New Server, New Design

Where we keep all the boring tidbits about the PHPDN site, the news, and what not.

Moderator: General Moderators

jason
Site Admin
Posts: 1767
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 3:14 pm
Location: Montreal, CA
Contact:

New Server, New Design

Post by jason »

Hey everyone! I just thought I should let you in on some cool things that are happening here.

First of all, we are working on adding some new features to the PHPDN core site. One thing we are adding is a Code Review section, where you can post code and get peer's to review the code in more depth than normal. It won't be a "Bug Hunt" type service. Rather a review of how the code is being written, does it make sense, does this database design make sense, and is this code written in a readable manner.

Next, we are also working to start adding more tutorials. Quality tutorials that cover common topics that are brought up here on these forums.

News. I have been working on a news grabbing program that will fetch news from around the PHP community, and put it all in one place for you to read. I've been missing that myself, and hopefully, once I have this service in place, I will satisfy a personal itch of mine, as well as give you a center for PHP news on the web.

A Better Phuse. The PHP Unified Search Engine is a project that I still want to see successful. I went back to the drawing board with several of the features, and I will be releasing a new Phuse shortly, that is not only quicker, but also more complete.

New Design! You can check out the new design for the PHPDN core site and let us know what you think. I still have to fix up some of the parts, and ensure everything is as compliant as it can be. I will be moving everything over to this new design, including the forums. But because the site will be XHTML/CSS based, it means you can easily create themes for the site, if you want.

And finally, ImHosted, the people who proudly host the PHPDN Forums and core site, are moving us to an even faster, even better server. Having worked out the details, we get more bandwidth, more space, more RAM, more processor speed, and lots of more new things. So a big thanks to them. This move will take place this weekend, so if things go out of wack during the 28th and the 29th, don't worry, it's the move.
User avatar
Heavy
Forum Contributor
Posts: 478
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2002 7:36 am
Location: Viksjöfors, Hälsingland, Sweden
Contact:

Post by Heavy »

Code review section:
This sounds really good! One learns best by GOOD examples. I believe one learns even better if almost good examples are critisised and reworked to a better design for all to see.
Good initiative. I wondered "what is a peer?". Found something here.

New design:
Sure it looks intuitive. :wink: I like the presence of the newbie box at the top right.

If the new portal design will provide forum shortcuts to recent topics like the current design does, I would like to see some kind of separation of forums in it so that posts in other forums than PHP-Normal does not fall of the recent list because of the massive traffic in PHP-Normal.

All good wishes!
Nay
Forum Regular
Posts: 951
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2003 11:03 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Post by Nay »

The new design looks great! A few glitches here and there but it rocks.

I'm thinking you want to keep it simple and fast loading as possible due to the traffic you get on devnetwork? Well, if that's not so much of an issue, a logo would be better than a text based "PHP Developer's Network".

Is the white layer behind the

http://codereview.devnetwork.net/design ... search.png

a feature or the PNG's not showing up correctly in IE. mMm. Would this do any better?

http://www.chaosdreamers.com/search.png

-Nay
Unipus
Forum Contributor
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2003 2:06 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post by Unipus »

Hey, looks nice, but your date floats aren't working in IE (they're overlapping with the headline text, creating a nice unreadable effect for both).

Also, http://www.youngpup.net/?request=/snippets/sleight.xml will teach you How to make transparent PNGs work in Internet Explorer.

Rock on.
Unipus
Forum Contributor
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2003 2:06 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post by Unipus »

You did say this is fully XHTML & CSS, right? I know I'm sort of new here, and I don't mean to be harsh, but as much as I like the rest of it, I'm really NOT digging the new forums style. It's MUCH harder to scan for info at a glance and far less intuitive, as well as being enormo-huge. I would suppose that if every element has been distinctly defined, it could be restyled with a custom style sheet.
jason
Site Admin
Posts: 1767
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 3:14 pm
Location: Montreal, CA
Contact:

Post by jason »

Unipus: Yeah, me neither. I will probably move them into a table, as that is where they would go actually.

Also, which version of IE? I've checked in IE, and last I looked, the news and content pages were fine.

More on PNG's:

"Images are nice, and in the world of small images, PNG is a wonderful format. Alpha Transparency is why. However, Internet Explorer doesn't handle PNG's Alpha Transparency all that well. In designing this site, I had a choice. I could use JPG's for our icon's, and put the background in that the image would be used on. Use a transparent GIF, and suffer with GIF's simple binary transparency, or use the right tool for the right job: PNG's. Needless to say, I choose PNG's.

The site is still useable in IE. The PNG's still show. But if you want a better experience overall (not just on this website), consider switching to a better browser."

Basically, I could make them work in IE, with extra code. Of course, that would increase the load on the pages, and the amount of code needed to support an otherwise small visual affect.

Simply put, don't use old browsers (+2 years is old) that can't handle basic media. I want the site to be accessible to people with all browsers, and right now, it is. Everyone can use the site. If certain people using a certain browser suffer because of a bug in that browser, but the site is still perfectly usable, I am not going to spend my time fixing it.

Maybe if enough people care, they can complain to MS to get the browser fixed.
Unipus
Forum Contributor
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2003 2:06 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post by Unipus »

IE 6/Win2000. The headline and the date fall on the same line and run into and over each other.

Normally I'd agree with you about the browser issue, but in this case you're unfortunately talking about Internet Explorer, which has massive dominance over the market. They've managed to gain this dominance while at the same time largely ignoring the complaints of developers for years, and I doubt they'll hurry along to change soon. The code to make the PNGs work properly is a small CSS hack, and so I think it'd be worth the effort to fix it. On the other hand, it's certainly not a high-priority issue.
jason
Site Admin
Posts: 1767
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 3:14 pm
Location: Montreal, CA
Contact:

Post by jason »

1. IE doesn't dictate my design. The fact that this site isn't a business site means that I can do these types of things. My design is dictated by my user base and my ideals.

2. More importantly, I did try the JavaScript code that you provided, and unless I am doing something wrong, it doesn't work. Maybe you could take a look at it right now? Am I doing something wrong?
McGruff
DevNet Master
Posts: 2893
Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2003 8:26 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Post by McGruff »

Getting collisions with Firebird when I resize to 800x600.
User avatar
JAM
DevNet Resident
Posts: 2101
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Post by JAM »

As McGruff mention, headers & dates collide as well as the copyright notice at the bottom...

Other thoughts is that I personally like the layup and placements of things. A negative thought is that I get the feeling that "it's big" (mainly margins, padding etc). Might be just me as I'm a pixel-person from my earlier graphic days...

You are imho on the right path tho.
Many thanks to ImHosted btw, please forward them.
Unipus
Forum Contributor
Posts: 409
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2003 2:06 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Post by Unipus »

Well, I don't know where you're using the code, so I can't really help in that department. But, AListApart (one of the best web design/development sites out there, if you don't know it) has a fairly thorough examination of the same topic: http://www.alistapart.com/stories/pngopacity/

Like I said, I don't personally care that much... it doesn't kill me to see an image that looks slightly wrong. But if you really want to fix it, there it is.
microthick
Forum Regular
Posts: 543
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2003 2:15 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC

Post by microthick »

Hi,

Using Firebird 0.6.1.

The .png's look great, except that the bottom-right corner that's rounded has a white background rather than transparent. Is that the way it should appear?

As well, as mentioned previously, the Copyright notice collides with the last news entry.

Looks good, by the way!
jason
Site Admin
Posts: 1767
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 3:14 pm
Location: Montreal, CA
Contact:

Post by jason »

Ahh, now I see it! It's when the browser is small, or basically, closer to 800x600...I hadn't brought it down that low. My bad. Will look into fixing that.

As far as it being "bulky" or "big", I don't think it's too big. Rather, I feel it's sized correctly, with much attention put towards usability.

The site is a content based site, remember that. The idea is to make it easy to read. I want to be able to sit back in my chair, and read the content on the site.

Of course, if the text is too small, you can always adjust the size.

As far as the logo goes, I will look at doing one that fits with the rest of the design.

Thanks for the feedback. I do take everything seriously, even if it seems like I disagree. This site design is for you guys first and foremost.
User avatar
JAM
DevNet Resident
Posts: 2101
Joined: Fri Aug 08, 2003 6:53 pm
Location: Sweden
Contact:

Post by JAM »

jason wrote:As far as it being "bulky" or "big", I don't think it's too big. Rather, I feel it's sized correctly, with much attention put towards usability.
Very right. Leaning back and still being able to tell an A from an F is of course something that we all want. ;) Its the everlasting discussion about screensize, monitorsize and font-size...

Another option, if you think it's worth the time and hazzle, is theming it.
jason
Site Admin
Posts: 1767
Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 3:14 pm
Location: Montreal, CA
Contact:

Post by jason »

Theming would be easy to accomplish, considering the CSS/XHTML nature of the site. That is in fact why I went this route. That way, anyone can customize the site as they see fit.
Post Reply