ITT #6: PHP Arrays as Return Values

In this installment of Instant Tip Tuesday, we're going to talk about arrays in PHP. According to the PHP manual, an array is "an ordered map that associates values to keys." The benefit of using arrays is that we can pack a ton of data into one variable, which means we can pass that data back through a function.

What's So Cool About Passing Arrays?

I use arrays as return values to keep my processing of data separate from the formatting of said data. This is done in an effort to make code maintenance easier in the future. For example, look at the following code:

<html> <body> <?php require_once '_db/mysql.php'; // Connect to the database $data = getDataFromDB("blog", 5); // returns latest 5 blog entries ... read more

ITT #5: Transparent Overlay with Slide-Out Description

I'm going to try something a little different this week and talk about CSS. I'm working on a client project that needed to overlay a PNG over the top of various thumbnails in order to make the thumbnails sit in nicely with the design. I'd never done anything like this before, so I thought it might be worth sharing.

If you're deeply offended that I've strayed away from programming-related posts, let me know in the comments, but don't worry! I added some jQuery in for good measure!

View the Demo | Download the Files

The Markup

I'm a firm believer in using as few HTML elements and classes as possible. I also really hate seeing empty elements that only exist to have styles applied to them, so I try to make sure that every... read more

FlickrScrollr Explained: jQuery

This is a continuation of the FlickrScrollr explanation. In this post we'll explore the jQuery plugin behind the animation of the thumbnails.

Why jQuery?

I resisted the switch to jQuery for a long time, telling myself that using a JavaScript framework was some kind of copout—I was going to write my JavaScript from scratch, dammit! And, for a long time, I did exactly that. However, JavaScript is a finicky language, and it's supported differently on each browser. Testing was cumbersome, exhausting, and entirely too stressful. I felt like I was putting too much into the relationship. I lost sleep, lost my appetite, and left long, slurred messages on JavaScript's answering machine at 3AM.

"Hullo? Jahv-Scripp? I juss wann know: why you gotta make me use element.style AND element.currentStyle? You wanna know why? Iss cuz... read more

FlickrScrollr Explained: PHP

NOTE: Ok, so I totally rushed the FlickrScrollr out the door on Tuesday in order to keep the Instant Tip Tuesday series alive (because, let's face it, if I'd only made it three weeks before I missed a Tuesday—well, I wouldn't be much of a blogger at all, would I?). However, in doing so, I didn't really explain how the plugin works or any of the advanced configurations of it. In an effort to rectify that, I'm going to break the code down in this post.

The Goal of This Post

First, I'd like to readdress what FlickrScrollr is and how it works, then I'd like to pick apart how the plugin was built. Because this plugin uses both a PHP class and a jQuery plugin, this writeup is going to... read more