Month: November 2019

Programming With a Free API

Posted on by djbrensinger

What is an API? An application programming interface acts as an intermediary between your application and the API’s server. You request information from the server and it gives you information that you requested. When you get the data that you need, you can build a front-end design to display the information in a readable format.

Programming with a Free API
Photo by Flickr from Pexels

Find An API

You can use websites like Programmable Web, RapidAPI or API List. While you are evaluating APIs to use, consider whether or not you want to pay to use it. You can find free APIs for your projects.

Farmsense API

I found a free API on ProgrammableWeb called Farmsense. Farmsense provides three APIs to farmers: Day Lengths, Frost Dates and Moon Phases. I used the Moon Phases API to display the current phase of the moon.

Farmsense API Demo

Farmsense API uses the date to tell you what phase the moon is in, what percentage of full it is, how long the day is and more.

When I reviewed the AstroWidget, it shows way more information than I want. I wanted to display the current phase of the moon using HTML, JavaScript and CSS. First, I sketched out a design so that I would know what I wanted to build. Then, I read the API’s documentation. Farmsense API doesn’t require an API key. It does requires the current date.

I used JavaScript to get the current date and choose Milwaukee, WI as the location. Farmsense requires your location in longitude and latitude. To simplify, I decided to use one location.

Getting the Data From the API

How do you get data from the API? It returns the data in JSON. Instead of using the Astro-Widget’s method of retrieving the data, I used the JavaScript Fetch API to get it. The Fetch API made it simple and easy to retrieve the data and put it spots I wanted it.

The API doesn’t include images of the moon in each phase. I found icons of Moon Phases on Icons8. Then, I wrote a JavaScript function to determine the moon phase and displayed an icon image that closely matches the phase.

Screenshot of Moon Phase - Dec. 2, 2019

APIs let you work with data to create something more interesting. With HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you can create a simple user interface that retrieves data from an API. No database required for you to maintain. You can get start learning how to work with an API quickly. Have you built something fun with an API?

Make your site printable with CSS

Posted on by djbrensinger

Do your web pages look as good on paper as in your browser? When you are developing your website, you create it to look good on different devices. Then, you print it out and see how terrible it looks on paper. It prints everything out.

Make your site printable with css
Image by tookapic from Pixabay

What can you do to make it look good on paper too? You have to design for print as well. By using CSS, you can change your design to work on paper, too. The easy way is to add an additional media query for print to your CSS. Or you may want to separate it out into its own file.

What you need to create printable CSS?

  • Decide what elements need to be printed
  • Change your print styles to work with the printer
  • Adjust your design to be printable

Decide what needs to be printed

Websites have navigation bars, footers and other design elements that are necessary to use your site. When you are printing, you want only the content not the extras. To make a page printable, you need to decide which elements don’t have to be printed.

Change your print styles to work with the printer

When you print your page, you want it to fit on a page and not cut off important content in strange spots. If your page includes videos or iframes, you want to prevent them from printing as well. Sitepoint shows you how to create the perfect print stylesheet.

Adjust your design to be printable

What do you change? First, look at the font size. Is it too big? You may want to consider changing the size to fit better on paper. Next, are you using background colors on certain elements? You could change them to a different color or hide them.

Are you using a CSS Framework? The framework my impact how it looks on paper. For example, Bootstrap 3’s col-sm-* turns into a single column on paper. You want to change their settings so that the columns work they way you want on paper. Donnie Ray Jones explains how to fix Bootstrap 3 for printing.

By adding printable CSS to your site, you control how your page prints on paper. Your users will be happy it doesn’t print so many extra pages. It is easy to add to your website after you have finished developing.