FS Millbank

Microsite presenting a new wayfinding typeface by leading type foundry Fontsmith.

by via Awwwards - Sites of the day

MProgress.js – Google Material Design Progress Linear Bar

MProgress.js is a Google Material Design Progress linear bar by using CSS3 and pure JavaScript. You can use 4 types of linear bar.

by via jQuery-Plugins.net RSS Feed

The Art Of Content Curation - #infographic #contentmarketing

"Curating content can add depth, perspective and most importantly value around your own brand's content offerings. There are several tools that make curation easy to do, but there are several opinions on the best way to do it."



That's why the folks at Scribblelive created this infographic, illustrating why content curation should be a vital part of your digital marketing strategy and proposes some tips on how to master the art of content curation.

Read more →

by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World

Want to Level Up Your Career? Try Coding School

This article was sponsored by HackReactor. Thank you for supporting the sponsors who make SitePoint possible. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that we here at SitePoint are pretty keen on this whole “everyone should learn to code” idea. That’s kind of our whole thing. While we’ve been into it for a long time, in recent years the rest of the world seems to have caught up. There are many, many articles, books and presentations arguing that coding is the new literacy, and that it should be taught in primary school along with English and math. This is usually presented as an inherently good thing — in a world run by algorithms, being able to “speak computer” is hugely beneficial, arguably essential, and learning code can help with learning to think logically and break down problems to their essence. But there’s also no doubt coding is a good way to earn a living. Right now, competent mid- to senior-level developers are hugely sought-after, with tech firms ready to bend over backwards to court them. A recent New Yorker article detailed how one gaming company, Scopely, rewards new hires with the following smorgasbord of gifts: USD $11,000 wrapped in bacon, an oil portrait of the hire, and a harpoon gun. Tech companies want the best developers, they want them now, and they’re prepared to pay well for them. How do you become a part of this club? Well, there are a few options. Depending on how you learn best, or what you want to achieve, you could learn a language by reading up on it in popular books, watching a series of videos on a site like Learnable, reading articles like those on SitePoint, or by diving in and getting your hands dirty on your own, with a bit of trial and error. But if you want results (and employment) fast, consider a course in the real world.

Enter: Coding Schools

San Francisco-based start-up HackReactor, which has been described as “the Harvard of coding schools”, should definitely be on your shortlist. Hack Reactor offers an immersive 12-week course in a state-of-the-art classroom setting. Six days a week, 9am to 8pm, you’ll be put through your paces with classes and project-based instruction.

Continue reading %Want to Level Up Your Career? Try Coding School%

by Adam Roberts via SitePoint

How to Negotiate a Higher Freelance Rate

For those of us working as freelance developers, setting and negotiating rates can seem like one of the most complicated and intimidating parts of the job. You often come into negotiations with the preconception that the client will try to underpay you. Understanding how to set and negotiate rates is an important step to a successful freelancing career.

It’s not always easy, especially with clients who make any form of communication a bit of an ordeal. But, thankfully, in my experience, such situations are rare; clients are generally keen to pay you well if they know that they are receiving quality service. For me, that’s the clear advantage of working as a freelancer and why I’d never go back to a 9 to 5 job.

Even the highest-paid developers on a salary can be surprised at how much freelance developers make. As a freelancer, you’re a hired gun to come in and execute a specific task. With that, you’re able to command a premium price tag. The highest-paid freelance developers learn how to charge based on the value they provide to the business. Your client won’t have any problem paying you what you want if you help them realize that your fee is minimal compared to what their business will make from it. I’ve seen these freelance developers easily clear $250-500K per year freelancing.

If you want to exploit that sort of earning potential, and make sure you always come out on the higher end of salary negotiations, there are a few skills you must develop. These skills are a vital part of your freelance business

Determine Your Minimal Acceptable Rate

The first thing you must do as a freelancer is fix the lowest equivalent hourly rate you are willing to work for. This is your Minimum Acceptable Rate (MAR).

Continue reading %How to Negotiate a Higher Freelance Rate%

by Khurram Aziz via SitePoint

Programmatically Creating WordPress Posts from CSV Data

As WordPress developers, we often encounter projects that need to include previously attained data, whether that be from simple text files, CSV files, or even an old database. Data migration is something any back end developer will encounter. A few months back, we had a project that needed nearly 1,000 posts to be generated from a plethora of CSV files. Now, usually this wouldn't be that hard but this data also needed to be under its own post type and that custom post type had a few custom fields, including a media attachment for an MP3 file.

I won't bore you with the code for creating custom post types and custom fields, because there's already a ton of articles floating around the web on that subject. I'll just mention that I am using Custom Post Type UI and Advanced Custom Fields for each respective task. As the title suggests, what we're going to be covering here is programmatically taking data from a bunch of CSV files (some containing multiple posts), and then turning that data into WordPress posts for a custom post type. We'll even go over attaching a simple text file to each post.

In order to get all the data we need from the CSV files, we'll be making use of a few nifty PHP functions, such as: glob() , which 'globs' a directory and returns an array of filenames within it; fopen() , which opens up a file so that we can read its contents and finally, fgetcsv() , which parses a CSV file into a nice associative array housing all our data.

Continue reading %Programmatically Creating WordPress Posts from CSV Data%

by Ezekiel Gabrielse via SitePoint

Getting Bootstrap Tabs to Play Nice with Masonry

On the Masonry website, we read that Masonry is

… a JavaScript grid layout library. It works by placing elements in optimal position based on available vertical space, sort of like a mason fitting stones in a wall.

Bootstrap is one of the most widely adopted open source front-end frameworks. Include Bootstrap in your project, and you’ll be able to whip up responsive web pages in no time.

If you tried using Masonry together with the Tabs widget, one of the many JavaScript components Bootstrap has to offer, chances are you’ve stumbled on some kind of annoying behavior.

I did, and this article highlights what the issue is and what you can do to solve it.

Bootstrap Tabs Explained

Bootstrap’s Tabs component includes two key, related pieces: a tabbed navigation element and a number of content panels. On page load, the first panel has the class .active applied to it. This enables the panel to be visible by default. This class is used via JavaScript to toggle the panel’s visibility via the events triggered by the tabbed navigation links: if .active is present the panel is visible, otherwise the panel is hidden.

If you have some web content that’s best presented in individual chunks, rather than crammed all in one spot, this kind of tabs component might come in handy.

Why Masonry?

In some cases, the content inside each panel is suited to being displayed in a responsive grid layout. For instance, a range of products, services, and portfolio items are types of content that can be displayed in grid format.

However, if grid cells are not of the same height, something like what you see below can happen.

A wide gap separates the two rows of content and the layout appears broken.

That’s when Masonry saves the day. Add some Masonry magic to the mix and your grid dynamically adapts to the screen real estate, eliminating all ghastly gaps.

Continue reading %Getting Bootstrap Tabs to Play Nice with Masonry%

by Maria Antonietta Perna via SitePoint