Spring Manor Bed & Breakfast

Spring Manor has now been launched just in time for the new year. We focused mainly on a clean, fresh design including interactive virtual tours and a pure CSS layout. Check it out!.

Today what we are going to do is use the same idea but create two separate themes and dynamically switch to each one. This is similar to Marius Roosendal’s theme switcher. If you look in the source code of our demo you will notice the small amount of code it took us to switch our themes. Most of this can be looked up in the jQuery documentation.

Have a look at the demonstration

So, today we are going to do something basic, yet effective for any website. With just a small snippet of code and some click events we will change our background on the fly. Yeah I know what you are thinking, you can do this easily with Javascript as a stand-alone. However we will add some effects and show some different ways to implement the background-switch concept onto your site.

With what jQuery and jQuery UI (for effects) can accomplish in a small amount of code it would take twice as much or maybe more using bare-bones Javascript. This makes a difference when you have 4-5 Javascript files firing up on page load calling functions left right and center.

Have a look at our demonstration page to see our code in action

Next How-To we will cover how to make seperate CSS Theme files and swap them on the fly!

We intend to expand on our current optimized layout to provide new and existing clients quick access to information about who we are and what we do. Don’t forget to check us out on your iPhone while your mobile. Just don’t drive while browsing us ok?.

With the let downs of IE7 obeying proper Web Standards I wouldn’t hold my breath on the new Internet Explorer being any better.

“IE8 has been significantly enhanced, and was designed with great support for current Internet standards. This is evidenced by the fact that even in its first beta, IE8 correctly renders the popular test known as ‘Acid2,’ which was created by the Web community to promote real-world interoperability,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect (March 08 Press Release).

Features

• Accelerators - “In the past, you would need to copy the address from the webpage,
  navigate to another the webpage for a mapping service, and paste in the
  address. With the “Map with Live Maps” Accelerator in Internet Explorer
  8, you can get an in-place view of a map displayed directly on the page.”
• Increased Performance
• Enhanced Navigation
• Web Slices - “Using Web Slices, you can keep up with frequently updated sites
  directly from the Favorites Bar. If a Web Slice is available on a page,
  a green Web Slices icon will appear in the upper-right hand corner of
  the browser. You can then easily subscribe and add them to the
  Favorites Bar or delete Web Slices that are no longer desired.”
• Higher Security
• Automatic Crash Recovery

For more information and to download the new Internet Explorer 8: Beta visit the Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Official webpage

How can this affect websites though? It does. Using a server security vulnerability and an automated attack toolkit such as “Asprox” (article), hackers can inject malicious code into files throughout the entire server and as well SQL run servers.

These “scripts” can be small pieces of Javascript code inserted into the last or second last line of each document. Commonly found is a script named “fgg.js” which distributes malware to visiting computers. This code is for the most part invisible unless the code is found, most of the time by accident.

How do you remove this code? First what you need is an HTML editor such as Dreamweaver to be able to “Find and Replace” code throughout the entire site.

In Dreamweaver make sure the site you need to get rid of the code in is open in your File window.

• Select “Edit > Find and Replace”
• The select the drop down beside “Find in”.. “Selected Files in Site”
• Insert the whole line including opening and closing Script tags
• Have nothing in the replace window below we aren’t replacing the code with anything.
• Let Dreamweaver do the work and upload the entire site

This is only part of solution. The malicious code was inserted somehow and is best to contact your host about possible vulnerabilities.

What’s new?

The new Firefox is sleek and stylish with a “Platform-Native Look and Feel”. New features include faster performance, Smart Location bar, Full Zoom, Tags in Bookmarks, and higher security then ever before.

There really is no downside to the new Firefox, however the “Platform-Native Look and Feel” theme is a little too busy for me.

Check out more of the new features and download 3.0 now here

The Great Map Debate

Google maps and Yahoo! maps are very close and very similar, even in the way the API documentation is layed out. Most of the time it is purely personal preference in which API you would use in a project. Both have attractive UIs and both share some of the same methods and functions. However it seems that you can do quite a bit more with the Google Maps API then you can with the Yahoo! API as it is more strongly supported by the developer community. For this we will have to score the Google Maps API a +1 just for its flexibility and expandability.

The Yahoo! maps API however is not that far behind. The documentation is easier on the eyes and it seems a hair bit easier for integration into your site. We found that Google’s APIs always struggle in the documentation area because most of the time it gets so darn confusing and you find yourself removing your hair prematurely.

The verdict:

Google APIs 1
Yahoo! APIs 1

The next two apps are hard to compare. Google’s Calendar app has been out quite a bit longer then Yahoo!’s Upcoming app so it hasn’t seen much from the community development side. Also it is hard to compare the two since Google’s Calendar app has quite a different purpose. But, yes.. there is a but. If you need to share particular events and happenings on a site and don’t want to implement a CMS just for that, either of these two apps can do the job.

Google Calendar is great, it really is and we hate to rate it so low but for sharing events it just isn’t practical. The documentation is horrible and hard to understand. Their XML feed for a user just to grab events is hard to parse and in the end you find yourself with too much code and a lot of time developing.

Yahoo! upcoming takes a few minutes to include and by using a good PHP (or other programming language) XML parsing script you can have your RSS XML events feed parsed in no time and displayed on your site. The documentation is simple and straight forward and we haven’t had any issues where we needed to start posting in the API message board asking for help.

The verdict:
Google API 1
Yahoo! API 2

Vince Angeloni
Alienworx Media Solutions

For more information on our Hosting Services please contact us to see how we can help you switch hosts and never look back.

So what’s in style in 2008 for the Web?

Bright, artistic, colourful layouts using smooth font styling and stylish logos. Top horizontal navigation has become the norm these days along with more websites ditching table layouts and sticking to the more modern CSS approach.

Flash seems to be getting pushed further into the shadows as dynamic programming languages like Javascript and web development libraries like jQuery and Ruby on Rails have taken the forefront. These libraries enable the ability for Flash like effects without the need of a third-party application like a Flash Player.

So how can you apply some of these modern ‘Web 2.0’ styles and libraries to your website? Easily, but first I must stress one thing. A logo can make or break a website, it’s true. If your company has been in business since 1943 and still uses the same, old, drab looking logo it is only necessary you get modern and update your style.

The main purpose of the style upgrade is we not only want our website to appeal to an older audience but a younger one as well. Consider this: In 2006 Statistics Canada reported 88.9% of internet users are 18-34 years of age.

Restyle and Modernize your Web Approach

Websites need to be simple and easy to use. An e-commerce application should flow very smoothly without any hiccups. This is where AJAX comes into play. Not only can it send data to the server but it does it in real-time. Meaning, your customer now has the chance to place an order in a matter of seconds without waiting for pages to load, which can take a significant amount of time. Considering your browser must then reload the page all over. This is another reason why applications like Facebook have overthrown most of its competitors. The ease of use factor is a very important one.

More Video then ever before

Video Streaming (e.g. YouTube ) has been a proven marketing tool. Businesses with new products are featuring and showing off their recent developments on popular Video streaming sites because it reaches the customers, and helps them interact and view the product being used. YouTube can reach millions of users within seconds.

How can you use Video Streaming and use it as a tool on your website to promote your business products? Easy. If it is a product that requires real-life user interaction you will need a Video Camera. Once you record a video of your product in action, upload to YouTube and embed the Flash video code onto your site. Now users can see the product in action on your site and millions of potential customers now see it on YouTube.

What about Computer Software and Web Applications? No problem. ScreenCasting allows you to take a video of your Computer’s screen output, meaning you can show how your application works with a step by step instruction. Now you can show off your hot new application to millions of video viewers and have a demonstration on your website.

Where the Web is Going Beyond 2008

It seems every year there are new developments in Web technology that pushes the boundaries on what is possible (We can already order Pizza online! ). New applications can help day to day routines become much easier without the need of a 3rd party Operating System based application. Businesses can interact and market themselves much easier using today’s web technologies but where does it leave us?

With future developments I think it is very possible the Web will be able to perform tasks  that we had never thought it could do. Possibilities like monitoring your home security from a few clicks of a web based interface anywhere in the world, or controlling functions of a piece of electronical equipment in your home while at work. Not really safe or practical but hey, it could work.

Use these technologies within your business to help it grow. Explore the limits of the Web to promote yourself like never before.