Posts filed under 'css'
1. What techniques can a web designer use to optimize and debug Flash created web sites? Feel free to share any other tips that you found during your research that may be of value to creating animated web sites in Flash.
“Trace” statements are likely the most known debugging tool used for actionScript code. You can place a trace statement anywhere you want and have it output just about anything you want also.
trace(”I’m a trace action!”);
myTrace = “I’m the content of a variable”;
trace(myTrace);
You can similarly use a text object you’ve placed directly on the stage to monitor during run time. You’ll only need to set something similar to: debug.text = myStringVariable;
Flash has an integrated debugger that is very powerful. To activate the
debugger, you need to go into Control > Debug Movie. You will see
the usual Test Movie setup but with an additional window aptly titled
‘Debugger’.
If you’re anything like me, you might use adobe’s liveDocs on line. I suppose it’s a debugging tool also. I plug in search criteria based on the error I’ve been delivered or the process I’m trying to complete. I also use forums and threads to help solve problems. I haven’t yet posted anything yet however.
http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles/63/1/Common-Errors-and-Debugging/Page1.html
2. What is accessibility and why is it important? What should a web designer keep in mind when designing a web site to maintain accessibility? How does accessibility effect a web site’s animation?
Accessibility is an approach to web design that aims to ensure the widest access to the content and features of a website. The term is often used to refer to accessibility for people with disabilities, particularly blindness. … www.monash.edu.au/staff/web/glossary.html
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C director and inventor of the World Wide Web, defines it as access by everyone, regardless of disability. Even though the World Wide Web is continuously growing, many users:
• use speech browsers or “eyes busy”/”hands busy”, as businessmen in cars;
• don’t have the latest graphical browsers and plug-ins;
• surf with slow modems, or reside in rural or remote areas with limited access to the Internet;
• browse without graphics, using text-only browsers or subscribe to non-graphic services;
• access in noisy, high- or low-light environments;
There are also many users with disabilities as;
• Visual – blind, low vision, color blind;
• Auditory – deaf, hard of hearing;
• Motor/physical – paraplegic;
• Cognitive/learning – dyslexic, learning disabled.
• They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
• They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
• They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse.
• They may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
• They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
• They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are busy or interfered with (e.g., driving to work, working in a loud environment, etc.).
• They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.
Accessibility increases benefits for both parties: the User and the Web site Provider. It may also persuade developers to take in some alternate considerations. They may be more likely to use stronger contrasting colors or, web safe colors, abstain from flashing screens or quick moving objects and use simpler navigation.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/publicwebsite/public_animatedimages.hcsp
http://www.webnauts.net/accessibility.html
September 20th, 2008
According to the msdn website, “Transitions are time-varying filters that affect how a change of content is displayed.” Basically this means that a transition is the same as other events, but instead of an instantaneous change of state, it happens over a specified period of time. Mostly, we see transitions used during slide shows containing different images. These are usually a wipe, or fades; a screen slide from right to left or left to right or a fade in and out. An interpage transition is a transition that affects the entire window as the window loads and/or unloads. This can be the same type of fade as the slide show.
In my opinion a lot of the web site trends are revolutionary and based on the latest technology. With a new software product and capability, something old becomes new again. The concept of most web sites is “attraction”. The owner of the site wants you to view their site. Transitions may or may not keep our ADD intellects amused long enough to hang out longer than 10 seconds. I think I read the average web page can expect a visitor to make up his mind about leaving the site at about 4 seconds.
What do I think about the growing trend of using transitions? Well, depending on their use, I think there is great potential for transitions. I like to think that transitions can be used for wonderfully interesting visual explanations for complicated or convoluted processes; for example this one showing how our bodies use energy and the resultant free radicals are bounced down the electron transfer chain to O2 in the process of oxidative phosphorylation: http://www.brookscole.com/chemistry_d/templates/student_resources/shared_resources/animations/oxidative/oxidativephosphorylation.html
Transition trends are pretty cool; some are so cool they’ll stick around for over a week. If you only want to show off your new skills and your transition does not enhance or contribute to the value or message of your site (determined by the visitor) then you’re likely to come to your senses or latch on to the next super coolness.
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/does-my-web-site-suck/does-my-web-site-suck-checklist-part-one.html
http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/topic60.htm
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms532847.aspx
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/wacky/transitions/transitions.html
http://www.xeogen.com/
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/animation_guide_13.html
http://tutorials.learnflash.com/tutorials/flash/bettertransitionss.html
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/creating_animation_as3_02.html
The page located here: http://www.jumpeyecomponents.com/Flash-Components/Transition-Effects/MovieClip-Transition-Effects-V3-45/
has a graphic that transitions from one image to the next.
AS 2.0 thread on transitions: http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/190/862393
http://www.robertpenner.com/presentations/rpenner_Animation_Workflows_in_Flash_CS3_FITC_2007.pdf
sliding door transition: http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area=resources&tab=movies&do=page&action=detailed&link_id=598
September 15th, 2008
“Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.” — From Wikipedia
It seems that there are a lot more criticisms of CSS than praises. But, my first positive mention of CSS will be the ease of use for those that may not be super familiar with HTML code. There is also a lot of flexibility for use with content submissions forms. Also CSS may be combined with a content management system. This works well for large-scale sites with many contributors. Another positive, which might be mentioned below as a negative, is the cascading nature of CSS. If your site needs a global change, this can be accomplished quite easily by adjusting a line or two of the CSS document.
There are noted concerns that CSS might not be precise across different browsers and again, there is inconsistent browser support for CSS rendering. Also, an HTML page may need additional tags, like the
tag, for precise placement due to the limitations on vertical placement within CSS. CSS also does not allow multiple background images and only supports one. … Fourth mention might be the lack of variable capability.
I’m not sure if we are expected to list a total of 6 advantages/disadvantages for a personal website, and company website. Regardless, I think that CSS and text configuration, color configuration, page layout, accessibility/usability, and general web standards of use are generally very similar between large and small websites.
Stylesheets describe how documents are presented on our monitors. An external stylesheet may be linked to an HTML document using the
element within the document . CSS documents do not contain HTML tags and consist of style rules and statements.
An external stylesheet is most ideal for use across multiple pages. As mentioned in my topic 2 post, css can reference multiple documents and therefore allow a change in one location to affect an entire website. In addition, most web browsers will cache the CSS and thereby increase subsequent load times.
By attaching CSS to HTML documents, authors and readers can influence the presentation of their documents without concern for the device.
An external stylesheet is a completely separate file of stated declarations to be used throughout your website. Your HTML pages are linked to your CSS. So, one clear advantage of CSS is that it saves us time from the need of retyping the same information over and over again (remembering where to change it all). Another is that pages will load faster with cached CSS (less code). Lastly, much more control over the layout of your web pages; font size, color, placement. This provides you with the same look and feel throughout.
Finding disadvantages of linked CSS is very difficult. But, a disadvantage of linked CSS is that some web browsers don’t support CSS and therefore won’t apply your CSS declarations. This is when you would use an import statement that allows a document to import a stylesheet instead of linking to it. I read on a Yahoo! thread that another disadvantage is the external dependency to an HTML file and the additional server requests. I don’t really agree with that because in the long run, the next run, it will load faster. I suppose if you consider needing to save the web page and you don’t have access to the linked CSS, then your page will not render correctly. (Hey, that makes three!)
June 7th, 2008
