The Shadow Fox Network Tutorials Feed

Building a Better Blog Part 2: Design and Usability

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:24:41 +0000

If you read my quick article on what to expect from this four part (three parts of actually doing something) series on a better blog, you probably just couldn't wait for the next part. Well, wait no more because it's here. In this tutorial you'll learn just how to create an amazing looking fixed width, two column blog complete with gradients, all CSS, and how to optimize it for both your users and search engines.

Building a Better Blog From Design To Code: Part 1 - Planning And Needs

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:23:23 +0000

There comes a time in everyone's life when they decide to put up a blog. I've covered different designs before, I've covered some different coding approaches, but I've always left it to you to put together. It's time to solve the problem. I will teach you and ask you questions about what you want in a blog, how to do it, and when to do it. You'll learn various CSS, PHP, HTML, and AJAX techniques in this 4 part tutorial.

Create Dynamic URLs With Mod_Rewrite and PHP Functions

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:34:02 +0000

A while ago I wrote an article on how to "use mod_rewrite for search engine friendly URLs,":http://www.shadow-fox.net/site/tutorial/27-Using-Mod-Rewrite-for-Search-Engine-Friendly-URLs but have since found the uses lacking. For one thing, you can't pass variables well without adding more commands to mod_rewrite. So here you'll learn to add unlimited parameters to your links with only one simple PHP function.

How To Hide And Show Elements To Create A One-Off Page

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:15:16 +0000

Frequently you will need to create a quick website to organize your information. Whether it's for a quick page advertising a software you're selling, or just to give some information, static HTML will most likely will be used. But instead of a long boring HTML page, or more complicated and time consuming multiple HTML pages, you can easily organize your information using javascript. This tutorial will show you how to create information and then, using the Document Object Model, hide and display different pages for a unique organisation technique. This is all fully compatible for people who do not have javascript enabled as well. If you still don't understand, look at the "example.":http://shadow-fox.net/examples/onepage/onepage.html

HOWTO: Make Your Own Stylish Dark Blog Layout

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:09:34 +0000

Blogs have, in the past few years, become a standard of internet marketing, reputation building, or a place to get thoughts out. Whatever your goal of having a blog, (or weblog or online journal) is, one thing it needs is a stylish layout. That's exactly what this tutorial serves to teach: how to create a stylish blog layout. This tutorial doesn't serve to teach new concepts, just to show how to go about creating a very simplistic, very nice looking blog layout and some new tricks to put in your XHMTL/CSS grab bag.

Web 2.0 Layout Mark 2 - More Gradients

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:35:10 +0000

The first "Web 2.0 Layout":http://shadow-fox.net/examples/web20/final.html designed by me was primitive at best. With no gradients, annoying colors, and boring design, it left a lot to be desired. That's where this layout steps in. It brings more to the table in the terms of design and the usability. Overall, when you are done reading the tutorial, you will have yet another easy and good looking layout under your belt.

How To Make Your Own Image Gallery With An Administration

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:42:28 +0000

One thing everyone searches for is a great image gallery. Whether it's to show off your work as a web designer or some pictures of your kid's birthday, an easy way to upload and identify your images is always great. This tutorial will teach you how to create an image gallery: the administration comes complete with a login check, an upload form, a system for describing your images in a database, and the front end has everything including showing thumbnails of all your images, how to use the very great "Script.aculo.us":http://script.aculo.us library for some great effects, and a javascript slideshow.

Creating a Full Statistics Suite With Administration

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:05:05 +0000

The most important part of your website is your visitors. You should know where they come from, what they use, where they go. There are various statistics software that can tell you all these things, but why use a pre-made one when you can build one yourself? Here, you'll learn how to track where your visitor goes, where they come from, what browser they use, and how many total hits and unique hits you get complete with a login check.

Creating A Scaffold-like Class in PHP or An Automatic CMS For a Table

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:11:31 +0000

If you've ever seen the "Creating a Weblog In 15 Minutes":http://media.rubyonrails.org/video/rails_take2_with_sound.mov movie, you were undoubtedly startled at how useful and quick the scaffold command could be. But if you're still using PHP, and you love that command, then you could have a problem. Luckily, through the use of Object Oriented Programming, an equivalent solution is available, creating a full create, read, update, and delete CMS for a single table through one command.

Creating a Templating System Using Object Oriented Programming

webmaster@shadow-fox.net — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:52:39 +0000

When building a website, things can get a bit complicated with code written inside the template. A templating system serves to separate the structure (HTML) from the style (CSS) from the code/content (PHP and database) with PHP's object oriented programming functions.