March 25, 2014 in Community
Q&A With Sam Soffes: Learning How to Make an iPhone Photo-Browsing App
What’s more fun than photo-bombing? How about learning to build a mobile app that displays your favorite forays into photography mischievousness? Not into photo-bombing? How about cute puppy photos? Family vacation shots? Your vast collection of selfies? If so, guest…
March 25, 2014 in Learn
Building HTML5 Context Menus
A lesser known feature of the HTML5 specification is context menus. These allow you to add custom items to the menu that appears when a user right-clicks on the page. Using JavaScript, you can then control the actions these items…
March 21, 2014 in Learn
An Introduction to HTML Imports
HTML imports is an exciting technology that promises to change how we build websites. Imports allow you to include HTML documents within other HTML documents. This has a number of benefits, including the ability to create a bundle of HTML,…
March 19, 2014 in Learn
Exploring the JavaScript Device APIs
Photograph by Jeremy Keith (adactio) The mobile revolution has completely changed how people access the web. It’s only natural then that the web should evolve to better suit the plethora of devices on which it’s now accessed. When the web…
March 18, 2014 in Learn
Gamepad Controls for HTML5 Games
HTML5 games still have a lot of promises to fulfill, but the W3C gamepad specification is a great example of something that’s going well. The spec is still a working draft, but the prospect of reading game controller data in…
March 18, 2014 in Community
‘It Is Never Too Late’: How a Teacher and an Artist Switched to Web Careers in Midstream
The “breaking moment” in Jon Liu’s teaching career came at 7 o’clock in the morning. An hour before his students arrived for classes, he sat in his car, stared at the school where he taught and wondered: What if I…
March 17, 2014 in Learn
HTML5 Games: A Land of Broken Hopes and Dreams
A long time ago on a web far far away there was the promise of HTML5 games. Unfortunately, this future still hasn’t come to fruition. In this rumination, I will explore why that is and what hope HTML5 games have…
March 15, 2014 in Learn
Using localForage for Offline Data Storage
(Photo by Erich Ferdinand/Flickr) An important step on the path toward robust, offline web applications is the ability to store data in the user’s browser. Technologies like IndexedDB and localStorage have provided this functionality to web developers, but they are not…
March 14, 2014 in Learn
Should I Use WordPress to Create a Website?
(Photo by William Hook/Flickr) You can create powerful, polished sites with WordPress without learning a lot of coding. Once you’re comfortable with WordPress, you can do in a week or a weekend what could take you a month or more…
March 14, 2014 in Learn
Beginner Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid
Web design can be tough for a lot of reasons. But the biggest challenge is probably that there are so many ways to approach a problem. Many websites set a bad example for beginners. Even big brands known for quality can…
March 12, 2014 in Learn
How to Create an AJAX Contact Form for a Website [Guide]
Conversions don’t always equate to purchases or transactions, they can also appear in the form of newsletter sign-ups and contact forms. Contact forms are one of the most common features on a website. Standard contact forms work just fine, but…
March 11, 2014 in Learn
How to Use the Details and Summary Elements in HTML5
A number of new interactive elements were introduced with HTML5 that provide native implementations of common UI widgets like dialogs and modals. Among these new additions are the <details> and <summary> elements. These elements allow developers to create collapsable UI…