Dreamweaver Behavior - Javascript At Your Fingertips

Monday, May 05, 2008 | , with 0 comments »

DreamweaverDreamweaver is arguably the best WYSIWYG editor used by most professionals to create web pages. It is undoubtedly one of the most powerful website development software in the present day market. There are plenty of features and extensions that make Dreamweaver one of the most loved editors of all times.

In this post we'd be checking out one of the most interesting, user-friendly and useful feature - Dreamweaver Behavior. So what is this Dreamweaver Behavior? How can we use it? And what can this feature be used for? Well, get ready for some answers...

What Is Dreamweaver Behaviors?
Dreamweaver Behaviors is an integrated feature that allows the software to add scripting events to the elements in the web-pages without much fuss. With the help of this feature, Dreamweaver writes the Javascript and event attributes on it's own. It can be used for creating behaviors such as checking for a specific web browser, play a sound, write a pop-up message, call a custom javascript and much more. Dreamweaver automatically adds a piece of script within the HEAD tag of the page and also places the appropriate browser event attributes in the HTML tag. There are 27 built-in behaviors in Dreamweaver by default, though more can be added through Extensions.

How To Add A Dreamweaver Behavior?
It's quite easy to add Dreamweaver Behavior to web pages. Here's a step by step guide:
  1. Open a new HTML page in Dreamweaver
  2. Open the behaviors pane from either Windows>Behaviors or Shift+F4
  3. Highlight the elements that require some action to be set
  4. Click on the plus icon on the behavior pane on the right
  5. Select the appropriate behavior
  6. Save the page
Well it's that easy. Just make sure you double check the browser event attribute is the appropriate one.

What Are The Built-In Dreamweaver Behaviors?
Well lets see. Some of the most important and often used scripts come as bundle with the tool. A lot of functions and effects can be created with the help of these even without any real knowledge of Javascript. Here's a complete list of behaviors supplied by default along with Dreamweaver and what they are used for:
  • Call JavaScript - This behavior will assign a custom script to the event
  • Change Property - Changes an object's properties such as the background color or the size of an image, form element or layer
  • Check Browser - Allows redirection of any user to a specific Web page based on the browser version
  • Check Plugin - Verify that specific plugins are installed in the browser
  • Control Shockwave or Flash - Set Shockwave or Flash movies to play, stop, rewind, or go to frame
  • Drag Layer - Sets up layers to be draggable
  • Go to URL - Sets a URL for the browser to open, such as to load dynamic frames
  • Hide Pop-up Menu - Hides a pop-up menu created by Dreamweaver
  • Jump Menu - Creates a jump menu - a drop-down menu that jumps to various URLs
  • Jump Menu Go - Adds a go button to the jump menu
  • Open Browser Window - Open a new browser window
  • Play Sound - Play a sound file
  • Popup Message - Displays a JavaScript alert box
  • Preload Images - Preloads images for scripts such as the swap image behavior
  • Set Nav Bar Image - Changes the image in a navigation bar
  • Set Text of Frame - Puts text or HTML into a frame
  • Set Text of Layer - Puts text or HTML into a layer
  • Set Text of Status Bar - Puts text into the browser status bar
  • Set Text of Text Field - Puts text into a form text field
  • Show Pop-up Menu - Displays a Dreamweaver pop-up menu
  • Show-Hide Layers - Shows or hides a layer with the visibility property
  • Swap Image - Swap one image for another, such as a rollover image
  • Swap Image Restore - Restores the previous image swap
  • Go to Timeline Frame - Goes to a specific frame in a timeline
  • Play Timeline - Plays a timeline
  • Stop Timeline - Stops a timeline
  • Validate Form - Checks the data submitted in a form
So that would be all for the day. Hope you young and new designers and developers are going to find it interesting and use it th next time to create wonderful web pages without having the need to learn Javascript.

12 Most Common MySpace Layout Hacks

Saturday, May 03, 2008 | with 0 comments »

MySpaceMySpace had been one of the most popular social networks over a long time. In spite of the growing competition it is facing due to the immense success of other networks like Facebook, Bebo and Orkut, MySpace still remains the "real beast" to be dealt with. One of the most interesting features which I feel has both positively as well as negatively contributed to MySpace is the ease of customization of the profile layouts. It is already known to most of us that MySpace allows it's users to customize their profiles by easily adding in some HTML and CSS codes inside the "about me" box in the "edit profiles" page. This feature has made it possible for us to come across a lot of innovative and nicely designed profiles. One of the finest ones I have come across is the profile of Ecardica.com at MySpace. In order to get such an effect with the profile a lot of default "boxes" in the profile needs to be hidden. Here are the 12 most common hacks that people use in MySpace to hide the default layout and customize their own profile. Just copy the codes given below and paste them in the about me box under the edit profile page.


Hide MySpace URL:


Hide Contact Table:


Hide Extended Network:


Hide About Me:


Hide I'd Like to Meet:


Hide Friends:


Hide Comments:


Hide Detail Section:


Hide Interest Section:


Hide Top Navigation Links:


Hide Bottom Navigation Links:


Hide MP3 Player:


Hope to see some really nice profiles in MySpace soon. Enjoy!

15 Free & Useful J2ME Mobile Applications

Thursday, April 24, 2008 | , with 0 comments »

Java 2 Micro EditionJ2ME or Java 2 Micro Edition is undoubtedly the standard for portable mobile phone applications today. Almost all the newer versions of mobile phones provide support for midlets. Tons of popular games and applications that are used regularly run on the J2ME platform.

In this post you will find the fifteen very useful J2ME applications for mobile phones that according to me are must haves. And the best part is they are free. So just download then to your desktop and install them on your phones. Enjoy!

  1. Gmail Mobile 1.0: Best Gmail email client ever. Download (jar)

  2. Opera Mini 3.0.x: A fast and tiny Web browser and RSS reader, that allows you to access the full Internet on your phone. Download (jar)

  3. Mobile GMaps: Free application that displays Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, Windows Live Local, Ask.com Maps and satellite imagery. Can be used with GPS if your J2ME stack has Bluetooth or GPS hooks. Download

  4. EQO Mobile: Free all-in-one mobile IM with AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, GoogleTalk and Skype on your phone. Registration required. Download

  5. TSMobiles 2.1.4: View and control your XP desktop on your phone. Download jad or jar

  6. MoneyManager 1.4.1: Enables to create a new transaction, specifying amount, category, date and note. Download jad or jar

  7. Abiro Unit Converter 1.22: It allows conversions for: distance, area, volume, weight, speed, temperature, angles, astronomical units, pressure, energy and frequency. Download jad or jar

  8. MobUP 0.5: Flickr uploader. Download jad or jar

  9. MidpSSH 1.4.20: MidpSSH is a free SSH and Telnet client. Download jad or jar

  10. GCalSync 1.1.1: Lets you do a two-way synchronization between Google Calendar and your phone's built-in calendar. Download

  11. MicroSky 3.0.2: Planetarium that displays 2,500,000 stars, 8,000 deep sky objects, the constellations, the planets, local horizon, 1000 current comets, and minor planets. Download

  12. tRSS 1.1.5: An Atom/RSS reader. Download jad or jar

  13. Bluepulse 2.0: Social networking on your phone. Download jad or jar

  14. jmIrc 0.95: Use IRC wirelessly. It's MIDP 1.0 and supports connecting through HTTP proxy server on phones that don't support the Java socket API. Download jad or jar

  15. Bluetooth Messenger 1.2.9: It needs MIDP 2.0 and JSR-82 enabled mobile phones. Allows users to transfer text messages via bluetooth connections in short distances. Download jad or jar

Iminta - New Way Of Sharing What You Are Inta'

Wednesday, April 23, 2008 | , with 0 comments »

Welcome to the new way of sharing online with your friends "what you are inta" - iminta.com

Still on a closed beta, iminta has already attracted a lot of interest even before the site opened up to general public and got some really good reviews from blogs like WIRED, Mashable, Webware and TechCrunch. Unlike most startups, iminta is not funded but rather bootstrapped from the beginning by ex-CNET product manager, Aaron Newton.

iminta homepageSo what is this iminta.com all about? Well in very simple words, it's a new type of social network to which you tell the services you already have accounts with, e.g. Flickr, Youtube, delicious etc. and iminta would create a master list of everything you are up to on those sites. Your friends can then subscribe to your master feed and stay updated about your activities. Of course, you can do the same with them too.

The UI is pretty simple and contains loads of AJAX working to enable it's users to look around even when functions are being performed in the back-end. To start with, you can simply click on the 'add an inta' button and enter what you are into for the day. Everything you enter will be added to the master feed and any of your friends who have subscribed to your master feed will see it.

iminta - add an inta interfaceOnce you are done with adding you own intas for the day, you can definitely check out what your friends are upto. Simply clicking on the 'What your pals are inta' tab would show you a master feed of what your friends plan to do or are already into. You can even select a single friend from your list and clicking on his/her feed or avatar would take you to his/her page. Here you will get all the intas he/she has been.

iminta - friends feed snapshotNot only that, you can even check out what your friend's friends are into. All you have to do is click on your friend's pals tab and there you go. Hey maybe you can find someone sharing same interests as you do, some new friends maybe.

iminta - friend's friendsThere are already some similar services at FriendFeed, Spokeo, Readr and a few more. But the cool interface, simplicity of usage and rich user experience that I came across while taking a sneak peek during my beta-testing of the site makes me believe that this is one startup that's different and definitely here to stay. So keep your eyes open and be sure to join as soon as it launches.

How To Add A Favicon

Thursday, March 13, 2008 | with 1 comments »

Favicon's are a great way of 'mini-branding' your sites or blogs. A favicon, also known as shortcut icon, website icon, page icon or urlicon is a small, square icon, usually 16×16px in size, that is displayed alongside the URL in the web address bar of a web browser. Most of the recent browsers use tabbed browsing and this enables users to open multiple sites/blogs side by side. An attractive favicon would act as a mark of distinction for any site/blog from the others. The favicon is also displayed in the bookmarks / favorite section of many recent browsers.

Formats
.ico is the most widely used favicon format. However, .gif and .png are also used sometimes. Animated gif favicons can also be created but they are presently supported by Firefox.

Design Guidelines
A favicon has a 16×16px size so to design it it’s advisable to use a larger size such as 128×128px and then scale it to 16×16px. The most appropriate resolution and color depths would be - i. For .ico: 16×16 and 32×32 (64×64 and 128×128 sometimes used by Mac OS X) and bit-depths, ii. For .gif: 16×16 in 256 colors and iii. For .png: 16×16 in either 256 colors or 24-bit.

How To
The favicon should work fine only by placing it on the root of the folder as most of the browser looks for the favicon on the root of the site. However, in case it is not displayed or if the favicon is not located in the root, a single line of code needs to be added to the '' section. The code is as follows:


Here's a lovely gallery that displays many of the web's popular favicons. Check it out and add one to your own site. :)


10 Essential Ajax eBooks

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 | , with 1 comments »

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML or Ajax is the latest buzz. It's been around for a while now and promises to stay on. Ajax is a group of inter-related web development techniques used for creating interactive web applications. In the era of web 2.0, interactivity is the name of the game. And hence is the importance of Ajax. Almost all the sites we come across in 'today's internet' or the new net as I'd like to call it has got some touch of Ajax applications. Some of them go up to the extent of are being totally powered by Ajax. So in a world that calls for Ajax, we cannot do without learning the essentials of this powerful utility that has largely contributed to the changes in the world wide web. Here's my contribution to the topic...ten essential eBooks on Ajax with downloadable easy-share links .

Ajax Bible
Ajax Bible
Paperback: 695 pages
Publisher: Wiley (April 2, 2007)
Download

Adding Ajax
Adding Ajax
Paperback: 399 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc. (June 20, 2007)
Download

Sams Teach Yourself AJAX in 10 Minutes
Sams Teach Yourself AJAX in 10 Minutes
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (April 28, 2006)
Download

Advanced Ajax: Architecture and Best Practices
Advanced Ajax Architecture and Best Practices
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1 edition (October 25, 2007)
Download

Build Your Own AJAX Web Applications
Build Your Own AJAX Web Applications
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: SitePoint (June 14, 2006)
Download

Enterprise AJAX: Strategies for Building High Performance Web Applications
Enterprise AJAX Strategies for Building High Performance Web Applications
Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 1 edition (July 25, 2007)
Download

Securing Ajax Applications: Ensuring the Safety of the Dynamic Web
Securing Ajax Applications Ensuring the Safety of the Dynamic Web
Paperback: 250 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc. (July 11, 2007)
Download

ZK: Ajax without the Javascript Framework
ZK: Ajax without the Javascript Framework
Paperback: 125 pages
Publisher: Apress (August 13, 2007)
Download

Pro JSF and Ajax: Building Rich Internet Components
Pro JSF and Ajax Building Rich Internet Components
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Apress (February 13, 2006)
Download

Learning ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX: A Practical Hands-on Guide
Learning ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX A Practical Hands-on Guide
Paperback: 520 pages
Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc. (September 27, 2007)
Download

15 Free Wordpress Magazine Style Themes

Monday, March 10, 2008 | , with 1 comments »

I have always wanted to start up an online magazine. Well, with Wordpress it's quite simple. There are several Wordpress themes on the net today and the best part is most of them are free. Here's my take on the top 15 free Wordpress magazine style themes.

The Studio Theme
studio-theme
Source | Download | Demo

Newspaper-ize
newspaperize
Source | Download | Demo

Forte Theme
forte
Source | Download | Demo

Massive News Theme
massive-news-theme
Source | Download | Snapshot (No Demo)

Structure Theme
structure-theme
Source | Download | Demo

Options Theme
options-theme
Source | Download | Demo

Gridlock
gridlock
Source | Download

Futurosity
futurosity
Source | Download | Demo

Victoria
victoria
Source | Download | Demo

Grid Focus
gridfocus
Source | Download V1 | Download V2

WP Polaroid
wp-polaroid
Source | Download | Demo

The Morning After
morningafter
Source | Download

Mimbo Magazine
mimbo
Source | Download | Demo

Visionary
visionary
Source | Download | Demo

Jello Wala Mello
jellowalamello
Source | Download | PSD Files

All these themes are of great quality in spite of being free and are excellent for start-ups. But if you are ready to spare a few bucks and get a state-of-the-art, professionally designed, magazine style theme for Wordpress, then click on the image below.


Free Font - FF Unit Rounded Bold

Friday, March 07, 2008 | with 0 comments »

Free Font - FF Unit Rounded Bold
FF Unit™ Rounded Bold is a soft rounded Bold OpenType font that can be used for more than the typical comic types. It is originally developed by the experienced font makers from FontShop and is distributed free.

Click Here To Download FF Unit™ Rounded Bold

Convert Any Image Into Cartoon With Photoshop

Thursday, March 06, 2008 | , with 5 comments »

Converting images into cartoons or giving a cartoon effect to any image was never more simple. With the Photoshop built in Filter tools it can be well done in a few easy steps. Here's how to do it.

I have always wanted to create cartoons of celebrities and it was really exciting to find out how easy it was with just some small built in tricks with Photoshop. In this tutorial I'll be converting an Angelina Jolie image into a cartoon that looks exactly like her.

Firstly, I chose the following image to be converted.

Angelina Jolie

Step 1: Open the image in Photoshop. I am using version CS3. Now go to menu bar. Select Image>>Mode>>RGB Color and click on it if it's not already ticked.

Step 2: Next create a duplicate layer from Layer>>Duplicate Layer and give it a new name. This new layer would be the one we'll be working with.

Step 3: Now to give the primary effects, we need to use the Poster Edges filter. This can be done from Filter>>Artistic>>Poster Edges.

Step 4: Go to Images>>Adjustments>>Brightness/Contrast from the menu bar and select the Brightness Value as 10 and Contrast Value as 30. At this stage the image would look like the one below.

Angelina Jolie

Step 5: Now to finally finish it off we would be applying the Artistic Cut-Out Filter effect. This can be done from Filter>>Artistic>>Cut Out menu.

And with that we are done. The new cartoon image of Angelina Jolie would look like the one below.

Angelina Jolie

Go ahead and make some cool cartoons from your favorite images.

Adobe Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS3 & Dreamweaver CS3I have hardly come across people who have never used any Adobe product at some point of time or the other. Powerful, as they are often described, these tools offer plenty of stuffs which sometimes become pretty confusing to use. However, a quick tutorial on the keyboard shortcuts could remove much of the bottleneck increasing productivity. Well here we have some keyboard shortcuts (Windows & Mac) for some of the most popular and widely used Adobe products:
Adobe Photoshop - CS3, CS2, CS, 7
Adobe Illustrator - CS3, CS2
Adobe Dreamweaver - CS3

Adobe Photoshop CS3Adobe Photoshop CS3 keyboard shortcuts:


Adobe Photoshop CS2 Adobe Photoshop CS2 keyboard shortcuts:

Adobe Photoshop CS Adobe Photoshop CS keyboard shortcuts:

Adobe Photoshop 7 Adobe Photoshop 7 keyboard shortcuts:

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Adobe Illustrator CS3 keyboard shortcuts:

Adobe Illustrator CS2 keyboard shortcuts:
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 keyboard shortcuts:

Welcome To Free Internet Resources

Monday, March 03, 2008 with 0 comments »

Technology, Amazing!Internet amazes me! It always did. Ever since the time I got introduced to this amazing World Wide Web I had become an ardent admirer. But little did I know then that internet would soon become an inseparable part of my life. And today, after almost half-a-decade of fooling around here and there with the plenty of http's, it is just another thing I cannot survive a day without. Be it official information relating to my daily activities or just some new movie or music that I'm so passionate about, the first place I look for is on the 'net'. And hey, most of the time I do find what I'm looking for. So here's a humble effort to share things that I generally come across and could be as useful to others as they are to me.