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I'm on a project where we're going to be sending HTML emails. I've done dozens of projects where we send plaintext emails but for some unknown reason, I've never had to do HTML emails.
I "grew up" with tables. I used to use them for layout development. Then CSS came along with its "layers" as we called them back then, and I changed my ways pretty rapidly. By 2002, I wasn't using tables for layouts at all.
We're almost a decade on and I've been writing pretty good code consistently. I'm now faced by something quite terrifying: writing bad code on purpose. I'm not sure if my mind or fingers will allow it.
So instead of starting by writing bad code, can I write my emails like I would with any other design-build-out: with beautiful divs and CSS, and then use something evil to convert it all out? I realise this might cause issues with background images (of which there may be a couple), but I'm sure I can man-up enough to "fix" those.
I should add that we will have a number of dynamic emails being generated and a newsletter-sender. Ideally this should be something I can plug onto the end of that process so emails get generated in "standards mode", then flown through Mordor to come out the other side as beastly 90's HTML.
There is no way to autmatically turn css and div based HTML pages into working tables that work in emails.
And you probably already know normal CSS style tag is not working in webmail like gmail and hotmail.
But most email clients support embedded css, yes I know its not something you would like to do in any normal page but for email its the only way to avoid having to use font tags.
Here is a page with some of the css and what clients it works in
http://www.campaignmonitor.com/css/
But for layout, tables is the only stable way to go for any more complex layout, especially if you like multiple columns or borders but my advice after 10 year of coding for emails is to try to keep it as simple as possible, think typewriter style letters with a few images, a header and footer and no more, that almost always work.
Try premailer.. http://premailer.dialect.ca/ its written in rb.. if you want the same in php.. then try https://gist.github.com/1204853
There's a tool called Premailer which might be a step in the right direction.
You still can't use divs and floats but it at least alleviates the need for writing your styles inline. You just write your styles in a <style> tag and it'll inline-ify them for you.
https://github.com/alexdunae/premailer
found out something http://www.pelagodesign.com/sidecar/emogrifier/ .. its written is php.. and its awesome... :)
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I'm pretty new on this list, and trying to answer a question posted here on StackOverflow and i am wondering if there is some standard way to post entire models here, not just the "CODE" tab portion. Or for that matter even an image of the view screen.
I don't see any place to put attachments on posts or answers. I suppose I could upload the model to the NetLogo-users Google users-group, which does have a place to upload files, and cross-reference it here. I suppose I could try to open an email channel to the user and send them email with an attachment. I suppose I could post it on GitHub.
But is there some way to attach a full .nlogo file right here that I'm missing? Some interfaces are really complicated and only looking at the CODE tab is not adequate.
And, yes since the .nlogo model is pure text I could paste the entire thing into a window here ( which would object to having code in a text window of course) but that's a lot of extra characters in the post.
Unfortunately there is not. This is actually more of a problem for the questioning than answering as it can be difficult to get the person asking the question to post the relevant bit of code, including the other bits of code that lead up to the problem and give key information like what the contents of a variable may be. NetLogo does not lend itself to MWE at all, and beginners simply don't have the experience to replace interface variables with global variables etc.
Uploading to Google users group and cross referencing is likely to get the question/answer closed as it's not complete. But StackOverflow has a different purpose than the users group - it is supposed to be focussed on specific questions with specific answers - such things as syntax problems and bugs, not design. The last thing we want is interfaces or full models. We tend to be more lenient than other areas of StackOverflow because we know NetLogo has a very high proportion of beginners without support and that MWE in NetLogo doesn't really make sense, but questions that require full models are definitely out of scope.
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Can anybody help me that how can i set PRINT and save as PDF icon(functionality) in TYPO3 pages ?
Thanks...in advance..
There are many examples in Google and I think that you should browse them, to find the one the best fits your needs.
In general 'historically' print version was suggested to be build with new PAGE cObject which typeNum is set to 98 (of course that's only suggestion) in general going this clue, you should find many examples and other resources by searching in Google for typo3 typeNum 98.
When you'll create alternative PAGE object (and maybe also use modified template for it) you need also add on your webpage a link which be the same as the current URL but with additional param &type=98, when user will click it TYPO3 will open the alternative version of the page. So you can add to this a JS in header which will also start system's print dialog.
You can also search the extensions repository and find something for placing the print button if you are unfamiliar with TypoScript.
PDF rendering is similar from point of view of the frontend, however most probably you need to use some additional lib, so it will be best to search for ready to use solution from the repo.
In general PDF version could be tricky, therefore from my experience I can say that nowadays it's sometimes better to avoid the PDF icon at all or use linking to some external service. Of course all depends on your needs. Remember that there are many programs which are able to create PDF's so if it is not required maybe it's no worth of its effort.
Finally take a look at the AddThis widget it can be also used for easy adding of icons for printing and online PDF creation, additionally you can also send invitations via e-mail, or even share the link on the hundreds social portals. And what's most important installing this is just like adding view lines of HTML code vie TypoScript.
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Hello I got a website with around 5-6 pages (plain html). There are areas in these pages where I need to update occassionally. Is there any free / opensource CMS to maintain these editable areas of HTML page.
Thanks
Perch is excellent for small sites.
At its very simplest, Perch allows you to replace static content in an HTML file with placeholders. A simple GUI then allows you to edit those placeholder values for individual pages. So, for example, if you have a file containing this chunk of markup:
<h1>My site</h1>
you can change that to:
<h1><?php perch_content('Main heading'); ?></h1>
and you'll then be able to edit 'Main heading' through the GUI. Most CMS apps work in a similar way, but Perch is the first I've come across that does very little else, which is a huge plus for small projects.
I haven't used Perch for a while, and I'm sure they've added some features since I last did, but I'd still recommend you give it a try. It's cheap, too.
I think couchcms is a pretty good open source alternative to the likes of cushycms and perch
I recommend cushy
http://www.cushycms.com/
http://drupal.org/ is very popular. Many people also use Wordpress - http://wordpress.org. Also try googling "simple cms".
The answer will obviously be dependent on the requirements of the software and the capabilities of your server.
You should also check out opensourcecms.com. You can try out various cms's there until you find one you like.
For a five-page website, Drupal is probably overkill; I'd say Wordpress is good enough (just define a page for each page of the website, copy and paste your content, choose a theme, and you're done). (You would want to either use the blogging features of WP to take full advantage of it, though.)
If for some reason you really want to try out Drupal but don't want to invest a lot of time into figuring it out (it does take some ... well, a lot ... of time to figure out right out of the box), and you're not in a big hurry, you can wait a bit until it's possible to try out the new Drupal Gardens hosted CMS system (currently in beta). (You need a beta key to try it. Sign up for the beta on the site and then wait for your key.)
Since your most likely a programmer I would recommend github's very own Jekyll:
Here are some sites powered by it:
https://github.com/mojombo/jekyll/wiki/sites
As a bonus you can use Github to provide you free hosting (your site will be a public repository that only you can edit).
Have you tried using mut8? They have pretty alright features.
http://mut8.me
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I'm just looking through some of the webmaster stats that Google provides, and noticed that the most common links to our website are to some research articles that we've put up in PDF format. The articles are also available on the site in HTML.
I was looking at the sites (mostly forums and blogs) which link to these articles and was thinking that none of the people clicking the links would actually get to see our website, and that we're giving something away for free and not even getting some page views in return.
I thought that maybe I could change my server settings to redirect external requests to these files to the HTML version. This way, the users still get the same content (albeit in an unexpected format), and we'd get these people to see our website and hopefully explore it some more. Requests coming from my site should be let through to the PDF. Though I don't know how to set this up just yet (keep an eye out for a follow-up question here), I'm sure this is technically possible. The only question is: is that a good idea?
What would you consider the downsides of redirecting traffic from external sources such that they see our site, not just get our content? Do they outweigh the benefits?
The only other alternate option I can see is to make our branding and URL much more visible in the PDF files themselves. Any thoughts?
Hopefully your PDFs are equally branded so that visitors will feel compelled to search further in your website. That might be just as important as having visitors briefly stop-over at your website.
I'm usually opposed to all such redirects as harmful to usability. However, in this case a basic content-type negotiation takes place and this might be acceptable. However, make sure that this doesn't break downloads of the PDF documents for users who might have disabled their referers in the browser (I do this, for one).
Sure you could cut them off, but there is a bigger issue at play: Why aren't these people finding you before they are finding these moocher sites?
Possible reasons are:
a) they did find your site, but not the content they were looking for, even though its obviously there, or
b) your site never appeared in their search results.
You may want to consider a site redesign in order to address those concerns before cutting off what appears to be a reliable source of information about your target audience (for you and the people who get your PDFs from elsewhere).
In the meantime, I would suggest you allow the traffic, add a cover page to all of your PDFs that are basically a full-page ad for your site and then enlarge the font on the copyright section of each page so the authorship is very prominent. You have a built in audience now, they just don't know it yet. Show them where the source is.
Eventually, the traffic will come to you and know you as a reliable source for that information.
I would do it. It's your site and your data.
The hot-linkers are essentially 'guests' and you can make the rules for your guests.
If they don't like it, they don't have to link.
I would add a page at the beginning of each article with info about the website, the current article and links to other articles on your website.
I find it more convenient than redirecting the user to a page on your website(that's annoying). Most people right click and download PDF files, what would that do when your redirect ;)
I think the proper thing to do in this situation is to leave the redirects. Here's why:
There's nothing worse than expecting to go somewhere/get something and not getting it (the negative impact would outweigh the positive.)
Modify your content to add a footer such as: "like what you saw, we've got more, check us out at www.url.com"
If your content is good, users will check out your website. These are the visitors you want, they're more likely to stick around and provide your site with value (whatever that may be.) Those that you've coerced may provide you with an extra click or two, but you will likely not see any value given back to your site.
Look at other successful sites that give something away for free: Joel on Software, Seth Godin, Tim Ferriss, 37Signals. The long term will provide better, more consistent value than the short term.
If you go for this solution, see if redirecting to the HTML version also changes the file name displayed by the browser if somebody used 'save as' on the link, else an HTML page would be saved with a pdf extension. Apart from that, I can see no reason why you shouldn't do it.
As an alternative, see if you can add a link to your site to the top of the pdf file. This way they are reminded where it comes from even if someone else sent it to them by email.
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I need to create a historical timeline starting from 1600's to the present day. I also need to have some way of showing events on the timeline so that they do not appear cluttered when many events are close together.
I have tried using Visio 2007 as well as Excel 2007 Radar Charts, but I could not get the results I wanted. the timeline templates in Visio are not great and using Radar charts in Excel leads to cluttered data.
Are there any other tools or techniques I could use to create these?
#Darren:
The first link looks great. Thanks! The second link did not work in Firefox and was rendered as ASCII. It opened up fine in IE.
And yes, this is for the end users. So I want it to look as presentable as possible, if you know what I mean.
Thanks again!
SIMILIE Timeline would probably suit your needs.
http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/
Timeline .NET: http://www.codeplex.com/timelinenet
Oh, i guess i should ask... for personal use or for display to end users? that might change what i would suggest, but this could work for internal purposes too i suppose.
Lifehacker has a good overview and tutorial of SIMILIE Timeline. They seem to like it quite a bit.
If you need a timeline from RSS Feeeds give xTimeline a try. I just used it
http://lifehacker.com/software/rss/create-a-timeline-from-rss-feeds-with-xtimeline-283098.php
#Pascal this page? http://tools.mscorlib.com/timeline/Default.aspx. If it's looking like ascii maybe look for a js error, but that renders on my system fine. If all else fails, it's a decent js library by the MIT team as it is, so you could wire up your own implementation
I also recommend Simile Timeline... I just implemented a webpage that uses it and JQuery and produces fantastic results. The downside is that you need to implement it through some html page, hook it up with the js and create some xml files, so it probably won't do for a presentational tool.
http://infosthetics.com/ is a good data visualization blog, maybe you find something there. Also check flowingdata.com
For webbased timelines, there is also:
circavie: http://flowingdata.com/2007/10/25/create-share-and-embed-custom-timelines-with-circavie/
dipity (looks killer): http://flowingdata.com/2008/08/18/tell-stories-with-interactive-timelines-from-dipity/
You can used this great timeline tool built with JavaScript.
You can download it for free here: http://timeline.verite.co/#examples