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CSS abstraction made simple with PHP
CSS abstraction is a big deal with some frameworks, notably with Ruby on Rails. Basically, it enables you to define variables in your CSS. This is something that should be built-in anyway. I recently read a really nice article about why CSS abstraction matters, you can have a look here.
Now doing CSS abstraction with PHP is in fact simple. Change your stylesheet link to ’style.php’ and in your stylesheet add your php header: header(“Content-type: text/css”);
A typical example would look like this:
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<?php
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header("Content-type: text/css");
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$siteBg= '#fff';
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$textColor= '#333';
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?>
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body {
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background:<?=$siteBg?>;
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color:<?=$textColor?>;
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}
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h1, h2, h3, h4 {
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color:<?=$textColor?>;
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}
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blockquote {
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color:<?=$textColor?>;
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}
I am currently working on a little bit more complex abstraction that would include, for example, the CSS3 rounded corner. Calling…
25
Friday video: Windows 7 hmm…. .. party
I am not really sure what the marketing department was thinking when they got these videos idea. It did not turn well.
This is weird
This is really weird 
23
Use Chrome in IE6, new web technologies directly into Internet Explorer
Google launched a rather interesting plug-in for Internet Explorer. This plug-in give you access to the Chrome engine inside IE. Which means, for example, that you could use a canvas tag and get it to render in IE natively. The plug-in will detect HTML5 technologies automatically and launch the Chrome frame application. So your “IE6 only” web applications should work, and you could have all the new cool HTML5 technologies at the same time.
It is a rather big kick in the butt to Microsoft.
Fun stuff. More information here.
23
WebGL is in the nightly build of Firefox and Safari
Some cool 3d demos have recently surfaced with the new addition of webGL to Firefox and Safari. WebGL means native accelerated 3d rendering, which probably means we could see some cool 3d games directly in the browser. I am rather curious of the ram consumption of Firefox with intense 3d rendering. At this time I always use between 300 and 400mb of ram!
What about a spore creature model demo to create some hype 
More information here.
18
Best front-end workflow within a production team
Optimizing front-end teams’ workflow is hard, there is always something that comes in the way, but it is important to at least try to optimize the front-end work. It could save your team considerable time over a project. Front-enders could work more efficiently together and within the production team.
Let’s take a look at front-enders’ typical relationship within a production team: (take it lightly)
First, you got designers that, generally, do not really like front-end developers because they do not render exactly there graphic design, and you got front-enders that “hate” designers because they are doing complicated design, costing too much money and time to render to HTML.
Back-end developers also have a general tendency to be a bit careless with HTML, which, not visible at first…
18
Friday video: State of jQuery 09
Okay, I know, this is a slide not a video, bit it is still interesting!
A quick overview of the past year of jQuery and a look towards the upcoming year.
17
Doloto, Microsoft optimises your javascript
Microsoft recently released Doloto, a tool that splits your code and load it when necessary. It unfortunately only runs on the .NET Framework 3.5. Which means I will probably never try this tool as I hate the .net web framework.But it looks good on paper.
“Doloto is an Ajax application optimization tool, especially useful for large and complex Web 2.0 applications that contain a lot of code, such as Bing Maps, Hotmail, etc. Doloto analyzes AJAX application workloads and automatically performs code splitting of existing large Web 2.0 applications. After being processed by Doloto, an application will initially transfer only the portion of code necessary for application initialization.”
Download it here.
17
Form validation engine 1.4 online
The Position Absolute jQuery form engine validation finally turned 1.4! But what’s new?
Well if you followed the website you certainly know that most of the planned 1.4 features are already online in 1.3.9.6. This version is primary intended to bugfixe incompatibilities with frameworks. With this version, most framework should now work seamlessly with the script. Some framework added [ ] in the html id and name attribute. I fixed it with some scotch tape and regex!
I also upgraded a bit the check box features, you now got a maximum check box and a minimum check box validation, you also get a credit card validation.
You can download it in the project page.
13
Minor update on the site
As you can see, 2 new sections appeared this weekend, in our projects, you will find every plug-ins created in-house. Some of you guys are coming especially for this, so I wanted to make it easier.
There is also a new forum! I don’t really think the community around the site is big enough for a forum. However, it will ease the plug-ins support. Having 500 comments on my form validation engine is a bit crazy.
I want to say a BIG thanks to everyone who donated, it really makes a difference, thank you!
The form validation engine version 1.4 with more frameworks support (including Ruby) will be up this week. I also decided what will be coming in 1.5. You will be able to use the engine to…
13
Swell js Part4, more native drag and drop!
Swell added a new video on their blog showing off a drag and drop from browser to spreadsheet. Now that is some interesting stuff!
More information here!
Articles
Some Tweets
- browseemall a nice solution for cross-browser testing http://t.co/b9ijFDqp
- Backbone.js 0.9 is kind of a nightmare for me, I see nothing in the changelog that should break my code but, lot of stuff are broken
- jQuery Mobile and backbone.js, the ugly http://t.co/Vi0UJlxe
- Instapaper Founder Marco Arment On The App Business http://t.co/HjiSYwjO
- CSS bug on ie8, only on windows xp, yay me, testing on a decade years old OS
- jQuery Mobile and backbone.js, the ugly http://t.co/Vi0UJlxe
