Best of the Web – May
It’s time for a web roundup from the best of May and a bit of June. These posts take me so long to write, because inevitably I get sidetracked into reading all sorts of fascinating articles and sites. So make sure you’ve got a good amount of time free today, because we have some major linkage for you!
HTML + CSS
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Introduction to CSS3
This huge series of 6 posts will give you a complete introduction to CSS3 including some of the awesome features like web fonts and columns!
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How to Code HTML Email Newsletters
Last week I sent out a newsletter to launch our new stock audio site, that went out to about 20,000 people. Only after I hit send did I find out that Outlook really didn’t approve of how I’d laid it all out, not to mention gmail and the webmail providers. If you need to send out email, sitepoint’s new guide is definitely worth a read first!
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CSS Decorative Gallery
Nick La showcases some great techniques to produce a series of image galleries using CSS, jQuery and even a bit of sIFR
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Back to Basics: Understanding CSS Positioning
This great 3 part series will have you declared master of positioning in no time at all!
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Easy Vertical Centering
CSS has a tendency of making anything to do with vertical heights needlessly troublesome, but this simple explanation of vertical centring should go some way to clearing up some basics anyhow.
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5 CSS Questions…and Answers
I love Jeff’s question/answer format, and this post answers some really common issues that CSS designers run into.
Javascript & JS Libraries
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1kb Horizontal Javascript Accordion
I found this link via our NETTUTS user link feed, and was really impressed. It’s a simple, versatile little accordion effect that would work well on any site. And while you’re over at Leigeber check out their huge array of other awesome components.
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Exceptional Ajax Javascript Techniques
Noupe continues to roundup the best resources (including a few links to us!) and this post rounds up some 30 odd cool tutorials and techniques.
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5 jQuery Questions & Answers
Jeff from DetachedDesigns has been posting some great articles on jQuery and web design, this one answers a few solid basics in jQuery.
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ScreenCast – Intro to jQuery
Can’t be bothered with all this Reading business? Don’t worry about it, because Chris’s latest screencast will give you the intro you need without all the.. erm words.
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9 Open Source Fisheye Menus
You might be wondering wtf is a fisheye menu, click the link and you’ll find out! Along with 9 links to great open source demos. And we have an NETTUTS tutorial coming on creating one of these little guys, so stay tuned.
Flash!
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Using Flash and Staying Standards Compliant
When you’re developing with Flash, it’s always good to finish it off by keeping your html container standards compliant, look out for searchability and work on usability issues. Over at CSS Tricks there’s a neat article explaining the first of those three. I’ll keep an eye out for tutorials on the other two!
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Advanced Animation with Drawing API
They say code is art, so why not draw with it? A nice tutorial on using the drawing API with AS3.
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Opening a URL in Actionscript 3 Dynamically
Plunge into AS3 with ScriptPlayground who have a bunch of great tutorials on various actionscript techniques. Also worth a look is how to display Digg posts using AS3
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Create an Amazing Flash Widget for Your Blog
Abduzeedo’s Fabio writes up a tutorial on making an RSS widget for your blog.
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The Ultimate Dynamic Image Gallery
This has to be one of the longest Flash tutorials I’ve ever seen, spanning some 12 pages, but it sure looks worth it!
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FlashDen’s Top 50 Files
If you’ve never visited our sister site – FlashDen’s top sellers list, it’s worth a look, some of these components are really pretty amazing.
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FLATUTS – Coming Soon!
OK so this isn’t really a link, but I thought I would mention that a few days ago I managed to secure the domain FLATUTS.com and if you’re into Flash, you’ll be pleased to hear we’re starting to find tutorial writers. I’ll post more details soon.
Developer Links
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SimplePie
Need to process some RSS? Well SimplePie’s super easy to use, really well documented, and frankly has a great looking website! Perfect for crafting that new PopUrls clone you always wanted to make.
And while you’re at it, check out this neat use of SimplePie to Create a Slick iPhone/Mobile Interface from Any RSS Feed
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Iceberg
Iceberg which launched really, really recently (today I think actually) is a web application that lets “anyone” build web applications. Sound like a big claim? It sure is, but seems to be getting some good press.
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7 Applications to Make Working with MySQL Databases Easier
I’ve always just used phpMyAdmin, but it seems there are a bunch of neat solutions for managing your database, and SixRevisions have rounded them up for you.
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A PHP Guy’s Look at Python
With Google’s App Engine only using Python, all of a sudden you might be wondering whether it’s worth a look in. This Sitepoint article is a great intro for all of us PHP’ers
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15 Places to Find Great Screencasts
RWW rounds up a bunch of great sites to learn by watching, including favourites like Peepcode and lots I’d never heard of.
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Need a Good Coding Font?
Looking for a nice font to code in? Envry Code R was released a couple of weeks ago and is worth a look.
Content Management Systems
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SilverStripe
I came across SilverStripe recently and though I haven’t had a chance to try it out, it looks really promising. Hopefully we’ll see an SS tutorial here soon!
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Need a Forum? 8 Popular Open Source Forums
WebTecker rounds up the best of the open source forums out there, I’ve only ever used Vanilla and PHPBB. If you haven’t tried PHPBB v3, you really should, even just the install process is awesome!
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Mastering your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques
A fantastic resource for any wordpress themer with not only lots of content, but a huge number of links off to even more great articles!
Miscellanea
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DevKick
A great new resource site that catalogs and collects components and resources, including a heck of a lot of jQuery stuff!
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8 Fonts You Probably Don’t Use in CSS But Should
If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for new ideas for your web designs, and using some of these not-so-standard fonts might just be one. I must admit I didn’t know Gill Sans was so common on Macs!
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The Rise of Contextual User Interfaces
An interesting article over at RWW about interfaces that change in context with the content, how they’ve been cropping up more and more and what relevance they have to web designers.
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Haulin’ Ass with Dreamweaver – 10 Site Management Tools
Though Dreamweaver doesn’t always have a lot of cred, it does have some pretty powerful tools. I know I always use it for it’s awesome find+replace tool. And this article takes you a through key features that you might not be making full use of.
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The Next-Gen Web: HTML5 – Will We Ever See A Real Standard?
A fascinating look at where the web has been and where it’s heading over at TechCrunch.
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Why We Skip Photoshop | Why We Don’t Skip Photoshop
The guys at 37Signals have always been pretty opinionated, a few days ago they posted about why Photoshop isn’t part of their process. Jeff Croft at BlueFlavor answered with a rebuttal, and both articles make for good reading…
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6 Ways to Subliminally Tell Users Don’t Come Back
An amusingly true look at some mistakes to avoid.
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Wow, We made it to the list. There are a bunch of articles I had not heard of. Thanks for the mention ;)
Thanks for sharing these awesome resources. Can’t wait until FLATuts.com is open!
This is quite a valuable contribution. Thanks for all of time and effort finding the links.
nice list :D
Wow .. A new TUT site.. Looking forward for the the new member.. !
Nice collection. Thanks..
Thanks for the links. Looking forward for the Flash Tutorials.
Oh, great, FLATUTS.com!
I’d like an AITUTS.com too…
Collis,
This was a great round-up, you got a bunch of stories that I haven’t read yet, and I thought I read them all this May!
Wow, another nice list. This one will take me a while. I’m really looking forward to the new Flash site!
Can’t wait for FLATuts!!!
Thank you for the mention!
Nice roundup, thanks :)
I spent a few hours this morning reading through a number of these links. Thank you very much for the time and effort spent gathering them! Through reading the entry I noticed a little textual error. The “7 Applications to Make Working with MySQL Databases Easier” link says “Visit Iceburg” which is featured directly above it. Just thought I’d point it out… :)
Thanks Erik! Fixed that now, must have been a bit weary near the end not to have noticed that :-)
some good links, i check a lot of them! thx!!
SilverStrip is something I want to know more about.
I’ve got to say the install we tried a few months ago was far more problematic than it should have been.
Version 2.2 was released in May and I’m going to give it another shot.
very nice roundup ! thanks a lot Collis!
Damn do I have regrets opening this feed in my browser! That’s just to much for my friday evening!!! :P
Thx for the good Post!! Interesting links.
I’m honored to be on the list twice. Thanks! Great resource.
But you are a benefactor!
Thank you very much
FLATUTS! YAY! I can’t wait. Beginners guide to AS, especially AS3, please. :D
oh…wait…is it too early to be requesting tuts? :) just wondering.
FLATUTS! :O Omg! :D I seriously cant wait!!!
I’d come to expect these sort of articles from Smashing Magazine but seeing this over here and finding stuff that focusses not only on design but functionality and honest to god *useful* tuts…amazing work guys.
Wow great article!
nice to hear that there is going to be a new tuts site!
like Markus sed cant wait!
I love this site!
And FLATUTS?! Yes!
Great list. I can’t wait for Flatuts
Great list!
Nice resources, thanks.
WooHoo! Vectuts and FlaTuts? Overworked much? :P
Wow, my mind is now totally blown. I’m going to be coming back to this list quite a bit I think… THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for this amazing collection of resources. Several of the listed articles cover topics I have scoured Google over and over again for, trying to find answers. In this single post you managed to find exactly what I have been long looking for! I can’t wait for Flatuts to open–I’ve been eager to experiment with Flash for some time now, and I’m sure the articles on that site will be just as well-written, easy-to-follow, and helpful as all the tutorials on this site and PSDTuts are. :)
Keep up the great work!
Ahhh! More flash tuts teasing! *rubs hands together in excitement and anticipation*
Another great best of, thanks.
I think i just Jizz’d my pants….
biiig toss up…
follow links or watch sydney snap west coast in the AFL
Some really great articles linked to here Collis!
I just read the anti-photoshop one at 37-signals – I don’t entirely agree with all their points but it was definitely a good read!
Thanks! :)
Thanks for taking the time to find these useful resources! :)
Oh my gosh, I’m just going through designshack right now and I had no idea you could do some of these things! Wow, I though I knew everything about CSS.
Thanks!
These tutorials are AWESOME!
David Carreira
Varied list of links, and some of them will prove very useful.
So – thanks for posting Collis.
Ahhh finally flat uts!!! :)
Seriously guys thats great news – know it’ll be as good as the rest. Vectuts will be a great idea too.
wow, FLATUTS. Can’t wait to see that coming
Nice links. Keep up the good work
Realli Useful Tutorials!! can’t wait to reach next month =)
Honestly This is the best… Best Of that you guys have ever had The CSS3 Font part is my favorite one of all..
Keep up the good tuts!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great stuff, as always!
Great!!! FLATUTS.com :)
NETTUTS is not good looking. It should be the color flatuts is going to be.
Very very useful!, Thanks
Been reading through some of DEVkick’s articles – some really interesting stuff there!
Why don’t you call it FLASHTUTS it would make it lot more clearer what the site’s about.