SteveClason.com

HTML5 Audio

Steve Clason — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:54:31 +0000

Yesterday a friend ran into a problem with a WordPress audio plugin — it acted as if there was an undocumented constraint on uploaded file size — and we were both surprised to see that the plugin played the audio file by embedding it in a Flash movie. He was trying to help someone else so it turned out we really couldn’t do much about the problem but it started me thinking that I should look into the state of things with respect to HTML5 uptake and Web-audio.

So what shows up in my feed reader this morning but “HTML5 Audio — The State of Play” from html5 Doctor, explaining not only the current state of things but also linking to a 2009 article covering the basics of HTML5 audio. With code!

The WordPress Economy

Steve Clason — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:42:57 +0000

Smashing magazine has a long and well-researched article on “the WordPress economy”, which I am tickled to be a part of. The article claims 14% of the Internet “runs WordPress” — I can’t imagine how you would come up with that number but let’s agree that it’s a popular platform.

The article is here, and worth a read, especially for developers but also for users.

Passing parameters to a function called with setTimeout

Steve Clason — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:30:26 +0000

I struggled with this JavaScript problem for a long time until I stumbled on this blog post. Then the solution became so obvious I drooled. Really. Read the original.

Upgrading To Joomla! 2.5

Steve Clason — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:32:17 +0000

I just upgraded three sites to Joomla! 2.51 using the instructions here. Things went well, but not perfectly. In all cases I had to click “Find Updates” after clicking “Purge Cache”, in one case I had to reload the install page before I could see any results. It sure could have been a lot worse.

A Handy WordPress Function: body-class()

Steve Clason — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:05:18 +0000

This feature has been in WordPress since version 2.8 and we’re at 3.31 now, so this won’t be news to some, but either I didn’t need it until recently or had found a way to re-invent the feature well-enough for my purposes, so it’s new to me and valuable enough to deserve comment.

Simple code, just a PHP function inside the HTML body tag, deploys the feature in a WordPress template:

>

The variable $class is an optional space-separated list or array of class names that will be applied as attributes to the body tag when WordPress renders the template. More usefully, though, the method also echoes some WordPress-generated classes that identify the page being viewed, among other useful things.

There’s a long list of these WordPress-generated class names on the WordPress Codex page, but I’ll just illustrate it via the context in which I put it to use.

While adapting a bare scheme I have to meet a client’s requirements, I used a faux-column technique to house a widget-enabled right-sidebar. The client, though, needed an option to remove that sidebar on some pages with wide content (forms that couldn’t easily be changed), so I made the template option “one-column-page.php” which didn’t invoke the sidebar.

Now, using >, selecting that template causes the class “page-template-one-column-page-php” to be added to the body tag and I can use a style-sheet rule to disable the background-image that defines the faux-column:

#pageWrapper { background-image: url("images/gold_240x10.png"); background-repeat: repeat-y; background-position: right; }
/* Disable faux-column if using one-column-page template. */ body.page-template-one-column-page-php #pageWrapper { background-image: none; }
Had I needed, I could have used the same technique to change the dimensions of page elements to accommodate the additional space created by removing the sidebar. Pretty handy, and that just touches the surface.

Microsoft Pushing Internet Explorer Updates

Steve Clason — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:59:51 +0000

According to an article at Slashgear, Microsoft will begin pushing updates for old versions of Internet Explorer in January, 2012. Although users will be able to prevent, or to roll back, the updates, they will need to take positive action to continue using old versions.

This welcome action — welcomed by every developer I know — won’t cause those versions to disappear, but will make them less popular, and provide a rationale for convincing clients to forgo the time and expense, and downright silliness, of supporting them in their websites.

Secure WordPress

Steve Clason — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:08:07 +0000

Smashing Magazine has a good article (with some good links, as well) on “Securing Your WordPress Website“. It takes some work to recover from a hack (I know) — more than it takes to put some minimal secutrity in place.

Big Change to Google Search

Steve Clason — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:47:06 +0000

In 2010, Google made a huge change to it’s search algorithm (that’s all the behind-the-curtain calculations that go into deciding what results to show for a query string). Yesterday they announced, via a blog post, a tweak to that algorithm which will give preference to more recent results on some kinds of searches–that is, if they determine that a query will benefit from newer sources (say, a search for “Occupy Wall Street”) they will deliver newer results at the expense of relevance.

Google estimates 35% of searches will be affected. That’s a huge number.

Making WordPress Plugins

Steve Clason — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:07:19 +0000

Another good article from Smashing Magazine, this one by Daniel Pataki on creating WordPress plugins. The usual stuff — clearly written, concise instructions for necessary skills.

HTML5 For Journalists?

Steve Clason — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 16:22:51 +0000

This strikes me as a little bizarre. The popular (and excellant) website HTML5 Doctor posted some Frequently Asked Questions in the hope of, they say, providing accurate information about HTML5 for “journalists and analysts”.Does a mark-up format really need a public relations effort?

The basic approach (from the journalist’s perspective) is “What is this thing and why does it matter to my readers?” Telling is the Q/A “Will HTML5 Kill Mobile Apps”, which I believe is the MAIN question business analysts are asking — their answer is that HTML5 is way better than native OS apps because of interoperability.

Obviously there’s some persuasion going on here. I agree with the point of view, but still…