Generate a country drop down using PHPThe most time consuming part of creating a country drop down is the data. Here you can find the data for all countries—including their codes (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2)—in a PHP array. That way you can output it however you like.
The array is associative and has the two digit country code as the index and the country name as the element value.
Country codes are useful as some eCommerce payment gateways require these rather than the full country name. Here’s the array: Read more »
Get plain text intro from HTML using PHPSo you have HTML stored in your database. How do you create a plain text introduction from it? Here’s how.
JQuery: What’s the difference between height, innerHeight and outerHeight?I was surprised to find there is no simple online comparison giving an overview of the difference between JQuery’s height, innerHeight and outerHeight. It’s really quite simple and is down to whether the calculation factors in padding, border and margin.
Here’s the summary:
| padding | border | margin | |
height |
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innerHeight |
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outerHeight |
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outerHeight(true) |
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Can you upload video to your website?Some years ago it seemed that YouTube was the only major player in the world of online video. Thanks to its success and popularity, other sites followed suit making the Internet awash with video content. Because of this, I’m often asked, “can you upload video to your website?”
To answer that question it is necessary to give an overview as to how video works online. Without wanting to get too technical here’s a very brief summary of how it works. Read more »
Simple JQuery Sliding FAQsThis is a really, really simple JQuery script to allow you to have sliding FAQs on your website. This is a great approach if you have loads of content on the page as the visitor only views one answer at a time.
And here’s the source code: Read more »
JQuery Vertical Align FunctionGetting content to align vertically can be a problem in HTML (without using tables). Here’s a nice method that uses JQuery; all you need to do is add a class name to your element and the script does the rest. This doesn’t rely on display: inline-block or display: table-cell so works great across all browsers.
For the impatient, here’s the complete code: Read more »
Who is responsible for the text on your website?I heard the expression the other day that “a camel is a horse designed by committee”. It’s true that when too many people are involved (“too many cooks spoil the broth”—another adage!) and too many viewpoints are shared, a group project can have unexpected results.
A website is no different. There are often at least two parties involved: the web person and the client. Usually though, and even on small projects, more people are involved.
As with other areas of a website, opinions can vary. When it comes to the matter of writing content for your website, who should have the final say? Here I outline some advice that can save horse.com becoming camel.co.uk. Read more »
Things to consider when creating a HTML newsletterFor various reasons HTML newsletters are much more limited than normal web pages. To prevent these limitations from getting in the way of your messages here are some things to consider when creating a HTML newsletter.
To display in most email programs your newsletter should not exceed 600 pixels in width. You can afford to go a little wider if you want but 600 pixels is optimal.
A lot of people block images by default so your newsletter should be legible without images. Read more »
The dangers of cheap web hostingFew things have such a great potential to ruin your online business than your web hosting. Most website owners have at some point had to go through the stress of their website going down. As to how easy or difficult it is to reinstate your website depends largely on your hosting company. There are literally thousand of web companies out there and they vary greatly in price. Some prefer to go with cheaper companies to save a few pounds a year but in this blog post I argue the case for pushing the boat out a little as spending a bit extra can save you a lot of headaches.
So, what are the dangers of cheap web hosting? Read more »
What’s the difference between a Windows and a Linux website?When potential clients approach me asking me to take over their new website, there might be a number of reasons why I say no—but one of the main reasons I’ll turn a job down early on in the discussion is because the site runs on a Windows server. This might seem like a small point to the client but to me, and any other developer, it’s a big issue. Here I outline the difference between a Windows and a Linux website. Read more »
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I have clients all over the world and the UK but I primarily work around the Leeds area:
Adel, Alwoodley, Bramhope, Calverley, Farsley, Guiseley, Harrogate, Headingley, Horsforth, Otley, Pudsey, Rawdon, Ripon, Rodley, Yeadon
