WYSIWYG HTML / CSS builder - php

Maybe it is to much to ask...
I want to make a online WYSIWYG HTML / CSS builder where the graphic designer can build a website template without knowing CSS /HTML. For that purpose there should be a GUI to build a website template.
That means HTML and CSS are created out of the choices selected in the GUI.
http://www.constructyourcss.com kinda does what I want. But I can't set width/height etc + I need to integrate it into my system (I use PHP, MySQL,jQuery)
Question:
Do you know any html/css builder tools like ala jquery sortables?

I don't know of any online tools, but I really like the way this standalone program called Stylizer enables users who don't know CSS very well to modify web site layouts. But honestly, there's no way I'd pay $89 for it. I recommended it to some friends to use it for the trial period, but learn how to use Firebug as well.
That being said, I tend to agree with the comments above. A designer is more likely to learn CSS/HTML and do it themselves or pay a service to convert their pdf into a page.

Related

Which language should I use if I want to embed a simple app on a web page?

I'm thinking about setting up a website (based on WordPress) to host video tutorials on interpreting CT scans.
In addition to simply letting the visitor view PowerPoint presentation videos, I'm keen on writing some sort of simple app that I can embed in the blog to allow the visitor to scroll through a series of images (i.e. a scan).
I usually code in REALbasic or Objective-C. I have some experience with PHP. What are my language options for making an interactive embeddable image viewer in a blog? The website needs to be able to be viewed on an iPad as well as normal desktop browsers.
Javascript.
Pick up jQuery, or a similar Javascript framework. It will help you get down to business faster.
What you are asking has nothing to do with server-side coding. It is all client-side. Because of that, your choices are something to do with a plugin (such as Flash), or Javascript. If you want it to work on an iPad, Flash and other plugins are out.
Since you need your image viewer to work on the iPad, ActionScript3, hence, Flash is out of the picture. I would use JavaScript as per the examples on the Apple HTML5 advocacy site, using the canvas element to render the viewer.
I would lean towards a javascript solution. There are loads of libraries out there that will give you a kickstart. If you know some example works of what you are thinking about doing, we can give you pros and cons for serverside vs. client side languages. Additionally, you can use html5 for a lot, but then again it depends on what exactly you are wanting to do.

First Larger-Scale Web Dev Project - Advice for Content Management?

I'm familiar with HTML, CSS, and some PHP and Javascript. I've made several fairly complicated websites for which I've acted as webmaster, manually adding all content in HTML.
I'm about to put in a proposal for my first outside client at a larger business. They have an IT person that would be responsible for updating the website that I create for them.
My question is what to do about content management. I've looked into things like Drupal, but they seem overly complex for this kind of situation, with a single person adding updates of things like text, images, and PDFs.
What would you recommend as the next step above the simple way of manually uploading files and editing HTML like I'm used to? Something like a MySQL database and PHP calls? Would I then store all the images in the database as well?
I guess I'm just trying to figure out what's most common at a medium-sized business. I appreciate any guidance you can offer!
Nathaniel
My company has built large scale projects and medium scale as well. What we like to do is setup a outer page with navigation and an inside page that the client has control of by a control panel with FCK Editor or TinyMCE.
So essentially we have a wrapper page (in our case a MasterPage but in PHP you would use an include or a index.php with a query string to pull the content) and then we drop in HTML content from the database.
That database is populated by the client in their control panel. FCK Editor allows them to upload images and manage links, etc.
For our bigger clients we get very specific in our control panel allowing them to add videos, PDF attachments, blog entries, FAQ content, etc.
Some examples we have are http://pspwllc.com and http://needsontime.com and http://nwacasa.org
Drupal can be bit complex at first but if you stick with the basic modules - it is great for website content management.You can write your own mini content management system - store text and images(MySQL blob format) in MySQL.It will be couple of PHP admin pages and a good render() function responsible for page rendering.
Also have a look at wordpress, it is much easier than drupal. It is less powerful but it may serve your needs. You will NOT need to configure modules like FCKeditor, with it bcoz they come inbuilt. Anybody will be able to edit the content easily. Do note that wordpress is not just for blogs, you can create different kinds of websites with it. Another choice is Joomla, it is also simpler than drupal. But, wordpress is the simplest.

photo album for website

I want to have a photo album on my website such as this:
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/B9S9wNChMFRz6IAL_0n6pA?select=ADeqFE2Tj2s7eM8WuQibbQ
I'm looking for something where the photo that is displayed is also highlighted as thumbnail below that so that users can select photos rather than having to click next.
Also, I want to be able to have multiple photo albums so each set of thumbnails is different. Perhaps something where the whole page doesn't have to reload, but just the photo itself and the highlighted thumbnail?
I've done some research but I'm unsure of which type is best ie- PHP, javascript, etc...
I only have experience in HTML, CSS, and basic javascript and limited PHP.
I'm hoping somebody can point me in the write direction as to what to look for.
Thanks
Learn jQuery.
http://www.jquery.com
Rejoice!
http://blueprintds.com/2009/01/20/top-14-jquery-photo-slideshow-gallery-plugins/ <-- take your pick.
The jquery cycle plugin is fantastic and super easy to set up:
http://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/
and specifically it has the ability to do auto-thumbnailing as navigation:
http://jquery.malsup.com/cycle/pager2.html
If you know CSS you can take it from there.
As I myself am not the best (but still trying to get better!) when it comes to the more UI related technologies (CSS, JS, HTML etc), I have found using popular libraries such as JQuery Tools to be quite helpful and very easy to use. I believe the widget below matches up with what you are looking to do, and it also comes with a tutorial and helpful customization examples:
http://flowplayer.org/tools/demos/scrollable/gallery.html
Best of all I think JQuery Tools and Flowplayer are open source, so that means once you get the widget working, you can also delve into the code to try to gain a better understanding and hopefully one day take your own crack at a similar solution.
Good luck!

How do I properly use code in joomla articles?

I am very new to web development and CMSs. I want to make a Joomla site that features articles with a lot of graphs at the top of the page and written content below them. The charts will probably be done with fusioncharts and some controls directly below them to dynamically influence the data displayed in the charts preferably without reloading the page.
My question is what is the most appropriate way to do this in joomla? Can I get the sourcer add in and simple create articles using inline javascript calls to place the charts and controls directly in the article? Is this how people usually embed non text based content in joomla? Is it possible to access the database with code directly embedded in the article to generate the chart?
I dont really want to learn too much of the joomla API right now, I'm more interested in using the CMS features to create the pages and then just coding everything else in javascript/php directly in the page but I'm not sure if that is appropriate or if it would introduce security concerns to my site.
Why not try the FusionCharts extension for Joomla -
This will be much easier than coding this yourself, the work has already been done.
I believe the best thing to do is just use a good WSIWYG and then use the source code feature.
TinyMCE does the work just fine.
Are you looking for plugins or components to add and do this or do you just want to log into administrator and start doing this right away?

building a plugin using Piwik (integrating json with piwik)

I want to build a plugin for piwik which can plot graphs by reading a json file. I want to bypass the whole process of having to acess a mysql database, is there an easy way that I could achieve this. Also I want to build a UI with standard things such as checkboxes, textfields etc, can I do that using piwik
This is a very vague question. Piwik seems to be a locally-installed web analytics program written in PHP.
You haven't told us what your plugin would do. How would it do whatever it needs to do without touching the database?
Have you read their plugin documentation? It's conveniently titled "How To Write a Plugin", btw. Hard to miss. It looks like the plugin is responsible for creating it's own HTML, so that at least answers your question about building a UI.
You will want to look at the developer friendly example plugin called ExampleUI, which shows how to plot line graphs, pie charts, tag clouds, and report 'tables' with automatic links to the API export, etc.
Enable ExampleUI in your Piwik installation, and click on the ExampleUI tab.

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