HYPERlinks: Monday, Nov 21, 2011
This is the first edition of our new weekly blog series where we’ll share links to Web development and design tools and services, as well as websites we feel are exceptional and/or exemplary. You can expect a fresh batch of links from around the Web each week. Stay tuned!
And let us know if you have Web resources you would like to share with our audience!
Bill Dailey / Project Manager & Programmer
Build your Design and Developer Skills with Treehouse
The always helpful folks over at Think Vitamin recently launched their updated online training program, Treehouse. If you are looking to build your skills in Web design, development, or build applications for Apple iOS devices, this is a great resource to help you keep up.
Keep projects on target using Basecamp — Online Project Management Service
At HyperArts, we use Basecamp to manage all of our projects that are going to take more than a few days. It helps us manage milestones, to do items, project discussion and files (which is great when you really need to find that really important file from 3 months ago).
Integrate your website with Salesforce
http://wiki.developerforce.com/page/Integration
We recently worked on a project where we need to transfer sales-order data created on website into the client’s Salesforce account. We were able to do this using the Salesforce API and some custom PHP code that we created. The above URL has information about creating an integration with Salesforce in a variety of programming languages.
Jason Amor / Facebook Designer & Developer
One-stop shop for tiling website background textures
Here’s a website that we bookmarked with more intensity than usual. It’s your one-stop shop for clean, simple background textures. The best part is that they’re all tile-able and you can even preview what the patterns will look like as a background by using the site’s Preview functionality, which swaps the patterns in place of the site’s current background.
Once you find one you like, just click Download and then load the design into Photoshop, save it as a pattern, and apply it to whatever layer you’d like using Layer Styles.
Test your font kerning abilities with Kern Type
So you fancy yourself to be a typographic wizard? Test your skills as a typesetter by playing Kern Type, a game that scores you based on how well you adjust the space between the letters of various words (kerning). Play this game for a couple hours per day and you’ll develop the necessary eye for making type look great.
Stay connected to Web designers & developers — Forrst
Half the battle in Web design is keeping up with the latest trends and technologies. To help ease this battle, it’s good to get involved with an online community. One of my favorites is Forrst, a network for designers and developers who want to get better at their craft. The user interactions in Forrst are filled with thoughtful criticism, worthwhile links, and constructive discussion.
Daniel Dy-Liacco / Front-end Developer
Georgia and Verdana go pro
http://www.netmagazine.com/news/georgia-and-verdana-go-pro-111567
Georgia and Verdana, traditionally Web-only fonts, get expanded to take on print. I guess this adds legitimacy to IKEA’s switch to Verdana for their brand typeface.
A List Apart’s 2011 Web Design Survey is up
http://surveyapart.polldaddy.com/s/ala2011
It’s the “survey for people who make websites” so if you are one, head on over there.
.net Magazine’s top 25 books for Web designers and developers
http://www.netmagazine.com/features/top-25-books-web-designers-and-developers
A list of essential books recommended by Web industry leaders.
Rachel Tietjen / WordPress Programmer
Peekaboo WordPress Plugin to show/hide content
http://www.farinspace.com/wordpress-peekaboo-plugin/
The WordPress Peeaboo Plugin allows you to show and hide content in the backend editor of WordPress using shortcodes.
Build shortcode for WordPress menus
http://www.cozmoslabs.com/1170-wp_nav_menu-shortcode/
This tutorial shows you how to create a shortcode for any of your WordPress menus so you can add then using the shortcode functionality anywhere on your WordPress site. Use this tool to create dynamic sitemaps.
Guide to using @font-face CSS
http://sixrevisions.com/css/font-face-guide/
This guide will teach you how to implement @font-face with cross-browser compatibility and will also look at a number of the supporting services.
Analisa Svehaug / Social Media & Project Manager
Fun with scrolling
We recently designed and developed a promotional website for Mari Smith’s new book, and Jason got a chance to play with a header that remains stationary when you scroll throughout the site.
I have been inspired by websites that have fun with the scrolling experience. Here are some favorites:
- http://www.slaveryfootprint.org/
- https://www.simple.com/
- http://lostworldsfairs.com/atlantis/
- http://www.campaignmonitor.com/hiring/
Tim Ware / SEO, Web Design & Development
jQuery.popeye: Image enlargement & slideshow script + WordPress Plugin!
I sort of stumbled upon Christoph Schüßler’s jQuery.popeye, an amazing new way of displaying images and clicking to enlarge, integrated with slideshow capabilities, and was blown away.
The WordPress plugin — wp-popeye — is very configurable, with options where and when the navigation appears, how large the enlargements are, and lots more.
Popeye is also available as a stand-alone jQuery script — jQuery.popeye — for use on, say, Facebook tabs or non-WordPress websites. You should definitely check it out…
In the example below, the navigation appears on the right when you mouse over the image. The appearance and location of the navigation are configurable:
- Popeye Documentation
- Get wp-popeye WordPress Plugin
- wp-popeye WordPress plugin documentation
- Get jQuery.popeye jQuery Script
The WordPress plugin is still in beta and Chris seems to be actively improving it all the time. What do you think?
