There are 1.2 BILLION mobile web users in the world. A staggering 25 out of every 100 potential US visitors to your website will never see it with a desktop computer, at least. Statistics collected in 2010 suggest that 25% of US people DO NOT access or infrequently access the desktop web. That figure was higher in China (30%) and slightly lower in the UK (22%). If your website attracts US customers and it lacks a mobile version of itself then you are losing up to 25% of your target audience because your content is badly dressed for mobile devices. What will those figures be now we are in … [Read more...]
Really Simple PHP Counter
April 24, 2011 by 1 Comment
A few days ago I needed to find a simple way to count the number of times a web page loaded. A script in the page had a variable that triggered an event to occur every so many page loads. I needed to use a counter to trigger the event the variable controlled. This little 93 Byte counter code is what I came up with: <?php file_put_contents('count.txt','1\n',FILE_APPEND); $count = count(file('count.txt')); ?> The first time the counter script runs it creates a file called count.txt then writes a number "1" and a carriage return into the first line of the file. From then onwards, every … [Read more...]
How to Check For Dead Links
February 9, 2010 by 6 Comments
There are a few simple and lazy ways to check for dead links. The methods to use depend on whether you want to check a list of links in a text file or you want to check for dead links within a website. We all know that checking for dead links manually by clicking each one of them is a very long and boring task. Thankfully I have found - after a very long search - a few incredibly handy URL checking scripts. This short guide is split into two parts: Checking for Dead Links Within a Website Checking Links from a Text File Finding dead links is an easy task with help from the tools … [Read more...]
Create Glossy Look Navigation Tabs
January 21, 2010 by 2 Comments
From Top to Bottom: Unstyled, Illusionary Gloss, and True Gloss Menu Buttons "Ooh, look at that website with nice sleek and shiny page tabs. I bet it turns all the geeks heads. Why can't I be like that guy?" Recognize those thoughts? Of course you do. We all have feelings of inadequacy at times. Luckily for us regular guys, website sexiness can be learned. With a few easily digested and remembered tips you too will style websites that will make other webmasters sick with envy. Back in October last year I showed you how to use CSS to highlight HTML elements when specific id and class … [Read more...]
Using PHP to Send Data Between Webpages
November 3, 2009 by 3 Comments
Every now and again we web designers need to pass user input between pages. It could be a username or affiliate code that needs adding into a set of links; it could be details of a contact form that need passing over to a confirmation page before being sent to a database or email server; or it could be any other bit of information that a site visitor enters into one form that must be reproduced or used somewhere within another page or set of pages. Luckily, for those of us who haven't studied PHP, the recipe for passing information between pages contains few ingredients and is easy to follow … [Read more...]
