Author: djbrensinger Page 8 of 50

Layouts with FlexBox

On February 28, 2021

In CSS, Design, Programming, Web Development

You can use a CSS library to design a large scale website. What do you do if your needs are simpler? A CSS library like Bootstrap may be too much for your project. Smaller projects may need a simple CSS solution.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

FlexBox or flexible box can be for design small-scale layouts or applications. For larger projects, you can use it with your favorite CSS library. FlexBox provides you with tools to create layouts that grow and shrink as you need them to.

When would you use FlexBox for layout?

If you are creating navigation menus, web forms, media items or card layouts. Even simple basic grid layouts can be done with FlexBox.

You can use FlexBox to create different kinds of grids. Grids like 3X3, Masonry or Alternating rows. Tobia Sahlin shows you how to build these basic layouts.

What problems can you solve with it?

You can tackle some problems with FlexBox that were difficult using CSS alone. Problems like Vertical Center, Sticky Footers, Input Add-ons and more. Solved By FlexBox shows you 6 different UI solutions that you can do. It includes solutions like vertical centering.

Where do I learn more?

Visual Studio Code Tips

By djbrensinger

On December 31, 2020

In Programming

Every programmer has their favorite code editor. Your favorite editor may change as you hear about new ones. My new favorite is Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code is a code editor for Windows, Linux and Mac OS from Microsoft.

Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst

With VS Code, I can open Markdown files for editing. Or write code for many programming languages like PHP, JavaScript or C#. A good code editor lets you customize it.

Customize VS Code

How do you make it work for you? The simplest way is to change the theme. Themes change the look and feel of the editor. VS Code lets you select themes from the marketplace or write your own.

When you first install Visual Studio Code, it won’t do everything that you need it to do. Extensions help you to get the features and functionality that you need. You can also use settings and customizations inside VS Code to make it support the way you work.

Visual Studio Code Tips and Tricks

When you are first getting started with VS Code, visit Visual Studio Code Tips and Tricks. This guide helps you to be productive and start using it quickly.

What else can Visual Studio Code do?

It can be challenging to know everything that VS Code can do. You can find out more by checking out VS Code Can Do That?! You’ll find a list of things that it can do. Like Prettier, Node.js Debugging, JSON Intellisense or search user settings.

Planning a project with your team

By djbrensinger

On November 30, 2020

In Project Management

Project planning is hard. When you need to plan a project, don’t do it alone. Ask your team to help you plan the project. By including them, you get buy in and a better plan.

Photo by Sarah Pflug from Burst

1. Plan with your team

Schedule a time to meet with your team. Explain the project and work out how to get it done. By working with your team, you get your team interested in the project and avoid having to rework your plan.

2. Get everyone involved

Ask questions. Each person has different experience and insights into how to approach the project. Make them feel like they are part of the process.

3. Work with your team to define the tasks

Have them help you define all tasks needed to complete the project. When you have all the tasks figured out, ask them for estimates. They should be able to give you realistic estimates not guesses.

Projects get completed by teams. Start by planning with your team. Get them involved by asking questions and finding out what tasks are needed. By working with your team at the beginning, you can create buy in and enthusiasm for the project.

Need more project management tips? Check out 10 Practical Project Management Tips.

Why use HTML and CSS over JavaScript?

By djbrensinger

On October 31, 2020

In Design, Programming, Web Development

When you build for the web, you have to make many different choices. What am I going to build? What tools are I going to use? The number of tools, frameworks and libraries available can be overwhelming.

Photo by Nicole De Khors from Burst

JavaScript is no exception. You have a wide variety of JavaScript frameworks or libraries to choice from. Should you use these technologies for every project? HTML and CSS can now do many things that you once needed JavaScript to do.

What is the Lean Web?

The Lean Web is a set of simple web development principles. Best practices for building the web with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Chris Ferdinandi who wrote the Lean Web encourages you to embrace the web as a platform. To let the browser to do what it does best.

Chris gave a talk on Lean Web at WordCamp LA 2020.

The Three Lean Web Principles

Principle 1. Embrace the Platform
Use HTML over JS, CSS over JS and use the browser for what it is good at. Does that mean you shouldn’t use new tools and technologies? No. You need to decide when you should use them and why.

Principle 2. Small & Modular
Look for small, focused tools that do one thing really well. Use APIs, native browser methods or alternative tools lie Svelte or Preact. Use utility-first CSS to prevent redundancy in your stylesheets.

Principle 3. The Web is for Everyone
Not all browsers support native features. You can use a polyfill to replicate the feature. As developers, we make choices that can break the web for some people. Chris suggest using the A11Y Project to make sure that everyone who wants to use your web applications can.

Summary

You don’t want to avoid using new tools, frameworks and techniques in favor of old ways of doing things. When you are building any project, you have to make choices on what to use. Sometimes, HTML and CSS is the better choice.

How do you reduce website bloat?

By djbrensinger

On August 31, 2020

In Design, UX, Web Development

Why is my website slow? It is a common question developers, designers, bloggers and even your visitors ask. No website is immune from having speed issues.

Photo by Farzad Nazifi on Unsplash

What causes website bloat?

How you designed and built the site affects its speed. Things like images, videos, CSS and code can impact your site. Even your server can affect how the site performs.

What can you do to speed up your site?

1. Optimize your images

You may be using images created in file formats that aren’t designed for the web. They may be large in file size as well. You can use an optimize tool to shrink the file size down without noticeable loss in quality. When you optimize an image, it loads faster on your site.

2. Get rid of unnecessary images

Check your web server for unused images. Unused images can affect user experience and performance of your site. If you aren’t using these images, delete them off your server. WordPress users can clean up their images using plugins or manually. If you have Windows, you can use Powershell to find and remove used images.

3. Optimize your videos and other files

Large files can slow a web site down. Files like videos or PDFs get quite large. You can optimize them before uploading. For PDFS, you can use Adobe Acrobot Pro’s PDF Optimizer to make them faster for the web. With videos, you can use a video hosting service like Vimeo or YouTube to host your videos. Then, you can embed them on your page.

4. Optimize your CSS

CSS files can get large and unruly after a while. Optimizing and managing them can be a challenge. It can be hard to find unused styles. You can use a tool like Helium CSS to find them. By getting rid of unused styles, you can reduce the size of your CSS.
Some of your styles are used more often than others. Print styles are used when a page is printed. You may want to separate them into their own file. With frequently used CSS, you may want to consider using inline styles instead. Before uploading your CSS, you can use a minifier to reduce the amount of whitespace it uses.

5. Check your code for speed issues

Are you using old code? If you are, you may need to rewrite, refactor or even replace it. Look at older code and decide if you need to keep it. If not, remove it.

6. Review the content of your page.

You may have too many items on your page. Do you have old or outdated content? If so, you can remove them. Review the rest of the items on the page to see if you can remove some content and still achieve the same goals of the page.

Summary

Preventing website bloat can be a full time job. By changing your development process to include optimization. You can prevent it from getting slow.