Communication Technology: RSS

Confused. I thought embedding RSS feeds would be simple- a case of just getting the code and URL and embedding it into the page. A bit of surface research suggests the process is a lot more complex. I'll seek some assistance from the technicians tomorrow as I'm rather constrained for time right now.

http://www.killertechtips.com/2008/06/09/how-to-embed-an-rss-feed-on-your-website-or-blog/

Communication Technology: Forms

I learnt how to build forms a while back, and I copied this to some success.

Rather annoyingly though, the boxes didn't line up so I had to find out how to align them. The code was rather different and included a bit of CSS so I copied and pasted it, then edited it to produce the submission form on the right.

Communication Technology: Building a Site

The widgets that I created in Flash I've now embedded into a Dreamweaver HTML page.

Essentially, I've modified, albeit substantially, the previous dummy site I used for practice purposes.

The concept of this site is simply to demonstrate all I can do in web.

Communication Technology: Flash Widgets

I was really excited about finally cracking Action Script, so I went straight off and created two widgets demonstrating what I had learnt.

This one has no 'links' as such within it, but all the work is done within buttons. I tried to emulate the style of the BBC's homepage banner, where a rollover results in information appearing. This can only be done in Flash as rollovers in a standard HTML format are fixed- ie the rollover replaces the background. Here, the rollover appears in another area- replacing the image- ie outside the button.

The second image on the right shows the construction of the other widget, where Action Script is much more important. Each button is coded separately using the scenes I learnt about previously. Essentially, it's a mini website within a website.

In both widgets I've used 'unsafe fonts' (ie fonts that are not often found on computers) to demonstrate how Flash can facilitate a wide range of fonts. Attention has also been given to the colour and leading of the text, which would be less possible in an HTML document- or at least not as easily achieved.

Communication Technology: Success!

Finally, with the help of Simon, I managed to get the buttons to work! Frustratingly, I still don't really know what I was doing wrong before as the code is exactly the same... Nevermind however, as at least it now works as it should.

I'm also pleased with my progress in learning Flash interfaces as I managed to create this button quickly and easily this time, remembering all the steps; although I suppose this is half expected considering how long I've spent going round in circles doing the same thing!

Communication Technology: Disqus

I had trouble trying to embed the Disqus code into Dreamweaver initially; not sure quite what happened originally but following the quick tutorial above sorted out the problem. I now have a live comments field embedded into one of the divs on the 'transport' page. Unfortunately you can't test this until the site is uploaded as it draws the information from an online source hosted at Disqus.

Communication Technology: Basic Javascript

With the continuing difficulties in Flash, going round in circles and not getting anywhere there, I decided to look into another area that I need to explore.

After my tutorial with Graham this morning, we discussed about being more proactive. Today I've met up with Natasha who said she'll get back to me regarding her slideshow. In the meantime, I've had a play around with Javascript with a quick introduction by Christian.

Today has been productive in a rather unintended way. Creating the website shown in the image brushed my web skills up, revising Dreamweaver. CS5 is a bit different and took some getting used to, but I managed to remember how to create and use divs, CSS and HTML. Visually the site isn't too bad either; although admittedly there is room for improvement! Of course this is not my primary concern at this stage.

This dummy website allowed me to try out copying and pasting slideshow Javascript codes into Dreamweaver. The key is cheating; the codes are out there, it's just about knowing how/where to insert them.

Some simple Javascript actions are easily created in Dreamweaver though. On the 'economy' page I created a Javascript rollover. Both of the JS things I did today were relatively simple but it gave me a quick crash course intro into Javascript and I feel I've been able to revise the web skills I learnt in 1st year.