dynamically creating a diagram/layout - html

So I just got an internship at this company, and as a side project, they want me to redesign one of their webpages. On their webpage, they have an image like the following:
Basically, this is an image of a room layout, with different server boxes (white squares) used for testing. When you click on one of the white boxes, it will hyperlink you to a page that has to do with that server box and so forth. The issue is that if they redesign the room, or add server boxes etc, they need to remake a new image, and then change quite a bit of coordinates in a badly written perl script. (I thought this was a bad way to do things, and I recommended trashing the entire image idea in the first place, but they wanted to keep it). Anyway, is there an easier way to do this with code, so that if changes need to be changed, it only involves adding/subtracting lines of code? I was thinking of using some sort of html/css combination, but I don't know if there is a better way to go about doing this... I want to make there diagram a bit more dynamic.
Thank you.

Image Magick is often installed on web servers. Have a look at http://www.imagemagick.org/script/perl-magick.php

Related

Is there any work around for Sikuli IDE image replacement?

I am using Sikulix for UI testing, the problem is that when ever there are changes in UI I need to replace all the images which got changed using the IDE and I need to again describe the actions ( accuracy, click position) which is becoming a sort of overhead in my case. Is there any work around by which I can simply replace the new UI images in the project folder with the same old name ( It wont work directly as the new coordinates might be different + the new image should be of same resolution that of older one)
PS: I have completely understood that sikuli works at pixel level, but still curious to find out if any one has found a work around.
Unfortunately, you will need to recreate the images. What could make it a bit easier, is if you had more descriptive names than the ones generated by Sikuli IDE automatically. Keep in mind these are just image files stored on your PC. If you have names like button1.png, button1.png, etc.., it will make your life easier.
This may or may not work for you depending on your project development:
In my case, the changes that occur at times reduces the image similarity from say 0.9 defined to ~0.7. Now, rather than going ahead to replace the image with a totally new image where i would have to manipulate the offsets as well now, I capture the same region image at 0.7 similarity and replace it. You can easily create a script for this and even integrate it into your project. Use find to figure out the matching region and capture to take the screenshot of the area. The image caught using this way will now again match at 100% for you also, you have rid yourself from the headache of adjusting the targetoffset. Hope this helps.

UI design for Microsoft Access - what is possible?

I'm a graphic designer/web-UI designer by trade but have some (albeit limited) knowledge of Access. I haven't used it for a few years now but have been asked by a company to redesign the front end of their split database that was built using Access 2010. They had a programmer design the whole database, and it works well, but they do not like the actual appearance of the front-end so they have asked me to update it with some 'modern design' so-to-speak (i.e. stylise the buttons, fieds etc.)
I'm just wondering, what options do I have with this? Is there any way to use CSS as such to stylise the front-end? Or is there any built-in design tools that are useful? I plan to produce concepts using Photoshop to show them but it's knowing the limitations of what can be done with Access in terms of the front-end design. Any help would be appreciated!
It can be done, but it's a major task because Access isn't designed for developers (not to mention graphic designers) but for superusers. Thus, tools like you have in, say, Visual Studio, you can only dream of.
But if you are prepared to spend hours with alignment near pixel level, it can be done - as you may get an impression of from the screenshots here:
Modern/Metro style message box and input box for Microsoft Access 2013
Indeed, design of subforms is a challenge as these are offset a few pixels when embedded in the main form; if you are to accuracy to the pixel, this will hurt your eyes. Also, listboxes have a habit of shift their layout slightly when required - just to mention a few of the tasks you will encounter. In fact, once you have made some neat forms and controls, the only tool you have to ease your work, is to copy and paste these when you need a new form or control.
The icons are from the SyncFusion Metro libraray, colours are strict to the MS Metro/Modern palette, and fonts and proportions are as close to the Microsoft design guide as possible. This was chosen for two reasons: First, the design guide is so thorough and well thought out, and second, I had no reason to believe I could do it better. That may be different for you, of course.
The application was for a custom project, and users' response was positive only, even from Mac users (using Remote Desktop) - they love the colours.
Access is built to be GUI-intuitive. There's no 3rd party tools to "pretty" it up, only to improve the functionality.
That being said, there's plenty of stuff you can do to improve the look of it. Drop an Option Group down, delete the label, change the Special Effect to "Flat" and the Border Color to dark blue and you've got a nice little box to keep relevant controls grouped together. Utilize the Back Color of the form to give it a little more appeal; I always find a softer "slate" blue looks appealing and professional. White or soft yellow text looks nice on that background.
Add a label that stretches all the way across the top of the form. Make its background color a darker blue and center the text for a very appealing "header" for your form, or you can do the same thing inside those option groups I mentioned above.
Most coders I've ever worked with were pretty happy making dull gray forms with non-aligned textboxes and calling it a day. Take a little time to snazz it up with a few ideas I've given (and any you can make up yourself) and it goes a long way towards presenting an application that people don't dread using.
Here are few other UI components that "..are possible" without installation GitHubPage

How to get a car spinning with AS3? A 360 degree view

first post on here so be gentle!
I am currently designing an ad banner for my college assignment, the main feature i have is a car spinning, like a full 360 degree view.
Now I have took all of the media I needed and photoshopped them to how they need to look I just need some diction of where to go next.
I did want it where you can click and drag anywhere on the screen and it pulls the car around to where you want it, but I don't even know where to start with that! (please help if you can)
So I thought I would instead have it as a sort of image gallery with a next and previous button to select the next frame you want. But I don't like the way it looks so I was wondering if there was a way with action script where I could click on a button(next/previous) and the car would spin until I un-click? Rather than me having to keep clicking to load the next frame.
Also if I could I wanted a left to right scroll bar what could control the images, do you know any way of doing that?
Many Thanks in advance for ANY help!
Jordan.
If you want a commercial solution:
Krpano -> very advanced, excellent support, highly recommended for panoramas, 2D object is a bit lacking tho. Examples of 2D object
Object2VR -> very easy to use, not that great support, lacking API.
I would go personally for krpano because it is simply a superior tool. Great for panos, tons of possibilities. If you want it easy, go for Object2VR.
Now if you want to program it, and you need to program it, there are many options how you can do it. First of all, you need to load all the images into your app. Even if you don't maintain them in memory (that would be prefered, tho), you should load them so they are cached and can be reloaded fast. Your rotation can be achieved by "re-loading" the next image, or if you keep them in memory by simply referencing the next index of the array/vector. You always keep a reference index and upon click you simple increase the index and load the image. You than swap the images. It is too broad to explain, you will simply have to begin and ask for advice with some specific code.

HTML5 advice on drawings and images (canvas, SVG)

I'm looking into creating a website that allows people to create their own designs for a certain product. This product can have straight lines, curves, squares, and various shapes. I would not only like these people to be able to free hand draw their own artwork, but also be able to drag and drop (or just click in an area) certain stock images onto the template. I started this project using HTML/Canvas, and have implemented the drawing of freehand/shapes/lines, but I've read a few places that say I should be using SVG for the images.
Reading that I should use SVG for images made me think that since I'm a novice on HTML and website design in general, that I should possibly be doing this differently. So I was wondering how some people would implement this. For a good concept, think of a web site that people can design their own T-Shirts. You just draw on a square canvas, circles/squares/lines/free hand, but can also stick stock photos on there. Thanks, and I'm not looking for code, just to know if I should be using a mix of HTML/SVG/Canvas, or something completely different that I don't know about.
to summarize....
svg, or canvas.......or both, or something else completely.
Okay this is how i imagine you want it to work:
Your customers select a tshirt size and style.
An embedded application within your website allows the users to draw
a nice design they want or import an image
A price is calculated based on the size of the tshirt and the size
of the print
Upon succesful payment, you receive on your backend an image of the
print, the order details and you feed that image into your T-shirt
printing thingy, you print it and you post it.
If this is right you should consider this: http://svg-edit.googlecode.com/svn/branches/2.6/editor/svg-editor.html
You will probably want to remove some unnecessary tools from it and fire it up with different configurations based on what kind of tshirt the customer selected. One example is the t-shirt size. If a customer selects a small t-shirt you fire up a smaller drawing size. The list goes on.
You need to have some good JS skills however to be able to play around with SVG-edit because it is massive but from what i feel it fits perfectly to your purposes.
If you want to see the differences between SVG and Canvas read this: http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/svg-or-canvas-choosing-between-the-two/. Its pretty straightforward.
Now why did i suggest using SVG-edit? I don't know if there is any other application implemented using canvas that has so many tools and works so nice as SVG-edit.
It has everything you need, including a '''SAVE as PNG'' function which will serve your purposes in case your t-shirt printer doesn't print SVG images.

how to disable dragging of an html element (especially "img")?

i have a image that i don't want it drag-able or selectable so that no drag to other places on the page. how is that done?
If you want your visitors/users to see the resource on your page there is no way to stop them downloading it or saving it.
Possible options:
You can use JavaScript to prevent the context-menu popping up on right-click (related article: http://javascript.about.com/library/blnoright.htm).
You can cover the image with a transparent .png or .gif so that clicking on the image simple returns the transparent image.
But if the user can see the image on the webpage then it's already on their computer.
In reality this is far harder than you may think it will be, I assume you don't want people stealing your images which is a fair enough thing but just remember all the different ways in which someone can get an image from a web site. Your can catch the right click event and stop them at least doing that, but they can always just take a screenshot and save that instead. This is a slippery slope and it always ends the same way, if they really want to steal it, they're going to.
Since the image is just a binary data, and all the data is written on client PC's, for displaying reason it's up to th euser what they'll do with the data. There's no way you can prevent them from saving the picture displayed on a website.
All you might do is make it a little bit harder, by blocking right clicking on image, (displaying alert on right click, or something like this). But if the user really wants to save the picture they will do this anyway.
Why should you do it?
I can suggest a javascript that will able it: http://www.brownielocks.com/stopcopying.html
But every one, even with little experience can view the source and copy it. and even if you block them from viewing the source, they can use wireshark and get the picture directly. Even if you use flash to show the picture one can screen-capture the screen and retrieve the picture.
Put a watermark on the picture and use http://www.tineye.com/ from time to time and search for your picture. If you find others that use your picture - sue them. It is the most effective way.
It is impossible to prevent someone to store an image (or other resources) on their computer as others already have mentioned.
But another trick to make it harder (impossible for inexperienced people I guess) is to use CSS and background images:
<div style='background: url("myimage.gif");'></div>
The image is now on the background of the <div> block and cannot be dragged or right clicked in order to save it.
Using some coding knowledge it is possible to ind out the myimage.gif part, which can be added after the base URL in order download the image and save it. For example if the HTML page is at http://www.example.com/mypage.html the image could be found at http://www.example.com/myimage.gif
As I mentioned it is still possible to save the image, but for inexperienced people it is a lot harder.
Note: In this example the image is just put in the HTML tag, but with proper use of a CSS file, it is even harder to find for inexperienced people.
You cannot prevent a user from saving something from the web to his PC. The nearest thing that comes to my mind is the -moz-user-select CSS property... https://developer.mozilla.org/en/CSS/-moz-user-select
This javascript snippet does exactly what OP asks:
document.addEventListener("dragstart", preventDrag);
function preventDrag(event) {
event.preventDefault();
}