I'm trying to implement my own little reader view app (an app that would do the same thing as reader-mode on safari), and there are a few things I find asking myself:
Is there a technical term for this feature (reader-view doesn't really cut it)?
Is there a standard that websites are supposed to follow in order to indicate the content they would like to have in their reader views
Is there an open-source set of HTML parsing rules to pull the "readable" content from a website?
Is the effort to implement such a thing simply too big for a single person in a few weeks and if so should I opt for services such as Instaparser?
I believe the original to be implemented by arc90, and they called it readability. You can check out their page here.
It's been ported to many different languages over time, so you could take a look at the different implementations to learn more about it, how it's done etc.
Python readability
JReadability
JavaScript
Ruby
This is just a small sample here, there's many more examples if you would like to find more.
Edit: Oops, after some more Googling I found this question with an answer that explains it very well.
I have been developing a web application which has many documents (.pdf format) which must be embedded on the site. After doing a little research, there seem to be many "services" and/or "libraries" which allow the same functionality as the <object> tag combined with an Adobe Reader plugin.
Some examples include Crocodoc.com as well as PDFobject. Although, I will admit, a side by side comparison of these two SaaS, Crocodoc would take the lead.
It has been well known for awhile now that <embed> coding is outdated, and the best methodology for .PDF implementation is the <object> tag, in a previous discussion located here on SO.
However, one does not dispute that from a basic implementation approach of having standard-pdf bookmarks, links, and a 'table of contents', it appears that the browsers built in (downloaded, whatever...) Adobe Reader plugin provides the same functionality as one of the many plug-ins or extensible libraries provided on the web.
I would like to approach all the wonderful experts here on SO to provide an objective approach to the pro's and con's of using such methodology. Feel free to use subjective opinions, but please back them with facts and a well researched answer. Thank you.
Edit
After being approached on the topic that subjective answers are not suitable for StackOverflow, please keep in mind any subjective opions must be backed by a fully endowed, truthful basis behind any possible conclusion. Every programmer and web designer implements in their own ways because of experiences as well as pros&cons, so in order to provide the best suited answer.... "When In Rome"....
I need to create a very simple webpage for my friend. But I'm a little bit out of the stream, I don't know what kind of technologies are best right now.
So here is my question - what CMS/framework/etc should I use to build such a webpage:
a webpage of
It will contain some simple informations, news page and few galleries. It is almost all that I need.
I may be forced to create few language versions of this page (probably 2 versions: polish and english).
CMS must be as simple as possible. My friend's internet skills are not so good ;)
It should allow me to create custom, good-looking page
I considered such tools as joomla, drupal or wordpress. Which one you think would be best for me? Or maybe some other?
Wordpress, without a shadow of a doubt. It supports internationalisation almost out of the box and is very easy to use - Drupal and Joomla require a lot more effort on the part of content creators to understand and work with. It's also extremely easy to customise and enjoys probably the best documentation of any of its peers.
You can also give websitebaker a try. It offers very good usability and easy template creation.
Can anyone point me to a useful guide for UI designers working in google web toolkit?
As per my comment to bhargava's answer, your designers should be learning UiBinder. The whole chapter about building user interfaces seems appropriate too (to get a better perspective), but UiBinder is what they will be mostly dealing with. Without using UiBinder in your project, you are stuck with Java and that's not something your designers are likely to know (and are probably not keen to :)).
I'd recommend building a simple example (but not too simple - maybe you should "strip" the official mail example) that uses UiBinder and show the designers exactly what you expect them to provide and what should be left as stubs. It all depends on the designers in question - whether all they know is HTML and CSS or maybe they have experience with Java, etc. Tailor the example to your needs - you probably won't "get it right" the first time, but with feedback from the designers (what's hard to understand, what they think should be the responsibility of the programmer, etc.), you should arrive at a good learning tool for future employees and a reference for current ones :)
Well if you're looking on how to use widgets and panels in gwt then i would recommend Roughian Examples
This website provides us the basic usage of the GWT widgets and panels and provides us with enough information just to get things started.
I use FrontPage for two different tasks; authoring html help and authoring a couple of websites. The websites don't require a lot of stuff -- they are there to disseminate a bit of information to a couple of small audiences.
FrontPage has been quick and easy for these tasks. WYSIWYG is good for these jobs and I like being able to click on links to quickly bring up other pages in the editor.
I've been exploring all sorts of options. tools that work online such as Kompozer make editing the html help difficult (at least, I haven't found a way around) and other html-level tools are just too much work. Tried nVu, Kompozer, Aptama, Komodo, Bluefish and so far, unless I'm missing something, I'm not sold on any of them.
I'm about to take a look at SeaMonkey but wondering if anybody has any recommendations. Or should I go back and look at those other tools again -- maybe I missed something?
Notepad++
I think the natural upgrade path would be Microsoft Expression Web.
People still use FrontPage?
I switched a couple of years back to DreamWeaver and never looked back.
Something to consider is that you could deploy these sites as wikis (which don't have to be publically editable) and edit them directly on the web in your browser. This would give you the ability to click around and do pretty much wysiwyg edits. It would also make it easier to maintain larger collections of data and to make new pages. You also don't really have to do any HTML at all because wikis mostly come pre-HTMLed (and CSSed and Javascripted), you just need to fill in the content.
I should note that this won't work if your webpages are deployed statically on a restrictive shared hosting account, but even most shared hosting supports installing things like wikis these days, so hopefully this is something you can look into.
I should also note that this probably isn't the best way to do local HTML help files, but if the HTML help is online, this is probably still a good choice.
I'm making this community wiki so others can add links to other wikis if they like or add more info on why you might want to or not want to use a wiki for this purpose.
Some wikis to consider:
MediaWiki - The wiki behind wikipedia
MoinMoin - Implemented in Python and popular in that community.
TiddlyWiki - Implemented in Javascript and runs on a single page. This is probably the most different wiki that's out there. Some love it, some hate it.
NVU and Kompozer both are best suited for you. NVU is my personal choice. Choose your poison. :)
FrontPage has been replaced by SharedPoint Designed in the Office suite.
You could also use Microsoft Expression Web if you can have it.
Drewamweaver or MS's Visual Studio/Web Developer Express will do the trick. They're both overkill (especially MS's tools).
I also think MS has (free) HTMLHelp. It's out there, but I don't know if it'll produce the files you need.
It depends on what kind of pages you are designing. If you are using Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver would be the best option but I would recommend "Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express". I am currently using it and totally love it from the bottom of my heart.
I'd say Dreamweaver, but last time I looked there was still bloated code, not as bad as the MX days mind.
Smashing Magazine has a list of WYSIWYG tools that would be worth a look :
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/06/25-wysiwyg-editors-reviewed/
I persuaded my friend to ditch Dreamweaver for NetBeans, took a week or so but I got a pint out of that :)
You might look into Aptana (http://aptana.org) which should provide everything you need. I think it even has a WYSIWYG editor, though I would really recommend learning html instead.
I would use Notepad++ for the simpler things, and Dreamweaver when working with other Adobe products. Notepad++ is simple and has a lot of great features. Dreamweaver is huge and will take some getting used to.
Try dokuwiki. I've implemented a wiki/manual/documentation for my app in a week. It's very simple n easy installing. You just need PHP, no database (mysql), the information is stored on files. Give it a try.
My wiki implemented wiki doku: wiki.vigo.com.br
Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express perhaps? http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/
Works well, and it's free!
Something similar to FrontPage is Adobe Contribute. It does cost $199, but if you're looking for something as simple as FrontPage, it may be a good option for you.
A freelancer web designer I work with will setup clients who want to make simple HTML edits to their sites with it and they've all been pretty happy. They're all non-technical people.
Dreamweaver is good, but however using the WYSIWYG may have problems getting consistency when viewing between IE, firefox and safari.