Archive for the ‘Browsers & Hacks’ Category

Window Resize/Mobile Browser Background Bugs

Background Bugs Last week I noticed something very odd on Blue Anvil when resizing the browser window; after some casual browsing I discovered it was not just my site with the problem and that it was quite widespread on many ‘web 2.0′ style sites.

The problem occurs when resizing the browser window; cutting off background images and potentially making text illegible. Worse still, the bug also seems to affect mobile browsers with a zoom function, such as opera mobile.

After some dabbling I found a solution, which I shall explain in this post.

Continue reading Window Resize/Mobile Browser Background Bugs»

Browser testing in Windows Vista – trouble with Internet Explorer

April 25, 2007 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , , , 9

Internet ExplorerAfter my recent ‘upgrade’ to Windows Vista I came across a little snag in regards to site testing; the Internet Explorer standalones I had come to love no longer functioned.

This became a very annoying issue for me, as I frequently require easy access to old Internet explorer versions for site testing/bug fixing. But at last I have found a solution; although its slightly more awkward than a nice standalone version of the browsers.

Continue reading Browser testing in Windows Vista – trouble with Internet Explorer»

Better Browsers on the block

October 21, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , 4

IE7Following the recent release of Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), I thought now would be a good idea to scope the competition, and see what the main browsers have to offer. Will Microsoft dominate the browser market with IE7, or can Mozilla steal the show with firefox 2? Read more to see what I think and what I have found.

Continue reading Better Browsers on the block»

Experiments with floats: whats the best method of clearance?

October 4, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , , 17

Clearing FloatsWhen developing websites there is one thing I have never kept consistent; the method of clearing floats. It seems every project I take, I seem to do it a different way, well Its about time I sorted it all out in my mind.

For those with no clue about what I’m rambling on about, with CSS layouts, when you have a float inside an block-level element, it will collapse in most browsers, since floats have no dimensions. So for instance, if I had a div container with a blue background, and a float inside it, the blue background would not surround the float (and the floats contents), due to the div ignoring the height of the float.

To fix this you need to ‘clear’ the float, so the container recognises the fact the float is there, and adjusts its height accordingly.

There are many methods of doing this, personally in the past Ive used most of them, so in this article I will compare the main ones and rate them in terms of:

  • The extra markup
  • The Amount of CSS
  • Cross Browser compatibility (I’m limited to IE5-7, Opera 9, Firefox)
  • Ease to implement

Continue reading Experiments with floats: whats the best method of clearance?»

How to…use conditional comments

August 5, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , , , 7

Conditional comments have been part of internet explorer since version 5, but a lot of programmers ignore them.

This article teaches the basics of using conditional comments, and shows some examples of their uses.

Continue reading How to…use conditional comments»

My day of buggy hell with IE – a css story

July 30, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , , , 7

As you may well be aware, this has been a pretty hectic week for me, trying to finish all my projects before I leave to go on a well earned holiday.

The main thing on my agenda was the blue anvil redesign I’ve been working on. It all went pretty smoothly, excluding the few set-backs I encountered (see my last blog entry), but all in all it went well and the website was looking fairly nice…in firefox.

Yes, I left the cross browser stuff until last, it would only take an hour or two, right? How wrong was I. This was my day from hell and I have the coffee breath and bad temperament to prove it. With any luck the problems and solutions I used may be
helpful, and save others from a hellish day that I experienced.

Continue reading My day of buggy hell with IE – a css story»

IE7 is coming…

May 17, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks, Personal | Tags: , , 0

IE 7 is on the way, mircrosoft has released a public beta, but is this browser going to be less naff (my opinion) than the current offering?

Continue reading IE7 is coming…»

Cross browser compatibility checking

May 15, 2006 | Published in: Browsers & Hacks | Tags: , , , 4

When creating web sites you should always check it works in the most popular browser, if not you are going to reduce the number of poeple visiting your site.

Continue reading Cross browser compatibility checking»

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      • Switched: From Shared to VPS

        It’s been about two weeks now since I made the transition from a shared reseller hosting account to a VPS (Virtual Private Server) account – impressions so far, excellent performance but fiddly to configure.

        The reason I wanted to change from shared hosting was the fact the server was always being hacked (even though ALL my scripts were secure), there was frequent downtime, support blamed me for problems every time, and it was slow as hell.

        Those used to a shared hosting environment would probably not know where to start when faced with configuring a VPS. Luckily, a lot of it was pre-configured when I received my account – certainly some of the major security holes were patched. I was not satisfied with those however. As a victim of hacking in the past (previous host swears it was not there fault, something I don’t believe) I took extra care to secure it as a much I could – configuring brute force detection, the firewall, installing mod security (excellent rules for that here: http://www.atomicorp.com/wiki/index.php/Atomic_ModSecurity_Rules) and going though multiple guides (like this one: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=468168) with a fine-tooth comb.

        The result? My pages are loading at least 6 times faster, I have had no down time (or at least have not noticed any), and I feel in control and happy. No longer am I at the mercy of shared hosts :)

        If your interested, I chose ServInt as my provider as they offered a great deal, as well as being a managed service (so I’m not on my own if I screw things up). I was tempted by the bells and whistles of Media Temple, but felt the ServInt service was better value.

      • Download Monitor 3.2.2 Maintenance Release

        Download Monitor has received some more love and has been updated. Here’s the change log from the new version:

        • Small bugfix in uploader.php – cat ID
        • Changed stats graph calculation – thanks lggemini
        • Changes to headers in download.php to avoid caching
        • File Browser fixes – $root was clashing with something….
        • exclude_cat works in all sections of download_page now
        • Removed hardcoding of /uploads/
        • Added action to download.php – should be able to use it to stop a download if you want – maybe limiting downloads per day or something? Whatever you want…
        • Made it so if you post new file on ‘edit’ screen, the post date is updated.
        • Fixed the ‘blank meta’ section which blanks out custom field values when nothing is set.
        • Moved ‘allow_url_fopen’ check.
        • Someone said downloads don’t work with spaces in the name. They do! Wasting my time sonny…
        • All work and no play make jolley a dull boy
        • Had to rename capabilities so they work. Apologies if you have to set this up again! Cheers to Mark Dingemanse.
        • {category_ID} custom format tag added. Useful if you want to send someone to its category on the DL page I guess. Also added {category_other} so when no category is set “other” is shown – this is because the download page can show an ‘other’ section if you want it to.
        • You can now manually edit the post date on the edit download screen.

        If you have edited capabilities for download monitor user permissions, you’ll have to again sorry! This is because I named them too long. Also, you should check your forced downloads still work because there was a logic error meaning they may not have been forced after-all…

        Enjoy.

      • Mahousive update to Download Monitor (3.2)

        Today I completed the update for the Wordpress Download Monitor Plugin – many tweaks, fixes, and features added. There were no changes to the database structure so people upgrading should be fine. Here is the list from the change log:

        • {user} tag added for custom formats
        • ‘autop’ option fix
        • Download page buttons applied with CSS so they are easier to customise/translate.
        • Fix for pagination bug after editing a download
        • Category output fix on edit downloads screen
        • Category urls on download page use ID rather than name to prevent errors when cats have the same names.
        • exclude_cat added to download_page shortcode
        • Localised ‘hits’ ‘date’ ‘title’ on download page
        • Option to disable the download logging
        • Read file ‘chunked’ some people found large files were corrupted so this should help (fingers crossed)
        • Added show_tags option to download page – displays x amount of tags on the download page.
        • File Browser root setting and download.php logic/mime types modified thanks to Jim Isaacs (jidd.jimisaacs.com)
        • Interface Improvements
        • Bulk edit categories, custom fields, tags, member only downloads
        • Added roles for download monitor admin – should be able to use with a role manager plugin if you want anyone other than admin to access the admin section e.g. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/capsman/
        • Change redirect after add
        • Edit Cat names/parents
        • Dedicated tags and thumbnails fields (they still use meta table though)

        And yes, those category link bugs are fixed at long last, and you can edit category names finally. Phew!

      • Wordpress Spam Stopper Plugin Updated

        Spam stopper has been updated to v3.1 – and most of it has been recoded. Here’s the full list of changes:

        • Added changelog to readme.
        • Email validation bug squashed
        • Cached comments now work; if user forgets to fill in antispam or makes a mistake (and the JS does not catch it) the users comment will not be lost.
        • Redone entire code to make it more efficient
        • Admin section added for changing the antispam question
        • Form ID and honeypot trap added to form
        • Fully localized

        You can get the plugin from wordpress.org: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/spam-stopper/

        For support, please keep my comments clean and post on either the wordpress forums or my forum.

        To help support spam-stopper you can make a donation (buy me a coffee, or several) or rate it on wordpress.org. Thanks!