Mac OS X, well know for their simplicity and performance.

If you’re a web developer using a Mac you may have used many applications. Finding the best Apps for Freelance Web Designers is one challenging task. So in this post I have listed best Mac Apps designed for code editing, file and data transfer, database management, image editing etc. Some of them are free and most of them are relatively inexpensive.

1.VirtualHostX – VirtualHostX is the best way to host multiple websites on your Mac. It lets you easily create Apache virtual hosts on Mac OS X.

2. MAMP – MAMP is a quick and painless way to set up Macintosh, Apache, MySQL and PHP in the same environment. Instantly you’ve got a fully-functional web testing environment for your PHP applications.

3. phpMyAdmin – phpMyAdmin is the kindly old grandfather of database management scripts. Not necessarily hip to an attractive user interface, phpMyAdmin still has the skills to pay the bills.

4. Yummy FTP – Yummy FTP is an FTP and SFTP client application for the Apple Macintosh, built as native Mac OS X software from the ground up, with the goal of providing a reliable, powerful, yet easy to use file transfer utility.

5. Transmit - It offers almost all of the same functionality as Cyberduck, but adds a little more robustness for advanced user. For example, you can edit any remote file (even a picture or graphic) in any software using Transmit.

6. Coda – It is a complete web development solutions that fulfills all your coding needs, you will love to use its code editor that has support for various programming languages like HTML, XHTML, CSS, PHP, ASP, Ruby, Java and XML etc.

7. CSSEdit - cssedit is a CSS editor with a fantastic user interface. It has the look and feel of a Mac application, which makes the experience of editing CSS much more enjoyable.

8. Changes – Changes is a nifty application that lets you visually browse changes to your code base. Instead of having to use a subversion to manage your code base (though Changes works with svn and other repository software), you can use Changes.

9. TextExpander - TextExpander saves you countless keystrokes with customized abbreviations for your frequently-used text strings, code snippets and images.

10. TextMate - A popular text-editing tool for Apple Mac OS. It offers number of useful features, like search and replaces text, clipboard history, file tabs when working with projects.

Whenever i had a free time , i always look for the ebooks in the web.Here i have collected some ebooks which are specially focused for the web designer . Being a designer you always have to keep the idea about the current trends . Some of these books are online books and some can be downloaded in the pdf format.Reading books is one of the best habit.

1.The Webbook

If you are a new beginner for web, you can start with this book. This Book contains all the information that is needed to create a Web site , registering a domain name and renting some hosting space, creating your first HTML page, building full online database applications with PHP and MySQL. It also tells about CSS and Javascript.

2.Designing for the web

This book contains five sections, : Getting Started, Research, Typography, Colour, and Layout. Learn solid graphic design theory that you can simply apply to your designs, making the difference from a good design to a great one. and it covers a core aspect of graphic design.

3.Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites – 3rd Edition

This book contains 12 sections which covers the basic design principles and most of the aspect of the webdesign. The form designs and applications,multimedia,typography are clearly explained.

4.Dive into HTML 5

This book is written by MARK PILGRIM.If you can get to the idea about the HTML 5 , this book can be one of the good option.It starts with the history of HTML 5 to the all the standard .

5.Taking your talent to the web

This book was written in 2001 and was rated top five book by amazon.com.This book was written for print designers whose clients want websites, print art directors who’d like to move into full–time web and interaction design, homepage creators who are ready to turn pro, and professionals who seek to deepen their web skills and understanding.

These all books are yours,Enjoy it.

HTML5 is a standard for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. The new standard incorporates features like video playback and drag-and-drop that have been previously dependent on third-party browser plug-ins such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Google Gears.The HTML5 specification was adopted as the starting point of the work of the new HTML working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 2007. This working group published the First Public Working Draft of the specification on January 22, 2008.[3] The specification is an ongoing work, and is expected to remain so for many years, although parts of HTML5 are going to be finished and implemented in browsers before the whole specification reaches final Recommendation status.

The fully supportive HTML5 is not possible in short time,It will take a long time to be stable and in use, we call it an on going process.
I have collected few cheat sheet for HTML 5 which i think is useful to programmers and beginners in web.This cheatsheet lists all currently supported tags, their descriptions,their attributes and their support in HTML 4.

• Click here to download PDF version of cheatsheet.
• Click here to download HTML5 Canvas cheat sheet.

Source:wikipedia,Veign.com

A web developer must care those common problems and make the page look good.

Let’s look at five easy fixes:

1. Format your text using CSS.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the way to go – use one style sheet and control how text looks on your entire site. Make a change to the style sheet and your whole site is updated. It makes life a lot simpler.

2. Make the font size big enough to read.
Consider your target audience. Even if they are a group of teenage girls looking for new shoes, it’s never a good idea to use tiny type. It doesn’t have to be enormous, but up to a point, larger type is better. 12-pt Verdana is better than 8-pt Verdana.

3. Make the text contrast with its background.
The more contrast, the better. Black-on-white or white-on-black are examples of the highest contrast you can get. Use colors if you like, but if you squint at the page and your text basically vanishes, there’s not enough contrast.

4. Give the lines room to breathe.
Don’t stack lines on top of each other. Use the line-spacing directive in CSS and give it some space; I’ll often set line-spacing to 140% of the height of a typical line.

5. Break text up into chunks.
No matter how good a writer you are, people don’t want to read endless pages of text. Break it up by using headlines that reflect the subject of the paragraph(s) to follow so people can scan down to the parts that really interest them, or use lists with bullet to change the pace of the writing and slow down the scanning.

And finally check spellings of the content. Nothing irritates a visitor more on a web page than spelling errors – it simply makes you look like you don’t care enough to get it right. You can also use spell checkers to your contents.

RIPIE6 is the obituary notice of Internet Explorer 6′s death. It’s a message for all users who still use that “browser”. RIPIE6 is designed exactly for those old-fashioned people who don’t see the point of updating their software.

Another site ‘ie6funeral.com‘ has the following message:-

Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc. Internet Explorer Six, known to friends and family as “IE6,” is survived by son Internet Explorer Seven, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer Eight.

On Jan 29, 2010 Google had announced all users to upgrade their web browsers in order to run new features and advanced web apps.

Here is the message from Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Senior Product Manager:-

Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products — as well as new Docs and Sites features — won’t work properly in older browsers.

But this doesn’t mean that IE6 is dead already. Netmarketshare report shows that IE6 still has around 20% of Total Market Share.

It’s for sure that Web developers hate Internet Explorer (mostly IE6). Here is W3Schools’ Browser Statistics which lists the web stats only from the W3 Schools site. This gives the approximate usage share of browsers among “people with an interest for web technologies and web development”.

IE6 is definitely deteriorating with its Bugs and Problems. It has been old and unhealthy. It’s not dead yet but definitely in a dying process.

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities. When sites are correctly designed, developed and edited, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.
Excerpts taken from Wikipedia

1. Structural HTML

Most developers pay attention to the graphical presentation and often neglect the structure of document. An HTML document marked up structurally can adapt to different environments. Hence, an HTML document must be structured in such a way that it can be read without stylesheet.

2. Anchors and Links

Links are what made the web The Web. One should provide meaningful links and should make sure that links are accessible in text based browsers as well.

e.g

<a title="My Page" href="mypage.html">My Page</a>

3. Alternative text for non-textual data

To provide text alternative for non-text data like images you can use ALT attribute for briefly describing meaning. You can also make use of LONGDESC attribute for long descriptions.

e.g

<img longdesc="long desc" src="banner.gif" alt="Alt Text" />

Similarly, one should be careful using Image links. Without text equivalent, screen readers will not be able to display the link. Son Use of ALT attribute can allow screen readers to access link text.

4. Tables

Following tips should be kept in mind when using tables for layout:

1. The WIDTH attribute on TABLE, TD, or TH elements is usually unnecessary and can hinder a document’s accessibility. So, one should control all attributes using CSS.
2. Row and column headers should be distinctly visible. For column headers, TH is preferred rather than TD. Providing CAPTION or TITLE to describe the contents of table makes more meaningful.

5. Client Side Scripting

Client Side Scripting like JavaScript is not supported by all browsers and sometimes users can disable it. Hence one should make sure that web page is usable even scripts are not supported or turned off.
One should not rely on Client side scripting to navigate or view content. When JavaScript is used, it should not be relied upon.

6. Colors

Some old browsers do not support color names. Colors should always be specified with a hexadecimal triplet in the form #rrggbb or #RRGGBB. We should make sure that information presented through the use of color is available without it.

e.g

<!--
 body{
   color: #000000;
   background: #ffffff;
}
-->

7. Text-based browsers

Simulate the web page on text-based browser such as Lynx to see how document would look like in absence of graphics.

8. Validation

Validation of HTML documents is most important part. A validator checks the document’s HTML against a document type definition to ensure that the syntax of the HTML is correct. Validate your document to check for errors.

1. Webpage Validation Service by W3C
2. Section 508 Web Accessibilty

Always be listed on side to follow web standards. It’s easy to build a website with good looking graphics and best functionality but why they just don’t add up a little effort to make a site follow standards. We must remember that, we are targeting visitors of site, and pages should be accessible irrespective of OS, Browser used by visitor. Using web standards offer much benefit to us.

• Separation of HTML semantics (structure) from design confirms better accessibility.
• Pages sizes are less and results in quick downloads. Browsers render pages faster when pages confirm standards.
• Following standard ensures that documents will be compatible in future browsers. There is no risk of browser not understanding your documents. Interpretation and rendering is easy for browser.
• Different CSS files can be created and adopted accordingly. Adaptation of document to print media, mobile devices is easy just by creating alternative style sheets and linking to particular CSS file.

The bottom line is: use web standards. It’s the future of web. If you are new and haven’t yet followed then start from this point upwards. And, after all this; its you to choose and follow and how you perceives.

There exists many application that share common features, e.g. e-commerce application, bulletin board, news etc.
A common practice is; we just write/rewrite the logical tier and place the codes within the same server for all the application having common features.

Application shares a common feature but in general they are implemented separately. More precisely, codes for each and every application are placed in their respective server.
During this process, the class/method that may or may not be needed to particular application is also used and shipped which is obviously an overhead.

Solution

Design a common framework for application sharing common features which obviously includes reuse of classes.
Server then will issue an activation key or license key for that particular application.

Another problem is in updating, (i.e. if we want to add new feature or update existing features then we have to add/update in each and every application). Again if the bug is found in later part then we have to rectify for each and every application individually.

Here database consists of lists of tables that are used in application.

• Communication between central system and application can be achieved via SOAP.
• If a bug exits then we can rectify in a central system (NO NEED TO LOOK INDIVIDUALLY)
• If we want to add new feature or update/delete features then we perform in central system.
• Application communicates to central server via middle tier.
• Middle tier only knows the lists of classes and its methods available and with its uses.

For example

Central server has classes A, B and C.
A, B and C has a list of methods and they are used for certain purpose.

Middle tier has knowledge of messages it has to transfer and it is receiving messages from central server.
But contemporarily, middle tier is unaware of implementation.

Database Schema Snippets (XML can also be used in place of database)

1. Classes (classid, classsname)
2. Methods (classid, methods)
3. Application (applicationid, applicationname, licensekey, validityperiod, startdate)
4. Uses (applicationid, classid, methods)

Download PDF: Building Web Application

Why are we being like an ostrich? Is it because, we just wanted to earn money and forget all the things behind? Or Is it because clients here are unaware of the web standards? Or no one knows about the benefits that we could achieve with building web with web standards? Or there are other factors or reasons?
Even most popular and mostly viewed site do not follow web standards. For example
1. eKantipur, claims oneself as number one news site uses frame and heavy graphics.
2. Cyber Sansar, a popular entertainment site has heavy graphics and is built with HTML 4.0 transistional.

There are numerous other popular sites that does not even passes the W3C validation. A lot of work is yet to be done. These site has to come with as an example for others. Other follows these popular sites.
So, lets not use deprecated features. Lets upgrade and update ourselves. Lets build web applications that meet web standards.
What is Web Standards?

The W3C along with other groups and standards bodies, established a framework for creating and interpreting web-based content. These framework are web standards. These are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users while ensuring the long-term viability of any document published on the Web. Designing and building with these standards simplifies and makes site accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices.

We should follow the basic guidelines of W3C. Its not compulsory that you should build sites with XHTML Strict and CSS 2.0. But make sure to follow primary rules to build pages.
Most of us Ignores

1. Declaration of doctype at the beginning of page
2. capitalizing of HTML tags
3. missing of proper alt and longdesc attribute in image tag.
4. Improper nesting of HTML tags

and other follows………. (if you know please state others mistakes we commit as well)