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Web Dev + WordPress + Security

Rethinking Structural Design with New Elements in HTML 5

[ Image: Tyrannosaurus Skull ]

HTML 5, also known as Web Applications 1.0, provides new markup elements that will change the way you design your web pages. The new elements replace commonly used divisions in web documents, facilitating an even greater degree of separation between structure (HTML) and presentation (CSS). Indeed, in many documents, the new elements will structure the document while providing enough hooks to render obsolete previously required divisions, classes, and identifiers. Let’s take a look.. Continue reading »

Essential HTML Entities

[ Image: Two Hip Characters ]

Virtually every article written here at Perishable Press requires at least one or two “special” HTML characters. Some of these characters — such as quotation marks, hyphens, and dashes — are very common, while others — such as the copyright symbol, bullet, and arrow — happen less frequently. The vast majority of special characters, however, like the latin Ä (i.e., capital letter “A” with a diaeresis), and the mathematical symbol ⊃ (i.e., superset), rarely see the light of day on […] Continue reading »

Another Mystery Solved..

Recently, after researching comment links for an upcoming article, I realized that my default <input /> values were being submitted as the URL for all comments left without associated website information. During the most recent site redesign, I made the mistake of doing this in comments.php: … <input class="input" name="url" id="url" value="[website]" onfocus="this.select();" type="text" tabindex="3" size="44" maxlength="133" alt="website" /> … Notice the value="[website]" attribute? It seemed like a good idea at the time — I even threw in a nice […] Continue reading »

WordPress Plugin: Export Blogroll for del.icio.us

[ Image: Export Blogroll Icon ]

Announcing an easy way to export and automatically format your WordPress Blogroll for import into your del.icio.us social bookmarking account! The Export Blogroll plugin for del.icio.us simplifies the process of transferring your WordPress Blogroll to your del.icio.us account. del.icio.us now provides a way to import multiple links with a single file, however the file must emulate a specific (browser bookmark) format. The Export Blogroll plugin automatically formats your exported Blogroll content according to del.icio.us batch-upload specifications, making it super-easy to […] Continue reading »

Bookmark Exodus: Export the WordPress Blogroll and Import to del.icio.us

[ Image: del.icio.us Icon ]

After our recent WordPress-2.1 blogroll debacle, we concluded that the WordPress Links Manager (aka the Blogroll) is no longer a viable, long-term solution for managing bookmark collections containing large numbers of links. A far better solution, in the eyes of many savvy web users, is the free social bookmarking service del.icio.us. Using del.icio.us for over a year now, we have found it to be highly flexible, always reliable, and infinitely extensible. Plus, as a social bookmark service, everyone benefits from […] Continue reading »

WordPress 2.1 Blogroll Nightmare and Lessons Learned

[ Image: WordPress Nightmare ]

Here at Perishable Press, we like to stay current by running the latest version of WordPress. The site launched in 2005 with WordPress 1.5 (Strayhorn), eventually made the jump to version 2.0 (Duke), recently stepped up to 2.0.1 (Still Duke), and currently enjoys 2.0.5 (Ronan). Although each of these upgrades have required various file edits, plugin tweaks, and theme modifications, the process is always educational and remains an important aspect of this site. Much of our content revolves around using […] Continue reading »

The Friendliest Link Targets in the Neighborhood

[ Image: Fred Rogers with Shoe ]

The target attribute for anchor elements (<a></a>) specifies the location in which the referenced document should load. For example, to open a link in a new window, we would use a target value of _blank. Although this is a commonly employed technique, the target attribute has been deprecated by the W3C and is not valid (X)HTML. Regardless, the target element remains a useful tool for practicing designers and developers. Here, we present the attribute values for the target element: Continue reading »

URL Character Codes

URLs frequently employ potentially conflicting characters such as question marks, ampersands, and pound signs. Fortunately, it is possible to encode such characters via their escaped hexadecimal ASCII representations. For example, we would write ? as %3F. Here are a few more URL character codes (case-insensitive), for easy copy/paste reference. Continue reading »

Embed QuickTime Notes Plus

This post contains random notes and code snippets for embedding QuickTime within HTML web pages. Simply copy, paste, and customize according to your needs. Happy embedding! Continue reading »

Feed your Image via Atom or RSS

This quick tutorial explains how to add images to both Atom and RSS feeds. Although both formats allow for image-inclusion, feed-reader support for image-display is currently quite limited in most browsers and applications. Hopefully, that will change in the near future.. Continue reading »

Embed Flash and Video via the object Tag

[ Macromedia Flash ]

Here is a collection of code snippets for embedding Flash and video using the HTML <object></object> tag. Useful for sites showcasing dynamic multimedia content. Continue reading »

Industrial-Strength Spamless Email Links

In our previous article on creating spamless email links via JavaScript, the presented method, although relatively simple to implement, is not the most effective solution available. Spambots, email harvesters, and other online scumbags relentlessly advance their scanning technology, perpetually rendering obsolete yesterday’s methods. Continue reading »

Embed External Content via iframe and div

By using an <iframe></iframe> within a <div></div>, it is possible to include external web content in most any web document. This method serves as an excellent alternative to actual frames, which are not as flexible and definitely not as popular. Indeed, with CSS, the placement, sizing, and styling of div’s provides endless possibilities for embedding external or even internal web content into pages that would otherwise require the use of frames, Flash, or JavaScript. This method works on any modern […] Continue reading »

Auto-Focus Form Elements with JavaScript

After digging through the WordPress source code, I stumbled upon this very useful JavaScript method for auto-focusing form elements upon page load. Here is the JavaScript code (place within the document head): Continue reading »

AddMySite Plugin for WordPress

[ AddMySite ]

The AddMySite (AMS) plugin for WordPress makes it easy for your visitors to add your site and feed to all of their favorite social-bookmarking services. Share instantly with awesome sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Twitter. With a few clicks, users can quickly bookmark or add your site to over 20 popular social bookmarking services. It’s like a dream come true for simple social-media sharing. Simple, fast, and easy :) Continue reading »

Theme Edits for IE7

This post is a working repository of code edits and other changes made to Perishable Press themes in order for them to function properly in Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). If supporting older versions of IE is your thang. Continue reading »

Welcome
Perishable Press is operated by Jeff Starr, a professional web developer and book author with two decades of experience. Here you will find posts about web development, WordPress, security, and more »
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