I did it! I did it! I really, really did it!

March 12, 2010 | Filed Under a Web Developer's Diary | Leave a Comment 

*Happy dance!!!

Weeee!! :) I solved it.. I solved it.. I really, really solved it! But in the grand scheme of life.. it was really just a small thing.. but let me just bask in my moment of success for a little bit :D hehehe! Besides, this was one of those things that I have no idea how to solve. *happy *happy *happy.. So it’s a really HUGE moment for me.

I didn’t solve any crime actually.. I’m not that adventurous in real life. hehe.. I just solved this little mystery. “The mystery of the XCart’s weird minicart”. See, I have to change the UI.. and suddenly.. little miss minicart won’t cooperate. humf! I was sooo frustrated yesterday when after all that I’ve tried.. it still stood there unmoving. Aarggh!

So, let me just tell you boys and girls.. hehehe! what happened to the ‘ladies and gentlemen’? I feel a little bit superior.. I promise it will pass in a couple of minutes :D I’d like to share what I did (just in case I might hit another brick wall in the future.. or someone else can’t seem to break down our beloved brick wall)..

1. If you’re as lazy as I am, try the process of elimination. I’m sure you know how to do that :) If not, watch Bones! hehehe..

2. If the process of elimination came up empty.. you might have to get your hands dirty.. and do the old “trace the code” thing. I know that’s what I did –and I’m happy I learned a bit of XCarts brilliant-but-meany ways :)

3. When the task at hand is tooo much for you.. try writing it down. Try to think of what’s required. Sooner or later, you’ll find out that it’s not really that humongous.

I’d like to leave you all with this silly little slogan  I just came up with: “Try and try until it runs…”

{hahaha! I am sooo funny :) }



CSS

March 8, 2010 | Filed Under a Web Developer's Diary, techy | Leave a Comment 

I didn’t learn CSS in school but it’s one of my favorite tasks to work with. A lot of my co-workers don’t like working with the UI so I normally get that very exciting task :D . (It can get frustrating at times [read: IE7] but still.. )

Anyhoo.. today, I am working on a new project that I’m really excited about. There’s this template system that really frustrated me almost 3 years ago. And today, we’re using it again. :) Yip yip.. I am actually excited to re-learn those stuff..

So, here’s a rundown of the stuff I learned for our “Web Developer’s Diary” series:
1. Be excited about learning new stuff. Let’s face it.. we went into a career that is going to change and update itself every single second. And that isn’t a bad thing. If you’re a web developer.. expect to learn new stuff along the way. If you’re a recent graduate.. please know that not everything you’ve learned in school will make it to your “day to day work” lives..

and

2. “Minimum is the new Max”. :) haha! I just came up with that line. What I’m trying to say is.. if you’ll be working on the UI.. do not clutter your html page with lots and lots and lots elements when you can achieve the same effect with few elements. Remember that template system I was talking about? Its’ css file is as big as 94,000 .. I removed unnecessary stuff and shrinked it to 80,000 .. not much right? hehe.. but if I get a $ for each byte I saved I can so buy that car I’ve been wanting.. hahaha! The point is ladies and gentlemen.. “keep it short”. There’s a handful of articles talking about shorthand css.. and believe it or not.. those are really, really useful!

I’ll go ahead and give you few examples:
1. 0px can also be just 0
2. #FFFFFF can also be just #FFF
3. spaces between the : and { can also be removed :)

hehe.. those are the only stuff I can think of at the moment.. but it saved me 14,000 bytes.. it might save you a lot too..

’til our next chika! :)



fb:multi-friend-selector and fb:comments bug

March 4, 2010 | Filed Under a Web Developer's Diary, techy | Leave a Comment 

If you have fb:comments and fb:multi-friend-selector both on one page.. you’ll notice that  the fb:multi-friend-selector doesn’t work right. You’ll see the this.form is null error from firebug. No one ever gets selected even when they look like they’re selected.

To make this work.. add the fb:multi-friend-selector to a fb:js-string variable. Next, on your javascript.. add that variable to your multi-friend-selector’s container. :D

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you add fb:multi-friend-selector using js.. Pretty easy right?

Note: Today is 04 March 2010. Since facebook changes a lot.. this might not be true in the future. But I wrote this for those who are scratching their heads trying to figure out why “this.form is null”.. hehehe! I feel you. :)



Web Dev’s Diary #2

February 9, 2010 | Filed Under a Web Developer's Diary | Leave a Comment 

dear diary,

:) hehehe.. I saw my crush today.. haha! j/k

I realized something today that I wanted to share. It’s that as much as possible, use percentage on your CSS. My first reason would be that (1) it will be much, much easier for when there are minor changes.. and I know that there will be changes! (2) your UI can then stretch.. (3) It can be the best time to practice your math.. hehehe! [that's just one of the perks actually.. hihihi].

xoxo, vaL



Web Dev’s Diary #1

January 29, 2010 | Filed Under a Web Developer's Diary, techy | Leave a Comment 

Dear Diary,

:)

Today, I encountered this thing that my co-worker named as “WSD (or White Screen of Death)”. I normally get it because I’m on a strict environment. The very first time I got it, I was really, really, really REALLY scared. I thought I broke something. I know I did break something. :) It turned out, there was just an error that needs fixing that’s why it’s giving me a whole screen of pure white-ness :p. I know I sound like errors don’t scare me that much anymore. Well, time (and days filled with WSD) has taught me something.

Don’t panic. Panicking really won’t help. Believe me. Next, search for the small things you might have missed. 95% of my WSD encounters were caused by {[(;)]} –characters I learned to love and hate. If not, there’s always google.

-vaL