Page load time optimizations with page speed
I had a chance to work a bit with a new page speed and JS mimification tool from google and i have to say its really cool.
The tool i am talking about is closure compiler and page speed and you can find it here
Web performance is not all about database calls and PHP speed. Its also about how many elements you have to be downloaded, in what order, how big are they, can they be cached, can they be compressed etc. Page speed helps you to figure out how to speed up the loading time not the html generation time. Pages consist of many js, css files as well as images. Knowing what causes delays is crucial to successful website performance optimization.
Review - JQuery in action
Its a really great Jquery book. I liked a lot the fact the authors simply let you see the power of jquery not getting too deeply into javascript. There is no cross/browser details or low level tricks.On the other side authors dont skip over important details.
Book has a very good structure and consistently presents Jquery API. I thik there is not much more you could expect from the book in that area.
I also loved the fact that they put javascript appendix to describe more complex ideas. It really gives you good review and puts all bits in place.
Review - Head First - Ajax
Well i read this book recently because i loved all the other head first books. Unfortunately i was very disappointed. Book seems to focus on completly unimportant things not trying to explain real concepts behind ajax and modern websites development.
I would definitely not recommend it no matter who you are. It wont be good for css guys nor for beginners nor for business people nor web developers. Its simply a poor book, well or i just did not like it at all.
Final score: 3/10
Another cookie rejection pitfall - problems with null path and domain
There are another two pitfalls easy to stumble upon when it comes to cookies. These are path and domain related issues. Not setting path on your persistent cookies might be frustrating. Read for more details.
How to convert drupal 6 site from postgres to mysql
I have a project that was set up on drupal 6 on postgres database as i always prefered it over Mysql.
I am currently in progress of moving some stuff to dreamhost.com (which RULES!) and i finally have shell access and i can actually do stuff. The only problem is they dont support pgsql at all! LOL! So i have decided that it takes too much effort and time to maintain it.
Here are 3 simple steps to migrate your drupal installation (possibly other apps) from postgres to mysql.
Firebug in IE7 will save a lot of your time
Internet Explorer is often causing issues as there is no effective way of debugging the websites css and javascript. Firebug is one of the best tools i have ever seen as php developer. Now using a simple link you can run it in IE as well!
Testing your website in all possible browsers
The most amazing thing Microsoft has done in years was releasing virtual pc and testing system images for free! Now you can install many operating system on your virtual pc and test the website in all possible browsers!
Top Drupal modules
So for start i would setup Acquia from acquia.com and see their set of modules and their setup. Its a project based on Drupal (led by Drupal initial creator). It uses many of the modules and tries to make the system a bit more user friendly and feature rich.
Then after you get familiar with some of the concepts get the newest drupal release and install modules listed below.
- Administration Menu - nice fast menu at the top of the page
- Google Analytics - flexible way to track activity of your visitors
- Pathauto - generates SEO friendly urls for your pages
- Printer-friendly pages - makes printer friendly versions of your pages as well as easy pdf generation
Drupal 6 with postgres
I really love Postgres and i was always happy with its flexibility, performance and features. So starting work on a new Drupal setup i thought ok, lets take advantage of that great 'database abstraction layer'. I really tried, i fixed bugs in some modules and had high hopes. I hope it will get better in the future but for now i would not recommend it. See more details in the full post.
How to get started with Drupal
A few hints how to get started with Drupal and not get stressed out too much.
Why does Internet Explorer keepon ignoring my cookies ?
There is one very nasty 'feature' of IE6 and IE7 that is very hard to debug and detect. It happened to me so i'm sharing it here to help others. If your IE keeps on rejecting your cookies without any errors nor messages you might want to check this one out!
Open Source CMS systems
I was looking for a good cms system for a long time. And i really could not find one. I was playing with ez publish and joomla and basically i was depressed. I have never seen more confusing and user-unfriendly systems in my life! Especially joomla is a huge surprise. How in the world did it become so popular?
Any way if you are considering a new cms you might find some tips here.
How to allow accepting cookies from different domains
Sometimes you might want to accept cookies as part of a request sent from different domain. Unfortunately for you browsers dont allow for that because of potential security risk. You can find here tips how to let browsers accept your cookies and make tracking images and other things alike work.
Why do i get permission violation exception in javascript in IE ?
If you create a popup window or a frame and domains of parent and child is different. Then javascript wont be allowed to access content of each other. You can find a few words of explanation why cross domain scripting is dangerous and how to deal with appearing errors.
Review - The CSS Anthology 2nd Edition
I read this book a while ago so i cant remember exactly every detail abou it but i remember it was a decent book.
The only problem i had with it that i could not believe that there are no better ways to create all these layouts than incompatibility hack and layouts through margins/paddings etc :- ))
So basically i could not believe that CSS implementations are so CRAP! Even that the CSS as technology has a very good ideas and it makes perfect sense.
You will learn a lot of trick and hacks from this book and also some general rules how does css work.
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