After feeling pretty pleased that I had so easily switched from the old site’s templates to MT4’s, I spent this weekend fine-tuning my sidebar and transferring static pages into the MT4 content management system.
Then I decided to check out how valid my pages were. Horrors! I had 128 errors.
The majority of errors were caused by Movable Type code, with problems popping up in all sorts of templates, modules and widgets.
I was interested to hear about Google's OpenSocial API. They have cleverly stepped in to address the proliferation of social networks with different standards and made themselves the central connecting point.
Despite the global popularity of sites such as MySpace and Facebook, the rest of the social network market has been fragmented into a Long Tail which makes it difficult to target a wide range of people in a cost-effective way. The new API will be a master key to unlock easy access to the whole range of networks participating in this initiative.
Having said that, I don't really forsee a major problem targetting the Singapore market specifically, as most of us are probably on Friendster (the older ones), Multiply, Xanga, Facebook (the latest craze) while the more professional networkers are on LinkedIn. Correct me if you think otherwise. However, if we're 'kiasu' (afraid to lose out) we'd welcome the OpenSocial API - isn't it always better to know that we could unlock many other networks now?
Facebook in particular is going to be very interesting over the next year as we move beyond creating Facebook groups and start developing our own apps. A good app has viral marketing potential as it gets forwarded to friends and integrates itself onto personal profile pages, becoming part of that user's identity - at least until the user gets tired of it and uninstalls it. The app has to be well thought through, if not I'd rather not attempt one at all!
We have a Facebook group for Singapore developers, do join if you haven't already. There's an OpenSocial Initiative group on Facebook, and an official forum.
If you happen to be a Facebook developer, drop me a note. It's a new market but we have some ideas.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning some old website's code that was handed over to me for temporary maintenance.
It is the year 2007 but people are still using nested tables to arrange their text. Imagine a three-column table, with spacer GIFs in the right and left columns and the body text inside the middle column. And that table's residing inside another table.
I was applying for a CDP account online, and was asked to fill in my details. Finally, I had to print a summary page, sign it and mail it to them.
However, these were the instructions:
And I wondered: can't a print stylesheet resolve most of those problems?
You could set the margin-top and margin-bottom to 0.2 inches (and adjust the padding too).
You could specify a class or ID for headers and footers, and display:none when printed.
Not sure if we can set page size using current CSS techniques. But a print stylesheet would definitely make things easier for users.
This puts the icing on the cake - Someone looked at a Microsoft stylesheet and noticed a most amusing comment. See the original screen shot.
So they're human, after all.
However, I just checked the stylesheet in question and it appears that all references to 'stupid hack' have been removed. Hush now.
I've always wondered to what extent the different email programs support CSS. Well, here's the answer. Thanks to Jim Barraud (aka van6ogh) who posted this most useful link in Ma.gnolia.
The article's pretty thorough - they even covered Lotus Notes! To quote,
You can have a field day as long as you're not sending to Notes. It offers dismal property support that includes only very basic text manipulation.
Now I feel vindicated. It's heart-wrenching when my CSS-only layouts get totally wrecked after importing a HTML file into Notes. However, it works better when the styles are embedded in the same document, not linked as a separate CSS file.
I tried to tidy up my Flickr badge but realised that the default script tags that we're given, actually produces code which doesn't validate. A quick Google search indicates that other web-standards aware users are facing similar issues.
I did all I could - added the 'amp;'s to the '&'s and stripped out all the extra code they added on to it. I even accepted the fact that a table had to be used - though some of us know very well that we could control the layout more easily using styles. As of this time of writing, I've trimmed it down to 2 validation errors.
When there's more time, I might actually get my hands dirty with Flickr API, or modify a script someone's written. I see a small industry in Flickr API mods coming up. Take a look at what's listed on SourceForge already.
A parting note as I tidy up / revamp what I hope are my last series of Flash movies here. If you know your source files are going to be handed over to other designers or programmers, please:
More pointers welcome.
My friend Lucian, who's been freelancing as a web designer, writes of the difficulties he faced while convincing a potential client of the importance of web standards.
I can completely empathise with him, though after being in the industry for three years I've become less idealistic. Face it, clients in Singapore haven't heard of the W3C, Zeldman or the Web Standards Project, and they aren't going to care about it unless you convince them that it helps them save money AND time. Times are hard. Budgets have been cut, deadlines are tight, and our clients have performance reviews to worry about. As a result, I usually keep my sentiments to myself and implement compliant code on my own, after we've won the pitch.
There are times when people ask me how I get my work done so quickly. It's then that I tell them, because I use stylesheets to control the look of the entire website. All I need to do is change ONE file, and the whole site 'looks' different. That's when they want to find out more, and I'll gladly teach them. I conducted a training session on CSS for some overseas counterparts recently, and was glad to see this new knowledge being worked into their current projects.
However, it is still an uphill battle. We still have to live with the fact that most people use IE - not the world's most obedient browser. Many other people working on the project with you may still insert chunks of code which don't agree with the Validator, and you just have to change it after they're done.
People may not be impressed with the reduction in file size that stylesheets usually bring about. Some are, some aren't. 'Lots of people in Singapore having broadband connections' is an excuse I hear, myself. Not necessarily the rest of the world.
This is the reality we have to face. We won't get the sort of reception others have been getting elsewhere. We don't have anything resembling Section 508 or a Web Accessibility Initiative (maybe we should implement fines, Singapore-style). Design schools (as far as I know) do not emphasise this in their curriculum. Many local designers themselves don't know about web standards, or find it too troublesome to implement - despite the fact that other highly reputable web designers have. Employers do not encourage it either, because many do not know about it, or fail to see how this can win more clients, who in turn wonder how this is going to woo more customers and improve sales. It's a chicken and egg thing.
But enough about standards et al. I've ranted enough. I'm announcing my departure from web design. My design workload is slowly being offloaded. I will still maintain my personal weblog, and provide consultations. But my job scope requires research into other areas, and to be frank, I don't see the point of fighting in a market based mostly on price, not quality. Or maybe I'm just too cynical. Try working in Singapore as a web standards evangelist, and see.
Here's a good review of Flash MX 2004's support for CSS. Apparently, it is not quite what we hoped it would be. Nonetheless it is a significant new feature and we hope Macromedia will continue to develop this feature to support more attributes.
Note also the reply (comment no. 7) by Macromedia Support which links to an employee's personal blog on Macromedia MX. It's comforting to know their employees are aware of what users think of their products.
I'm going overseas next week to train people in web techniques and hopefully get them to appreciate and implement web standards in their work.
At the same time, I'm also teaching a few good friends how to customise their own blog templates using stylesheets. I guess it's almost like killing two birds with one stone, although the former task is much wider in scope and has to be properly documented. Which explains why I'm still in the office right now, hacking away at a decent Powerpoint presentation / tutorial.
I've got a long way to go, but there was one section I definitely thought I should bring up to my hapless 'trainees' - what books to read on CSS. So I whipped up good ol' Amazon.com, and our very own Computer Book Centre to check on the best prices in Singapore for those titles. There were lots of comments posted by readers of each title, and I was running through each one to gauge which books were best for each group of people. Things were getting a little dry.
Hence I nearly rolled on the floor laughing when I saw this recent review by a female web design instructor, of CSS guru Eric Meyer's book, Mastering the Language of Web Design:
If I ever meet Eric Meyer in person, I'll have to drop to my knees and worship him. All of his books are outstanding, but this one is his best.
Lucky guy. But I wonder what his wife will have to say about that! X-D
I couldn't help lifting this off the latest Sitepoint newsletter:
'New Official CSS Site Not Compatible with Internet Explorer
The Web people at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) have made a gutsy move by launching a redesigned version of the Cascading Style Sheets site that does not work on Internet Explorer for Windows.
In standards-compliant browsers like Netscape 7, Mozilla 1.2, Opera 7, and Internet Explorer 5 for Macintosh, the primary navigation bar of the site hovers solidly on the right of the page thanks to the CSS2 property 'position: fixed'. In Internet Explorer 6 for Windows (which doesn't support that property value), however, the sidebar scrolls, and CSS bugs in the browser cause the boxes in the sidebar to blow out to an unusual (and unattractive) size.
As is the case with most CSS-only designs, the site remains usable despite the formatting problems in Internet Explorer 6. Since I'm sure that a site with as high a profile as this one would have been tested in IE6 for Windows, the CSS Working Group can only intend this move as a kick in the pants to Microsoft. Think they'll get the message?
"Hergee berger snooger bork," says Opera Manager
In a hilarious, but equally pointed move in criticism of Microsoft, Opera has released a special edition of their Opera 7 browser that replaces the text on the MSN Website with language familiar to fans of the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show.
Opera 7 "Bork" Edition is a protest against Microsoft's practice of blocking users of Opera and other alternative browsers from a site that they could easily display. The MSN Web site specifically detects Opera 6 and earlier and sends them to a "simplified" version of the site with broken layout elements.'
[ update: Recent Opera press release on this matter. ]
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