CSS Blockquote Template

blockquote {
background: #f9f9f9;
border-left: 10px solid #ccc;
margin: 1.5em 10px;
padding: .5em 10px;
quotes: “\201C””\201D””\2018″”\2019”;
}
blockquote:before {
color: #ccc;
content: open-quote;
font-size: 4em;
line-height: .1em;
margin-right: .25em;
vertical-align: -.4em;
}
blockquote p {
display: inline;
}

 

The blockquote displays in standards-compliant browsers with the “big quotes before” effect, and in IE with a thick left border and a light grey background.
Unlike other blockquote techniques, this style does not require a nested block-level element (like p). As such, it turns a paragraph into an inline-styled element to keep the content from dropping below the quote.

CSS Clearfix

.clearfix:after { content: “.”; display: block; clear: both; visibility: hidden; line-height: 0; height: 0; }
.clearfix { display: inline-block; }

html[xmlns] .clearfix { display: block; }
* html .clearfix { height: 1%; }

 

This clearfix code has been around the Web for years circulating amongst savvy web developers. You should apply this class onto a container which holds floating elements. This will ensure any content which comes afterwards will not float but instead be pushed down and cleared.

CSS Resets

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td, article, aside, canvas, details, embed, figure, figcaption, footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, output, ruby, section, summary, time, mark, audio, video {
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 0;
  font-size: 100%;
  font: inherit;
  vertical-align: baseline;
  outline: none;
  -webkit-box-sizing: border-box;
  -moz-box-sizing: border-box;
  box-sizing: border-box;
}
html { height: 101%; }
body { font-size: 62.5%; line-height: 1; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, sans-serif; }
article, aside, details, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, section { display: block; }
ol, ul { list-style: none; }
blockquote, q { quotes: none; }
blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after { content: ''; content: none; }
strong { font-weight: bold; }
table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; }
img { border: 0; max-width: 100%; }
p { font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.0em; color: #333; }

CSS “Stages” : Flash style canvases

I miss working in flash 5. It was a great development environment. It bridged the gap between visual art and code art. Allowed some creative and exciting user interaction. For the next gen it will all be about css and html 5. I am devving some “TimeLines”  , “Movie Clips” and some “Stages” for creating stuff.  Here is the “Stage” template: stage

Here are some prototypes of a “Movie Clip” made from jpg series.  Bubbles

Guie blink

Here is a comparison of image series rendered in flash, and using my “Movie Clip” and “Timeline”  prototypes

Allow user to print the contents of an element

Here is a cross browser solution to allow the user to press a button and print out the contents of an element. Suppose we have a content area with an id of “mycontentarea”, and a button that says “print”. We can attach a handler to the click event and run this code in the function to print out the contents of “mycontentarea”:

[code]
w=window.open();
reportinfo =  document.getElementById(‘mycontentarea’);
w.document.write(reportinfo.innerHTML);
w.document.close();
w.print();
w.close();[/code]

CSS Transforms

The CSS specification for transform allows for some great things. For example i have this image that I created sideways (on purpose lol), but i want to use it in a different instance right side up. with css i can put:
[code language=”css”]
style=’transform: rotate(-90deg);’
[/code]

I will write some more great examples of css transformations soon.

CSS Text Shadows and special effects

There are some great things you can do with the css text- shadow property.

Here is a cool stamped text effect using a background and a text shadow in combination.
Give your background element a grey background color, and give the text a white shadow.

[code language=”css”]
#stampedtext{
display:inline-block;
background-color:grey;
}

#stampedtext h1 {
text-shadow: 0px 1px 1px white;
color: black;
} [/code]

 

stamptedtext

 

Here is a css menu playground with some great css menu ideas: menuandlayout1

Here is css div styling and transformation playground: demo

Automation: open and close a form every year.

As complex paperless forms become full fledged web applications, there is a growing need for automation such as  having a form available to be used from a certain date/time range. For example,  a health insurance sign up that opens on December 1 at 9:00 AM and closes on December 24th at 5:00pm Pacific Time. We want these times to be hard coded for the server, in case the users  are from different time zones, we want everyone to be able to sign up at exactly the same server time, regardless of their location. So if they were from New York, they would be open to sign up at 3pm December 1st, etc….

We need a few variables.
open_date – the date / time that the form will open
close_date – the date / time that the form will close
today_date_server – the current date/time of the servertoday_date_user – the current date/time of the users machine.
user_time_difference – the difference between the users time and the servers time. this could be used to display correct messages about when the user can sign up.

openorclosed – this will be set by the logic then used to display the correct messages and ui views
closedmessage – this will be a spot for the special message that will display to the user when the form is closed.

So now that I have my variables set up, lets put them to use. I will compare the dates and make sure that today is within the form opening range. Then I will set the openorclosed variable to open or closed based on the results. The I will update the ui view according to the openorclosed variable.

Here is the final form opening and closing automation logic in VbScript:

open_date = "9/2/" & year(NOW) & " 09:00 AM"
close_date = "10/14/" & year(NOW) & " 05:00 PM"
today_date_server = NOW()
datediffopen = DateDiff("n",today_date_server, open_date)
datediffclosed = DateDiff("n", today_date_server, close_date)
If datediffopen < 0 and datediffclosed > 0 Then
openorclosed = "open"
Else
openorclosed = "closed"
End If

This will automatically open and close the form to the users every year. Hooray for Automation!

Now I can manipulate the ui view using the variables, so the user will know when the form is open and why its closed.

[code language=”vb”]
If datediffopen > 0 and datediffclosed > 0 Then
‘display message for before the form has opened for the year.
openorclosedmessage=”The nomination form will be open from ” & open_date & ” to ” & close_date & “. Please submit your nominations between this time period for them to be considered.”
ElseIf datediffopen < 0 and datediffclosed < 0  Then
‘display message for after form has closed for the year.
openorclosedmessage=”The nominations were due by ” & close_date & “. The nominations are over for the ” & year(NOW) & ”  year. The nomination form is closed.”
End If[/code]

To display the date and time in a user friendly format –  Tuesday, October 14, 2014 at 5:00:00 PM – use the FormatDateTime function:
[code language=”vb”]FormatDateTime(close_date, 1)  at FormatDateTime(close_date, 3)[/code]

To debug the automation code, use this snippet:

[code language=”vb”]

‘ this message is for de bugging the open / close  automation
closedmessage = closedmessage + “<p class=’redtext boldtext’>Today is ” & today_date_server & “. The form will open on ” & open_date & ” and close on ” & close_date & “. Is today inside the date range?” & isitopenorclose & “. The date dif open is ”  & datediffopen & “. the date diff closed is ” & datediffclosed & “</p>”

[/code]

Now I would like to take this a bit further, by having the form open on the first Monday of January, and close on the last Friday of January. Here is the algorithm I have come up with:

[code]
mydate = “1/1/” & year(NOW) & ” 9:00 AM”
dtmDate = CDate(mydate)
daycounter = 1
Do While daycounter <= 7
‘ response.write(Weekday(dtmDate) & ” is the weekday for  ” & dtmDate & “<br/>”)

If Weekday(dtmDate) = 2 Then
response.write(“<br>The form will open on ” & FormatDateTime(dtmDate, 1))
Exit Do
End If
daycounter = daycounter + 1
dtmDate = dtmDate + 1
Loop

daycounter = 1
Do While daycounter <= 31
‘response.write(“<br />” & Weekday(dtmDate) & ” is the weekday for  ” & dtmDate & “<br/>”)

If Weekday(dtmDate) = 6 Then
thelastfriday=dtmDate
End If
daycounter = daycounter + 1
dtmDate = dtmDate + 1
Loop
response.write(“<br>The form will close on ” & FormatDateTime(thelastfriday, 1))
[/code]

For the year 2014, the result will display:
The form will open on Monday, January 06, 2014
The form will close on Friday, January 31, 2014

Now I can drop this into my forms that will open in the pattern of first Monday, and close on last Friday of January.