Here it is...my blog finished

[richiebman]

After much tweaking, I've finished my blog. I'm pretty pleased with it, but as it's my first mysql driven blog (well I've only done one other blog and it was static file based) i wouldn't mine some opinions on additional features, letting me know if something doesn't work or doesn't work as it should, or maybe opinions on the design. I'm probably not gonna change the design coz although not original whatsoever, I like it :D.

Anyway, here it is - my blog (http://www.flukedit.com)

Cheers,
R

[Jona]

I like it. As you said, it's not original, but it looks decent. I haven't had time to get technical and dive into your code, but as far as design goes, it's not half-bad. ;)

[KDLA]

This looks very nice. Congratulations on not using one little <table> tag in your coding!

Here are a couple of thoughts though:

- the right-hand column on my screen (800x600 res) is REALLY long. Is it supposed to be that way? It extends a good 12 inches past the last sentence in your "entry" column in the white block area.

- seems like there are a lot of images - have you tested this on any dial-up connections?

- lovin' the squirrel pic.

Good Luck and Great Job!

[richiebman]

Cheers for taking a look guys. And thanks for your responses...make me feel good :D .

KDLA:
I'd not really thought about the number of images. Suppose I take broadband for granted. I did a speed test and it said the home page would take 35 seconds (ish) to load on dial up. Not so good. But what might save me is that, once all the graphics have loaded the first time, they are the main ones used all over the site so I'm thinking they'll just pop straight back out of the browser cache.

At the moment I have the number of entries to be displayed on the home page at 5. Should only take a couple more entries to make the space up.

And the squirrel - I couldn't believe how close it let me get to it. I was literally only a foot away when I took that. Then I breathed and Nutkin legged it :p !

[solafide]

Looks great on dialup!

You have stuff to look at, and I was struck by its beauty as a text-only page! In fact, that top graphic gives a whole different tone to the blog.

The document located at <http://www.flukedit.com/> was checked and found to be valid XHTML 1.0 Strict. This means that the resource in question identified itself as "XHTML 1.0 Strict" and that we successfully performed a formal validation using an SGML or XML Parser (depending on the markup language used).

Congrats!!!!

Billy

[Jona]

You should make your H1 heading available when images are disabled by using the Shea Image Replacement (http://www.mezzoblue.com/tests/revised-image-replacement/) technique. Also when images are disabled, the small "pixel buttons" as they're called (Get Firefox, Browse Happy, etc.) are invisible - you can click them, but you don't know what they are. Text should be available when the images aren't. One more thing - you need either a skip navigation link right before your menu or you need to put your menu code after your content (preferable). Screen-readers (and a lot of other people) will need to listen to the whole sidebar before actually being able to listen to/read your content.

[richiebman]

solafide: Thanks for the dial up test. Something I'm not able to do since I got Broadband. Can't live without Broadband! Cheers for the comment on its view without styles. I have only recently started to use h1,h2,h3 etc and using them really helps break up the page into sections and makes it more readable (without styles)...but then I guess that that is what they were invented for! Should have been using them ages ago :rolleyes: .

Jona: I've implemented the Shea Image Replacement technique and it's quite nifty. I had to add a bit more code to the span with position:absolute;. I added left:0px; for IE as my h1 has text-align:center; inherited from the body and the image I presume incorrectly (it is IE after all) only started on the edge of the 'F' in the title and so there was white space and overlap. I also added top:0px; because in Mozilla 1.4 and Netscape 7.1 the image was pushed down passed the h1 link text making the h1 link text visible. I looked at your blog site in these browsers and it had the same problem. Just to let you know.

I was pleasently surprised that swapping around the content and sidebar markup threw up no rendering problems at all. Phew! And suppose it does make sense to have it that way around. But I also stuck on a tab index to help mouse free visitors. I also forgot about accesskeys but will put them in when I get the time.

Cheers,
R

[Fantatier]

very nice, i realy like it :)

[the tree]

A great design, one lineof code did confuse me though:<input value="Search" id="sidebutton" onmouseover="this.className='blueon'" onmouseout="this.className='blueoff'" >Why didn't you use the hover pseudo class?

[richiebman]

very nice, i realy like it
Cheers Fantatier, much appreciated.

the tree: I put it in coz IE only accepts hover on the <a> tag and even though it is only a minor aesthetic touch I did want it to occur in IE. I know onmouseover/out is frowned upon as selective javascript but the only functionality people without a mouse will lose out on will be the colour change, which is pretty much the same as on <a> links with the hover pseudo class. I'm pretty sure about this but may be wrong.

A great design
But again, :D :D :D

[gumbystation]

I'm a big observer of font...and I LOVE yours. If you were to change any one visual (non-programming) thing, I would say the simplicity of your images. Great ideas that are flowing around in it. Great comment form!! :cool: