₦airaland Forum

1) Give me an example of a site of mine so I have a better idea

2) Chances are that they are using dhtml. The best way to figure out what someone is doing on their site is to do some revers engineering - view the source, find out what css/javascript is being used, enter the filename in the address bar to pull up that file, copy it, paste it, run it, modify it to understand it and tinker with it to get the results you need.

I once read in some book that the internet allows for, "benevolent plagiarism" in that, as long as it is out there, you really can't stop someone from copying your code so don't feel bad if you borrow from a place or 2. As long as the code doesn't have some sort of copyright information it, it's fair game. For all you know, they probably copied off of someone else's site as well. Besides, if they don't want anyone copying the code, then they should have obfuscated it (and there are many software programs that do just that). Personally, if it is code I have borrowed from somewhere, I give credit either via the person's copyright information or if none, by verbal reference when talking to someone about it, "nna, if u c dis fine code eh? I get am from Nkem Owoh for aaa.com"

Let me know how I can help with respect to #1. I hope these help.

Uhhhm, no offense: Use Flash maybe?

So,

Every now and then, one of us will post a website for review. For the most part, it has always centered on the actual UI - "colors out of whack" or "the header is inconsistent here and there". That's all fine and dandy. I am probably one of the few who actually will go as far as view the source to see what lied underneath. So I began to think, "why not we do actual code reviews where we look at our css, php, html, javascript, etc?" Sure, in the end, the site works and we got paid. Having said that, there are efficient ways to write code.

The aim of this isn't to say, "your code sucks" but to advise on what is more efficient and why it is so. I think we can all learn from this. An example: I see many CSS sripts with:
padding-left: 22px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; padding-bottom: 10px;

It's all good but such code could be compacted (thereby saving some bandwidth, among other reasons) via the T(op) R(ight) B(ottom) L(eft) (TRouBLe for short) technique into one line like so: padding: 4px 10px 10px 22px. Even better, if all 4 attributes are the same, we could tighten it even more like so: padding: 10px 10px; (Top and Bottom: 10px, Left and Right: 10px).

Again I think we can all learn from this. Other than the back-end languages, no one needs to copy and paste their code as it can be easily made available via "view source".

What do you all think?

jitguide you funny o! Is your site some kind of movie for it to be "coming soon"? I mean, even movies that are "coming soon" have a preview.

If I didn't wake up on the right side of bed this morning, I would take this as an insult

Smartsoft, based on your analogy, are you sure you are meant for web development and not philosophy?

Back to the brass tacks: cmon, I wouldn't call it a waste of time. You should always aim to improve on your skills. So what? Ruby isn't huge right now but who's to say it won't next year? If you are good at say, PHP, keep doing that but read up on Ruby and maybe even do a few projects in it so that by the time people need experienced developers, you already have the experience they need, as opposed to being a freshly baked loaf of bread.

As always, my 2 cents.

skunk,

I think I know one reason why - Dreamweaver!

Lola,

Thanks. Sometimes, you have to speak in parables to get your point across.

You have to, naijafan, albeit in a healthy manner.

Do I hate white people? Absolutely not. Do I think every white person out there is evil? Absolutely not. All I am saying is, atimes there is a reason behind everything if only you read the tea leaves. Another example: A girlfriend (black) I dated many years ago asked me to name my top 5 actresses. I did. She said, "interesting". I asked y. She said, "not one of them is black. not even Halle Berry". Of course, I told her race had nothing to do with it and it's the truth. That day has always haunted me. It is only 2 or so years ago that it finally hit me what she was trying to say. In a world where 99% of the actors and actresses are white, why wouldn't I mention white actresses. From that day, I have been more conscious of myself.

B/w dangote and gates? Surprisingly, I will choose Dangote. Why? First and foremost, he's a fellow Nigerian. I have to support him, even if he were worth $100million. Besides, in all honesty, how many billions do you need?

Sorry cmon but I haven't used Ruby, yet. What I have heard is that in Ruby, it takes one line of code to do that would take 3 or more in PHP or whatever language.

As far as books, I couldn't help, sorry. Just give it a shot. I am sure there is something out there though. Good luck!

naijafan, so does that mean I am officially in the fanboy club now?

Seriously though, I don't think I was off-point. C, after a lady has been raped, it doesn't matter if the next man or men in her life swear a blood oath that they will never hurt her. She has been violated once and it can take ages to heal and regain the trust of a man again.

I know, the analogy is a little out there, but hopefully you get my point - I have been "raped' by IE going as far back as IE3, back when netscape was the standard. I have been promised that each subsequent release of IE will be better than the next. But each time, 9 times out of 10, I get screwed by something else. IE has left a bad taste in my (and I am sure, others) mouth, that's all.

I will go with the brouhaha of IE8 for now. As they say though, the proof will be in the pudding.

J UNIT,

Refer to Afam's post above, with respect to the differences b/w PHP and dreamweaver/frontpage.

Frontpage extensions aside, Web hosts support a variety of languages by default. It's just a matter of asking which ones they support and which ones they don't.

Well nduaj, to me, I know where he is going, but why use oyibo names? Dangote just became the 334th richest man in the world. I am also sure there are other African billionaires. Couldn't he have picked those.

C nduaj, for me, again I know where he is coming from but those names convey a subtle meaning. It's like when in the states some company did a study to see what doll black children would pick if given a choice b/w black and white. They overwhelmingly picked the white one. When asked, one black girl said, "because the white one looks better".

We as a race have been made to think that white is better. Again, it isn't overtly done, but covertly. In the states, an average commercial features all white people (most likely blond and blue-eyed, but that's another story) and the one "black" person they put on there is so light, atimes you can't tell the difference. Even in naija, whenever I visit a friend's house, they immediately switch to CNN. Why not AIT? CNN is only as popular as its viewership. Can you imagine where CNN would be in Africa if we all tuned to say, AIT?

So again, at least for me, I know where he is coming from. Having lived in a society where no matter how hard you try to fit in, some elements make you feel like you don't belong for a long time, using such names, as has been done above, just doesn't sit well with me.

Okay, sorry for the long response. I am off my soapbox now

For starters, in lieu of code that may already be out there and much better than this, you can use whatever language you are coding in to generate a set of random numbers. Just remember that the longer the number, the harder it is, potentially, to crack. This is where those lessons in probability come in

If you have a 3-number pin. It will have only 1000 (10 * 10 * 10) combinations. Any bored person wouldn't mind entering 1000 numbers to see which will be accepted. Not to mention, the numbers wouldn't be too random. But choose a 10-number pin and you are talking another story. Hopefully you see where I am going with this.

I hope this helps.

Yep,

Even the best telemarketers know expect a 2% Return on Investment for every 100 or so spams, so who are you?

It's quite simple actually. The answer can be found even at Yankari Game Reserve. Don't laugh, I am serious:

Any hungry carnivore takes the time to survey his/her prey, stalking, watching, licking lips, planning, etc. Such a carnivore then spends all their energy to chase their prey. Atimes, they catch one atimes they don't and live for another day. Once they do catch a prey however, they relish in the victory, hoarding the meat to themselves till they have had their fill, saving up some for their offspring and then once totally satisfied, they leave the carcass there for the scavengers.

Folks, it's that basic of basic drive that makes "the chase" interesting. Has anyone ever wandered why even a cat will not even touch a dead animal, no matter how hungry the cat may be? It isn't interesting. It's boring. There is pride (at least for me) in enjoying something I actually worked for. It's a basic instinct folks, pure and simple.

Lesson to the ladies:
If you have any self-respect, you will save yourself for your wedding day. Whereby you can't do that, at least let the guy prove himself before giving yourself to him. Don't fall for peer pressure or what you see on TV. In other words, no matter how "cute" or "sexy" or whatever, no matter how expensive he may look, don't jump in the sack on the first day. Trust me, the man will have more respect for you if you make him work for it. By the same token, if you aren't interested, just say so and move on. Don't get the man worked up in the process. This is most likely when hit-and-run is likely to take place. Tease the guy, but don't take it too far.

Again using my analogy, even any carnivore will lose interest if they spend all their time chasing one herbivore.

1) Log on to your google account. In the top left, there should be a "more" link. select Calendar. Create a calendar. Set up your events then, I forget which page, but there is one that provides a link to the xml URL of your calendar. Copy that and save it to your clipboard

2) Visit http://gmodules.com/ig/creator?synd=open&url=http%3A//www.google.com/ig/modules/calendar-for-your-site.xml&pt=%26context%3Dd%26synd%3Dopen%26lang%3Den%26.lang%3Den%26country%3Dus%26.country%3Dus%26cat%3Dall%26num%3D1%26start%3D-1%26cols%3D1%26objs%3D6aZ&sn=6aZ&lang=en

Note that you can customize the look and feel. I think there is a greenish border calendar that may match your site. Whatever the case may be, customize as necessary. On the right half of that page is a bunch of textboxes. Again, customize as necessary. The one to look out for I think (sorry, I haven't done this in a while. Then again, if you don't make mistakes, you won't learn ) is "calendar 1 URL". Paste in the link of your calendar's XML in that space and preview. Then get the code for that calendar and paste on your page

3) This is what I have used for my client-side date display and it hasn't failed so far:
a) Create a .js file and paste this code in there:

function myDateFormat(dt){
  var  dayno    =  dt.getDate() ;
  var  monthno  =  dt.getMonth() ;
  var  yearno   =  dt.getFullYear() ;
  
  var  daystr ;
  if       ((dayno == 1) 
            || 
            (dayno == 21)     
            || 
            (dayno == 31)
            )
            {daystr  =  dayno + "st"}
  else  if  ((dayno == 2)
             ||
             (dayno == 22)
            )
            {daystr  =  dayno + "nd"}  
  else  if  ((dayno == 3)
             ||
             (dayno == 23)
            )
            {daystr  =  dayno + "rd"}
  else      {daystr  =  dayno + "th"}
  
  if        (monthno ==  0)  {monthstr  =  "January"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  1)  {monthstr  =  "February"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  2)  {monthstr  =  "March"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  3)  {monthstr  =  "April"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  4)  {monthstr  =  "May"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  5)  {monthstr  =  "June"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  6)  {monthstr  =  "July"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  7)  {monthstr  =  "August"}
  else  if  (monthno ==    {monthstr  =  "September"}
  else  if  (monthno ==  9)  {monthstr  =  "October"}
  else  if  (monthno == 10)  {monthstr  =  "November"}
  else  if  (monthno == 11)  {monthstr  =  "December"}    

  var dtstr  =  daystr + " " + monthstr + " " + yearno
  
  return  dtstr
}

b) In the file you want the date displayed on (I actually add the code to the top of my pages so I can call it once from an included header file. That way, I just call it once and if I need to change anything, it happens in one location only. Code reuse at its best ), paste this code there:

<script type="text/javascript">
<!--
var today = new Date() ;
document.write(myDateFormat(today));
// -->
</script>

Style and/or modify the js code as necessary (for example: "today is <display date>" or whatever)

Finally, visit http://www.geocities.com/myibibio/ (my very first web dev side project) and tell me if it is anything compared to what you have. If you say mine is better than yours (and I do have mine as part of my portfolio), then you need your head examined

If as you have said, this is your first job, I'd say you did a very good job. Kudos!

Last post, it was "Battle". Now it is "Fanboy". Who is a fan and of whom? Do I sense some hidden feelings? LMAO! One thing is for sure though - I sincerely pray I have a reason to keep my mouth shut for real. I am tired of writing CSS conditional statements for IE7.

Oh well, as they say, the proof is in the pudding with respect to IE8, again, regardless of test. I clearly remember the brouhaha over IE7 when it first came out and the frustration I went through at the time in terms of "re-CSSifying" the site for a company i was working for at the time. The site looked good on IE7 beta but was totally jacked up when the official product came out.

I just pray that, whenever it is, the time comes when *all* browsers follow the standards set by the W3C to the Tee (sic)

dude,

whether it is acid test or base test, or whatever comes in b/w on the pH scale , there is no denying that generally speaking, FF is better than IE. If for no other reason, the fact that it has numerous plug-ins that make life easier for a web developer. Heck, it even has a plug-in to enable me run IE from within its shell so that I never have to launch IE itself

Any "battle" you reference is started by you. I was only saying that as FF is better than IE from a web development (and in fact other) standpoint. I, and many others that I know, if it were possible, wouldn't touch IE with a 10-foot pole but only do so as 80% of the internet population use it for browsing. Again, no "battle" intended. Just stating it as it is.

ouch!!

The clube nudismo photo's gotta hurt. I can even feel it myself, even though I am not the one in the photo

emeka,

y not just go for the google search bar? It does all that stuff for you. Many heavily-trafficked sites use it so what makes yours any different?

Just wondering.

baslone:

1) Make sure the pdf file in question is actually loaded on your server and note the path to get there
2) Add this code to your file: <a href="<path to pdf file>/pdf_file.pdf" title="<what the file is>">Click here to download this file (PDF: <file size></a>

Note:
1) The title attribute is optional but a good idea for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes

2) The "(PDF: <file sizes>" is also optional but is a nice idea so pple know how large the file they want to download is, especially for those with slow internet connections

3) You might also want to include a link to adobe's adobe reader download site for those who don't have that installed

4) I would also recommend you add the "target=_blank" to your anchor (a) tag - not doing so will cause the user to leave your page as the pdf loads. This may not be a good idea if you are trying to sell something for instance and the user leaves your site and consequently, may never return. Opening the file in a new window ensures that even if the user wants to close all windows, at least they have that one more chance to look at your site again

I hope these help

THis beta 1 is actually meant for web developers and designers according to Microsoft and it comes with some tool close to firebug. Personally, i'll recommend it because its not to early to start writing HTML+CSS that conforms to web standards.

Though from my experience, IE7 is closer to FF with respect to web standards, let's hope this is the case as IE in general has a way of coming up with IE-specific stuff that makes us web developers always hv to add an "else" statement/css hack in our code

In my opinion though, any self-respecting web developer should use FF for development (due to it's guaranteed support for web standards and many plug-in tools, among others) and then verify that their code works in IE, but that's just me

what is an "official" website anyways?

Whether it is a site that has one page that says, "hello world" or it is a "deadly" website, I would probably move away from frontpage - it is meant for the beginner/someone who just wants to put up a website without having to know all the details. I would personally go for homesite (HS) (which I use) or dreamweaver (DW).

Heck, you could even use notepad (which I have used even recently ). DW and HS, etc are nothing but glorified text editors anyway. Bottomline, use a tool that gives you more control over your code. That way, when something breaks, you aren't left hanging as you would know what is causing the break and most importantly, how to fix it.

I hope this helps.

yeah, let him tell us what he wants although, based on this post where he is asking for a review: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-117749.0.html , I am pretty sure that's what he wants

olumide, nice work.

Question:
I could have sworn what A2J wants is just one month showing up at a time. Yours loops through the entire year, or am I wrong?

I think I like that. How are my supposed to start using it. Is it an application like the common dreamweaver or what?

How? Like you would any other programming language. No big deal. Just make sure your web host supports it as it is a pretty new language and not all web hosts do so.

So, if u can't find any books, make google your friend, ensure your web host supports it and start cranking some good quality code!

Unless you are able to revert back to IE7 or an earlier version, I would personally advise against installing it - I am sure there will be many bugs to fix and you don't want it to overtake your system when what you should really be doing is making sure your code works for IE7/FF2.

Should you play with it? Sure, but on some kind of a test platform (that is, if installing it will override your previous IE installations). Should you rely on it while doing your web development? I would probably hold off on it till it launches officially.

As always, my 2 cents.

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/moneywatch/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=050308&ptitle=IT%20challenges%20to%20e-payment%20system

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/compulife/article02//indexn2_html?pdate=050308&ptitle=Microsoft%20to%20launch%20servers%202008%20in%20Nigeria,%20Ghana

If this is your first, then I must say you have done better than expected, at least from my perspective. You might want to look into the following, moving forward:

1) On contact form, you don't indicate which fields are required (using a red asterisk is common practice). I would also place those 2 closer to each other since they are the only 2 required on your form.

2) Consistency: b/w the home page and contact page, the backgrounds don't match.

3) I assume the calendar is/will be there to indicate what day it is and perhaps what days an event is scheduled. Right now, it is just a bland calender. To avoid reinventing the wheel, i would suggest google calendar which you can customize to meet your needs. In other words, there is no need for a calendar and "latest updates". It should be one or the other.

4) Is this line generated dynamically? <!-- #BeginDate format:Am1 -->March 8, 2008<!-- #EndDate -->
If so, the date is off by a day. You might also want to look into using javascript as that will display the date based on the client's browser as opposed to the server. In other words, if your ISP is in the US, the server's time would be GMT-6 which would display the wrong date for Nigerian visitors.

5) Why is there an L-shaped white line running through the photo of the pastor?

Finally, as a side comment, tell whoever did Faith's site to takeover the church's main site as her site is way better looking.

I hope these help.

one thing is for sure choco - she does mess around A LOT!