Hi. I can only write HTML4/5 and CSS2/3 and that at an intermediate level

[asad1]

Hi.
I can only write HTML4/5 and CSS2/3 and that at an intermediate level… no JS or PHP/MYSQL.

A client wants a slideshow on his site. If possible he would like one that can scroll through a horizontal line of thumbs, and when any thumb is clicked upon it zooms to the whole size of the browser window.

OK, every wish isn’t alway available but as a tattooist it is important to him that people can get a real close look at his work (Tattoos).

I write with Tach HTML Edit… it has a few components that you can insert into a page including slideshows but currently they only zoom to about 6-70% of the viewport, others in the beta version additionally break my layout, though as it is a beta I’m sure they are working on it.

I have three questions…

1). The most pressing is… are there any free or comercial slideshows out there that I can insert into a web page? And additionally wont require me to understand JS or AJAX or something?

2). What do you professional coders do… do you write your own or are you using a program such as DreamWeaver to insert such content.

3). Lastly I’m after a bit of advice… I’m no spring chicken at 48 so I don’t have years to spend learning something that’ll probably all change as soon as I’ve learned it anyway.
I write raw code and have been thinking of learning JavaScript as it appears to be an all round tool for web-design.
However, people keep telling me that I shouldn’t be writing raw code but should be using either ‘Word Press’ or something like DreamWeaver as people just want something fast that does the job. Additionally, there is a widget for just about anything… including slideshows.

I’m thinking that if I learn JS and also get my hands on Dreamweaver that I might get the best of both worlds. Will there really be a place for RAW coders in the next 5-10 year?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

[Shyflower]

I know that a lot of hand coders don’t like this, but I have used it and it works well. jQuery has all types of different slideshows to choose from and it is pretty easy to add to a web page.

[AussieJohn]

Us “professional” ( (: ) folk use jQuery (and other JavaScript libraries) to implement things like that or write it from scratch, depending on what the requirements are.

While it’s of course possible to hand code these things, unless there are specific benefits to do that, a re-usable 3rd party plugin for a popular JavaScript library like jQuery is often perfect as it will be quick to implement and deploy. Something like a lightbox (http://leandrovieira.com/projects/jquery/lightbox/) sounds like it would be appropriate for your situation for example.

JavaScript is definitely a great language to add to your arsenal of web coding skills!

@asad1

However, people keep telling me that I shouldn’t be writing raw code but should be using either ‘Word Press’ or something like DreamWeaver as people just want something fast that does the job.

Wordpress and Dreamweaver are quite different things though. If you need some Content Management on websites you build, Wordpress can be quite handy to get that set up, it’s probably something worth having a play with. DreamWeaver is primarily a development tool for building web pages. Regardless of that though, even if you are using one of these you’ll still need to get stuck in to raw code anyway.

@asad1

Will there really be a place for RAW coders in the next 5-10 year?

It’s funny you say that, because about 5 - 10 (15?) years ago, there was a trend of people using DreamWeaver, Frontpage etc. to build their webpages in a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Often though this would produce absolutely horrible code, and even now, DreamWeaver’s code is no great beauty.

There will be a need for hand coders for a long time to come, as the web grows, so do the languages that are used on it. The client side consisting primarily of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The server side has many more languages including PHP, .NET, Ruby, Python (and many more).

I think that web programming isn’t just about “building websites”, it’s very often building “web applications”. Think Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter, Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo, online Office apps like Google Docs and Zoho, online surveys/forms like Survey Monkey and Wufoo. All of these applications would need to be hand coded, a “code generator” would only get you so far with those kind of things, and as a result you wouldn’t have the same knowledge about how and where things are done in the code base, which can be an important factor if you need to bridge gaps between for example, the client and server.

[bulevardi]

I would let my visitors do the work. They surf, they use and they take control over the website.

As for modern browsers, visitors can zoom in on a webpage by pressing buttons “Ctrl +”, works for the whole page, so aswel for the images it contains.
You don’t have to code anything, it’s in the browser

Remember, a good programmer is a lazy programmer.

[Shyflower]

@bulevardi

I would let my visitors do the work. They surf, they use and they take control over the website.

As for modern browsers, visitors can zoom in on a webpage by pressing buttons “Ctrl +”, works for the whole page, so aswel for the images it contains.
You don’t have to code anything, it’s in the browser

Remember, a good programmer is a lazy programmer.

Your point is well taken, but what on earth does that have to do with a photo gallery?

[Shaun]

This is a ratch, but you could maybe put those thumbnails side by side in a <div> of a defined width and styled with overflow:auto to get the horizontal scrolling effect, then link the thumbnails to their zoomed-in versions and use a script like Fatbox (or is it Lightbox?) to get something like the Javascript effect you seem to be describing.

There’s also a script called “Zoomify” that might do what you want too. Maybe.

Zoomify resembles how Google Maps zooms into things.

[AussieJohn]

@Shaun_OfTheDead

Fatbox (or is it Lightbox?)

Fatbox, lightbox, thickbox, shadowbox, fancybox, clickbox, futurebox, slimbox, facebox.

So many different names!

[molona]

Although I agree with what AussieJohn has said, I think that I can add my :twocents:

@asad1

1). The most pressing is… are there any free or comercial slideshows out there that I can insert into a web page? And additionally wont require me to understand JS or AJAX or something?

Errr… yes and no.

There are certain plug-ins and already-made scripts that will allow you to do whatever you want to do with a minimum knowledge of the language but you do need that minimum… or at least, you need to read the instructions. Most of the time, this involves applying the right class to the element that needs to be added to the lightshow but sometimes it also means some basic touches to the script itself (again, following the instructions)

@asad1

2). What do you professional coders do… do you write your own or are you using a program such as DreamWeaver to insert such content.

I only use DW in code view and although it does include this kind of javascript programming with it, DW uses Spry, a javascript library that I don’t like (because I don’t use it). JQuery is by far the most popular javascript library and I visit jquery.com to know if there is anything alredy built that I can use.

No use of reinventing the wheel unless I look at the code and I see that’s really terrible.

Another extremely popular javascript library with thousands of scripts created for this type of job is mootools. Lightbox, a free script for slideshows (and which will do what you want) was created with Mootools. Probably is the most widely used one.

Having said this, if you’re going to use JQuery, you can find similar scripts for JQuery so don’t give it a second thought.

@asad1

3). Lastly I’m after a bit of advice… I’m no spring chicken at 48 so I don’t have years to spend learning something that’ll probably all change as soon as I’ve learned it anyway.

Things do change but mainly its name. Learn JQuery and then, if you feel like it, Javascript. It shouldn’t take you that long to learn the basics, maybe 2-3 months. Even less, depending on the amount of hours you spend. Being a master is something else, of course

@asad1

I write raw code and have been thinking of learning JavaScript as it appears to be an all round tool for web-design.
However, people keep telling me that I shouldn’t be writing raw code but should be using either ‘Word Press’ or something like DreamWeaver as people just want something fast that does the job. Additionally, there is a widget for just about anything… including slideshows.

People are wrong.

First, as AussieJohn pointed out, DW is only a developing too, and WordPress is a content management system which has nothing to do with development. True, WP does provide lots of plugins to help you with your development, and it gives you a good starting point to build a site. But it is a content management system and its goal is… to manage content, not to create websites.

It doesn’t matter what they say, you may add as many plugins as you like to get the result that you want (that is, use the code someone else programmed for you) but at the end of the day, if you want clean HTML, you need to hack it yourself. That means that you need to know HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP.

@asad1

I’m thinking that if I learn JS and also get my hands on Dreamweaver that I might get the best of both worlds. Will there really be a place for RAW coders in the next 5-10 year?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

We will be still here. Automated stuff can only go this far. It will help loads to speed up your development and shorten the times for delivery. But you still need an expert to get it perfect

[Shyflower]

I have to disagree somewhat with the jQuery learning curve. I needed it for a client’s web photo gallery and found a script that I could implement within a couple of hours.

[Shaun]

Off Topic:

sigh* I remember the days of using pop-up windows for image thumbnails!

@Shyflower

I have to disagree somewhat with the jQuery learning curve. I needed it for a client’s web photo gallery and found a script that I could implement within a couple of hours.

That’s true, and I even think there are non-jQuery routes for him to take too. Plain, old, vanilla scripts that would read maybe a rel attribute of the images he chooses and will turn those into fancy effects.

A quick Google search can yield you a lot of results, asad1!

This one called Highslide JS seems promising! The script is written for you, so it’s just for you to implement.

[Shyflower]

@Shaun_OfTheDead

Off Topic:

sigh* I remember the days of using pop-up windows for image thumbnails!

Off Topic:

And animated gifs that blinked and blinked and blinked with no way of turning them off!