will have some “Making of” posts coming soon.

We are excited to announce the launch of FICivicCenter.org. The website is powered by LightningCMS and boasts several usability features. Through the FICivicCenter.org website, users can view the latest upcoming events, order tickets, view videos, and connect through social networks like facebook and twitter.

The dynamic website invites people of all ages to come out and see what the Fountain Inn Civic Center has to offer. See you there!

The term "CSS sprite" isn't exactly self-explanatory, but it is something every web developer should become acquainted with. A CSS sprite is a method of combining several images into a single image. Below is an example of a CSS sprite:

Why you should use CSS Sprites?

One word explains it all: speed. If the image above was sliced into 6 separate images, your web browser would have to make 6 separate HTTP requests. The more HTTP requests the browser has to make, the slower the website will load. The browser may have to download a larger file, but there is only one round trip to the server for all 6 images. This technique is very useful to load an entire icon set for your website.

Implementation

Now let’s get our hands dirty. We are going to use our sprite from above, an html unordered list for placement, and some simple CSS to move the image around.

The (X)HTML

   1: <ul id="menu">

   2:     <li><a class="cms" href="#">Content Manager</a></li>

   3:     <li><a class="modules" href="#">Plug-in Modules</a></li>

   4:     <li><a class="framework" href="#">.Net Framework</a></li>

   5: </ul>

By default an unordered list will be displayed vertically, so we want to do some CSS to position them horizontally:

   1: #menu{

   2:     width: 480px;

   3:     height: 127px;

   4:     margin: 0px;

   5:     padding: 0px;

   6:     list-style: none;

   7: }

   8:  

   9: #menu li{

  10:     width: 160px;

  11:     height: 127px;

  12:     float: left;

  13: }

The unordered list was set to 480 pixels wide. This is the width of the entire sprite so that all icons will display on the same line. We could have set the unordered list to 320 pixels wide and the 3rd remaining icon would have appeared beneath the first two icons. The list items are set to float:left; this makes the items scroll horizontally instead of vertically or in “block” mode.

Now we will set the CSS that adds the sprite to the background of our hyperlinks:

   1: #menu li a{

   2:     display: block;

   3:     width: 160px;

   4:     height: 127px;

   5:     overflow:hidden;

   6:     text-indent: -999px;

   7:     background: url(images/slidebuttongrid.jpg) 0px 0px;

   8: }

   9:  

  10: #menu li a.cms{

  11:     background-position: 0px 0px;

  12: }

  13:  

  14: #menu li a.modules{

  15:     background-position: -160px 0px;

  16: }

  17:  

  18: #menu li a.framework{

  19:     background-position: -320px 0px;

  20: }

We have set all the anchors () for the unordered list with the same properties and background sprite. Then we individually set the background position for each menu item. The negative background position causes the background image to start displaying the background sprite at 160 pixels from the left boundary of the sprite. Since each anchor is set to a fixed width and height only the portion of the sprite we want to display will be shown.

   1: a.cms:hover{

   2:     background-position: 0px -127px;

   3: }

   4:  

   5: a.modules:hover{

   6:     background-position: -160px -127px;

   7: }

   8:  

   9: a.framework:hover{

  10:     background-position: -320px -127px;

  11: }

• Content Manager
• Plug-in Modules
• .Net Framework

  Idryonis Studios, LLC is an independent production company specializing in cutting-edge interactive content for entertainment, education, and marketing. From spectacular motion graphics to engaging interactive games - if you need to see it, hear it, or feel it, Idryonis can handle the job. 

They have been involved with a few very cool high profile projects, one of the most recent can be seen here.  As we join forces to do new projects we’ll keep our news updated.

LightningHammer is proud to introduce LightningCMS. LightningCMS makes website management a snap, whether you’re a web designer, business owner, or even a blogger. You can manage your own website without writing a single line of code. Choose one of our pre-built design templates and you can have your website in just a few minutes. Want a custom built design? We can do that for you as well.

Not Convinced? Check out all the features, pricing, and some video demonstrations.

I was installing the Simple Counter Extension for BlogEngine.Net (created by Al Nyveldt) today when I ran into a slight glitch. My download counts were being tallied properly in the downloadcounts.xml file. However, when I logged in to check my download counts on each link they all said “0”.

That couldn’t be right so I refreshed my cache and still nothing. The problem was that the string in the downloadcounts.xml file was not matching the string from the generated html.

Here are the two strings:

downloadcounts.xml

   1:  

   2:     "1">2009/6/facePLANT.zip 

   3: 

Genderated HTML

   1: <a href="/file.axd?file=2009%2f6%2ffacePLANT.zip">

The solution was to add one line code to the SimpleDownloadCounter.cs file. Just open the file and update the UpdateDisplay method:

   1: private string UpdateDisplay(string body)

   2:   {

   3:     if (body.Contains("file.axd?file="))

   4:     {

   5:       int pos = body.IndexOf("file.axd?file=");

   6:       while (pos > 0)

   7:       {

   8:         pos = pos + 14;

   9:         string filename = body.Substring(pos, body.IndexOf("\"", pos) - pos);

  10:         filename = Uri.UnescapeDataString(filename);

  11:         int count = GetFileCount(filename);

  12:         int linkTextEnds = body.IndexOf("", pos);

  13:         body = body.Insert(linkTextEnds, " [Downloads: " + count.ToString() + "]");

  14:         pos = body.IndexOf("file.axd?file=", pos);

  15:       }

  16:     }

  17:     return body;

  18:   }

   1: filename = Uri.UnescapeDataString(filename);

**UPDATE** I have released the source code for the project. Click here.

I have finally found some time to finish up facePLANT. facePLANT is a simple Windows Live Writer (WLW) plug-in that updates your facebook status with a link to your blog post. facePLANT utilizes the Facebook Developer Toolkit and it interfaces with the facebook api and the tinyurl api (to create a short url to your post).

This plug-in is in the Beta stage, but should be pretty stable.

Click Here to Download the latest version

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the Zip file from above.
2. Extract the DLL’s into your WLW Plugins directory (Ex. C:Program Files (x86)Windows LiveWriterPlugins)
3. Run Windows Live Writer
4. Optional: You may configure the default message by going to Tools > Options > Plugins > facePLANT > options button

If you run into trouble don’t hesitate to ask for help.

Next Steps:

Create an installer package and upload to Windows Live for the world to download.

So you want to edit your blog straight from your desktop? There’s a nifty FREE program out there from Microsoft; Windows Live Writer. Here are our installation specs:

1. BlogEngine.NET 1.5 (Ours is setup to use SQL Server)
2. Windows Live Writer 2009

Now that you have those two installed, setup is a snap. There are just a few steps to configure Windows Live Writer. First you have to select the blog service.

Since we are using BlogEngine.NET (MetaWeblog API) we will select “Other blog service”.

Next provide your blog URL and login credentials.

If you have your blog installed in a sub-directory of your website you will use the sub-directory location:

http://www.mysite.com/blog

Otherwise, if your blog is installed at the root, you will use the root url:

http://www.myblog.com or http://blog.mysite.com

BlogEngine.NET 1.5 supports Really Simple Discovery (RSD), so windows live writer will automatically determine the correct settings to post, edit, and delete posts. Finish the setup by naming your blog in Windows Live writer, and then you’re good to post until your heart is content.

Another great feature of Windows Live Writer is the use of plug-ins. One useful plug-in I’ve found is the Twitter Notify plug-in. This will allow you configure and post twitter updates for your blog posts.

We have established our base of operations at River Place in downtown Greenville. This wonderful location sits directly on the Reedy River and is walking distance from the Reedy River Falls. We are very excited to be residing at this great location. Look us up on Google Maps.

**UDPATE** Download the latest version here: facePLANT

I’ve been playing a lot with Windows Live Writer the past few weeks and I was surprised at the small amount of facebook enabled applications; so I wrote one:

This plug-in functions in similar fashion to the Twitter Notify plug-in, except it publishes to your facebook profile instead. This application is still in the alpha stage so we have a good bit more testing to do.

Stay tuned in the next week for a downloadable beta version and more detailed specs.