A North Wales Web Developer’s Blog

My 15 minutes all thanks to google

It would seem that the local press have taken a liking to the images in my previous post about Google Street View in Llandudno and they have used them, along with a few of my comments on the front page of the local paper. I am also proud to announce that a Llandudno councillor believes Street View to be a good thing and not the evil ‘Big Brother’ phenomenon that a wide range of people seem to be convinced of.

An interesting sidenote to the Google Street View Saga is  what everyone’s favorite Mayor, Mr Boris Johnson, had to say

“…a hugely practical tool if you’re off to an area of the city you’ve never been to before or are on the hunt for a new home…”

It’s actually quite a coincidence that I should make the front page just 3 days after my esteemed colleague was on the radio. Livetech is a famous office!

Google Street View in Llandudno

For a few days now I have noticed a car at the end of our road. It is a black car with an odd contraption on the roof rack. My initial thoughts were it maybe a musicians car and it was just easier leaving their equipment there. The car was duly noted and subsequently ignored.

I got home from work yesterday and my fiancé told me that she’d seen what the contraption was and that it was odd.

“Its got cameras all around the top and it sticks straight up in the air.”

My initial train of thought was, ‘Crap… new style of speed camera… oh well at least it’s highly visable… wait a minute!?’

Could this possibly be the notorious Google Street View car, or one of them? Upon closer inspection I do believe it to be… or at least a similar car doing a similar job for another web based giant. I am now committed to catching it in action and following it down the street to make my mark on the Google Map-everse!

EDIT:This post has sparked media interest!!

One step closer to a Blackberry Storm

Second post in one day, quite impressive, I think you’ll agree.

Yesterday (Sunday) while out buying supplies for my mother’s birthday present, I popped into my local high street mobile (cell) phone shop (store) to enquire about my pending upgrade. Due 12th April. I wanted to know if I would be able to get a Blackberry Storm or not. After a few minutes of:

“I’m sorry Mr. Jackson, but you’re not on our system… oh wait there you are… now Mr Jones you wanted an IPhone…”

I received the wonderful news that I will be able to acquire said phone with my next upgrade.

Why all the excitement?

Well as some will know, I passed my driving test about two months ago. The Blackberry has built in GPS, and, I hear, it’s very good.

I will thoroughly test this new bit of kit when I have it and will do a blog post about it.

Image courtesy of noquarter, thank you, couldn’t find a creative commons blackberry storm.

replace an existing string with a new term in java

Nothing makes a web developer’s life easier than a well maintained and robust CMS, and, as some will know I work on one! Recently, however I have hit certain snags and limitations that any good CMS has. Case in point is a current website that we are developing, which requires a ‘welcome’ page as opposed to a ‘home’ page.

The system we are using is the in-house built minisite system. When a site is added to the system, there are 3 page categories,

• home page
• extra pages
• contact page

The link text for home and contact cannot be changed, extra pages are capable of any string as a link.

I wrote a little bit of javascript to change the text of the home page, as requested by the client.

<script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript">
document.getElementById("left").innerHTML = document.getElementById("left").innerHTML.replace(/Home/,"welcome");
</script>

This code finds the container with the id “left” and then replaces the occurrance of the word Home with welcome.

Now this code is not complete as it will replace every occurance of the word home within the “left” container, but it is pretty handy when dealing within the confines of a CMS.

Quick CSS Tip Vertical Align

For some time I have used the following to centre text vertically in it’s containing div

#cont{
height:30px;
}
#cont p{
padding:5px 0px;
}

This just puts 5 pixels of padding on the top and bottom of the text, which can have varied results as changes in the text and its size can effect where it is positioned. Recently i have been using line-height and it is fantastic. Set the line-height to the height of the container and it will stay in the middle. So you will have:

#cont{
height:30px;
}
#cont p{
line-height:30px;
}

The main drawback is that this only supports single line text but it is very useful for graphical buttons and headers.

Dog Day Afternoon

On Thursday afternoon I arrived home from work and was immediately confronted by the latest addition to the Royal household, in the form of Max, the very loveable, 11 month old, black and white Cocker Spaniel.

For those who don’t know (and it will be most) I haven’t experienced life with a dog for a number of years, and I have to say that I do quite like it. He seems to be constantly happy and more than willing to be fully involved in absolutely everything we do. And I do mean everything, he watches with absolute concentration as I make a cup of coffee. I almost think he is trying to learn the process so he can whip up a cup in the morning.

Anyway I have been asked to post this to keep people informed of how he is doing so expect the odd post here and there. I have introduced a new ‘max’ category to cater for this.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dynamically Highlight Current Page

At work, we are currently developing the minisite cms system. Our main aim at the moment is to create sites that are not bound by the normal rules associated with CMS. One of our ongoing concerns was the inability to dynamically add a class around the current pages nav link.

After a little research I came across a, simply, amazing piece of java script that provides this very function.

<script type="text/javascript">var anchors  = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
var uri = encodeURI(window.location.href).toLowerCase();
for(var i=0, n=anchors.length; i<n; ++i) {
if(uri==encodeURI(anchors[i].href).toLowerCase()) {
anchors[i].className += ” current “;
break;
}
}
</script>
What it basically does is take the current pages url and search the source code for that same url in an anchor tag. Upon finding the url it sets the class of the anchor to current. You can then style the .current class in your css.

It is more than likely an already well-known and documented solution, but it had the livetech office very excited for a while.

It is useful to point out that it may be worth putting the code after the nav in the (x)html as it may run before the links are rendered.

It’s all very exciting

The script was found here

New Design ~ In Beta

I have successfully uploaded the first of this blogs face-lifts. I say first because I am sure the blog will take on a myriad of identities as it progresses. For now I have settled with the rather cunningly named j_theme. As I update and finalize the theme it will be available as a free download.

I am writing a post on this as I would like everyone to know that there will be glitches and problems with the theme as it is my first. So please don’t hesitate to point problems out to me I am more than willing to accept my mistakes and  would prefer a fully working blog. See picture for a minor issue which will be fixed.

Valentine’s, Weddings and Long Journeys

Yesterday was Valentine’s day, famous for roses, massacres and Hallmark an important day for anyone in a relationship! This year, for me, Valentine’s day was different as it was the day that my sister ceased being a Jackson, pledged her vows and became Mrs Adam Ames. As my close friends and family will know my fiancé and I have decided to be wed on 12th Sept of this year, and yesterday helped to build the, already monumental, excitement for our day.

I have to be honest and say that I always saw proposals and marriages on this, most plastic of days as a little tacky and contra-romantic but now I see that this is simply not true. I proposed to Lily on Christmas Day and would have been quite happy to have given her the ring on the 14th of February.

I suppose the main point of this post is to congratulate my wonderful sister and her brilliant new husband and wish them an eternity of happiness.

I passed my driving test just under four weeks ago and Friday marked a great event in my driving career. The journey from Llandudno to Telford is roughly around 100 miles, this beeing the furthes I have driven in one sitting. Without a satnav and armed with a page from a 2008, Countdown, desk calendar complete with cruedly written directions, Lily and I only added two minutes onto the journey through one missed turn.

Overall it was a very successful weekend.

Hello world! ~ First Post

I have just set up wordpress on my domain name. The purpose of this blog, really, is to tell people about Llandudno, North Wales, My Life, My Job and to maybe pass on a bit of knowledge that I have learned.

As I have rushed to get the blog up, at the moment I am working on a custom theme. Thankfully I have found this excellent theme and am happy to start the blog with the current look.

Recent Posts

• My 15 minutes all thanks to google
• Google Street View in Llandudno
• One step closer to a Blackberry Storm

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